Newsletter Term 3,Week 4 5 Aug 2021

The volunteering panellists also provide invaluable advice to current students interested in pursuing a similar path, and answer specific questions through a live Q&A.

Covid restrictions have forced these events online but it has meant that alumnae have been able to join in this year from as far away as Adelaide, the Whitsundays and even the east coast of America. Hannah Jude-Smith, Assistant Air and Space Attache at the Australian Embassy there, relayed her fascinating career journey in Defence Intelligence whilst sitting on the outside steps of a Washington DC building at 6.30 in the morning, which luckily looked like a sunny one!

My favourite part of each Careers Evening is when these past Strathcona students are asked: “What advice would you give your Year 12 self?” as the almost universal answer is around being kind to yourself through VCE, and being open to (and perfectly okay with) the notion that you will eventually find your place in the world if you follow your true interests. There is something so heartening about listening to these women - each now happy and productive in whatever line of work – speak openly about their self-doubts and their unpredictable journeys. It allows current Strathy girls to see they are not alone in feeling a little uncertain about where life will take them.

The alumnae community has also been wonderful in volunteering to be part of a 2021 initiative entitled Career Conversations with an OSA Mentor. Final year students keen to find out about a particular job area they are considering can request to have a 30-minute video chat on Teams with an old-Strathconian, in which they can ask questions and receive advice. So far, such conversations have taken place with alumnae working in law, physiotherapy, actuarial studies, electrical engineering, pharmacy, psychology, social work, dietetics and midwifery. 

Every chat has been very well received on both ends, with feedback from participating Year 12s including:

It went really well! I learnt so much and got a lot of clarity about the law career path. Thank you so much for organising it!

I was able to ask specific questions but also ask broader questions as well. It was relaxed and casual. I got to learn about her journey and how she became a dietician and what she does.

Thank you so much. I really appreciated her advice and the information she shared with me about course options, volunteering, her own experiences, and the process involved in becoming a psychologist. 

And this lovely comment from an OSA Mentor:

Thanks Joanna – good to hear! She was a very impressive young woman and had prepared well for the discussion with lots of good questions. It is a great initiative from you and Strathy.
 
Of course, the other area where connections with alumnae are so valued is the opportunity to help out with our Work Experience Program. Covid-19 has made finding placements particularly tricky in 2020-2021, especially for those students wanting to get a taste of jobs in a health care setting. I am hopeful, however, that we are getting closer to workplaces re-opening their doors to school students and allowing them to experience what it’s like to be a graphic designer, a veterinary nurse or a financial adviser. So offers of placement opportunities (for anything from one to five days in school holiday periods) from alumnae or indeed anyone in the broader Strathcona community, are always warmly welcomed! Such connections make us a stronger community and ultimately can make a huge difference to the girls when choosing that initial pathway after Strathcona.

Ms Joanna Buckley, Head of Careers and Partnerships

The amendments will replace the current 7 Child Safe Standards enforced by the Victorian Commission for Children and Young People (CCYP) with 11 Standards.

The 11 Child Safe Standards commencing in 2021 (New Standards) are more specific, prescriptive and include additional obligations which align with recommendations from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Key changes include new requirements:

• to involve families and communities in the School’s efforts to keep children and young people safe 
• for a greater focus on safety for Aboriginal children and young people to manage the risk of child abuse in online environments 
• in relation to governance, systems and processes to keep children and young people safe, including a greater emphasis on information sharing and record keeping. 

Strathcona will work towards compliance with the New Standards by 1 July 2022. Please note that the New Standards do not change obligations related to mandatory reporting to the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing (formerly the Department of Health and Human Services) or police, the Reportable Conduct Scheme, the Working with Children Check requirements, the Child Information Sharing Scheme or other child safety laws.

The Victorian Government has introduced three reforms to reduce family violence and promote child wellbeing and/or safety:

• the Child Information Sharing Scheme (CISS) enables prescribed organisations and services to share information to promote the wellbeing and safety of children
• the Family Violence Information Sharing Scheme (FVISS) enables prescribed organisations and services to share information to facilitate assessment and management of family violence risk to children and adults,  
• the Multi-Agency Risk Assessment and Management Framework (MARAM) enables a consistent approach to family violence risk assessment and management across prescribed organisations and services.

Strathcona is a prescribed organisation under this reform.

A message from Liana Buchanan (Principal Commissioner for Children and Young People) is available here.

Together, these reforms create a more collaborative, integrated system that will help improve outcomes for all Victorian children and families, including those from our Strathcona community.

It’s OK to share, it could make the difference.

Thank you to all students and parents who have signed off on subject preferences over the last couple of weeks. With just a few days until the preferences are due there are still many who need to finalise their decisions. Entries are made by clicking on the individual links sent to each student's school emails. Reminders have been automatically sent every couple of days. 

Curriculum Handbooks and other subject selection information can be found on the Curriculum and Subject Selection page on MyStrathcona.

Please contact me at rphillips@strathcona.vic.edu.au if there are any questions about how to enter subjects. Questions regarding subject selection should be addressed to me, or Mr Scott Sweeney VCE Coordinator (ssweeney@strathcona.vic.edu.au) for Year 12, and Jo Buckley, Head of Careers and Partnerships (jbuckley@strathcona.vic.edu.au) for advice on pathways into tertiary study. 

Students can cultivate leadership skills in both everyday school life experiences as well as in specifically appointed leadership roles and today we outlined the leadership process to our next cohort of Year 12 Leaders for 2022.

To apply for a leadership position, students are encouraged to carefully consider which role would best suit their character and personal strengths. Leaders who have gone before have embodied the Strathcona values; integrity, respect, compassion and courage. These attributes are highly regarded in both our past and future school leaders. There is an emphasis on twenty-first century skills such as students being ethically minded, innovative and creative, and a strong focus on leaders who have shown they are authentic and loyal, will listen to their peers, can understand and manage change and who are committed to serving others before themselves.

The selection process allows students the chance to nominate to work in their specific areas of interest with a range of students and staff throughout the School.

To ensure that a fair and balanced leadership team is appointed to represent Strathcona in 2022 there are many factors that are considered throughout the process. These include:

- Written application

- Self-nomination preferences

- Recorded speeches

- Student votes

- Interview

- Staff feedback

These events will take place over the next three weeks and we are very much looking forward to sharing the names of the successful candidates with the School community in Week 7 of this Term.

Heads of House

Multiple studies have shown a significant disparity between genders working within STEM careers in Australia. Mr Ross Phillips, Senior Dean of Learning Futures said Strathcona's approach to promoting STEM to young women takes into account the complexities of the issue in a recent The Educator Australia article, by Brett Henebery (03 Aug 2021) article. Read the article on our website here.

Study finds all-girls schools create ‘stronger’ women. Herald Sun, 30 July 2021. Read the article here.

Channel 7 News interviews Strathcona student, parent, and Principal, Mrs McCongahy in relation to the new UK study about confidence and stress levels of girls who attend all-girls school and how they outdo their peers at coeducation schools. See the news report on our Instagram or watch the video here. 

A reminder to parents that when parking for any school events to please park on Logan and Bryson Streets. Some of our neighbouring streets are heritage listed and these streets are very narrow and not suitable for parking.
Also when parking around Main School please be aware of the parking signs on surrounding streets around school pick-up time. Adhering to these times provides our ELC parents time to collect their children at the ELC closing time of 3pm. 

We understand that parking near the school can be difficult, but we kindly ask that you please observe parking signs and respectfully refrain from parking across driveways.

Items in this Career News include:

• Dates to Diarise in Term 3
• VTAC Year 12 Guides 2022
• UAC Schools Recommendation Scheme (SRS)
• Interesting Courses at Bond University
• J.P. Morgan Sydney Traineeship Program
• Environmental Science Degrees in Victoria in 2021
• Snapshot of Charles Sturt University (CSU) in 2021
• Virtual Open Days 2021
• Getting the most out of a Virtual Open Day.

Please click here for this week's Career News. To visit the Careers page or view previous versions of Careers News click here.

On Monday, our new School Psychologist joined us on Campus and spent Pastoral time introducing herself to the Year 9s. Annie Yang is going to spend every Monday at Tay Creggan and will help to lead some of our new Wellbeing initiatives. Annie conducted a poll with students about what concerned them and what areas of Wellbeing they would like to learn more about. Interestingly, a large number of students wanted further information about stress management and strategies to enable them to feel less anxious. We will roll out a range of initiatives over the rest of Term 3 which will complement what students are studying in Health.

Another visitor headed our way on Tuesday morning. Reverend Janet Costello spent the morning at Tay Creggan meeting students and sharing morning tea with staff. Janet's positive message and friendliness were very well received. She will spend most Tuesday mornings at our Campus.

You may also hear that many of our businesses have completed their pitch, or are about to, and have been awarded their $20 Seed Funding. We have been very impressed by our 2021 entrepreneurs - especially in the way that students have prepared for their pitch and have been able to explain their Business Model Canvas in detail.  Parents or family members who are asked to be an investor, please ensure that the correct form is completed to pledge that your funds are returned.

As part of our Envision business unit, we also tax students 20% of their profit. This is important as it mirrors business reality but also assists a very worthy cause.  Shortly, families will be given the opportunity to have their daughter cook a "FORaMEAL" dinner (which is what students will pack when we can allow visitors onsite) These dinner kits, filled with grains, lentils, vitamins and flavouring feed a family of six for one meal. Families will be encouraged to make a donation, perhaps the price of the meal you may have eaten to FORaMEAL: https://forameal.org/.  FORaMEAL have delivered over 170,000 meals during Covid lockdowns to families in need.

Have a great week!

Mrs Karyn Murray, Head of Tay Creggan

We are pleased to announce the theme for this year: 

‘Old Worlds, New Worlds, Other Worlds’.

The classroom teachers have been working on some exciting activities that they are delighted to share with the girls very soon. We are in the process of planning a range of activities for the week and the students will be given the opportunity to participate in these throughout the week.

The annual Book Week Parade will be on Monday 23 August. All students are invited to dress up as their favourite book character and bring in their favourite book! We wanted to give the students time to start thinking about who they want to dress up as. 
Unfortunately, due to the current Government restrictions, parents will not be able to attend the Book Week Parade. We will ensure to film this and share this with you.

Planning Liveable Cities event is tonight 5.30pm - 6.30pm. Register now! 

You are warmly invited to the Strathcona Centre Learning Futures event – Planning Liveable Cities.Hear about urban planning and the impact it has on lives now and into the future. Madison Robb and Yang Bai from Plan Melbourne will share about their careers in urban planning. We eagerly await their presentation where we will learn something that will have enormous impacts on our futures - the future of Melbourne.

Read more about our guest speakers below.

Madison Robb
Madison has over seven years' experience in urban planning, project management and Ministerial roles in State Government, delivering high-profile, large-scale planning and urban renewal projects, including Docklands and Fishermans Bend in Victoria and Perth City Link and Scarborough Beach in WA. Originally from Perth, Madison moved to Melbourne 4 years ago and took a short break from planning to explore cities as cabin crew for Virgin Australia, before COVID-19 hit the travel industry. Madison now works on delivering Plan Melbourne 2017-2050, the Victorian Government's strategy to guide the growth of Melbourne until 2050, including where people live and work and how we connect people to jobs and services.

Yang Bai
Yang Bai is a strategic planner working on the 20 minute neighbourhoods project in the Planning Department of Victoria. Her passion is in understanding the relationship between people and urban space, and also how we can create quality spaces. She is also interested in spatial data analysis and visualisation to facilitate communication and decision making. She was an engineer before moving to Melbourne to study Urban Planning. She is now also studying Urban Design.

Click here to register for this event.

Tomorrow at 7.15am is Strathcona's Green Evolution Breakfast. We hope that you can join us for what is going to be a very informative event. 

Hear from our panel of experts about climate change and rising sea levels, and be inspired by stories of action from local sustainability heroes. Learn about Strathcona’s own "Green Evolution’’ and commitment to a better Earth for girls and families everywhere.

Click here to register for this event.

Dr Kathleen McInnes ('79) - CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere 

Kathleen McInnes leads the Climate Extremes and Projections group of the Climate Science Centre in CSIRO's Ocean and Atmosphere business unit. Her work deals with how climate change will affect severe weather and coastal extreme sea levels through numerical modelling and climate model analysis with a focus on Australia and small islands. She has developed climate projections for impact and adaptation assessments to assist local government manage and adapt to climate change. Her contribution to this work was awarded Eureka award in 2003 and 2009. She has published over 200 refereed publications and other reports and articles and was a contributing author on the IPCC second, third, fourth and sixth assessment reports. She was a lead author on the IPCC Fifth assessment report chapter on Coastal Systems and Low-Lying Areas as well as a lead author on the IPCC Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adapation in 2012 and the IPCC Special Report on Oceans and Cryosphere in 2019. She currently serves as a co-chair of the World Climate Research Program Grand Challenge on Regional Sea Level Changes and Coastal Impacts. In 2017 she became a Fellow of the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society and in 2020 she was awarded the CSIRO Medal for Lifetime Achievement.

Ninna K Larsen, Founder and Director - Reground

"Reground exists to help businesses help the environment and not let coffee, chaff or soft plastic waste end in landfill. Reground creates a community around waste resources to educate us all on how to make our future more sustainable.Reground changes our current waste disposal structure making it more resourceful for our pocket, people and planet.Reground exists to create positive change."Ninna is an expert in behavioural design, marrying her passion for sustainability and practicality to create real change in the waste and innovation space. She founded Reground in 2014 after experiencing the unnecessary coffee waste in Melbourne. Determined to see businesses stepping into the circular economy, she is creating a movement of businesses that puts impact over profit.

Matt Jones, Director - Mamachi

Matt owns and operates a number of Energy and Technology businesses and is driven to accelerate Australia's Energy and Carbon Transition. His passion and experience in Sustainability and Renewable Energy drives Matt to create impact and value for the Education Sector and other large organisations across the country. Through increasingly intelling and automated Building, Asset and Energy Management technologies Matt has delivered large scale programs and portfolio wide data management strategies nationally, achieving meaningful energy, emissions and building outcomes across most sectors.

Hollie Fields - Head of House, Strathcona Sustainability Team Leader

Hollie Fields has taught the Geography curriculum in schools across Victoria and Tasmania. She is committed to giving students on active role in sustainability education by providing them with knowledge and skills to foster change. Currently she teaches at Strathcona Girls Grammar where she leads the Senior curriculum for Geography (10-12). Alongside this, Hollie is a member of the School's sustainability committee, oversees the environment club and participates in the Boroondara Indigenous Network. Having presented at the Australian Geography Teachers Conference in 2019, Hollie engages with an Australia wide network of teachers to consider the best approaches for raising awareness for an ecological mindset. She believes everyone has a key role and that significant change is required to reduce the impacts of modern lifestyles on the natural environment.