Introducing Brigida Zagora, Head of HSIE History and future Head of HSIE Social Sciences
Staff Story
Our energetic and passionate new Head of HSIE – History, Brigida Zagora, credits her Year 8 History teacher with sparking her to spend the rest of her life with the study, the teaching and sharing of history as her beacon and passion.
Brigida has Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in Education from the University of Sydney and the University of Technology, Sydney, is a lead HSC exam marker and judge and has co-authored four school textbooks on History. She is involved with the History Teachers Association and the Association of Independent Schools in curriculum work. Her teaching career includes the roles of Head of House and Head of Gifted Education at other schools.
She is thrilled to be teaching in a school redolent of history and surrounded by the symbols of our founders. History Club has been revived under her watch and she has plans to make use of the many historical resources of the College, including the Archives of our 128 years as a school and the many active ex-students and Dominican Sisters who are part of our rich culture.
In 2023 Brigida’s role will expand to embrace social sciences as well as humanities – with the leadership of HSIE Social Sciences on top of her current role. She is not fazed by these expanded responsibilities as she has fulfilled this same role for nine years at another school. At Santa Sabina in 2023, subjects under her watch will include all of the Histories (of course), Business Studies, Economics, Geography, Legal Studies, Philosophy and World Studies, Psychology, Global Studies and Commerce.
In our conversation, every utterance from Brigida mentions history and the part it plays in the world around us.
‘I love the idea of Santa students “shaking the world’’’, she says.
‘I want to be part of the journey of using the College’s strengths to empower our girls to be people who are meaningful contributors to our society. A lot of our students have the capacity to be future leaders and we need to give them the skills to think critically and creatively to solve future problems.’
And it is the study of History which gives our students these skills as well as the 21st century skills of collaboration and empathy. Studying history together with knowing our faith and participating in service learning prepares our students to make a difference in the world.
Despite living and breathing the teaching and learning of history – ‘who I am at school is who I am in my whole life’ – Brigida enjoys family life including walking her ‘COVID dog’ Roxy with her son in the bush near her home. She loves to eat out, spend weekends on the beach and at cycle classes with her daughter or kayaking with her husband. With her friends, ‘the musical gals’, she attends every stage musical that comes to Sydney, most recently the fabulous Moulin Rouge – ‘the most amount of glitter falling from the sky’. And inspired by her recent attendance at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas, Brigida is currently reading Strongmen, How They Rise, Why They Succeed and How They Fall by Ruth Ben-Ghiat.
Victoria Harper
Publications and Marketing Officer
