An update from our Head of Senior School
Our time every day is focussed on the students with whom we work, but this week it’s been my pleasure to be working particularly closely with many of our Year 11s as they have interviewed for positions of student leadership for 2020. Every year there are slight palpitations as two weeks of my calendar fill to bursting with interview slots, but this is always very quickly replaced by an admiration for the maturity and thoughtfulness with which the students discuss their school and what they might bring to it. This is joined by un-tinted awe at just how much some of our students have achieved, both here at the College and more broadly in the community.
When we ask what each student would say to a prospective Braemar family, the themes that emerge most strongly are those around relationships, connection and a sense of place. The students speak to the fact that they feel part of a community, or a second family, and many of them are self-aware enough to realise and comment how rare they think that is. One of my favourite authors, the American writer Ann Patchett, wrote of music that “It was the interpretation of their lives in the very moment they were being lived.” I’ve been impressed this week by our students’ ability to do just that: to grasp, formulate, and articulate the idea that the days they spend at school in community with their friends will be unique in the span of their lives. So, well done to all of the students who have, in putting themselves forward for leadership, realised the importance of these last years of their schooling and are seeking to give back to their community.
Michael Horne
An update from our Instructional Leader – HPE
With the weather quietly changing as we head into the tail end of Term Three, it has been wonderful to see so many students out enjoying the sunshine, fresh air, and beautiful natural environment that we are lucky to have here at Braemar. In a time were sedentary behaviours seem to take up much of people’s days, it is so important to have time to dedicate to your health and wellbeing, to develop knowledge and skills about how to lead a healthy life and to encourage active lifestyles within our community.
Thursday 12 September is National HPE Day. Throughout the week (Monday 9 – Friday 13) there will be a range of activities on offer to promote and encourage physical activity and healthy lifestyles for all students and staff at Braemar. There will be a step-a-thon, a basketball free-throw competition, dance and skipping sessions, staff versus student netball games on both campuses, and a guest speaker at assembly – hopefully something for everyone to get involved in and enjoy. Being physically active in some way each day can have benefits not only to your physical body, but to your social health through cooperation, communication, and teamwork skills, and to your intellectual health and emotional and mental wellbeing through improving concentration, sparking creativity, and managing stress and anxiety.
The HPE team is looking forward to seeing everybody involved and hope that you all enjoy the activities available. If you have any questions regarding HPE week or HPE in general, please don’t hesitate to contact me, j.shipp@braemar.vic.edu.au
Ms Jessie Shipp
Instructional Leader – Health & Physical Education