From the Principal - OGA eNews Issue 2, 2025

School is a building with four walls and tomorrow inside – Lon Watters.

I reflected on this simple but accurate quote as I sat and listened to the winners of the 2025 Past Student Awards – Prue Galley (’61), Ria Bhagat (’12), and Annabelle Brayley (’72) – at the end of last term. These Old Girls were once the ‘tomorrow’ in the buildings and grounds of St Margaret’s who became wonderful contributors to their fields in their futures.

The Past Student Awards Dinner, where we celebrated the achievements of these three remarkable Old Girls, was a wonderful night and we would encourage you nominate past students for next year’s awards. Information about the very straightforward nomination process for the Past Student Awards may be found on the Old Girls’ website.

Each recipient of the award could clearly articulate a relationship between some of their personal and professional life choices and their St Margaret’s experience. These lessons were less about content, and more about the example set by the Sisters, the motivating belief of a key teacher during their time at school, and/or the values that were instilled by demonstration and practice. The educator in me appreciates that teachers can have a life-changing impact on a student, and we may never know who, why and how.

Term 2 is always the busiest term in the school year. This term we will formally open and bless the Canopy Café for both our primary and secondary students. The opening of Community House as our Student Wellbeing Centre and the opening of the Café reflects our theme for the year: Community and Connection.

Each of these spaces will support relationship building and further help create a sense of belonging in the school. They are both places where students gather, make connections, and build community.

In reference to the quote at the beginning of this article, the ‘four walls’ or the facilities and buildings are important for inspiring the passions and the growth of our current students.

Planning is underway for the next great capital project in the school, which has been identified in our school Master Plan. It will be a Performing Arts Precinct that will accommodate music and drama; it will also articulate with the visual arts. St Margaret’s has always been known for its commitment to the arts and its understanding of the importance of arts education. As we know, an arts-rich education from an early age provides the opportunity for students to develop individual creativity and self-expression. A steadily increasing body of research evidence points to the direct and indirect benefits that arise from young people’s involvement in arts-rich education programs.

Most of you will have experienced an arts education at St Margaret’s, not even understanding at the time its significant influence on achievements in reading, language and mathematics development, increased higher order thinking skills and capacities, increased motivation to learn, and improvements in effective social behaviours and cultural awareness.

Hopefully, your involvement in the arts enriched your lives, adding to the joy and beauty of the school learning experience. I am excited that we are about to embark on the construction of these highly functional ‘four walls.’ Donations to our Building Fund on Giving Day will be used for this next significant addition to our school campus.

I am looking forward to seeing a large number of our past students at the Reunion Weekend in Term 3. From a school’s perspective, reunions are particularly important as they not only build and maintain connections and are an opportunity to track down lost alumni, but they are an opportunity gather stories, build our history and, on occasion, receive donated memorabilia.

Per Volar Sunata

Ros Curtis AM
Principal