At the commencement of each School year, we celebrate our Year 6 students who have nominated and been elected student leaders for the year. 

Last week, we acknowledged our 2024 Barbreck student leaders with our Year 6 Leadership Breakfast and Assembly. 

During the Leadership Breakfast, all in attendance were most fortunate to hear Miss Mietta Passon, Class of 2023 Alumnae and 2023 Davis House Captain speak to the Year 6 girls about being leaders within Barbreck. Mietta spoke about the opportunities to lead and that everyone leads in their own unique way. 

There were many great messages for the girls to take on board to make this a very special last year in Barbreck for them. I shared with the girls my two favourite quotes and spoke of the importance of the messages within each of them. 

This year was the first time a Leadership Breakfast has been held for our Year 6 student leaders. It was wonderful to receive positive feedback from both the girls and their parents. The Breakfast has set the stage for our Year 6 girls for their year ahead and will be a worthwhile addition to our valued Barbreck traditions each year. 

Following the Breakfast, we acknowledged every Year 6 girl’s leadership role with the presentation of the Year 6 Leadership Badges and their signed Leadership Agreements. Elected Captains were awarded their badges and received their sashes of responsibility. 

We congratulate all our Year 6 girls and know they will work hard to fulfil their agreement and responsibilities. 

Barbreck School Co-Captains’ Speech 

Good morning teachers, students, and parents. I’m Samara Grinsell, and this is my Co-Captain, Nina Calvert. We are your Junior School Captains for 2024. We are delighted to be your Captains and we take the responsibility of our captaincies seriously.  

In 2024, our vision for Barbreck is for all girls to become resilient and to develop a Barbreck character. 

We know some of you might not know what resilience means. For us, it means to never give up, even when you come across obstacles or when things seem too hard – especially in Maths!!!!. Girls who have resilience develop a way of thinking – they love the word ‘yet.’ I can’t do it yet – I’ll try hard and find a way, I’ll get there! 

We know what resilience is – so what does it mean to have character? 

Character for us is displaying our values – the ways in which we think, speak and act. These say a lot about a person. We believe a Barbreck blue ribbon girl’s character should be kind, thoughtful, honest, respectful, and act with integrity at all times, especially when wearing our uniform! 

2024 will be a year where we will inspire all the girls to make a positive impact on our School community by demonstrating good character and being resilient. We want all girls to strive, act with Barbreck character and to be a good role model, not just for your friends, but for your fellow Barbreck sisters too, especially our younger sisters.  

To achieve this, we need the Year 6 Cohort to join with us and put in effort to make sure everyone is kind and caring, works hard with effort and resilience, demonstrates teamwork, and collaborates with their peers and teachers.  

We are going to reinstate the ACE Card Awards and add another of our own: the Resilience Award. The ACE Cards will be awarded for displaying values as part of showing good character, and our new award – the Resilience Award, for demonstrating that never give up attitude! 

We will award ACE Cards and Resilience Awards each week. The cards are: 

• Heart – for being kind and caring  
• Diamond – for achieving excellence 
• Spade – for effort and hard work 
• Club – for teamwork and collaboration  

We believe that having character and resilience will make the Barbreck blue ribbon girls (that’s all of you!) stronger and braver. You will grow in courage, participate in new activities, and always bounce back each time you have a setback. You’ll grow stronger each time and put your failures behind you, and your goals and challenges in front of you.  

ELC and Junior School Parent Information and Social Evening

It was wonderful to see so many of our Barbreck parents at this week’s ELC and Junior School Parent Information Session and PFA Social Evening. 

The evening provided a wonderful opportunity for parents to learn more about our School, meet their daughter’s teachers, and hear about the classroom experience and the year ahead. The PFA Social Evening brought our Barbreck community together in friendship over a drink and conversation. Thank you to all who attended. 

Twilight Teddy Bears Picnic – 15 March

Time flies in Term 1 and the Teddy Bear’s Picnic will be here before we know it. To get an early start on decorating a teddy bear (Prep to Year 4) and for girls in Years 4 to 6 wanting to enter a graphic design, this year’s theme is ‘Favourite Singer.’ Year 4 has a choice of which category to enter. 

More details will be provided closer to the event.