5 minute read
Siena College
Principal Elizabeth Hanney
Elizabeth Hanney has significant experience in educational leadership and a passion for providing a future-focused, faith-based education for young women. Elizabeth has worked in Catholic Education and Diocesan roles for the past 27 years and commenced at Siena in 2020. 815 Riversdale Road, Camberwell VIC 3124
Siena College is a Catholic school in the Dominican tradition, offering young women an education which will inspire and challenge them to make intelligent and responsible use of their personal gifts and develop a lifelong love of learning.
Our students have a daily, lived experience of women as leaders at all levels, from a broad based Student Representative Council, to the women from past decades on whose shoulders we stand. Our patron, St Catherine of Siena, broke the bonds of what was expected of a woman in the 14th century by speaking truth. She challenged those in power and committed herself to a life of prayer and service of others.
Our Dominican tradition places emphasis on diversity and the unique gifts of every person. We are inspired by each other and find joy in our work, our learning and our community.
Our motto, Veritas, challenges us to search for truth through prayer and contemplation, a commitment to study and a strong sense of justice and outreach to others.
Siena College offers a richly stimulating and contemporary education that makes student learning exciting for young women. We encourage our students to engage in critical reflection on the world, we nurture their individual gifts and talents and build their self-esteem and sense of connectedness.
THE BASICS
Enquiries
+61 3 9835 0200 siena.vic.edu.au admissions@siena.vic. edu.au
Years
Years 7 – 12
Denomination
Catholic
Gender Girls only
Fees
Please refer to College website for 2021 fees
Boarding \ No
Scholarships \ Yes
CURRICULUM
Our learning program is dynamic and innovative, catering for each student’s spiritual, academic, social and emotional development. Students are inspired to be critical, creative and reflective thinkers with a respect for curiosity and an open mind.
STUDENT VOICE
We believe encouraging student voice strengthens academic achievement and fosters workforce readiness. Our students are encouraged to take up leadership opportunities, developing skills to shape their world for good.
COMMUNITY
Our students and wider community are passionate advocates for environmental sustainability and climate action. We promote social justice, inclusion and care for all, as one human family.
STUDENT LIFE
Secure and respectful relationships enhance student learning, allowing a comprehensive and enriching education. An extensive co-curricular program encourages students to explore their possibilities in music, sport, debating and performing arts.
ENGAGING WITH REALWORLD ISSUES
Hands-on programs are opening students’ eyes to real-world issues and setting them up for success.
BY JOANNE BROOKFIELD
RISING TO THE CHALLENGES
Hanging in the corridors of Siena College in Camberwell are various embroidered textiles, handmade by the Kopanang women from Tsakane, South Africa. The Kopanang community project was created to provide these women, many of whom have been impacted by HIV/AIDS and endemic poverty, with the opportunity to learn embroidery and craft skills, which enable them to generate a small income.
“That’s a really important visual reminder to the girls that our community extends to these people,” says Bronwyne Ilott, head of justice education at Siena, a Catholic girls’ school in the Dominican tradition. Each year – in non-COVID times, at least – year 11 students have the opportunity to travel there for one of the school’s two immersion programs. The other is an indigenous immersion program in the Northern Territory, offered to years 9, 10 and 11 students.
“It’s a true immersion in every sense of the word,” says Ilott. “They leave comfortable, suburban Melbourne and they actually go and live in the homes of these women.
“It’s transformative. Girls come back changed in all sorts of ways,” she adds, giving the example of a student who was so moved by developing this new perspective on the world that she went on to study global politics at university and is looking at humanitarian work.
Siena isn’t the only school tackling real-world topics in and outside the classroom by providing their students with experiences and programs that are not only allowing them to address the issues of our times, like social justice and climate change but equipping them with the skills to rise to these challenges as future adults and leaders.
Yarra Valley Grammar, an Anglican co-ed school in Ringwood, embraces a World Religions Week and Diversity Week. “We’ve taken students out of the school to experience a range of cultural and social settings to open their eyes,” says chaplain Paul Joy.
To learn about other beliefs has meant
visits to places of worship from Islamic, Buddhist, Jewish and Catholic faiths.
“A highlight is always the Sikh temple in Blackburn who wouldn’t let us leave without serving us lunch – that’s 150 students all sitting in rows on the floor,” says Joy. Diversity Week has included visits to Chinese, Italian and Hellenic museums and students rolling up their sleeves and pitching in with feeding the elderly, disadvantaged students and the homeless.
Like Siena, which has an Eco Warriors group, formed with students across all year levels as part of its commitment to Sustainable Development Goals (a global agenda, adopted by countries in 2015), Caulfield Grammar School is also encouraging students to learn more about the natural environment and sustainability in a hands-on way at its Yarra Junction campus.
In the mid-1940s, the Cuming family donated 335 acres to the school, and the result was a campus that would “provide students from the city an understanding of rural life in a setting with a strong focus on community living”, explains campus head Tim O’Connor.
“Students are hands-on exploring paddock-to-plate concepts on the dairy farm, in the veggie garden and in the kitchen,” he says. “They are accommodated in purpose-built ecocabins that allow them to monitor their energy use. These things combine to encourage students to consider how our lifestyle choices can impact the world around us.
The benefits of this type of learning are transferable skills, like communication, negotiation, ownership and empathy, which apply beyond adolescence.
