A very warm welcome to Term 3. The term has begun at a typical fast pace, and we have already been witness to a variety of student learning experiences and activities. At Brigidine, we have never measured a girl’s education by her academic outcomes alone. What matters is the education of the whole young woman, to enable her full human flourishing. This idea is embodied in our motto, Strength and Gentleness which we see lived so authentically every day at the College.
Our students are involved in a breadth of activities beyond the classroom. If you walk through the College on any given week you will witness our living tradition: a Year 12 student rehearsing lines for a Drama night one afternoon and studying for her HSC Trial examinations the next day in the library; a Year 9 student who played sport for the College on a Saturday morning and then turns up for a music rehearsal on Monday morning. This is what it means to be a ‘Brigo girl’.
We sometimes describe this as ‘the Brigidine Balance’ – the deliberate way a Brigidine education brings together academic rigour, faith-shaped character, broad opportunity and genuine personal attention. None of these four sit in competition with one another. Each makes the others stronger. A girl who has learned to push through a demanding training block for Sports Aerobics understands something about discipline that serves her in an examination period. A girl who has played before an audience at our Festival of Music understands something about courage that serves her in a job interview, a university tutorial, or a difficult conversation with a friend.
Already this term has given us plenty of evidence of that balance in action. Our Year 12 students are preparing well for their HSC Trial examinations, a demanding fortnight that requires genuine academic rigour, resilience and self-management. Our Year 10 students have been working through Stage 6 subject selections, spending time with our academic leaders to map out a senior learning pathway that fits each girl’s particular strengths and ambitions. That is personal attention in its most practical form: individual conversations about each girl’s future pathway.
Beyond the classroom, our girls have continued to test themselves in every direction. During the holidays, our Gold Duke of Edinburgh students took on the physical and mental challenge of expedition, learning to navigate, problem-solve and depend on one another when the conditions were challenging. Our Red Dirt Immersion, which also occurred during the holidays, has allowed these students to return with a new and deepened perspective that only time spent in community, away from the familiar, can give. Last week our musicians filled Bowie Hall for the Festival of Music, and our HSC Dance, Drama and Music nights have also allowed our students to demonstrate their talent and discipline through creativity and performance. Later this term, our Sports Aerobics team will represent the College at the National Championships, a reminder that excellence at Brigidine takes many forms.
It matters, too, that this commitment to growth does not stop with our students. Our staff recently came together for our Staff Learning and Wellbeing Conference, a timely reminder that we ask our girls to be lifelong learners because we try to be exactly that ourselves. The adults who teach and care for your daughters are still curious, still building their own skills, and still modelling what it looks like to keep growing well past the classroom years.
A Brigidine education is intentionally holistic because we understand that a girl who is stretched academically, formed in faith and character, given real opportunity, and known personally by the adults around her is a girl who is being prepared for a life of purpose, compassion and leadership.
That is the education we are committed to giving your daughters. It is the Brigidine Balance, and it is what Fortiter et Suaviter has always meant in practice – strength and gentleness, held together, in partnership.
Mrs Kate Quinane
Principal
