‘Snaps’ for St Margaret’s

Each year, St Margaret’s enters its innovative programs and outstanding staff members into various awards open to the education sector.

The school is committed to leading education practice, and these awards, entered my many respected schools across the country, provide a degree of external validation, as well as recognising the achievements of individual staff members that can assist in building their careers. Many in our community will have read of these successes throughout the year; however, the following summary tells an impressive story.

The Educator Awards

As ‘Australia’s only magazine and news website for the most senior educational professionals and decision makers’, The Educator Magazine runs number of awards throughout the year. In 2022, St Margaret’s was successful across four categories.

The 5-Star Employer of Choice Award recognises schools that stand out for their employee initiatives, such as remuneration, training and professional development, career progression, diversity and inclusion, access to technology and resources, leadership, work- life balance, health and wellbeing, reward and recognition, and recruitment.

In our award submission, we were able to highlight our staff survey results, in particular, the Net Promoter Score which asked, ‘How likely is it that you would recommend St Margaret’s as an employer to a friend or colleague’, which scored +71. MMG, the educational consultancy who conducts the staff survey, rates anything above +23 as ‘Very High’.

2022 was the second consecutive year the school received the 5-Star Employer of Choice Award.

The Most Influential Educator Award highlights education professionals who have had the most impact in creating a reformative learning culture for students and the society in the past 18 months. In 2022, Principal Ros Curtis received this award. The award submission asked for a reference, which was provided by our Deputy Principal, Karen Gorrie. These words are worth sharing with our community, as they succinctly summarise why our Principal is more than worthy of this recognition.

‘As Ros Curtis’ deputy principal, I have watched her navigate the past difficult 18 months and bring the school to possibly the best position it has ever been in, within the worst climate in which it has needed to operate. This is firstly because of the solid programs, practices, people and culture that Ros has developed since her tenure began at the school in 2011. With these elements firmly in place, her leadership has supported not only the school and the individuals within it (both staff and students), but she has been among the leaders in the wider educational community in successfully navigating the pandemic. Ros is generous with her experience and sits on the boards of several

Ros Curtis Principal

organisations. In doing so, St Margaret’s has a seat at the table of some of the most experienced educators in the country. She walks the talk as a lifelong learner and brings the benefit of the brightest minds back to the school (and they, too, benefit from her experience). She also seeks out the best practices from here and overseas and implements them within a St Margaret’s context, which has seen many highly successful innovations that have advanced the school and, most importantly, the education of its students.’ In winning the award, Ros said the accolade comes from seeking out the wisdom of other influential educators and industry leaders, both in Australia and around the world. She told The Educator: ‘A strong education institution and industry are built in collaboration with others, and if I can, in turn, pass on the wisdom gained from others and from my many years’ experience, I am humbled and happy to be in the position to do that.’

In 2022, St Margaret’s was recognised as a 5-Star Innovative School. This was the fourth time the school has received this award, which recognises schools across Australia that are leading change in education. Last year, the Mentoring Program was submitted for this award. While only in its first year of operation, it had already been receiving outstanding feedback from both our alumni mentors and their Years 11 and 12 mentees. Read more about this program on page 18.

Each year, The Educator’s Hot List highlights some of the most influential educators over the previous 12 months. In 2022, Kerry Daud, Head of Faculty –eLearning, Research, Technology and Design, was named on this list, primarily for her work in eSports. Kerry introduced the first Queensland interschool all girls gaming invitational last year, with 45 students from schools around Brisbane taking part.

Kerry has been instrumental in the establishment of esports alongside St Margaret’s traditional sports, as well as initiating the construction of a digital lab at the school for training and competitions. This year, she has acquired a next-level car simulation machine for both esports enthusiasts and students who are learning to drive.

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At the end of 2023, The Educator produced a Best in Education list which ‘provides a definitive annual collection of those who have delivered outstanding results, introduced new initiatives, refined existing working practices and also acted as a source of inspiration for colleagues’.

St Margaret’s featured in this list, having been recognised in the above four awards.

Australian Education Awards

The annual Australian Education Awards are the leading independent awards event in the K-12 education sector and showcase the nation’s top-performing schools. In 2022, St Margaret’s were Excellence Awardees in the following categories:

School Principal of the YearNon-government

Secondary School of the YearNon-government

Boarding School of the Year Best Remote Learning Program

Australian Boarding Schools Association and IEBA Excellence in Indigenous Boarding Award

In 2022, St Margaret’s Boarding House was awarded the ABSA and IEBA Excellence in Indigenous Boarding Award. You can read more about the activities and programs in place in the boarding house, which led to this recognition, on page 24.

NATIONAL EXCELLENCE IN TEACHING AWARD (NEITA)

These awards are one of the most prestigious for teachers in Australia, and St Margaret’s teachers have enjoyed recent success in 2020 (Lucardia Moulton) and 2022 (Louise Brown). In 2022, just 20 winners were selected from over 2000 nominations nationwide.

Louise Brown, Head of Faculty –Sociocultural Studies, has been an educator for over 20 years and is passionate about the power of education to transform people’s lives. Louise joined St Margaret’s in 2018 as a history teacher, but was soon promoted to leadership positions, including Assistant Head of Faculty and Acting Head of Faculty - Sociocultural Studies before her current appointment. As an educator and a leader, Louise says she wants to inspire and motivate others – both staff and students – to be the best version of themselves.

Louise also serves on the management committee of the Queensland History Teachers Association and every term facilitates a popular online History Teachmeet, which connects the history community offering support, sharing practices, advice, and ideas, and ultimately, strengthening that community for the benefit of the students.

Seven perfect subject scores 100/100 from five students

2023 Academic Results

89% received an ATAR of 80 or above

TWO STUDENTS ACHIEVED 99.95

Median Atar

62.4% received an ATAR of 90 or above

Atar Results

10.1% received an ATAR of 99 or above

94.05 45.9% received an ATAR of 95 or above

The graduates of 2022 negotiated some of the most important years of their schooling during a global pandemic, including starting their senior year in lockdown and learning online. Their outstanding academic results are testament to their hard work and resilience, supported by their parents and the dedicated teachers who throughout the past three years did everything they could to continue to provide an excellent standard of academic care and wellbeing to steward the students through this challenging period.

Two graduates – Ella Woods and Jessica Norvill – received the highest ATAR Award, having gained the maximum ATAR possible of 99.95. Only 33 students throughout all of Queensland received this top score. Ella Woods also received the

QCE Dux of the School award, while Jessica Norvill and Christy Mou were awarded joint QCE Proxime Accessit Duces.

Over ten per cent (10.1%) of graduates received an ATAR of 99 and above (11 students), 45.9% received an ATAR of 95 and above (50 graduates) and an outstanding 67 students received an ATAR of 90 and above (62.4%).

These 67 students were invited to the Scholars Assembly early in 2023 to recognise and celebrate their academic success. We asked all our scholars to provide some advice regarding their schooling, which was compiled into a booklet and made available to students.

Some of the main recurring themes in all the advice offered included:

• find out early the way you learn and study best

• take advantage of all the assistance at your disposal – tutorials and study groups, academic advising, your peers, and, above all, your teachers

• stress less and enjoy more; don’t be too hard on yourself

• don’t give up your extracurriculars

• look after yourself – more sleep, less Netflix, try to achieve balance

• back yourself more – you’ve got this!

Our 2022 scholars are pursuing a whole range of interesting careers at a wide selection of tertiary institutions from Brisbane to Tasmania and across the oceans to the USA. The disciplines include science, engineering, veterinary science, medicine, nursing and midwifery, education, allied health (physiotherapy, speech pathology) commerce, business, politics, law, philosophy, economics, politics, mathematics, design, architecture and more, with one graduate entering the Royal Australian Navy.

Portfolio Pathways

Our 28 students following a Portfolio Pathway had access to a range of opportunities from two diplomas –Business and Project Management – to certificate courses across wide ranging disciplines, including Allied Health, Health Support Services, Design Fundamentals, Applied Fashion Design and Tech, Early Childhood Education, Hospitality, Library Services, Telecommunication and Information Technology, Real Estate, and Sport and Recreation.

The overwhelming majority of our students received their first preference offers and many are going on to study in fields related to their pathways studies. For example, a student with a Cert II in Telecommunication Technology and Information Technology is studying a Diploma of Screen and Media (Animation, Gaming and Visual Effects)/Bachelor of Digital Design (Game Design); studies in Applied Fashion Design and Tech have led to a Bachelor of Business/Bachelor of Design (Fashion); while a Cert II in Health and Cert III in Allied Health will give the student accepted into Bachelor of Nursing a flying start, as will the student who gained a Cert II in Design Fundamentals and is studying a Bachelor of Design (Interior Architecture) at QUT.

Congratulations to all our 2022 graduates. Fly upwards and we will be keen to see your trajectories and hope to see you all again in the not too distant future. Per Volar Sunata.

Naplan Results

In 2022, NAPLAN testing transitioned to online. Pleasingly, again, across all domains (Writing, Reading, Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation, and Numeracy) and all tested year levels (Years 3, 5, 7 and 9), St Margaret’s results were, again, well above state and national averages. While there is no longer comparative data to report against, we believe our consistently strong results are commensurate with previous years, where St Margaret’s ranked amongst the top-performing schools in Queensland. The full results are tabled on our website under ‘Academic Results’.