FROM THE CHAPLAIN

Like most aspects of school life, chapel has looked a little different this year. It was nice to complete some events at the beginning of the year in the ‘normal’ fashion, such as the Leaders’ chapel, Term 1 staff eucharist, new boarders’ welcome service and our traditional Year 7 welcome and commissioning services. However, within a few weeks an escalation in community COVID-19 transmissions required us to transition to online, live-streamed services. With the help of our Theatre Operations Manager, Lars Jensen, and our Performing Arts Centre Assistant, Scott Maney, plus a number of IT staff, we set up a rather sophisticated system in the Chapel. For Senior School services, a House Link group of approximately 15 girls attended in person while the rest of the year group joined in via a live stream. It was a similar arrangement for Junior School chapel, with one class attending while the rest of the girls participated via a live stream to their classrooms. There were some obvious challenges with such an approach, singing being perhaps the most difficult one. Fortunately, our Director of Music, Jodie Upton, offered a solution for our Senior School chapel services, suggesting that a group of Year 10 vocalists pre-record all the hymns. These pre-recordings were played in both the Chapel and classrooms. In the Junior School, our Music Librarian, Kirsten Bennett, did the same by recording our hymns. As they say, necessity is the mother of invention. Sadly, several chapel events had to be cancelled, such as our Old Girls’ and Grandparents’ Day services, while our boarders’ chapel services morphed into 8.00pm mindfulness and meditation activities. Our traditional Easter Assembly was pre-recorded, but it still managed to feature readings, dance, drama and music provided by the girls. Fortunately, our Service of Thanksgiving for the Life of our 2021 Head Girl, Sally Hicks, was able to go take place with special COVID-19 management provisions in place. However, many girls, staff and families were unable to attend in person due to capacity restrictions.

Reverend Richard Pengelley