Principal's Update

“Active Hope is a practice. Like tai chi or gardening, it is something we do rather than have. It is a process we can apply to any situation, and it involves three key steps. First, we take a clear view of reality; second, we identify what we hope for in terms of the direction we’d like things to move in or the values we’d like to see expressed; and third, we take steps to move ourselves or our situation in that direction.”

— Active Hope, Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone

Active Hope is a central throughline of our work at The Friends’ School in 2025. Active Hope starts with a feeling - perhaps when you see someone being treated unfairly, or when you see our environment being harmed - that feeling - the one that makes you want to help is the beginning of Active Hope.

But Active Hope isn’t just something we feel—it’s something we do. As Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone outline in their book, it is a practice that starts in our hearts and moves through our hands. To move through our hands is a phrase that articulates our desire for our hopefulness to be translated and transformed into actions. 

At The Friends’ School, we are inspired Quakers, who not only believe in peace, fairness and kindness but are moved to act in support of those values. Early Quakers like Elizabeth Fry who saw that people in prisons—especially women and children—were treated terribly and took action to make them safer and more humane. More recently during the time of the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S, Bayard Rustin who believed so strongly in justice and equality helped lead and organise peaceful protests, including the famous March on Washington with Martin Luther King Jr.

Here at home, Quakers who are dear to our community, James Backhouse and George Washington Walker, worked to bring hope and justice to others. Arriving in Hobart in 1832 and seeing firsthand the suffering of convicts and First Nations people they took action when they visited prisons and called for better treatment of prisoners. They spoke out against violence and injustice. They helped create things that made life fairer for everyone, not just the wealthy or powerful, including contributing to the establishment of The Friends’ School. 

At our Beginning of Year Gathering, students from across the School shared the ways in which they are letting their lives, and not just their voices, speak. From our Primary School students with their ‘idea eggs’, which are designed to put in action ideas and hopes of the Primary School community, to the Middle and Senior School students and staff who spoke passionately about the ways in which they are engaging in opportunities for service and activism. Their passion was shared in an uplifting experience that challenged all of us to listen to our hearts and to take action.

As a community, one of the ways that we are collectively practicing Active Hope, is through the continuing work to develop our Strategic Plan. On our Staff Day at the commencement of the academic year, we considered three important provocations about the future of education in a rapidly changing world. These provocations allowed us to consider what actions we might need to take to continue to prepare our students for that future world. The provocations afforded us to have deep consideration for thinking about supporting individual and collective wellbeing; the future health of our planet and how we can contribute to supporting regenerative futures; and how, in the Artificial Intelligence era, we might continue to develop and support human capabilities such as critical thinking, collaboration, communication and active citizenship through the design of our learning and assessment.

As we have begun to develop our draft Strategic Plan that holds both the strengths of 138 years of rich history and tradition alongside the collective ambition or hope for a brighter world for our students, families and communities, we are looking forward to putting into practice and action the projects and strategies that will support this work. 

As we move into the darker and cooler months, we look forward to continuing, across the year, to share the brightness and light that is generated by our community’s commitment to Active Hope, to putting our values into action and letting our lives speak. 

Active Hope starts in our hearts and moves through our hands.

In Peace

Esther Hill - Principal