“COMMITMENT TO GIRLS’ EDUCATION IS AS IMPORTANT TODAY AS IT WAS IN MARY WARD’S TIME.” FROM OUR PRINCIPAL A NEW YEAR ALWAYS BRINGS SIGNIFICANT CHANGE; NEW JOYS, CHALLENGES AND CONNECTIONS. WHEN WE COMMENCED THE 2020 SCHOOL YEAR, WE COULD NOT HAVE FORESEEN THE SCOPE OF THE CHANGE THAT WE WOULD FACE.
As I hope you will discover in the 2020 edition of Loreto Life, this time of historic disruption has seen Loreto Normanhurst forge new traditions and pay close attention to how we express a sense of ‘community’. We temporarily embraced remote learning and adapted to new technologies that connected us in conversation from afar. We re-conceived our Music Festival as a virtual celebration, which we shared with families and alumni around Australia and the world. We watched Year 9 work alongside First Nations leaders and action groups from the local area during their new Songlines Experience. We gathered as a school on the oval to add a socially distanced Guard of Honour to our Year 12 farewells. The year has also seen us draw from the ever-relevant values of our Loreto tradition. 2020 was the Year of Verity for Loreto schools around Australia, and it was to the truth of God’s grace and of Mary Ward’s legacy that we committed ourselves amid uncertainty. Four hundred years ago, our foundress faced with courage the uncertainty and unrest prevalent in her own society. The sculpture of Mary Ward that stands in all Australian Loreto schools depicts, in stance and stare, a forwardfacing and outward-looking approach to change.
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Of her unwavering faith in a loving God, Mary Ward said “Put me where you want me to be. I am in your hand. Turn me this way or that, as you desire. I am yours, Lord, ready for anything.” Our students have demonstrated this same humble yet confident resilience. They too are ready for anything. They too are receptive to their social and political contexts, flexible in their problem-solving, unafraid to be voices of dissent when dissent is required and constant in their sense of humour and hope. They have lived out the leadership philosophy and motto chosen by the Class of 2020, becoming ‘Girls by Girls’; young women who stand in support of others. In many arenas – as you will see throughout these pages – they have led the community in its response to crisis. There is no doubt that 2020 is a year that we will remember for a long time. May it be remembered for the grit and determination we showed, the kindnesses we witnessed, the optimism we maintained and the occasions we celebrated together, even if from afar.
MS MARINA UGONOTTI PRINCIPAL
