​School leaders from across Sydney have shared their hopes for 2024, from vying for class dux to aspiring heart surgeons and talented athletes including our very own Head Prefect Chloe J and Vice Head Prefect Penelope J.
Queenwood Rowing is experiencing its most successful year in its 31st year history with the selection of 5 individual Queenwood rowers who will compete together in the Junior Women’s Coxed Four at the U19 World Championships in Paris.
Like many of her friends, Year 10 student Penny Jin used to love reading when she was in primary school. But a busy schedule and change in priorities meant her love of books slowly waned. That changed over the past two years after her school, Queenwood School for Girls in Mosman, introduced a mandatory 20 minutes of reading for all 900 students at the same time every day, regardless of what class they were in.
Building the QUTE is a hands-on, environmentally friendly exercise where students are supported in turning a vintage 40-year-old ute into a solar-powered electric vehicle that will be used for school deliveries, using reclaimed parts and applying newly acquired skills as they go.
From build-your-own scholarship enthusiasms to broad liberal arts passions, some schools cast a wide net.
Reflecting on our contemporary pandemic, Year 12 student Alexandra Harrop, investigated the cultural memory and legacy of the Spanish flu, which coincided with World War I. In her fascinating and thought-provoking essay, Alexandra asks important questions about how and why we remember and value some tragedies over others, and what this means for the cultural legacy of our own experiences during a pandemic.
Every parent I know would like their child to be an avid reader. Who doesn’t want their child to have better vocabulary, comprehension, writing, general knowledge, conceptual ability and even, in the case of reading fiction, greater empathy and better interpersonal skills? But making that aspiration a reality is hard, and getting harder.
I have the clearest memory of watching my two-year-old son exploring the back garden. A very thin twig was poking out from the hedge. He picked up a rock about the size of my fist and slowly, with infinite care, he held the rock gently on the top of the trembling twig… and let go. The rock thumped to the ground, and my son learnt something about gravity and the relationship between the diameter and strength of a tree branch.
It is dangerous to generalise about boys and girls because there are children everywhere who defy the stereotypes. Nevertheless, one tends to have specific conversations with boys or girls over and over again.
With the school's own research showing almost a third of Year 7 and 9 girls read for pleasure less than once a week, there was a "sense of urgency" to stem the decline, Ms Stone said. So from next year, the whole school will spend 20 minutes a day reading for pleasure.
The Build-Your-Own (BYO) Scholarship seeks to identify uniquely gifted and talented students who may otherwise go unrecognised.