On Wednesday morning, we began the year with IGS dad Tim Bishop conducting a smoking ceremony. This is a special event each year that brings our community together in the spirit of acknowledgement and mindfulness.
We are grateful for Tim’s generous and ongoing commitment to teaching and inspiring our students. Tim is a proud Aboriginal man with bloodlines from the Murrawarri Nation in Northern New South Wales.
Today we marked the end of our first week back with Foundation Day. Our Year 12 student leaders handed out apples as we remember, celebrate and give thanks to those who came before us, the trailblazing educators and the remarkable community that founded IGS in 1984.
Primary School Assembly Gallery
High School Assembly Gallery
Honour the Past, Treasure the Present and Shape the Future.
Our whole School goal for 2024 is to Honour the Past, Treasure the Present and Shape the Future.
Founded by the University of Sydney’s Professor Reg St Leon, our School began with a grand dream, immense passion and dedicated teachers, parents and students, who believed in the vision of a Sydney school that put languages learning at its heart. The School opened with 44 students on 28 February 1984 on the site of the Little Sisters of the Poor in Randwick, garnering attention locally and internationally.
Facing almost insurmountable bureaucratic challenges, it moved to Surry Hills in 1985, and during those tough early years, authorities attempted to close IGS down, leading to a protest with students displaying placards declaring their love for the School and marching with their Principal and their teachers down Macquarie Street to Parliament House with parents jumping in their cars and honking their horns in solidarity.
Despite these early struggles, IGS was victorious in the Supreme Court in 1986 and the rest is history!
Today, we treasure our School, born from the vision of one remarkable individual and a dedicated community. IGS’s foundation is a love story, a history that inspires us each and every day.
Monday this week saw staff gather for our Shape the Future 2024 Conference as we prepared for the return of our students. Keynote speaker Dr Karl Kruszelnicki shared research-based insights about climate change, geopolitical trends, developments in science, technology and medicine, as well as education, neuroscience and how children learn. Each year at this time we contemplate broader developments in the world as an essential part of our mission to equip our students to be world ready. The conceptual framework for the day was collective self-efficacy and Stanford professor Albert Bandura’s simple but compelling idea that if those who work in a school believe that they hold the key individually and collectively to build the quality of the educational journey of a child, they do.
Below: on Tuesday, the School Board, directors, the Principal and senior staff came together for a Strategy Day to explore the School’s progress on the strategic plan in the context of our dynamic external environment.
We’ve welcomed students back in classrooms, tutor groups, assemblies, and year meetings. Refreshed and energised after a break. I am so pleased to see how our students have settled in together this week.
My colleagues and I are here to make the transition to the new school year as smooth, calm, clear and joyful as we can. Please reach out to us if we can provide any additional support or assistance for your child.
This week is just the beginning of an annual calendar bursting with anniversary milestones and events that we have planned to celebrate the unique and ground-breaking history of our school. I look forward to seeing many of you at our community picnic on Saturday 10 February.
Here’s to the start of an unforgettable year!
Shauna Colnan
Principal