Transcript of the Principal’s Message – 21 May 2021

Good afternoon to all members of the community, it's wonderful to be with you again today and for this newsletter to be reaching you. The cooler mornings, but these gloriously sunny days. And hopefully the sunshine is reaching you and your families as well.

I'm here today, just outside our beautiful , to mark the fact that we're finishing up National Boarding Week. And in fact, today, Friday, the focus across is to acknowledge and to recognise all staff who work in boarding schools across Australia.

And so I'd like to start by thanking the remarkable people who work at Loreto Normanhurst, in the boarding capacity, and all of our partners who partner with us to enable our offering of boarding here at the school. So thank you to the staff who care for our boarders daily, nightly, and across every day of the week. It's been a wonderful way of celebrating who we are as a school community, by having that focus on National Boarding Week this week. We had Behind the Boarders at assembly, and hearing a little bit more about our boarders and where they come from. We've had skipping, we've had fun runs. We've had lots of things going on.

And I, myself, have just returned from the first of the Principal's Country Road Trips, having spent four days in Central West and north western , visiting our families, catching up with ex-students and past parents, and talking to a couple of families who are looking to have their girls come to Loreto Normanhurst in the next few years. It's really been a life-giving experience for me, actually, these past four days, particularly having returned to some areas and towns and communities that I'd visited just two years ago that were really quite devastated by the drought, and seeing how life has changed since then, how things are beginning to improve, and hearing a lot about the challenges of the plague of mice that's ravaging areas of our state as well. So I learned a lot, that's for sure.

Once again, I was so humbled by the warm hospitality of our country families and regional communities, and thoroughly enjoyed my time. So sincere thanks to all those who made that happen. And of course we have our second Principal's Country Road Trip coming up in a couple of weeks, where we'll be heading down to Young, to Griffith, and to Wagga. And hope and look forward to catching up with many of you there. Our mums are heading to the country this weekend for the City Country Mother's Weekend in Wagga. So it seems that everybody's really taking on National Boarding Week initiative. And it's wonderful that our mums can be together as one in the country, as a gathering, forming friendships, and also enjoying country life and life of regional New South Wales in Wagga. So all the best for that trip.

Here, as I stand outside our original building, our 1897 building, and know that Newby up the top there where Year 7 and 8 dorms are. It's also really exciting that we've been able to formally lodge our response to submission, just yesterday, with the State Department of Planning and Environment, and really hoping and looking forward to getting some feedback from that state department in relation to our 30 year concept plan, with the hope that it will be

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approved by the end of this year. And the first project of that concept plan, of course, being our new boarding school, a fit-for-purpose facility for our girls, not only now, but in many, many years to come. So we can continue to thrive as a community of boarding, and also can enable wonderful opportunities for all students, day and boarders alike, through the new facility and through the possibility of repurposing the buildings that currently do house our boarders. So you can read a little bit more about that through our Annual Giving Campaign, where you've been invited to consider a donation and making a gift to our building fund that would go towards the new boarding school and the re-purposing of those buildings for our secondary school.

Year 5 girls, they will know what cold is because this afternoon they'll be returning from their camp in Bathurst. And I hope that's been a wonderful experience. No doubt there'll be many stories at home from our Year 5 girls, not only about the cold, but wonderful rich learning as well. So, that's great. Just as I know, having spoken with a few Year 10 girls, that their experience in Canberra last week was really fruitful, very exciting to be there during, I guess, “Budget Week,” if you like. And really seeing the mechanics of national parliament, as well as with their Integrated Learning program getting deeper into history and cultural and science opportunities in Canberra as well. So well done to you, Year 10. And while we're on Year 10, I'd like to take the opportunity to congratulate Josie Sims of Year 10. Josie has been selected to take part in the Y New South Wales Youth Parliament program, which is a wonderful program. And I've always encouraged the girls to put themselves forward for this. And I'm thrilled, Josie, that you've been accepted into the program because I know you'll have much to contribute and to debate. And Josie will be writing and debating a bill, she's been included in the Aboriginal Affairs Committee, and is really committed to understanding a little bit more of how that legislative process will work and the contribution that she could make through the national Youth Parliament program in that particular area. And I believe the bill that she's working on will focus on a curriculum redesign in New South Wales and what needs to happen there, through that Aboriginal perspective. So well done, Josie, and we look forward to reading and hearing a lot more about how that goes for you. We've been celebrating, and learning from, and reveling in the stories of some ex-students in the past two weeks. It was wonderful to have Kirsty Robertson of the class of 1995 as our guest speaker for the Normanhurst Loreto/Kirribilli Morning Tea last week. Kirsty's currently the CEO of Caritas Australia, and gave a wonderful reflection on her life, her career, and in life more broadly, and on the impact of her Loreto Normanhurst education.

And earlier this week, we had Ellen Roberts of the class of 2009 and Tahli Moore of the class of 2012 come back to the community, speaking with Year 12, and then all students, about their Olympic journey. We've got three ex-students who have been selected to head off to and represent Australia at the Olympics. And Ellen and Tahli really spoke quite honestly and very refreshingly about their experiences, their setbacks, the way in which they push through it, and their hopes and dreams for what lies ahead. And giving so much motivation and inspiration to our girls and to our staff as well.

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So thanks to Ellen and Tahli and Kirsty for coming back, reconnecting, and sharing that story with all of us.

Next week we will have Loreto Day. And we're really looking forward to it. And Year 11 has been working so hard to raise awareness and educate the community around the cause, this year, of ending FGM, female genital mutilation and with the Mary Ward International cause of . And ‘Call to Kenya’ is the theme for Loreto Day this week. So we're looking forward to that celebration of who we are as community. We'll commence with celebration of the Eucharist on Friday. We'll have a guest speaker just before the celebration who will really unpack this really important justice issue. And then we will use the rest of the day to celebrate, to raise funds, and to really commit to that cause.

So I'd like to take the opportunity, while we're on Mary Ward International Australia, to bring to your attention ... you can read it in the newsletter ... an invitation to take part in a conversation with Loreto Sisters on the ground, in Kolkata, in , and on the ground in South Sudan. So Sister Orla Treacy, who's in South Sudan, and Sister Monica Suchiang, who is in Kolkata in India, will be talking and in conversation with us. So you can just register, it's free to register and to listen. And Mary Ward International is putting on this one hour webinar around A Roadmap to a Just World. And they will share those stories from the coalface. And I truly do encourage you to log in, to hear more, and to consider how you might be able to support the cause that Mary Ward International is now responding to, to support the good work of their sisters in South Sudan and India who've been faced particularly difficult circumstances as we are well aware. Whether it be because of the pandemic, civil unrest in Sudan, and general inequity and injustice that exists, particularly for women, in those communities. So I encourage you to take part. And also, this week, we've been marking that it's Laudato Si’ Week. And as an ecology- centered school, we're very much committed to really grappling with our place in making our common home a more just and a more loving common home, and that we see our place in humanity with creation and with one another. So that's been the focus this week.

And I'm thrilled that Clare Stevenson of Year 11 will take part in a conversation via Zoom with Pope Francis. So Clare has been invited to do so and to be part of a discussion with the Australian Catholic University, led by their executive dean of theology and philosophy, about the work that Pope Francis set up through an organization called Scholas; which is an educational initiative that he established, and it's very dear to him. And ACU have been holding discussions about entering into an agreement with Scholas. And so, Pope Francis is going to dial in to a Zoom conversation with ACU to formally announce this and to celebrate that partnership. And he's particularly eager to hear from Australian young people and from Australian students in Catholic schools. And so to support the conversation taking part between the Holy Father and ACU, Clare is going to take part in that dialogue. And he's really keen to hear her talk about her hopes for a world, for her ambitions for our world; particularly in relation to Laudato si', and particularly in relation to First Nations people across the world. So Clare, go and fly that Loreto flag. And no

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doubt it'll be a life changing moment for you. And we know that it would be a very special opportunity for you to give your insight, as a proud Loreto woman, a proud Aboriginal woman, into your hopes and dreams and those of all young Australian people for our world.

And so in light of that, in light of that conversation and the work we've been doing for Laudato Si' Week, I invite you to enter into a prayerful space, knowing that our loving God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Creator of heaven and earth and all that is in them, you created us in your own image and made us stewards of all your creation. You blessed us with the sun, water and bountiful land so that all might be nourished. Open our minds and our hearts, so that we may attend to your gift of creation. Help us to be conscious that our common home belongs not only to us, but to all of your creatures and to all future generations, and that it is our responsibility to preserve it. May we help each person secure the food and the resources that they need. Be present to those in needs in these trying times, especially those suffering from and those who have lost loved ones due to the Coronavirus. We pray for all our brothers and sisters who are struck and who were struck by war in war-torn and conflict ravaged countries. Spirit of love, pour out your peace which brings hope in places of despair. And we pray these prayers, and all those which rest in our hearts. In Jesus's name, Amen. In the name of the Father and the Son the Holy spirit, amen.

Go well, enjoy your weekend. Take care everybody. And I look forward to being with you once again, very soon. Thank you.

Ms Marina Ugonotti

PRINCIPAL

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