Pedagogy and Academics

From the Assistant Principal Pedagogy and Academic Leadership

Reflections on Girls’ Education, Leadership and the Long Game

This week, I had the privilege of attending an International Coalition of Girls’ Schools (ICGS) conference at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in Adelaide with six of our Loreto students. It was a gathering rich with provocation, possibility, and powerful reminders of the work still to be done. 

Melanie Cooper AM – also a member of Chief Executive Women (CEW) - made a statement that landed with particular force: On average, women are still ten years behind in their leadership journey compared to men. Not because they aren’t ready, or capable, or ambitious, but because the system wasn’t built with them in mind. She explained how the prevailing fear is that having a family sets women back. Then offered, It doesn’t set you back, but you tread water for a long time. It was a moment of radical honesty - one that doesn’t soften the truth, but names it so we can navigate it better.

And yet, even as the system endures, women persist.

Social strategist Linda Huynh provoked the audience with a candid reflection on how her own failures led to her success. She encouraged our young girls to see failure as a measure of their courage, not their worth. The more failure in your metrics, the more things you’ve tried. It was a refreshing reminder that growth often begins with risk.  

Another message threaded throughout the afternoon was the importance of practice in its many iterations. Practise putting yourself forward. Practise failing. Practise leading when you don’t feel quite ready. Because, as every speaker reminded us, you are never going to feel ready. And waiting until you are, is simply a recipe for inertia. 

All the speakers urged our students to take advantage of the power of female networking. To take every chance to connect, to engage and to tell the truth about challenges and cheer each other along the journey.

Because in the words of our student host “You can’t be what you can’t see.” That’s why gatherings like this matter. They change the landscape for young women and remind them they are not walking alone. 

Mel Pedavoli

Assistant Principal Pedagogy and Academic Leadership

Stage 2 SACE

We are delighted to share the SACE results from our first Stage 2 SACE subject in 2025, Activating Identities and Futures (AIF). These Semester 1 results mark an exciting milestone for our Year 11 students, who have made an impressive start to their final years of secondary schooling.

Congratulations to Lanah Baker, Elisa Farah, and Iris Hamilton, who each achieved an outstanding A+ in AIF. We are equally proud to report that 100% of the students who submitted their AIF this semester successfully gained their Stage 2 credits, with 30% achieving results in the A grade band.

This is a strong and encouraging beginning to the Stage 2 journey for these students. We look forward to celebrating further success when the classes in Semester 2 receive their results later this year.  

Robyn Scott

Director of Academic Programs