From the Principal 

Dr Nicole Archard

Leaders in Girls Education

From Saturday to Tuesday this past week, I had the privilege of attending the Asia Pacific Summit on Girls’ Education in Hobart. I attended this conference in multiple capacities; as a Board Member of the Alliance of Girls’ Schools Australasia, as Principal of a girls’ school, and as a presenter, where I was able to share with other educators from across Australia as well as other parts of the world the programs that we have in place at Loreto College Marryatville. It always makes me very proud to showcase our beautiful school, to share the work of our staff, and to also hear back from other educators with regard to our programs and how these are held as hallmarks of best practice in girls’ education on a national scale. Our strategic objectives are to be a ‘future looking school’ as well as a ‘school of choice and excellence’, and in order to achieve these objectives, we must have effective evidence-based programs in place.

The Summit was opened by former, and first female, Prime Minister of New Zealand, Dame Jenny Shipley, who spoke about the importance of girls’ education in the development of strong women who needed to not only challenge gender stereotypes but be the instigators of policy change for the betterment of society. Dame Shipley also conveyed an insightful analysis of the impact of AI and chatbots such as ChatGPT, a technology that relies of taking existing information from the Web in order to recreate humanlike conversations and responses. She indicated that the problem with such technology is that a disproportionate amount of this information is created by men or is from a male perspective, thus further perpetuating gender stereotypes by diminishing the female voice. The need to ensure that the voice of girls and women is not only heard but given the space to influence and create change will be important for addressing the gender inequity that exists in society.

This conference also marked the official merging of the Alliance of Girls’ Schools Australasia with the International Coalition of Girls’ Schools. I’m excited to say that Loreto Marryatville is now part of a global network comprising of more that 550 girls’ school across 21 countries who have joined together in order to share global knowledge and best practice in girls’ education. The following statement from the merger agreement captures this sentiment:

“As our member schools educate girls to be the leaders of a more inclusive and sustainable world, our work must be more global in scope, providing greater opportunities for girls’ schools around the world to connect, convene and collaborate. Our common vision is to elevate women’s leadership worldwide by empowering and educating girls to be ethical, globally minded changemakers.”

We are very proud to be part of this exciting global network!

I am also very excited to announce, that once again, our SEAD Program has been shortlisted as one of only eight schools in Australia across all educational sectors (Catholic, Independent, Government) by the Australian Education Awards. We are very proud of this achievement and excited that Loreto College Marryatville is being recognised on the national stage. 

Dr Nicole Archard

Principal