As Miss Margaret Brown’s birthday, 20 May is a very special day for Wilderness. On this day, each year, we celebrate Founders Day. This year, our annual assembly contained a special treat: a film showing the founders themselves, thanks to one of our current SRC Executive representatives, Eliza Corbin (Year 12), and her grandmother, old scholar Chrystabelle Corbin (1964).

Earlier this year, Chrystabelle uncovered video footage from her school days at Wilderness. Year 12 students Amolika Bhatia, Eliza Corbin, Harriet Craig, Inika Weber and Toni Pham filmed and edited video clips of our current school to contrast with this historical footage, to compare how the school has changed. You could hear everyone in the room take a deeper breath when the Misses Brown appeared onscreen; to have this footage on the day we set aside each year to celebrate them was incredibly special, and we are very grateful to Chrystabelle and these students for making this film possible.

Of the several factors which distinguish Wilderness from other schools, so many of them are born from the vision of our founders. They were ambitious on their students’ behalf and set a standard for their education so that they would all experience the fullness of life, both personally and professionally. How could we not celebrate this every year?

It is always a pleasure to welcome back so many Old Scholars for this cherished event, and to hear about their experience in the Wilderness. As is often the case during the pandemic, we understand that many were unable to make it, and we hope to see them again in coming years.

I am sure the current students also enjoyed their celebratory piece of cake at recess, before they headed back to class.

Fittingly, on that same evening, we hosted the annual WOSA Quiz Night. Congratulations to the winning team and all the successful bidders who left with this year’s silent auction items. The funds raised will support a range of projects within the school as well as the Old Scholars’ Scholarship, to welcome even more people into our community in coming years.

In other campus news, our Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 students have all completed their NAPLAN testing over the past fortnight. For many of the younger students, it is one of their first introductions to exam-style testing, and we are proud of each and every one of them for their hard work.

I also offer my congratulations to Devika Mukherjee (Year 11), who recently travelled to Canberra to compete with the South Australian debating team. She impressed enough to be selected in the Australian squad, which is a remarkable achievement. To think calmly, speak clearly and compose a logical, thoughtful argument under pressure is a useful life skill—one that we will continue to foster in our schoolwide debating program—and we are very proud of Devika for excelling in this area.

Next week will mark the halfway point of this second term. I hope that your daughters have found their rhythm as they balance their coursework with extracurricular activities and, of course, the need for rest and recharge. We know they will continue to make their community proud.

COVID-19 Update

We were glad to learn this week that mask mandates will be lifted from schools as of Monday 30 May 2022. Masks will now be strongly encouraged (but not required) for all adults on campus, including parents and visitors, and students in Years 3 to 12.

Mask mandates will only be reinstated in the instance where:

• An individual class reports ten or more cases over a seven-day period; and/or
• A site reports five classes with five cases or more over a seven-day period.

In line with the Government’s rules, we will continue to act swiftly in response to the virus, and I would like to remind you about the current rules for close contacts.

Close contacts are no longer expected to quarantine, which means that if your daughter(s) finds herself exposed to COVID-19 at home or in the community, and does not present with symptoms, they can continue attending school. However, if they are a close contact, they must continue to wear a mask outside of their house (if they are aged 12 years and over), take five rapid antigen tests over the seven-day period following exposure to COVID-19, must not visit high-risk settings such as hospitals or aged care facilities and must not attend overnight camps.

If your daughter develops symptoms, she must not attend school and must get tested as soon as possible.