Message from the Principal

A new academic year always carries a buzz of anticipation and energy. It is a time full of promise and hope for what is to come.

There is certainly a distinctive air at the College, as the girls catch up with friends and new students and staff make their way around the school. With the implementation of our new Mobile Phone Policy, there is so much more conversation happening on the playground too.

Long may this energy and joy continue!

I would like to warmly welcome every family to St Ursula’s for what, I am sure, will be another wonderful year.

I especially welcome the new families and students who have joined us both in Year 7 and other years. I hope you have already been made to feel very much part of this community. Our Meet and Greet Night for Year 7 last week proved an ideal way for parents to introduce themselves to their daughters’ Pastoral Care teachers, paving the way for strong relationships to be developed. Thank you to the many new parents who commented on how much their daughters were already just loving the College!

New Staff

A special welcome to our new staff who have joined us in 2020:

Lorena D’ Souza (HSIE and Year 10 Coordinator)
Gina Governatori (Youth Ministry Coordinator)
Jessica Touma (Religious Education and Assistant Year 11 Coordinator)
Michael Zaouk (Maths)
Alexandra Poole (Maths);
Nicholas Boscov (Maths Temp)
Laura Grady (PDHPE Temp)
Grant Lesch (English Temp)
Rosemary Harrison (Japanese Temp)
Jacqueline Nobrega (RE Temp)
Anne-Marie Park (Science Temp)
Felicity Trajkovski (TAS/RE Temp)
Manuela Cafe (Administrative Assistant Temp).

Each new staff member has written a short introduction in this newsletter, so please take the time to get to know them.

Our student leaders have introduced our College theme for the year, “Together – take a chance”. This theme encourages each of us to move out of our comfort zones to try something new or embark on a new project; all the while building up the whole College community – staff, students and families. They drew on the word Isieme which means together, and is the most commonly used word in Angela Merici ‘s writings. So, this is the year to grow more closely together by taking a chance!

Class of 2019 – amazing results

Elsewhere in our newsletter, you will see a comprehensive analysis of our extraordinary results from the graduating class of 2019. Each year, I am impressed not only by the great results that the College achieves overall, but by the sheer number of girls these results represent.

As a comprehensive, non-selective school, 1 in 4 of our students achieved an ATAR of over 90 and nearly 50% of the cohort achieved an ATAR over 80. What this tells me is that our staff are expert teachers who work hard. It tells me that your daughters want to learn and are prepared to do the work and it tells me that our families support us in our work for their daughters.

It is without doubt that our College consistently achieves outstanding results because of the strong partnership between teachers, students and families.

With an ATAR of 99.85,our College Dux for 2019, Taylor Colligan, in her address to the College this year, spoke about the importance of consistent, hard work and of being decisive about what your goal is and then focusing on it. She is a strong role model for the partnership between expert teacher, hard working students and consistent parental support. I have added a link to her address to the College community here.

What also delights me at this time of year are the pathways that the class of 2019 have decided to embark on. We know that the world of work is rapidly changing and as a College we are ahead of these changes because of our skills-based Ursuline Learning Framework, which underpins all teaching and learning in the College. Our key note speaker at our High Achievers Assembly was April Beattie (Class of 2017), who is training to be a pilot. Her experience of the reality of the glass ceiling for women, and how she had to work hard to break through it to achieve her dream, is inspirational. Please find her address to the College community here and if you fly with Jestar, you may want to check out who the co-pilot is, as it may well be April Beattie!

Like April, our 2019 graduates will study in their passion areas such as: teaching, medicine, law, midwifery, paramedic studies, commerce, various kinds of engineering, computing science, actuarial studies, construction management, dance, pharmacy, media production, business, policing and security studies (ASIO). I am also delighted that a number of our girls also won prestigious and very valuable scholarships.

There is no limit to what our girls can do!

Opening Mass

At our Opening Mass last week, we welcomed our new Year 7 students – they will be our class of 2025! It is reassuring to know that the quality education provided at St Ursula’s will equip these young women for the world of the future.

At this beautiful Mass, celebrated by Fr Hamilton Ureta (Casey), Parish Priest of Our Lady of Fatima Kingsgrove, we also continued with our long held badging tradition. Year 12 badged their Little Sisters in Year 7 and then Year 7 students presented their Big Sisters with their Senior bar. This gesture imparts the importance of belonging and connectedness within our school.

St Ursula’s Representative Council

We have also held our first St Ursula’s Representative Council meeting, where we looked at Positive Education and how it could be introduced at the College. The parents on the Representative Council discussed other skills that could be taught, both at school and at home to raise student mindfulness and wellbeing. I have linked a copy of the documentation sent out in 2019 about the St Ursula’s Representative Council. I thank most sincerely the following parents who are part of this important and new development within our College in 2020. I am very excited about the prospect of discussing key issues and polices as they relate to the wellbeing and learning of each member of our community:

Parent representatives

Year 7: Denise Mahfouz & Carole Nemme

Year 8: Chris Morris; Magdelena Oszywa & Sonia Dellacorte

Year 9: Margaret Lokmer & Yan Wang

Year 10: Peter Smith, Roxana Felix & Mallissa Vourakis

Year 11: Trish Roth; Emma Williams & Vivien Raptis

Year12: Richard Morton & Jodie Mok

If you wish to contact your daughter’s year group parent representative, please send an email via info@stursulakingsgrove.catholic.edu.au.

St Ursula’s Under the Stars

Thank you to our Parents and Friends Committee, which is busy organising our first event for the year, St Ursula’s Under The Stars Big Screen Movie Night on Friday 28 February 2020. I hope you have saved the date in your diary. It is going to be such a fun-filled event for all our community. More details to come in this newsletter.

Finally, on a more sombre note, it would be remiss of us not to pause to remember with gratitude those who lost their lives in the service of others during the horror of the bushfires. We also give thanks and acknowledge the abundant outpouring of community support and generosity to bring some comfort and support to those who lost homes and livelihoods. This is Australia at its finest. We pay tribute to those women and men who serve their community with humility and often with anonymity to keep others safe. We pray that the recent rain brings hope and newness of life.

We also pray for the families and the school communities that this week have buried four young people who were so tragically killed.

Eternal rest grant unto them O Lord and may perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen.

God bless each of you and your families as together we take a chance for the betterment of our community.