Last Friday night the PLC Norman Oval was abuzz with celebrations and festivities for our annual Twilight Picnic. A wonderful and happy crowd of people joined in the celebrations, enjoying a beautiful summer evening, with delicious food, lots of fun rides, face painting, a photo booth, entertaining music, our talented Year 8 dancers and entertainment from a wonderful staff band. With so much for us all to enjoy, the evening had something special for all age groups, from our littlest children in the ELC through to our teenage girls and parents, and family and friends of PLC. The theme of this year’s Twilight Picnic was ‘A Night at the Movies’ and the evening commenced with a fun concert led by our wonderful Pipes and Drums. It was a fantastic start to the evening of festivities, which ended three hours later with some talented PLC singers backed by our staff band. It was once again a delightful evening, which will no doubt be a night to remember for many for years to come. I would like to offer my special thanks and congratulations to all who contributed to the planning, organisation and running of this magnificent evening – in particular the Development Office and the committee members of our wonderful parent groups, the many parent, staff and student volunteers, the staff in our business office and admin office and our grounds, caretaking and maintenance staff who all contributed so much to the success of the evening. It was a wonderful team effort and I want to thank and congratulate everyone involved – your efforts and commitment are so very much appreciated by us all.

Last Friday afternoon prior to our Twilight Picnic, PLC’s swimming and diving teams competed in the GSV Preliminary Carnival at MSAC. The girls competed and performed exceptionally well and I want to congratulate them and our dedicated swimming and diving coaches and staff on their outstanding results. Special congratulations to our swimmers who finished second and have now qualified to compete in the GSV Division 1 Championship, which takes place on Wednesday 22 March. Our divers came third and qualified for the GSV Division 2 Championship on Tuesday 21 March. We wish them well as they now continue their training and preparation to compete in these next championships. 

I would also like to wish our rowers well as they head off next Friday to Geelong for the annual Head of School Girls’ Regatta which involves 3 days of competing against other girls’ crews from co-ed and girls’ schools from all sectors right across the state. For our girls the Head of School Girls’ Regatta is the culmination of their extensive training and competing over the last two terms and is the final event of the rowing season. The Victorian Head of School Girls’ Regatta is the largest schoolgirl regatta in the southern hemisphere and it is always very exciting to experience the atmosphere of being on the side of the river cheering our crews on. I would also like to thank and acknowledge our dedicated and enthusiastic rowing coaches and our wonderful rowing coordinator Mr Moon.

On Monday of this week Mrs Williams and I had the pleasure of accompanying 8 of our Year 12 student leaders, our School Captains, Boarding House Captains, Social Action Captains and Christian Union Captains, to the annual Alliance of Girls’ Schools International Women’s Day Breakfast at Queen’s Hall, Parliament House. We joined with staff and student leaders from over 20 other girls’ schools in Melbourne to celebrate and remember the significance of International Women’s Day. Our special guest speaker was Maya Narayan, former School Captain of Melbourne Girls’ College and now an Associate in the Federal Court of Australia. Maya, who has a strong interest in girls’ leadership and education, spoke passionately about providing leadership opportunities for young women and the importance of role models in our lives. She also encouraged the girls to be bold in pursuing opportunities, reflecting on the theme for International Women’s Day 2017, ‘Be bold for change’. 

During this last week girls in Years 7, 8 and 9 have been enjoying their year level camps with Year 7 at Camp Jungai at Eildon, Year 8 at Wilson’s Promontory and Year 9 canoeing and trekking at Lake Eildon.  Whilst Years 7, 8 and 9 have been away for the week Year 10 have been enjoying the launch of their special Bright Stars program with its focus on wellbeing and resilience, lots of fun activities and some very interesting and inspiring speakers. This program is aimed at helping the girls to transition confidently into their senior years of schooling and to maximise their potential through promoting and enhancing their wellbeing and building their resilience. The program also featured an evening for both girls and parents, with a superb presentation on sleep by guest speaker Professor Greg Murray from Swinburne University. Year 10 also participated in two very important and enjoyable days coordinated by our Careers Development Practitioner Mrs Parker, to equip the girls with some valuable skills for their upcoming week of Work Experience in Term 2. During this past week our Year 11 IB students also enjoyed a few days off campus for their TOK (Theory of Knowledge) camp. 

Life and learning at PLC continues to be exciting and stimulating. We have experienced another amazing fortnight of interesting, enjoyable, diverse and challenging programs, of fun and festivities and of important and rich learning.

Elaine Collin
Principal