COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

Parents and Friends

The St Hilda’s P&F Association continues to facilitate engagement between parents, the school and students, to enhance and develop a special experience for our school community. All parents are encouraged to get involved and contribute to the life of our wonderful school. The P&F Association is a volunteer and service-based association, totally dependent on the generosity, dedication and talents of our committee and membership group. There are regular meetings and activities are reported in the St Hilda’s newsletter and via the School App. Throughout the year the St Hilda’s P&F Association and the Year Group Representatives arrange many events providing opportunities to come together in Year groups and as a whole school community. In 2020 the P&F hosted the Welcome to School Sundowner, which was well attended by new and returning families. They provided food, drinks, parent name badges and entertainment, and made families feel welcome on our campus. During Arts Festival they provided the refreshments to students with the help of parent volunteers. Parents usually attend Arts Festival to watch the costume parade, solo performances and House dances, and always lend a helping hand to the P&F, while on campus. Due to COVID-19 in 2020, a number of events had to be cancelled or postponed. The Dusty Boots and City Suits evening, which is held at Steve’s Hotel, and the combined CCGS and St Hilda’s Soiree, which is held at Freshwater Bay Yacht Club, had to be cancelled. Both events are usually well attended and filled with good food, music, dance and laughter. However, they still managed to host two very successful events. The Cheese and Wine Mixer, which facilitated communication and sharing of ideologies between P&F members and committee members. The Christmas Sundowner demonstrated the true spirit of St Hilda’s by bringing together parents, students, teachers and the community. Our very talented musical students’ performance of the Christmas carols was harmonious and joyful. The P&F worked collaboratively with the Music department, Alliance Catering, Facilities Team and the School’s Event and Liaison Coordinators. Each year the P&F generously contributes to funding requests from the School, parents and students. The P&F was able to fund these requests from membership fees and fundraising. Fundraising is usually attained through selling Entertainment Books and the Mango Madness Drive. However, due to COVID-19, we were not able to raise any funds in 2020. At the Special General Meeting in December a new committee was voted in for 2021. The members are:

President

Nivrithi Naidoo

Senior School Vice President

Anthea Cooke

Junior School Vice President Sivabalan Vasudavan

Secretary

Eileen Sullivan Roost

Treasurer En Khong General Committee - Jane Aberdeen, David Fleming, Shahron Prosser, Melanie Roberts, Julia Shadlow-Bath.

Community Survey Results

In Term 3, St Hilda’s undertook an online survey of current parents of day students and current parents of boarding students to identify the needs and priorities of the St Hilda’s community and gauge these findings against previous benchmarks. Data was collected between the 27th of July and the 23rd of August 2020. Overall satisfaction with the School remains very high with advocacy increasing, particularly with parents of day students. St Hilda’s commitment to teaching and learning remains the highest rated key performance indicator with improving the quality of teaching and parent-teacher dialogue being areas of critical importance.

Alumni

2020 was a very challenging year for the Old Scholars Association due to the coronavirus pandemic and we all had to adjust to different ways of living, working and connecting. The pandemic posed many challenges for our School and the community affecting us all, but none so much as those more elderly and vulnerable. The committee was concerned that many members of the Association may need some assistance during the challenging times and that many were being asked to stay house-bound and isolated from all the activities they knew and love. During the pandemic, the Old Scholars Association introduced a new initiative, the OSA Outreach Program, to support the more elderly members of the Association. The aim was to keep these people connected through regular phone calls to ensure they had an interaction with someone who cared. More than 130 younger Old Scholar members volunteered to help with the program which was an amazing response. Through this program many eldery members were called to check with them to see if they needed any help or any errands done for them. The communication also gave them an opportunity to swap stories about the school, family connections and childhood memories. With most of the OSA events cancelled due to the pandemic, including the Mothers’ Day Bazaar, Bridge and Mah-jong Day and many reunions, the OSA was fortunate to hold some of their popular events later in the year.

Year 7 Pin Presentation

On the last day in July and the first OSA event for the year, the Year 7 Pin Presentation was held during assembly in the Performing Arts Centre. More than 30 students, who are daughters and/or granddaughters of Old Scholars, were presented with an Ammonite pin to wear on their blazer. These pins were introduced to recognise students who have connections with old scholars and to acknowledge the traditions and values of the Association. In normal circumstances this presentation would have taken place at the beginning of the school year but due to the pandemic this presentation was delayed to the middle of the year. It was wonderful to welcome the students’ families and Old Scholar relations back to the school for this special occasion.

Pleiades Meeting

In 1932, the Pleiades club was formed representing the seven sister schools and the old girls associations of MLC, PLC, Perth College, St Mary’s, St Hilda’s, Kobeelya and Loretto. At its inception the club hosted balls and concerts, entertained army troops during the war and facilitated the training of debutantes. Now in 2020, Pleiades still has a purpose in that it provides a supportive network amongst the alumni of schools being represented at the meeting. In August, St Mary’s hosted the meeting and most of the discussion was on how the different associations had coped with the pandemic and staying in contact with its members.

OSA Career Networking Series Event

The professional Career Networking Series event aims to connect those who have recently left school with experienced mentors in specific career areas. In 2020 the OSA Career Networking Series, Women in Diplomacy and Foreign Affairs event, was held in August in the beautiful Atlas Building, which coincidentally was designed by WA’s first woman architect, Margaret Pitt Morison, an old scholar of GHS. The evening was a great success with the panel of Kate Longhurst (’98), Maryam Bell (’95), Kirsty Packer (’06) and Katherine Parkinson (’98) sharing their experiences across foreign affairs and diplomacy.

OSA 70+ Morning Tea

The OSA 70+ morning tea was a welcome event on the OSA calendar in 2020. More than 150 old scholars over the age of 70 attended this annual event and thoroughly enjoyed catching up with each other and reminiscing about the old school days, especially the class of 1967 who attended for the first time. A very special guest, Mr Ron Jones, husband of former Principal, June Jones, also attended his first 70+ morning tea accompanied by his daughter, Alex Vines … the first PLC old scholar to attend a 70+ morning tea!!! Principal, Fiona Johnston, welcomed everyone to the morning tea and Kellie Hasluck the Director of School Development and Philanthropy, announced the launching of the campaign for the Heritage Centre in Hope Nicholas House.

OSA Art Exhibition

During the first weekend of November the OSA showcased more than 20 artists at the St Hilda’s OSA Art Exhibition held in the stunning space of the Forrest Foyer in the Performing Arts Centre. Renowned local artists exhibited more than 200 pieces of art with the inclusion of magnificent life-size sculptures by WA sculptor, Simon Youngleson. During Opening Night and over the weekend, Old Scholars and the wider community came together to enjoy the magnificent display of artwork. Proceeds raised from this event go towards funding the OSA Scholarship Program.

Reunions

Milestone reunions are held every year, many of which incorporate a tour of the School, giving Old Scholars the opportunity to view the current facilities and note the differences since their days at school. Unfortunately many reunions were cancelled this year due to the pandemic, however we were very fortunate to host 50 year and 60 year reunions at the school with refreshments in the Gallery.