When visiting classrooms and learning spaces throughout the Junior School and ELC, I am constantly in awe of our students’ musical and artistic talents, their sporting prowess, and their ability to grasp and use foreign language. At the ELC and Junior School, we are fortunate to have a team of highly skilled and dedicated specialist teachers, who work to deliver engaging learning opportunities through their specialised disciplines. Across all grade levels, our subject specialists collaborate with class teachers to provide our students with unique discipline-specific perspectives, simultaneously building the musical, artistic, linguistic, and physical skills of every learner.
Language learning and multilingualism brings our learning community closer together and builds international-mindedness. With over 40 different languages spoken in the CGGS community, foreign language learning from the ELC to Year 6 is integral to our identity. One example is our Year 6 Middle Years Programme. Students have embraced our diverse language offering this year, learning Latin, Mandarin and French from expert language teachers from both the Junior and Senior School campuses. Witnessing the Year 6 students explore the world through language is exciting, and prepares them well for life on the Senior School campus next year.
The Arts are an essential element of our approach to learning in the ELC and Junior School, with dance, drama, visual arts and music taught across the school. These disciplines provide balance in the lives of our students, enabling them to create and communicate in different and distinctive ways. Hearing the students talk of the elation and excitement when performing in our dance and drama studios, sharing the pleasure of hitting the right note, composing and improvising in their music classes, and discerningly discussing their appreciation of the various art institutions here in the capital, is wonderful.
As to be expected in Canberra, the month of June signifies the change in weather. While it is colder and wetter, each day our specialist PE teachers continue to build the fitness and sporting skills of students on the Kavanagh Oval, in the gym, or on the various basketball, netball and tennis courts of the Junior School. I am delighted to acknowledge the achievements of ELC and Junior School PE teachers Mrs Cherylee Kuypers and Mr Aidan Barnett. Cherylee was recently announced as a national finalist for Primary School Teacher of the Year and Aidan was acknowledged by the Teachers Guild of NSW and ACT as a finalist for Early Career Teacher of the Year.
Our specialist teachers play a crucial role in enriching the near 100-year tradition of a Girls Grammar education — thank you to our outstanding specialist teachers!
Mr Peter McDonald
Head of Junior School and ELC