Pedagogy and Academics

From the Assistant Principal: Pedagogy and Academic Leadership

Celebrating the Seen and the Unseen

As we close another academic year, the Awards Evening gave us a moment to pause and celebrate. A lot of girls were recognised, and it was lovely to see the pride in their faces and in the room. But I also want to name something we don’t talk about often: not everyone receives an award. Sometimes we miss out by a lot, sometimes narrowly, and sometimes we don’t really understand why. That’s uncomfortable, but it’s true.

What I love about this community is that the story doesn’t end with who crossed the stage. Every girl has worked hard, and often in ways no audience sees. The late-night revising after training, the repeated rehearsals of the same lines and lyrics, the quiet questions to friends and family to check understanding – these are the real markers of a year’s work.  

To make sense of this, I keep returning to the women whose courage we honoured with the Steele and Cooper Award on Wednesday evening:  the suffrage campaigners of South Australia, whose fight 130 years ago expanded the horizon for every woman in this state. Their work didn’t look glorious while they were living it. They drafted petitions no one read, attended meetings that were mocked, and challenged laws that were written to shut them out. Many of them never saw recognition. Some gave everything and received nothing in return. And yet their persistence shifted history for the girls, mothers and grandmothers today.

Despite not being recognised, change happened; and we are the beneficiaries.

There’s something in that for all of us. The outcome matters, of course; but so does the effort along the way. All the work you’ve done this year counts, even if no one handed you something for it. 

Thank you to all our students for their effort across this year - on stage and off; visible and invisible. Have a wonderful break, take time to reset, and we look forward to starting fresh together in the new year.

Mel Pedavoli

Assistant Principal: Pedagogy and Academic Leadership