ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF THE ALLIANCE OF GIRLS’ SCHOOLS (AUSTRALASIA) LTD Monday 23 May 2016

BRANCH REPORTS:

WESTERN All ten girls’ schools in are members of AGSA. This year we welcomed two new principal’s to our schools at the beginning of 2015; Kim Keipe at St Hildas Anglican Girls School and Kerrie Fraser at Mercedes College. In Term 4 we also welcomed Dr Kate Hadwen as Principal to Presbyterian Ladies College. In welcoming new principals, we also said farewell to Beth Blackwood who has been Principal at PLC for 18 years. Beth has been a generous contributor to AGSA serving on the National committee during her time at the school. She has been an inspirational leader of a girls’ school in Western Australia. We are fortunate that we will maintain our contact with Beth as the new Executive Officer of AHISA another important educational group. We try and hold at least one AGSA event each term during the year. In Term 1 we held a Year 12 leaders afternoon which was opened up to 6 members of each School’s student leadership team. This event was run by Senior Staff and Student Leaders of College. It provided a rich opportunity for the girls to connect and share their ideas and thoughts on student leadership especially following the Student Leadership Conference that many of our schools sent girls too. In Term 2 we held a networking and dinner at Penrhos College for senior staff. There were approximately 100 people in attendance and we had the opportunity to hear from Cynthia Griffin, US Consul General based in Perth. She shared her leadership journey and experiences during her career. We were fortunate to have two Bond University representatives join us at this dinner. In Term 3 a breakfast was held at St Hilda’s aimed at Year 9 and 10 girls. Lilly Barrymore, St Hilda’s Old Scholar (2009) spoke to the girls on the theme Explore. Dream. Discover. Lily shared her insight on what she has done since leaving St Hilda’s including her travels through Central America, studying Spanish in Guatemala and her work in a medical clinic and made the comparison with the challenges faced in rural Australia. In Term 4 we held Christmas drinks at Perth College where we had over 70 educators come together to celebrate the magic they had created throughout the year at their schools. In keeping with the theme, a magician ‘The Magnificent Mario’ entertained and helped bring the joy to this function. I would like to thank my colleagues for being such willing supporters of the AGSA events offered in WA. Jenny Ethell, Principal Perth College and WA Representative

VICTORIA

International Women’s Day Breakfast: The IWD breakfast was held on Monday 7 March in Queen’s Hall Parliament House. This event brought together students from Years 10 - 12 and teachers to celebrate the importance of International Women’s Day. The event was very quickly soldout as it is each year. Georgie Crozier, MLC, hosted the event. The guest speaker was Debra Knight, a former student from MacRobertson Girls’ High School. Debra is the Managing Director of Crivelli Fine Coffee. She gave an excellent presentation focussed on her journey from school to her present position. The feedback from the student leaders who attended was very positive. Term 2 Branch Meeting The Term 2 Branch network meeting was held on Wednesday 22 April and was hosted by St Catherine’s School. The guest speaker was Andrea Cincotta who spoke on why financial literacy matters to girls. The feedback from those who attend was very positive. There was a large number of staff from a number of schools in attendance. Term 3 Branch Meeting The Term 3 Branch network meeting was held on 22 July and was hosted by Girls’ Grammar School. The guest speaker was Judith Locke who spoke about parenting of girls with a focus on helicopter parents. Again, it was a highly successful event with many staff in attendance. The feedback on the presentation was extremely favourable. Science Breakfast The annual Science Breakfast for Science students in Year 11 and 12 was held on 13 August and hosted and organised by Mentone Girls’ Grammar School. The guest speaker was Nicole Brown, CEO of Robogals. The breakfast was highly successful and a sold out event. Term 4 Branch Meeting The Term 4 Branch Network meeting was held on Wednesday 4 November and hosted by Our Lady of Sacred Heart Bentleigh. The guest speaker was Andrea Clarke who spoke about being the CEO of your career. Her presentation was moving at times, humorous and fully engaging. The event was very well supported by many staff from across all member schools. Partners The Alliance partners have been invited to all Branch events and there have been a number in attendance each time. There has been an opportunity for them to talk with staff and to speak briefly to the group. It has been a very successful year for the Alliance in . Members know that there are a set number of events each term and that the speakers and presentations are relevant, interesting and engaging. This has meant that the Branch meetings are very well attended. We are always every grateful to the schools that offer to host an event. Mary Cannon, Canterbury Girls’ Secondary College and Fran Reddan, Mentone Girls’ Grammar School, Victorian Representatives

TASMANIA Change of Tasmanian Representative: Tom Dorey will finish as Principal of St Mary’s College at the end of 2015. I am pleased to advise that I have been appointed to the Alliance Executive and attended my first meeting on 22 October in . The most recent Tasmanian Branch Meeting took place on 6 August at St Michael’s Collegiate School – the following matters were discussed: The Launch of the Girls Gotta Know website: This was a wonderful event organised by Julie Bird, Principal of on Friday 19 June. The event was well attended by Alliance Schools and we were fortune that The Honourable Professor Kate Warner, AM, Governor of was the guest speaker. Parliamentary Morning Tea: This event hosted by Elise Archer, Speaker of the Legislative Assembly took place on 30 July at Parliament House. Thank you to Susan Ryan from Mt Carmel College for organising this event. Next year’s event will be organised by Jacqueline Conboy from St Mary’s College. World Challenge Trip: Despite the late change in location from Nepal to India, this was a rich and rewarding experience for the 9 girls who attended from various Alliance Schools. The combined school approach really does provide a great opportunity for our students to be able to participate in opportunities that may not be provided by individual schools. Annual Dinner: This was held at on 14 October and was well attended by all Alliance Schools. Guest speaker was Elizabeth Jack, former Olympic diver and international diving coach. Liz is the former Chair of the Fahan School Board and current CEO of the Macquarie Point Development Corporation. Liz was awarded the Australian Medal in 2000 and is an inductee of both the Tasmanian Sporting Hall of Fame and the Tasmanian Honour Roll for Women. Christmas Drinks: Our annual Christmas Drinks get together were held on Thursday 19 November following an Executive Meeting which focused on 2016 calendar dates. St Michael’s Collegiate School were the hosts for this networking function which was well attended by principals, senior members of staff and board members from the five Alliance Schools. The event doubled as a farewell for Tom Dorey, Principal of St Mary’s College and Alliance of Girls’ Schools Tasmanian Chair and National Executive Member. Tom has been a strong advocate for the Alliance and he leaves St Mary’s College after ten years of distinguished service. Tom commences a part-time position in January at the Catholic Education Office working to develop policies and procedures. Special guests in attendance included Peter Franks and Vanessa Lee from Bond University. 2016 Calendar of Events: After discussion at our Executive Meeting on 19 November it was decided to consolidate our meetings for the 2016 year so that Executive Meetings will occur immediately prior to scheduled events. Judith Tudball, Principal St Michael’s Collegiate School and Tasmanian Representative

NEW SOUTH WALES

In 2015, the Term 1 dinner was held at on 17 March. Dr Sarah Locke was our guest speaker who shared her research on how girls imagine their future. Her longitudinal study tracked girls from Year 8 through to their early university years to see how initial aspirations might have been modified or stretched as the girls matured. She had some interesting findings about their view of being a woman and the future possibilities of motherhood. For the first time we invited some of our students from the Student Alliance Network to join the staff dinner. The girls spoke about the interesting topics they have been exploring and how inspiring the network has been for them.

With Judith Poole’s NSW Executive Committee term ending at the 2015 AGM, nominations were held for her replacement and Dr Maree Herrett from joined Vivienne Awad from Domremy College in representing NSW. The Term 3 ‘twilight’ event was held at Wenona, with guest speaker Dr Judith Loch who spoke about her research on the nature and impact of ‘overparenting’ on today’s adolescent girls. At this event, the Alliance partner, iVicon, launched the exciting Space School initiative for Alliance schools. There are two programs – a junior one for years 7-9, and a senior one for years 10-12. Subsequent information nights were held at Alliance schools (eg Santa Sabina College) that were hubs for other schools in the nearby area. The Term 4 ‘twilight event’ was held on 3 November at Kambala with Andrea Clarke as guest speaker. The topic, 'Be the CEO of your own Career', focused on motivation, persistence and risk taking in pursuit of career objectives. The timing of the Term 4 event will be revised in 2016 with the aim of making it earlier in the term, and hence avoiding the clash of HSC marking. NSW Student Alliance: Coordinator Gemma McDermott provided the following report on the activities of the Student Alliance. This network continued its great work of bringing students from Alliance schools together for very powerful sessions. At the July meeting the topic was domestic violence and it was hosted at Ascham. The guest speakers were:

• Moo Baulch CEO NSW Domestic Violence, • Sophie Trower Policy Manager NSW Domestic Violence • Deborah Banks CEO Lou’s Place a women’s refuge shelter at Kings Cross. The girls were given the opportunity to listen to the three inspiring women, discuss scenarios and question their own knowledge on the myths and facts of domestic violence. It was a truly engaging and successful evening. The final message given to the girls was about them being the voice and advocates of change, they need to carry on the work of Rosie Batty and all those working in the domestic violence organisations and let others know it is not okay that this occurs, and not okay that the statistics for domestic violence is on the rise. Vivienne Awad, Principal of Domremy College and Maree Herrett Principal of Santa Sabina College, NSW representatives

QUEENSLAND It has been another collegial year amongst Alliance schools in .

Our Term 1 event was the successful International Women’s Day Luncheon held at the Club with Guest Speaker, Elizabeth Harper – 2014 Queensland Telstra Business Women of the Year for the Private/Corporate Sector and winner of the 2013 Women in Technology Outstanding ICT Achievement Award. This event is organised by St Aidan’s Anglican Girls’ School and is held at the Brisbane Club. It is not an event exclusive to Queensland Girls Schools; different schools take tables and share the venue female industry and business leaders in Brisbane. A twilight event was hosted by St Margaret’s Anglican Girls School in Term 2. This was very well attended with over 50 senior leaders from 11 different schools present. The guest speaker was Lisa Butler, from the Talea Group, addressed the group about the importance of networking, not just for ourselves but for our students as well. Another interesting twilight event was hosted by Brisbane Girls Grammar School at the beginning of Term 3. Jeff Buchanan, from AskRight (Formally Global Philanthropic) spoke about Philanthropy in Girls’ Schools. This event was also well attended and the topic was of great interest to our member schools. The final end of year networking Christmas Lunch for Senior Leaders in Schools was held at the Brisbane Club on Monday 14 December, 2015. Our guest speaker was Professor Helen Chenery, Executive Dean from the Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine at Bond University. Her topic was the Future of Health and the Transformational Power of Technology. Our 4 meetings per year routine appears to work well for our schools. This year, the Alliance also ran another 2-day student conference, with YLead as the facilitators, out of St Margaret’s Anglican Girls School in September. Ros Curtis, Principal St Margaret’s Anglican Girls’ School, Queensland Representative

NEW ZEALAND A dinner meeting was held on 18 November in Hamilton with branch members. We discussed interest in leadership training for students in . Several members from schools across the country have now expressed interest in this idea but there is no boarding facility available in Auckland at the proposed time in April. There is interest in a speaker’s tour in New Zealand in 2016. I spoke about and promoted the Alliance at the conference of state girls’ schools on 20 November. There was strong interest expressed by current members on the research information provided by Jan Richardson and all the information on the website and in the magazine. Several principals reinforced the positive value for students and staff attending Alliance leadership training and conferences. They were interested in the global conference in New York and the possibility of single or small numbers of students being able to access entry to high quality programmes like space training through belonging to the Alliance. I recommended the biennial conference and suggested schools consider joining the Alliance and using this forum to present and share their good practice alongside learning from other

girls’ schools. Principals expressed appreciation that the interests and needs of girls was the focus and several were keen to join the Alliance.

Mary Nixon Principal Napier Girls High School, New Zealand Representative

SOUTH AUSTRALIA

International Women's Day Breakfast International Women's Day breakfast was held in March and was attended by a number of member schools and their students. It was considered to be a success and our students found it to be a rewarding experience. hosted an Alliance event on 26 August, 2015: a workshop led by Judith Locke, clinical psychologist and researcher and supervisor at QUT, investigating modern parenting, child and parent wellbeing and the school environment. Her presentation was on Positive Education: The delicate balancing act for school leaders preparing students for the real world in an era of over parenting (School-based strategies to assist senior leadership and classroom teachers). SA Branch spent some time considering areas of focus over the next 12 months and there was consensus that we would like to provide support to our girls and school communities around the following areas: 1. Social Media - navigating the increasingly complicated realm of social engagement, through social media; 2. Safe partying- how to best support our girls in making safe and appropriate choices in this regard - particularly in relation to alcohol and drugs. 3. The pervasive and insidious “hook-up” culture which causes tremendous pressure for girls in particular to make choices that they may not feel comfortable with and that may be unhealthy physically and psychologically – with significant consequences. We explored a range of different ideas in relation to how we might engage with these issues in a relevant, meaningful and appropriate way. We agreed that a first step might be to hear from our own students as to areas of concern/interest/support they might feel they need in this regard. This may take the form of a facilitated session with senior leaders, surveys or even a Q&A style opportunity. The main aim would be that our girls could be given an opportunity to shape the event. Anne Johnstone, Principal Seymour College, SA Representative