Welcome Back to Term 3!

Semester 2 Timetables
A change of semester means a change of subjects for students. Please encourage your daughters to check SEQTA before Wednesday to ensure that they have the right equipment for their lessons. Girls will also need to make sure that their laptop is fully charged on Wednesday morning.

Homework Timetables have been updated for the new semester and are available below:

Year 7 Homework Timetable

Year 8 Homework Timetable

Year 9 Homework Timetable

Staffing
At the end of last term, we farewelled a number of staff. Ms April Bickley, Mr Brad Waller, Mrs Elisa Stracci and Mrs Maria Criaris, will all enjoy leave this term. We thank Miss Paris Burns for her work in the Music Department in Term 2 and wish Ms Alison Robertson all the very best for her retirement.

This term we welcome a number of new teachers to Wilderness; Mr Fred Notman, Miss Francesca Dieu, Ms Mei Yeow, Mr Stephen Orr and Mr Wes Parker. Mrs Carolyn Matthews, Head of Boarding, has started in her new role over the holidays and will quickly get to know all the Boarding students and their families.

A warm welcome back to Mrs Simone Burzacott-Gorman, Dr Emmy Gerlach, Ms Lauren Walker, Head of Outdoor Education and Mrs Vanessa Abela.

Uniform and Jewellery
A reminder to girls and families that winter uniform is worn during Term 3.

The blazer should be the outer garment worn to and from school, not the jumper. Girls are reminded that they should change for PE lessons at school and not wear PE uniform all day.

Girls should ensure that they are wearing only one set of either stud or sleeper earrings on Wednesday and that they have removed bracelets and necklaces that they may have worn during the holidays. The uniform and jewellery guidelines can be found in the student diary.

Do not forget that you can purchase uniforms on-line using the Wilderness Flexischools app or web site. The opening hours for the uniform shop are as follows:

Opening hours during term
Monday:          8am – 9am
Tuesday:          8am – 9am & 3pm – 4.30pm
Wednesday:   3pm – 6pm
Thursday:        8am – 9am

School Policies and Codes of Conduct A reminder to parents that policies, guidelines and codes of conduct are available on SEQTA Engage under the documents tab.

Year 7 Wellbeing Day
In the last week of Term, the Year 7 students took part in a day long workshop run by Enlighten Education call The Butterly Effect. The girls explored a range of topics relevant to them in the sessions including critically evaluating media and social messages, reconnecting with core values and self-belief lost in adolescence, journal writing, stress management and having healthy friendships. The feedback from the day was overwhelmingly positive and it was a wonderful way for the Year 7s to reflect on their first semester in the Middle School.

“Today was fun and I learnt a lot of new things. The biggest lessons for me are don’t judge, be yourself, be kind and choose to surround yourself with people you feel comfortable with.”

“I learnt how to better look for the best not the worst in things. I learnt how to thank people and how to help ourselves when we’re stressed. My favourite part was the forever friends activities because it felt nice to say good things to each other.”

“I am really grateful that I got to be here today. I learnt a lot about stress, the good and bad. I learnt that I have a lot of friends to be grateful for. I learnt that influencers and ads are often not realistic.”

Artemis - Media Smart Program
This term as part of Artemis, Wilderness students in Year 8 will take part in the Media Smart Program- a world-renowned, body image and eating disorder program, created by Dr Simon Wilksch and Professor Tracey Wade at Flinders University.

Media Smart encourages young people to be informed so they can identify and challenge unrealistic, perfectionistic ideals perpetuated by the media. The program aims to reduce the importance placed on appearance in determining one’s self-worth.

The topics addressed in Media Smart include:

• Media literacy content on techniques used to manipulated images,
• Discussion and challenging pressures placed on young people,
• A reflection on how social is “social media”,
• Encouraging the identification of personal values,
• Reducing/ increasing behaviours that lead to increased/ reduced pressure,
• Role-plays on responding to unhelpful comments from peers and others, and
• Identifying helpful/ unhelpful media messages.

Body Image concerns are extremely relevant for adolescent girls, with the research showing that:

• Nearly half (45%) of young people are dissatisfied with the way their body looks
• Nearly 70% of young people said they have experienced appearance-related teasing, with 73% of these saying they’d experienced it at school
• Nearly two-thirds of young people say their body image stops them from doing physical activities.

The research also showed a relationship between social media and young peoples’ feelings of dissatisfaction with their bodies, including a desire to be thinner, as well as poorer body appreciation and greater life disengagement.

We are delighted to be offering Media Smart, the leading eating disorder risk reduction program worldwide for school classroom settings as part of our mission to enable every girl to be the best she can be throughout her life.

As always, a reminder to be extra mindful of road safety as we return to campus to keep all of us safe.

Rhiannon Giles
Head of Middle School

Please note, there will be an early closure of the Uniform Shop on Wednesday 31 July (Term 3 Week 2), closing at 4:30pm.