It has been a delight to welcome our Year 7 cohort, our new students, and our returning students back to campus. This year holds particular significance as we celebrate NEGS’ 130-year milestone. I feel privileged to be Principal at this moment, leading a school with such a proud legacy.

Both inside and outside the classroom, there has been a flurry of activity. Last week’s Swimming Carnival was a celebration of sportsmanship and school spirit, with students cheering each other on in true NEGS fashion. Our rowing program continues to go from strength to strength, and with winter sports trials beginning, our girls are already gearing up for what promises to be another competitive and rewarding season. Additionally, our Equestrian Centre has been a hub of activity, with students training and competing in local shows and events.

The heart of NEGS senior school remains our commitment to girls' education. Recently, I read an article titled Raising Anxiety? Supporting Girls to Be the Best Version of Themselves. According to Mission Australia’s 2024 Youth Survey, more than one in five young adult women report experiencing anxiety. This raises a crucial question for those of us who parent, teach, and support young women: how can we help them reach their full potential while also prioritising their emotional wellbeing?

The rise of technology and social media continues to shape the way girls experience success and setbacks. What may have once been a fleeting mistake on the soccer field, a misstep in a maths lesson, or a missed note in an orchestra rehearsal, is now often amplified across digital platforms.

At the same time, there is increasing pressure for children to always be happy and successful. Yet we know this is not always possible. Sometimes, girls will face disappointment, challenges, and even unfairness. How we, as parents and educators, guide them through these moments is vital. Modelling responsible and appropriate use of technology is one part of the equation. Another key aspect is striking the right balance between providing support and stepping back—allowing girls to develop resilience and problem-solving skills on their own terms.

It is important that our students understand that participation in an event is sometimes simply that—participation. Not every experience will result in a win, but every experience is valuable. We all experience worry, fear, and uncertainty at times. The challenge is in how we tackle these emotions. By equipping our girls with a toolkit of skills, we enable them to navigate both the highs and lows of life.

References Locke, J., and Einstein D. (2024). Raising anxiety: Why our good intentions are backfiring on children (and how to fix it). 

http://icgs.memberclicks.net/message2/link/aeb2d62c-4fb1-460d-a754-d898ec39937c/2

Information for Day families about the Boarders Weekend 7 th to 10 th March 2025.

A Boarders Weekend has been planned for the above dates. This is an opportunity in the middle of a long term for boarding students to spend a weekend at home with their families. Please find below, information regarding how this weekend affects the running of the Senior Day School.

All Day Students and any Boarders who remain on Campus on Friday 7th March, are expected to attend classes as normal. Teachers will have lessons prepared and expect to see all students for a normal school day. Monday, 10th March, will be a Staff Development day in the Senior School only. Day Students in the Senior School will not have any classes. The Junior School will proceed as normal with classes on both Friday and Monday.

The Edwards town bus services will run as usual over the two days.

Ms Liz van Genderen

Principal

It was fantastic to witness such enthusiastic participation in our recent school swimming carnival. The energy and camaraderie displayed by our students truly reflect the vibrant and supportive community we strive to build here.

This term, I have been focusing on the theme of setting yourself up for success by being prepared and meeting expectations. When we consider the impact we have on a student's week, term, and academic year, there are several factors that play a significant role. These are proven measures of success.

School Attendance Matters?

You might wonder if regular school attendance is truly important in the grand scheme of things. The answer is a resounding "yes." Attendance is not just about being present in the classroom; it plays a crucial role in a child's overall development and future success. Here are three key pillars that highlight the importance of school attendance:

Learn:

Regular attendance ensures that your child does not miss out on vital lessons and assignments, which are key to their understanding and progress. Consistent attendance helps students keep up with the curriculum, perform better in assessments, and achieve academic success.

Build Positive Relationships:

School is a social hub where students build relationships with peers and teachers. Regular attendance allows your child to engage in group activities, collaborate on projects, and develop essential social skills that will benefit them throughout their lives. Building positive relationships is crucial for emotional and mental well-being.

Develop Life Skills:

Being present at school daily helps instill a sense of responsibility and discipline in your child. It teaches them the importance of commitment, punctuality, and perseverance, which are valuable traits for their future endeavors. Regular attendance also provides opportunities to participate in extracurricular activities, fostering well-rounded development and life skills.

What do the figures add up to?

1 or 2 days a week doesn't seem like much, but the cumulative impact can be surprising. On an average school year, the table below shows how even a small amount of missed time can add up significantly:

Working in partnership is crucial to ensuring all our students are successful at school. By collaborating closely with parents, teachers, and the wider community, we can continue to provide a supportive and enriching environment where every student can thrive. Together, we can address challenges, celebrate achievements, and continuously strive for improvement.

Mrs Heidi Dent

Deputy Principal

In the NEGS Junior School, we have commenced the school year with enthusiasm, focus and a determination to do our best. As I visit each classroom, I am delighted to see students engaged in learning and striving for excellence.

The first few weeks of the school year are a crucial time for establishing and consolidating new routines. These routines help our students stay organised, optimise their learning time, and take full advantage of the many opportunities provided at NEGS.

We can support our children in building independence, confidence, and a positive learning experience by ensuring they are well-prepared for each school day. This includes:

• Wearing the school uniform correctly and with pride;
• Having learning materials ready, including a well-stocked pencil case, a charged computer (Stage 3), and any necessary homework;
• Bringing a full water bottle and healthy food (students are encouraged to have a ‘crunchy’ morning snack of fresh fruit and/or vegetables);
• Arriving on time (a teacher is on duty from 8:20am; arriving early allows students to settle in and feel ready to learn when the 8:45am bell rings); and
• Knowing their end-of-day routine; their pick-up point or co-curricular activities.

All of our co-curricular activities are in full swing. Students are embracing the variety of opportunities available, exploring their interests, and trying new experiences.

You will also have had the opportunity to sign your child/ren up to Winter Sports. Team sports are extremely beneficial for all students in building physical fitness, teamwork and a sense of belonging. We would love to have as many students involved in NEGS sport as possible.

Our recent swimming carnival was a wonderful opportunity for students to strengthen their connections across the school and build a strong sense of community. It was fantastic to see students of all skill levels participating, cheering each other on, and celebrating their achievements together. Events like these help children develop emotional resilience by managing feelings of excitement and nervousness, encouraging them to embrace new opportunities with confidence.

We’re excited to welcome Healthy Harold and the Life Education team for their annual visit—always a highlight for our Pre-K to Year 6 students! Many parents will fondly remember their own encounters with the loveable giraffe, and giving his nose a scratch! This engaging, curriculum-based program empowers children to make safer and healthier choices, aligning with our classroom PDH lessons.

For parents looking to continue these conversations at home, the Life Education website offers a dedicated parent section with helpful resources on fostering independence in making safe and healthy choices. You can explore these resources here: https://lifeed.org.au/

The Junior School is actively engaged in the Kindness in the Classroom curriculum, with the goal of “Making Kindness the Norm.” This year-long program focuses on six core values; Caring, Courage, Respect, Responsibility, Integrity, and Inclusiveness, all of which are directly linked to kindness. Each concept is explored over several weeks, ensuring a consistent and intentional approach both in and outside the classroom.

This term the Junior School focus has been Respect.

Respect means treating people, places, and things with kindness. It also involves showing kindness to ourselves—this is called self-respect. Taking care of our thoughts, actions, and feelings, is just as important as being kind to others. Our Junior School students have begun reflecting on their unique qualities and recognising the valuable role they play in our school community.

We look forward to an exciting and productive Term 1, filled with learning, growth, and kindness!

Mrs Deanna Ford

Junior School CoOrdinator/Year 6 Teacher

Start of Year in Boarding – A Busy and Positive Beginning to 2025

What a fantastic start to 2025!

We have welcomed many new families across most year levels, and it has been wonderful to see how quickly our new students have settled into boarding life.

For our new Year 7 and 8 students, the first week was especially busy, filled with afternoon and evening games, a trip to Moxon’s, and our closed weekend activities. Highlights included a fire pit and marshmallow roast on Friday, a downtown shopping trip and in-house movies on Saturday, and laser tag and water balloon fights on Sunday. While we aimed to balance fun and bonding with much-needed downtime, I was incredibly proud of everyone’s enthusiasm and participation—especially our senior boarders, who helped run some of the activities.

During the weekend, we also introduced our 2025 Boarding Motto:

"Attitude is a small thing that can make a big difference."

To reflect this, the girls created canvas artworks, which will be displayed in the Houses.

Weekend Activities & Initiatives

Balancing school and co-curricular commitments with weekend activities is always a challenge. This term, we are trialing compulsory participation for Year 7 and 8 boarders in free weekend activities. So far, students have enjoyed shopping trips to Armidale and Tamworth, a Valentine’s Day cooking and craft session, a five-minute photo competition, and a colouring contest.

Our "Hour Without Power" and "Less Screen Time, More Green Time" (Disconnect and Move) initiatives have also been successful in encouraging students to disconnect from devices and spend more time outdoors together.

Boarders are already busy with co-curricular activities, with students competing in horse events in Gunnedah, Tamworth, Armidale, and Glen Innes. Netball and hockey trials have begun, and weekly sport kicked off in Week 2. Our Cattle Club has also been busy preparing for upcoming shows.

We have introduced a few new initiatives this year to enhance the boarding experience:

• Bi-monthly birthday cakes to celebrate boarders’ birthdays collectively.
• Boarders' Birthday Biscuit - each boarder receives a biscuit on their birthday to help make their day special.
• Themed Boarders’ Dinners - our first, themed "Pink", was a huge success. The next dinner, "Denim", will take place on March 27th.

Important Information & Housekeeping

We understand the start of the year comes with a lot of information, especially for new families. Please remember that your first point of contact regarding your daughter’s boarding experience is her boarding house:

Kirkwood House  - Mrs Jenn Woodley Smith / Miss Grace Bailey
📞 02 6774 8784 | 📧 kirkwood.house@negs.nsw.edu.au | 📱 0400 216 786

White House - Mrs Susan Boessler / Mrs Jenny Murphy
📞 02 6774 8777 | 📧 white.house@negs.nsw.edu.au | 📱 0482 525 862

Reminders

• Orah Leave Passes: Please provide as much detail as possible in the notes section to reduce the need for staff follow-ups.
• Weekend Bus to Tamworth: Must be booked via reception@negs.nsw.edu.au by 4pm on Thursdays (in addition to completing an Orah leave pass). Note: This service will not operate on the Boarders' Weekend (March 7th–10th) as SSTS provides travel via bus or train.
• SSTS Transport for New Boarders: Transport has been booked to the nearest drop-off point. If you do not wish to use this service or need details on your closest collection point, please contact me at head.boarding@negs.nsw.edu.au as soon as possible.
• Year 7 & 10 Vaccinations: Due to a technical issue, the previous correspondence which was sent in Engage was lost. I will resend the information shortly. Vaccinations will take place on March 27th. Parents must provide consent via: engage.health.nsw.gov.au/engage.

Thank You!

A big thank you to all our families for making the start of 2025 so positive. We appreciate your support in creating a rewarding and enriching boarding experience for your daughters.

Mrs Kassy Cassidy

Head of Boarding

Dear families,

Just a reminder that when your children are absent for part or all of a day, the day school needs to be advised. It is preferable if this can happen before 9am.

Please either complete the Student Absence notification (if this is completed, a record is kept) as below or phone the school on 6774 8700.

• Log into your Parent Portal on Engage.
• In the blue menu bar select 'Daybook' and from the drop down menu 'Pupil Daybook.'
• When in the Daybook screen, click 'Add new entry' and from the drop down menu select 'Student Absence Notification.'
• From there, a form will open for you to fill out the sections that apply to your child’s absence (double click your child’s name on the left hand side to select). Please ensure the correct dates are entered for leave.
• Our Attendance Officer will process the absence.
• Click “save and close” to submit the form.

For any leave that is more than one day (besides sick leave) permission should be sought from Mrs Heidi Dent, Deputy Principal, heidi.dent@negs.nsw.edu.au.

If your child is a Boarder then you will need to complete an Orah application too. We realise the inconvenience of the two systems.

Apologies if you have already communicated this absence to the School.

Thank you for your assistance.

Mrs Helen Smith
Attendance Officer

Year 11 to Pre-K visit 

Last week in Wellbeing, Year 11 visited Pre-K to read a story to them. The Year 11 girls are looking at gratitude in their Wellbeing lessons, and a visit to the smallest members of our school community was a great way to start showing gratitude. Although the Pre-K students were a little wary of the older girls to begin with, they showed the Year 11’s the best places to sit in the classroom, made themselves comfortable and listened to a variety of stories being read. We hope to make the visit to Pre-K a regular occurrence, as all students had a great afternoon together. 

Ms Kristin Willis

HoD CAPAD/Stage 6 Advisor/PDHPE Teacher

Year 12 Geography Excursion

In Week 4, Molly, Lily, Bonnii, and I embarked on our annual Year 12 Geography excursion to Sydney. This year, our schedule was updated to align with changes in the senior geography syllabus.

We stayed at the Sydney Institute of Marine Studies, located on the edge of Chowder Bay (Sydney Harbour) - a perfect spot to explore the importance of Sydney Harbour to the city and to examine the potential human impacts on this iconic waterway.

Day 1 - An urban geographical study of Barangaroo precinct.

The students began their day with a scenic ferry ride from Mosman to Circular Quay. From there, they boarded the Light Rail and arrived, via Wynyard, at Barangaroo.

At Barangaroo, the girls delved into the remarkable evolution of the precinct over the past century. Situated on the western edge of the CBD at Darling Harbour, Barangaroo boasts a rich history and deep cultural significance. Named after Barangaroo, a prominent Cammeraygal woman and respected leader during the early years of European colonization, the area was once used by the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation for fishing, hunting, and gathering. Over time, it transformed into a bustling hub of maritime and industrial activities. However, as the volume of trade outgrew the city’s capacity, new port facilities were established at Port Botany, making the wharf area obsolete.

In recent decades, Barangaroo has undergone an extraordinary revitalization, merging cultural heritage with modern urban development. Today, it features residential, commercial, and recreational spaces, including Barangaroo Reserve—a stunning headland park carefully restored to reflect its pre-settlement landscape.  

The weather on the day was wild, and the students experienced firsthand the wind tunnel effect unique to Barangaroo’s urban design.

Day 2 - Kelp ecosystems, Chowder Bay

The second day took the girls to the kelp forests at Chowder Bay. These underwater forests are part of the Great Southern Reef, an extensive marine ecosystem stretching from northern New South Wales, around the southern coast of Australia, including Tasmania, and up to Kalbarri in Western Australia.  

The Great Southern Reef plays a vital role in Australia’s economic, social, and environmental wellbeing. It provides significant income through fisheries and tourism and contributes to the regulation of the carbon cycle. At Chowder Bay, the girls snorkeled and conducted fieldwork to assess the health of the kelp ecosystem.

This excursion offered an invaluable hands-on learning experience, allowing the students to immerse themselves in data collection and witness geographical concepts in action within both human and natural environments. A big thank you to the staff of Observatory Hill EEC for their time and knowledge in leading both days.

Mrs Penny Lehman

Stage 4 Advisor/ Geogprahy and Science Teacher

Prior to the first day of school, we held the Equestrian Centre induction where we had the joy of welcoming all of our new equestrian students. It was an awfully hot day but it was refreshing to see so many brand new smiling faces. Since then we’ve been glad to see our new students settling in well and getting familiar with the school routine and our facilities. Our returning students are all settling back into their routines as well, with lessons starting back up and the equestrian centre becoming a hive of activity.

Gunnedah Training Weekend - 8th to 9th of February

On the Saturday and Sunday of Week 2, we took a small team of students out to Gunnedah for a showjumping and dressage training weekend. The weekend was very hot but lots of fun, with a team consisting of 8 riders that brought lots of small successes for what was for most, our first outing of the year. A big shout out to Lucy Baker from Year 9 who had a phenomenal weekend with lots of success. We also had two of our brand new NEGS girls join us, Gemma Poe in Year 7 and Georgie Maniscalco in Year 8, both of whom were amazing additions to our team. We can’t wait to see more of our new students joining us at competitions throughout the year.

Armidale Dressage - 9th of February

On the Sunday of week 2, we took a team consisting of Saskia Jeffery-Bilich and Sarah Barclay to Armidale showgrounds for a dressage comp. The girls had a great day of competition with Sarah placing 5th in her 3.1 and 4th in her 2.2. Saskia placed 5th in her 2.2. We are super proud of both girls, particularly Sarah, as this was her step up to the elementary level and she came home with such a great score.  

Uralla Show - 8th to 9th February

Over the weekend, we had a small group of girls go down to the Uralla Show for show riding. The girls had a very successful show coming home with many ribbons. With Beatrix Morton coming home with 1st in the intermediate hack 15.2 - 16hh and in the child’s small hack. Very exciting to get the show girls back out as this was their first competition back and it was so successful.

Glen Innes - 14th to 16th February

Over this weekend we took a fairly large group of girls up to Glen Innes show, for hacking and showjumping. The competition started very early with the show riding girls competing on the Friday with lots of success. Dom Baker came home with the Champion Hunter Hack and Beatrix Morton won the Champion intermediate Hunter Hack. The showjumpers attended on Saturday for the 6-bar that night. On Sunday, we had girls competing between the heights of 45cm to 1.10m. With this competition being the first competition that some of the new girls had competed with NEGS. Lots of success in the show jumping ring for the girls. 

Peel River Indoor Showjumping Champs - 20th to 23rd of February

Over the four days we took a group of girls down to Tamworth, AELEC to compete in the Peel River Indoor Showjumping Champs, where there was a lot of success and fun. We had 6 riders compete over the whole weekend and the other 4 came after the swimming carnival on the Friday. This weekend was the first big competition of the year for many of the girls, with there being many successes between improving of riding and placing in the large classes, which mainly consisted of around 60 competitors. There were even a few wins. We had competitors in a range of different levels from between 70cm to 1.10m.  

Guyra show - 20th to 21st of February

There was a small team of show riders who went to Guyra show, which consisted of Jess Taylor, Beatrix Morton, Dom Baker and Emily O’Rourke. There was much success with Beatrix Morton getting 1st in the open, Jess Taylor getting Champion Lady Rider and Supreme Rider of Guyra show, and 1st, 2nd and 3rd in Galloway back. Emily O’Rourke got reserve champion Galloway. Very successful particularly with most the girls coming back from the swimming carnival and going straight into a competition. 

Next up:

Tamworth show - 28th of Feb

Armidale show - 7th to 9th of March

Armidale dressage - 9th of March

 Justine, Annyka and Laura riding in the morning before lessons start for the day.

Shyla Clarke and Ruby Holgate

2025 Equestrian Centre Captians

The P & F would like to thank everyone for their assistance at the Swimming Carnival recently.

Whether you assisted on the day or baked and donated goodies for sale on the day, we appreciate you all. We were able to raise $780.47 from the sale.

Ms Fiona Macarthur

P & F President

For further information, please click HERE.