Follow us Shuttle The Term 3 | Week 1 | 27 July 2018 time flies faster than a weaver’s shuttle Visit the Parent Portal to edit your profile, view the calendar and view parent notices In this issue From the Headmistress Abbotsleigh – it’s your birthday! Headmistress Mrs Megan Krimmer | Headmistress Chaplain Today has been a wonderful day of birthday celebrations at Community Abbotsleigh. As you may be aware, Miss Marian Clarke opened Junior School Abbotsleigh on 20 July 1885 in Mount Street, North Sydney. The school started with 20 young girls and boys who were taught Senior School by two teachers. After moving to Parramatta, it was decided in Featured articles 1898 that the current Wahroonga site was ‘most suitable’. From that time forward, Abbotsleigh became a girls’ only school and absolutely flourished. As it says in the Events words of the School Song, Abbotsleigh has certainly ‘stood the test’, and we are incredibly grateful for all that so many have done in the past and the present to ensure that Abbotsleigh is the phenomenal school it is today. It was a particularly great delight to welcome Miss Kathleen McCredie AM as our Upcoming events guest of honour at our traditional birthday assembly to celebrate Abbotsleigh’s 133rd birthday, the Abbotsleigh Old Girls’ Union’s 110th birthday and Miss McCredie’s 90th Monday 30 July birthday! Miss McCredie, Headmistress from 1970-1987, was Abbotsleigh’s first (and JS IPSHA travelling art so far, only) Old Girl to be appointed Headmistress. Miss McCredie guided Abbotsleigh show commences through a time of quite tumultuous social and educational change in Australia and, Tuesday 31 July together with this, her achievements, which included the building of excellent facilities GCSG exhibition commences: such as Science labs, classrooms and the Centenary Building – just to name a few, were quite inspirational. In a most fitting tribute to their much loved and revered Sentient Visibility Headmistress, the Abbotsleigh Old Girls’ Union commissioned a film documenting Wednesday 1 August Miss McCredie’s life and achievements, and our guests, girls and staff were most IPSHA Performing Arts fortunate to be treated to an excerpt of this during the assembly. Festival rehearsal The film, combined with Miss McCredie’s and Annabel Brentnall’s excellent speeches Year 9 Elective History excursion and our girls’ superb music performances, meant that our 133rd birthday assembly Year 2 ‘Let’s Ride’ bike education was one that the girls will remember and treasure for many years to come. AOGU meeting Abbotsleigh’s birthday gifts to girls and parents Thursday 2 August Birthdays are a great time of celebration, enjoyment and of course gifts! The girls, Year 10 Geography excursion the staff and I are very grateful to the Allard family, who, through the Sir George Allard Mason Trust, give gifts of books to the Palmer and Archdale Libraries for our girls to IPSHA Performing Arts enjoy on the occasion of the School’s Birthday every year. Festival rehearsal I am also delighted to announce that our Abbotsleigh parent community has also Year 9 dance at St Joseph’s College been given the gift of direct access to SchoolTV, a new exciting and informative health Year 11 Music Soirée and wellbeing online resource for parents, which Dr Michael Carr-Gregg has been Friday 3 August instrumental in designing. The wellbeing platform aims to empower parents with clear, Ohtani School visit commences relevant and fact based information together with practical and realistic strategies to help them raise happy and resilient children. Years 7 and 8 mother daughter breakfast SchoolTV aggregates information from many SS IGSSA twilight athletics useful organisations such as beyondblue and Reach Out. This provides parents with Saturday 4 August a single stream of independent, fact based Dazzle and Dine information that saves parents the time and confusion of researching online across multiple sites for information. Click here Each monthly edition will provide our parent community with by providing access to sporting, musical, artistic, cultural access to an outstanding range of resources related to the and intellectual pursuits, allowing the girls to develop a fuller wellbeing and health of our children. These parenting resources appreciation of the benefits of being at school during the week, include short interviews with leading specialists and easy to and family time at home on weekends. read articles and fact sheets providing practical applications of Boarding during the week means girls have after school access the latest research. to a range of facilities including the library and assistance from SchoolTV will sit in our Abbotsleigh Parent Portal, or you can our boarding tutors while they are working on their homework, access it directly here. coursework or assignments. Study each evening is extremely important, and the girls have structured prep time where I strongly encourage all our parents to take some time to peruse parents can be confident that their daughter will be able to the important information offered on SchoolTV. We would value work productively. your feedback on this resource which can be provided via the direct link on the SchoolTV site to our Director of Wellbeing and The benefits of weekly boarding are not just academic, it is Counselling, Mrs Liz Cannon. about encouraging the girls to develop character by instilling our School Values of respect, integrity, compassion, courage Again, I am very pleased to be able to provide this extra support and perseverance. for the health and wellbeing of our young people here at Abbotsleigh, and I am very grateful to Mrs Liz Cannon who has Boarding at Abbotsleigh is a place where the girls develop organised this gift for our parents. independence as well as leadership, teamwork and communication skills that set them up for life; it is also a place A great opportunity for busy Abbotsleigh families. where girls learn how to form positive relationships and life In another exciting venture, Mrs Victoria Rennie (Deputy long friendships with girls from rural areas and other countries Headmistress/Head of Senior School and Boarding) and I and cultures. are delighted to announce that we will now be offering weekly boarding as an option for a small number of day Please contact the Registrar, Mrs Colleen Fenn, if you would girls at Abbotsleigh. like to learn more about the exciting opportunity for your daughter to become a weekly boarder. With many families working full time or having numerous commitments, quality family time can get squeezed out by the daily pressures of the school runs, co-curricular activities and homework. Weekly boarding can offer the best of both worlds Chaplain Lyric battle – Who’s winning our girls' hearts? Rev Jenni Stoddart | Chaplain King David or One Direction? I'm the foolish one that you anointed with your heart. Show me where to walk, for I give myself to you. One of the above quotes is a lyric from the One Direction song 'Gotta be you'. The other is a lyric from one of King David's psalms (Psalm 139:23) written thousands of years ago. Can you guess which is which? Every day our girls face a battle for their hearts. Who will shape them, their character and the decisions they make? This term in chapel we will be looking at the life of David to see how our School Values reflect the values of the Christian faith. The record of David's life takes up more pages in the Bible than anyone except for Jesus. Why? In his story the Bible teaches us how different God's values are from humans. Where humans value strength, God values faithfulness. David was the youngest son of eight and yet God chose him to be King of Israel. Why? The Bible records that he was a man after God's own heart. David's story also gives hope for the future as it points towards Jesus and helps us understand the hope that he brings. David's strength and power came from his reliance on God. He wanted God to be the one who shaped his character and his actions. David was far from perfect and yet in his failings he kept turning back in trust to God. His story encourages us to take heart. God is not interested in how rich, beautiful or famous we are. No, he is interested in who we are. My hope is that our students will discover this term the freedom that comes from rejecting the expectations that the media surrounds them with and instead seek to be shaped in their character by the one who created them. Community Update your daughter's medical New term, new exhibition, new workshop details online Mrs Mary Faith | GCSG Director and Head of Art Mrs Colleen Fenn | Registrar Sentient Visibility We are pleased to advise that your daughter's medical The Grace Cossington Smith Gallery is delighted to present details are now available online enabling you to update your Sentient Visibility with works by nine female artists. daughter's information as necessary. These details can be Rox de Luc Gillian Lavery accessed through the Parent Portal. Please ensure that Ella Dreyfus Melinda Le Guay you apply the correct date format in the 'update field' when Annelies Jahn Anne Levitch making changes. Pollyxenia Joannou Mollie Rice In the Parent Portal, go to Links > My children Anita Larkin The artists explore the use of traces as ways to engage with the sentient consciousness of the immediate or distant past, held within the visible present. The works explore temporality, identity and memory on a sensory level. Tuesday 31 July to Saturday 18 August 2018 We hope you will join us for the exhibition launch on Saturday 4 August from 2-4 pm.