In the January school holidays, Hannah and I travelled to Sydney for the Alliance of Girls’ Schools Australasia’s Student Leadership Conference. It was exciting to attend the largest all-girls leadership event like this in Australia, at The Women’s College, University of Sydney from 14 – 17 January.

We joined 177 students from 81 girls’ schools worldwide, from across Australia, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, the Philippines and the United States.

Over the course of the week we had some amazing guest speakers that inspired us and everyone there to think about leadership in new and different ways. One that stood out for us was Ben Pettingill. Ben has been 95% blind since he was 16 and has accomplished many wonderful goals such as walking the Kokoda Trail, competing in a Spartan obstacle race and skiing in the fastest water race in the world. His aim is to educate aspiring future leaders with his idea of ‘Limitless Vision’, which teaches people to aspire, educate and act on their goals.

The conference taught us so many things that we can put into action at school, such as time management skills and changing our mindset about leadership. The conference helped us learn who we are as leaders.

At the conference, we were also placed in squads and our mentor Rachel, helped us with figuring out who we are and showed us that it’s okay to not be sure of everything in life after school. Our squad was made up of a nice group of girls from all around Australia. We really bonded and had many laughs and tears through the week as we connected on various experiences and shared our thoughts.

We will be forever grateful for the opportunity to be a part of this event and will always remember the inspiring activities and speakers and what we learnt about ourselves as leaders.

Matilda Noonan and Hannah O’Connell
Year 12

Click on the links below to learn more.

Alliance of Girls’ Schools Australasia

Ben Pettingill

We warmly invite all current and prospective parents and students to our Open Day on Thursday 2 April 2020.

Take a tour and see what we get up to on a regular day at the College. There will be opportunities to visit our classrooms, speak with students, staff and College parents, and find out what makes us a leader in Catholic education.

For more information, including tour times, please refer to the flyer below.

The College wishes to congratulate the following staff members for their outstanding contribution to Catholic education in Tasmania. 

• Jenny Noble, Extension Program Teacher (Junior School) – Outstanding Service as an Employee within Catholic Education
• Deearne Spaulding, Learning Support Coordinator (Senior School) and Year 11–12 English Applied Teacher – Outstanding Service as an Employee within Catholic Education

Jenny and Deearne will both be formally acknowledged and presented with their awards at a special function to be held in Hobart during Catholic Education Week (22–28 March 2020). 

The Catholic Education Commission Tasmania Recognition Awards were established to recognise and honour those who have contributed in a special way to the growth, development and achievements of Catholic Education Tasmania.

We are delighted to share our St Mary’s College Prefects for 2020. 

The group will be led by Head Prefect, Amy Prokopiec and Deputy Head Prefects, Lucy Eade and Hannah O’Connell.

Congratulations to our Prefects for 2020:

Amy Prokopiec – Head Prefect)
Hannah O’Connell (Deputy) – Senior School
Lucy Eade (Deputy) – Communications
Ruby Banks – Nagle House
Gabriella Colavecchio – Culture
Ruby Dean – Wellbeing
Anya Grimmett – Sustainability
Maddison Lamb – Identity and Mission
Florence Mann – College House
Hannah Manning – Manresa House
Brianna McVilly – Junior School
Matilda Noonan – Arts
Kate Oliver – Health and Sport
Claire Riley – Presentation House
Laura Scott – Wellbeing
Selamwit Woldeabzghi – Academic

We wish these 16 young ladies the very best in their new roles and know they will lead and guide their fellow students with respect, resilience, spirit and pride. 

We also congratulate our Junior School leaders for 2020: 

Head Girl – Lucy Hofler
Deputy – Isobel Geard, Sarah Thomas
College Captain – Ruby Berry
College Deputy – Ava Baker
Manresa Captain – Phoebe Green
Manresa Deputy – Abbie Graves
Nagle Captain – Ellie Smith
Nagle Deputy – Mia Smith
Presentation Captain – Piper Spotswood
Presentation Deputy – Ruby Wighton
Councillors – Mackenzie Graves, Layla Lukianenko, Holly Richardson, Lyanne Olesco

As we start the new school year, we wish to inform parents/carers there have been some unexpected delays to the 2020 Back to School Order deliveries.

We have been informed by our supplier some families will experience delays with receiving their orders.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause to your back to school preparations.

Please know we are doing everything possible to remedy this and to ensure families receive their correct orders as soon as possible.

There will be no pressure placed on students who do not have all of their supplies for the start of Term 1. Teachers will be aware of this and will make adjustments and allowances to manage this until those orders arrive.

These students can bring general stationery, including pens and books, plus their computer to get them started for the school year.

We are in close contact with the supplier and are receiving regular updates, to make sure this is resolved.

If you do have concerns or wish to speak to a member of our staff, please email stmarys@smc.tas.edu.au.