A Day of Reflection and Celebration

On the 8th of March every year, we celebrate International Women's Day. It is one of the most important days for all of us to celebrate the achievements of women and raise awareness about equality and justice.

This year, via Mrs Kendall’s speech at our International Women’s Day assembly, we were inspired to hear the story of our electorate, the Division of Dunkley. Dunkley was named after Louisa Margaret Dunkley, a telegraphist who, in the 1890s, advocated for the rights of women and for them to obtain equal pay and working conditions as their male counterparts. While the issues Ms Dunkley and her peers were campaigning for still affect us more than 120 years later, there is no doubting that she is an inspirational role model for us all and that the qualities of grit, determination and empowerment she possessed, are what we want to instil in all of us here at Toorak.

The theme for this year’s International Women’s Day was ‘Choose to Challenge’. With a purple dress day, our school celebrated the day by empowering students to have the courage to call out gender bias and inequality and encouraged us to reflect on what it is to be a positive role model for others.

Strengthening our sense of community, we saw Senior School students becoming mentors for our younger year levels. We were so proud to see so many smiles shared and new friendships made when our Year 3 - 12 students came together for some afternoon activities. We all participated in a range of challenges including coming up with innovative designs for a ‘school hall of the future’ as well as other team building exercises such as relay races on the oval and dance battles. Some amazing performers took to the stage in an open mic session, exhibiting the talent and courage of our students, as well as the hard work and effort they put into mastering these skills.

It is important for us to pause on days like International Women’s Day and be reminded of how far we’ve come towards gender equality, how far we have left to go and just how much we can achieve when we all unite.

Amy Uren and Lily Kristanto - Head Girl and Deputy Head Girl