LORETO CHRONICLE VOLUME 34 / NOVEMBER 2017 FAREWELL TO COLLEGE TIMOR LESTE IMMERSION 2017 GIVING APPEAL PRINCIPAL Year 11 & 12 students participate in a Extending our sincere gratitude for your generosity in 2017. Mrs Cheryl Hamilton retires after seven truth seeking expedition to Timor Leste. years as Principal at Loreto Coorparoo. LIVE & WIRED MUSIC CELEBRATIONS In this edition, we celebrate the LEADERSHIP HANDOVER FESTIVAL successes of past and present The outgoing Year 12 students welcome Another successful Live & Wired Music students and the strong bonds Freedom the 2018 leaders. Festival at Loreto College. which connect our community. LORETO CHRONICLE FROM THE PRINCIPAL MRS CHERYL HAMILTON GLORY BE TO GOD WHOSE POWER WORKING IN US CAN DO INFINITELY MORE THAN WE CAN ASK OR IMAGINE. EPHESIANS 3: 14-20 In writing my final Chronicle article as Principal, my blessed to have had them as my teachers, mentors and heart is filled with gratitude. How fortunate am I to have friends. I owe them so much. experienced something so special that saying goodbye is When you belong to a school you belong to a community; so hard. However, I know this is not really goodbye, for I this is what I shall miss the most. I wish to thank each will always be a part of Loreto which has been my spiritual and every one of you who has given to this community. home for over 40 years. Whether as a student; teacher; staff member; leader; parent; past pupil; committee member; volunteer or friend It has been my privilege and my pleasure to have worked of Loreto, when you give of your time, your gifts, your in girls’ education for the past 35 years and to spend energy, your love and yourselves, you build community 24 of these years working in three Loreto schools and and that giving is multiplied one hundred fold. Your gifts serving as a Principal in two of them. There is certainly no empower and enrich. Thank you. exaggeration when I say that the spiritual and educational influence of Mary Ward in my life has been profound. My decision to retire as a Principal has been made for a Looking back to my commencement at Loreto, as a Year 9 multitude of reasons but primarily because the time simply felt right. Learning of Kim Wickham’s appointment has student in 1975, I could never have imagined the journey only confirmed for me that the time is right. I believe that that was to unfold. Kim is an excellent appointment and that this school I have been blessed with good health, good friends, will flourish under her leadership. I wish her and the wonderful colleagues, a loving husband and family and community every blessing. many angels, whom I’ve sadly lost along the way, watching Next year will be for me a year to stop and simply be. I shall over me. enjoy the stillness and the quiet. It will be a year where my I wish especially to acknowledge and thank the Loreto plan is to have no plans. Sisters for their belief and trust in me, their gentle I will simply wait, in faith and hope, for wherever the Spirit encouragement, their grace and their wisdom. I have been might carry me next. | 1 | NOVEMBER / 2017 MRS HAMILTON’S JOURNEY 1975 – 1978 1995 – 2000 Student · Loreto Coorparoo Deputy Principal · St Saviour’s College (Toowoomba) 1983 – 1985 Teacher · Moreton Bay College 2001 – 2010 Principal · Loreto Marryatville (Adelaide) 1986 – 1987 Teacher · Loreto Coorparoo 2011 – 2017 Principal · Loreto Coorparoo 1988 – 1994 Teacher · Loreto Kirribilli (Sydney) Mrs Hamilton, the journey from apprehensive, new Year 9 student to retiring Principal of Loreto Coorparoo has been an amazing one – perhaps there is a Year 9 student at Coorparoo today who will follow a similar path and one day become Principal of this school! The thread that has flowed through this journey is your faith and your commitment to the values of Mary Ward which you hold so strongly in your heart; your belief in the importance of educating young women and the hope you have that each one will make a difference for good in the world; your love of teaching, of knowledge and of caring for the many hundreds of Loreto girls you have guided throughout your career. | 2 | LORETO CHRONICLE STUDENT FAREWELL The Student Farewell for Mrs Hamilton was led by College Captains Olivia Rogers and Bridgette Ryan. Girls from each year level acknowledged the stages of Mrs Hamilton’s career, particularly her amazing connections with Loreto in Australia. College Captains Bridgette Ryan (far left) and Olivia Rogers (far right) with retiring Principal Mrs Cheryl Hamilton. 1 MRS HAMILTON 2 M is for memorable R is for respectful S is for selfless H is for honest A is for ambitious M is for Mary Ward’s values I is for inspirational L is for loyal T is for true O is for ‘our favourite’ 3 4 Nothing can compare to the difference you have made in 1 & 2 Bridgette and Olivia helped Mrs Hamilton cut her ‘Retirement Cake’ our lives! 3 Year 11 students presented Mrs Hamilton with a photo collage, a tribute book and an acrostic poem. 4 Year 7 students presented Mrs Hamilton with beautiful flowers | 3 | NOVEMBER / 2017 LEADERSHIP HANDOVER The traditional ceremony to mark the change of leadership from the out-going Year 12 to the newly elected Year 11 student leaders was this year combined with a symbolic handing over of leadership from past and present Loreto Principals to Mrs Kim Wickham. 1 2 3 4 5 1 (L-R): Sr Anne Kelly ibvm (Coorparoo Principal 1985-1990), Ms Carmel Dunne (Coorparoo Principal 1991-2010), Mrs Cheryl Hamilton (Coorparoo Principal 2011-2017), Mrs Kim Wickham (commencing as Coorparoo Principal 2018) & Mrs Diane Bukowski (Chair of the Board of Loreto Coorparoo) 2 Helen Carty (Deputy Principal – Pastoral Care) introduces Mrs Wickham, Sr Anne and Ms Dunne to the assembled students 3 Sr Anne and Ms Dunne presented Mrs Wickham with flowers and a Loreto ring to welcome her to the Loreto community 4 (L-R): Mrs Kim Wickham and newly elected College Captains for 2018 Victoria Lopez Vaquero & Mia Wong, are congratulated by Mrs Hamilton 5 Newly elected 2018 student leaders | 4 | LORETO CHRONICLE TIMOR LESTE IMMERSION MRS ANDREIA WIGAN Whilst we often hear of fixing problems and helping MARY WARD TOLD US TO others as the aims of immersion programmes, the Loreto Timor- Leste Immersion was, in fact, not at all about that. BE “SEEKERS OF TRUTH AND The focus of the 11 girls and two staff members who DOERS OF JUSTICE” AND participated was to give of ourselves and to be seekers of truth, rather than to do charity work, to judge or to solve THIS TRIP GAVE US THE problems. Whilst the girls planned activities, particularly OPPORTUNITY TO CARRY basic English lessons, the real aim was to connect with the people we met. And we did this with ukuleles, singing, OUT HER WORDS. games and a tiny bit of very basic Tetum. There were so many highlights of the trip that it is JESSICA LIDDY impossible to detail all that we did. Initially, we were based in Baucau, the second biggest city in Timor, 120kms and 4 ½ hours’ drive from Dili. From here we visited the Loreto Preschool in Gari-uai that we have supported via our Mission Day fundraising for some years. We were privileged to see the preschool almost completed and already in action, and to visit the neighbouring government primary school. We also spent time in a women’s domestic violence shelter and particularly enjoyed our interactions with the young people at an afterschool Youth Centre. The second part of our trip was for many of us the most significant. Our time in the village of Remexio in the hills FRONT ROW (L-R) Edwina Egan, Charlotte Coorey, Claire Nicholson, Bridgette Ryan. BACK ROW (L-R) Sally Nielson, Mrs Nat Dawes, Charlotte Jensen, Emily Quinn, to the south of Dili was the most confronting in terms of Katherine O’Dougherty, Manager of the Bacau Women’s Centre, Olivia Wintour, accommodation, amenities and food and drink. Here, Mikaela Hartogh, Jessica Liddy, Mrs Andreia Wigan. we were immersed in the reality of life for Timorese rural communities. The experience of bucket showers, no flushing toilets, electricity that was at best intermittent and the basic diet of white boiled rice, two-minute noodles and boiled greens was challenging and powerful. The immersion’s success can be measured in the girls’ reactions to the sobering reality of what they saw. For these girls, this experience demonstrated the hope that exists in the young people of Timor but also revealed the reality of the lack of opportunities for much of the population. WHILE THE EXPOSURE TO THE POVERTY OF THE COUNTRY WAS INITIALLY A SHOCK, IT SIGNIFICANTLY ALTERED OUR VIEWPOINTS AND MADE US APPRECIATE OUR OWN SITUATIONS. SALLY NIELSON | 5 | NOVEMBER / 2017 MAKER CLUB MR RUSS MORGAN This year saw the launch of Loreto’s first Maker Club. IT IS ESTIMATED THAT 75% OF THE FASTEST Maker Club runs after school once a week and has initially GROWING OCCUPATIONS WILL REQUIRE been offered to students in our junior years. Maker STEM RELATED SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE, Club offers our students the opportunity to design and INCLUDING CRITICAL THINKING, PROBLEM manufacture a wide range of artefacts. Some of the things SOLVING AND ANALYTICAL CAPABILITIES. IF we have explored this semester include 3D Printing, GIRLS ARE NOT ENCOURAGED TO BELIEVE electronics, manual and computer based Designing THEY CAN BE THE PHYSICISTS, ENGINEERS and 3D Scanning.