Colours at Ivanhoe Girls'

In the Senior School, it currently feels very much like 'Awards Season'. Not the Oscars, the Emmys and the Baftas, but our own Colours Awards. At Assembly last week we awarded Colours for Drama, Debating, Music and Service. This week was Sports Colours and then later in the term we will award House Colours and finally, in the last week of term, our highest award, School Colours.

Colours Awards at Ivanhoe Girls’ encourage students to be active contributors by participating in the broader co-curricular life of the School. Through this, students develop their strengths, reach high levels of personal achievement and build collective wellbeing and commitment.

Focusing on students’ strengths can have a powerful impact on their sense of self, character and development.

Colours Awards encourage and recognise exemplary participation in Debating, Drama, Music, Service, Sport and House activities. Each specific area has its own criteria. Beyond this, School Colours recognise both breadth and depth of co-curricular involvement. The Award of School Colours acknowledges the significant and sustained service to the School in a number of areas of school life.

Schools have different criteria for awarding ‘Colours’. Very often they are awarded to students who have achieved a high level of excellence in specific areas, such as being in a ‘first’ sporting team or being a state or national level representative.

Colours at Ivanhoe Girls' are different, they are awarded for exemplary participation over a sustained period of time.

At Ivanhoe Girls’ anyone can earn Colours, you don’t have to be the best. What you need to do is show dedication and commitment. You need to show up, play your part and support others. Of course, we also see excellence at the highest level demonstrated by our Colours recipients, but at the core, it is about participation. That’s what makes our Colours awards so special.

It was fitting to have our Sports Colours Assembly this week as there is so much going on in the world of sport at the moment, particularly women’s sport. The Matildas are drawing huge crowds in person and our Netball team just took out the World Cup, and so much more.

I find sport inspirational for two reasons: there is the excellence aspect, getting to see skills performed at a high level, and then there are the stories of struggle, perseverance and long-term commitment which are just as amazing. I love that our Colours system recognises all inspirational sports people, those who are inspirational because they are just amazing in their excellence, those who tough it out every week but don’t get any glory, and everyone in between.

Ms Narelle Umbers
Principal