I am excited to announce that Kindness and Respect have been designated as the 2024 theme for Rockhampton Girls Grammar School. This theme embodies the very essence of our school's values and provides a focal point for nurturing a culture of connectedness, empathy, and understanding within our school community.
Throughout the year, the girls and staff will be given various challenges, competitions and activities that aim to strengthen and grow kindness and respect in all aspects of school life.
As the first challenge for this theme, we launched the 'Grow Kindness Challenge' during our Week 5 assembly. The challenge invited students from Year 7 to 12, as well as staff members, to nominate acts of kindness they witnessed within our school community. We set an initial goal of 100 nominations and were utterly overwhelmed by the response. The collective spirit of kindness and respect shone as we received a staggering total of 269 nominations! Each nomination a testament to the countless acts of generosity, empathy, and goodwill that occur daily within our school.
During our Week 8 Assembly, we had the pleasure of announcing the winners of the Grow Kindness Challenge. With the assistance of volunteers from the audience, six lucky individuals were drawn from the pool of nominations.
Congratulations to:
Helena Asai
Umna Umer
Heidi Brook
Isabel Price
Bethany Dey
Skylah Abbott
To the above girls, and those who nominated or displayed acts of kindness throughout the challenge, and continue to do so, thank you and well done. For a full list of nominations students can access this on Daily Notices, and in Student Services. Please see below some of the nominations that were put forward for this challenge:
'She has been someone in my life that I can talk to freely without judgement. Giving me confidence in whatever I’m doing, complimenting my art and giving constructive feedback on it as well, so I can improve'.
'I really appreciated when she called out ‘Welcome Back!’ to me when I was heading to the stage for assembly. It was only a small thing, but sometimes that is all that matters'.
'She received a bunch of flowers on Valentines Day, and some of our friends didn’t receive anything. So, she gave them a rose each, and I thought that was very kind of her'.
'I have been away from school for the past few days, and she has been emailing me everyday and telling me what they did in class, so I don’t fall behind'.
'She always greets me with a smile and a welcoming gesture; it always brightens up my day. She sets a great example of kindness that younger students then follow'.
'She offered me her seat during class so I wouldn’t have to stand, and she had to stand for a while until we managed to find another available seat. She is a new student and has been nothing but kind to everyone around them, so she deserves to be nominated'.
As we celebrate the success of the Grow Kindness Challenge, we remind our girls and wider school community, that kindness and respect are not merely themes for a single event but enduring principles to be embraced every day. Together, we want to cultivate an environment where every individual feels valued, supported, and empowered to spread kindness wherever they go.
In addition to this challenge, during the last Sisters Meeting of Term 1, students from Prep to Year 12 engaged with activities centred around this theme. One of the activities included making kindness flowers, where the girls were asked to identify how they see kindness and how they strive to show kindness to others. These flowers were decorated and displayed in McKeague Hall for Assembly, which was a welcome addition of colour to our Wednesday.
Stay tuned for more exciting challenges, activities, and competitions designed to reinforce the importance of kindness and respect within our school community. Together, we can make a difference, one act of kindness at a time.
Sammy Cobon
Deputy Principal - Students