Our co-educational 3 and 4-year-old Kindergarten programs are grounded in robust inquiry and play-based learnings which support children as they are challenged to solve problems and engage with their community and the environment.
A combination of an expertly planned curriculum with rich learning environments means our children can immerse themselves in both child and teacher-led play, learning to embrace new experiences, build social skills and develop their curiosity.
It’s a grounding that has seen Lauriston Kindergarten create children who can express themselves with confidence,developfoundational skills in literacy and numeracy and above all, enjoy learning.
Discover more www.lauriston.vic.edu.au
PRINCIPAL’S PERSPECTIVE FRIDAY KINDERGARTEN GOING BUSH DEVELOPING COURAGE AND LEADERSHIP A LOVE OF LITERACY INDIVIDUALITY AND THE ARTS THE IMPORTANCE AND IMPACT OF STUDENT CLUBS HOWQUA: A YEAR OF PERSONAL GROWTH FINDING HER PATH LAURISTON SNIPPETS FAREWELL MR RIDLEY STAFF SPOTLIGHT INVESTIGATING THE HISTORY OF LAURISTON TURNING DREAMS INTO REALITY BEYOND THE FIG TREE VALE
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We would like to acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of this land, the Wurundjeri, the Boon Wurrung and the Taungurung peoples of the Kulin Nation, whose sovereignty was never ceded, and pay our respects to their Elders past, present and future, for they hold the memories, traditions, culture and hopes of Indigenous Australia.
We would like to acknowledge that our community is diverse; and Lauriston values an inclusive and accepting environment for all ages, genders, abilities, races, religions, sexualities and cultures.
Being a global citizen means to have an awareness of the interconnectedness among people, societies and environments around the globe and when I consider how young people become global citizens, there are particular characteristics which I believe we as a School help them develop. These include an appreciation for diversity, an openness towards all others irrespective of gender, race, ethnicity or language, and the ability to critically think and reason.
Implicit within the concept of global citizenship is a desire to act meaningfully on issues as broad ranging as social justice, environmental problems and sustainability. Qualities such as an appreciation and empathy for others, along with recognising the worth of yourself and others, I believe are both important and necessary.
Global citizenship has become even more important as we consider how to reimagine a different world post-pandemic, and grapple with the shared challenges that will be faced by countries to resolve public health, environmental concerns and issues of inequality.
Essential to becoming a global citizen is to develop an understanding of the interrelated nature of the world. At Lauriston, we encourage all students to study a Language other than English. This not only encourages communication skills but promotes an understanding of cultural differences and traditions. The development of cultural competency in
languages, values and customs promotes empathy and tolerance, along with practical skills that will be used when our students move into different careers as young adults.
For our International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) students, multilingualism enhances international mindedness and hence students must continue with the study of at least one additional language other than their mother tongue. The International Baccalaureate believes that language studies also develop intercultural understanding and respect.
The study of Humanities subjects from Junior School through to our Senior School promotes an awareness of the world, the connections between past and present issues, and interrelationships between countries. Our students are witness to political, economic and social upheavals around the world and they need to understand the ‘what’ and ‘why’ of these events in order to form their own balanced perspectives.
Caring individuals are those who develop empathy and kindness, along with the skills of critical thinking and using one’s initiative. At Lauriston, such traits and skills are developed through our wellbeing program, curriculum and co-curricular programs. Our Community Service program and activities give attention to actively supporting individuals in our local community and by learning through participation in clubs such as Amnesty International. Our girls are encouraged to establish their own initiatives and take a hands-on approach to making a contribution to the lives of other people.
I am often asked what can people do to become a good global citizen? I reply that it begins in your own community.”
Kofi Annan
Educator and writer, Evan Saperstein, highlights that caring for the global community is a shared responsibility for conscious global citizens. He believes all people need to develop the motivation and willingness to care for the common good. In my own mind, this means that global citizens take action against social injustices and actively work towards the creation of a sustainable planet.
I believe Lauriston’s alumnae, who live and work around Australia and across the globe, do just that. They collaborate with colleagues in global workplaces and many have a direct impact through their work across a myriad of fields which encompass policy making, humanitarian work or working directly to improve the lives of individuals and the sustainability of our planet. Our alumnae demonstrate the qualities and skills of what being a good global citizen is each day.
I am grateful to have the opportunity to lead a School that for many decades has helped to develop students and graduates to become empowered global citizens – who continue to make a meaningful contribution to our world.
A Lauriston student has the choice of studying either the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) or the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) in years 11 and 12. Two pathways, countless destinations, and an ability to ensure each student is prepared for their future.
We are thrilled to announce that Susan Just was recently appointed to the International Baccalaureate Heads Council. Elected to this position by her peers, she is one of four representatives from across Asia-Pacific and twelve around the globe. Together the Heads Council will advise the Director General and help strengthen the operations of the IB around the world.
Susan Just, Principal
The IBDP encourages students across the globe to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners. It is a programme I am proud to offer at Lauriston alongside the VCE. I am honoured to represent Asia-Pacific as a member of the IB Heads Council to help ensure the strategic direction and implementation of the organisation continues to evolve with increasing success.”
In 2016, our Kindergarten educators researched the growing evidence of overwhelming benefits for children of uninterrupted free play and the ability to explore and experience the natural world.
The concept of a Bush Kinder, or ‘forest Schools’ as they are called in Northern Europe, comes from Denmark and the Scandinavian countries, with the first forest School established in the 1950s. The idea of using the outdoors as a part of the pedagogy of early years settings has its roots in the work of Friedrich Froebel. Froebel was an educator who believed in hands on learning. He had a love of nature, science and mathematics and believed in a place where children could develop and flourish under the guidance, not the direction, of the teacher.
“Children are like tiny flowers; they are varied and need care, but each is beautiful alone and glorious when seen in the community of peers.” (Froebel (1782-1852))
While it is well understood that ‘being outdoors’ is good for children, there is now a body of evidence indicating that contact with nature remains vital to a child’s development.
“Children who experience long, uninterrupted play in a natural environment are more emotionally secure, are healthier and show higher cognitive development.” (Ruth Garlick 2014)
We believe that immersion in the sensory and informational richness and dynamic qualities of the bush, beaches and parklands evokes basic learning responses such as identification, differentiation, analysis, and evaluation. Through Bush Kinder, children distinguish dead trees from living trees, millipedes from worms, weeds from native grasses, ants from beetles, ducks from magpies, a shallow pond from a deep pond and real creatures from imaginary ones. They develop quantitative skills by counting insects and flowers; gain materials knowledge from playing in grass and mud; intuit physics from how creek water responds to obstacles and opportunities. In engaging with other life from trees to bugs and beetles, they encounter an endless source of curiosity, emotional attachment, and a motivation for learning. In adapting to the everchanging, often unpredictable natural world, they learn to cope and problem solve.
Each year our Bush Kinder cohort is diverse and the dynamics are different. Going to the same outdoor place each week creates a familiar environment, which helps when a child might feel uncomfortable about being in nature. They build their self-assurance by watching other children, they slowly start exploring the dirt and playing with sticks. By the middle of the year, their uncertainty of being in the bush has gone. They make new friends and play in a different way by using nature as their inspiration for imaginary play.
As the children’s identities and confidence grow, so does their trust in others. When they are playing outside and have no specific boundaries, they build their tolerance to risk and become reliant on each other to be safe or or give reminders about the boundaries.
“Children involved in unstructured play in nature are calmer and will engage in richer imaginative play, increased physical activity, more focused play, and with positive social interactions.” (From Nedovic et al, 2013).
Bush Kinder also builds the development of empathy for the environment which becomes apparent as the year-long program progresses. Children learn to only play with the natural items that have fallen off the trees such as the sticks, berries, flowers, and leaves. They move the logs looking for insects and don’t immediately want to stand on them and then they move the log back after observing the insects. The children are taught, this is their (the flora and fauna) home, we need to for care for them.
• Mark the gardener showing the children a yabby he found from the pond
• Watching the tree arborists working up a large gum tree to cut back the dead branches and made hollows for the birds
• Planting native seedlings including veronica gracilis, speedwell derwentia, silky bluegrass, kangaroo grass, snowy violet
• Helping the Friends of the Urban Forest plant native pigface seedlings to stop erosion
• Actively noticing changes in the environment when the weather and season changes - mushrooms emerge, a creek forming between the two ponds, the arrival of ducklings and the influx of different birds and insects
• Observing a bird and a fox decompose in real time
• Making bug houses and patterns with natural materials
• Digging in the dirt for ‘dinosaur bone’ rocks
• Making large teepee cubby houses with sticks
Fiona Ireland Director of Kindergarten
Prior to starting Bush Kinder, our daughter tended to dislike getting her hands dirty. The first few weeks were met with trepidation as we navigated this new world of ‘bush wees’ and puddle suits. It took her a while to adjust to an environment where she was not just allowed but encouraged to jump into muddy puddles, play with sticks and climb trees, but I knew when I picked her up at week 3 that she had settled in. Covered in mud, she explained they had created a game of hairdressers, using mud as shampoo. She eyed me anxiously - was she in trouble for covering her hair in mud? Nerves turned to laughter when I reassured her this was exactly the kind of thing I had hoped she would do at Bush Kinder!”
Research by the Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Sydney tells us that teaching students how to bring courage into their day-to-day life can improve their learning, performance and engagement at School.
We understand that ‘being courageous’ doesn’t come easily for every student, so it is important that we help our students develop an understanding of what it means to ‘have courage’ from a young age and provide them with the environment and opportunities to help them develop their ‘courage muscles’.
From Kindergarten to Year 6, through Units of Inquiry, personal development sessions, camps and co-curricular opportunities, we teach, model and emphasise the importance of courage. I am most proud when courage is effectively demonstrated by our girls when they are, for example, able to confidently ask questions, speak in public, act independently, think differently, face physical and moral challenges, and make important decisions.
At the beginning of the year, all Year 5 girls learnt about the various elements of courage while participating in our Courage Conference. This three-day conference is a great way to start the year and students participate in a range of workshops including ‘Showing moral courage’, ‘Courage over adversity’ and ‘The courage to make change’.
This year, our girls had the opportunity to listen to Tristan Miller, who demonstrated how they embraced challenge, overcome adversity, and stepped outside of their comfort zone to complete
52 marathons in 52 weeks raising funds for UNICEF and Facing Africa. Our girls were able to identify with parts of Tristan’s story and apply it to situations familiar to them such as starting at a new School or when they have stood firm in the presence of peer pressure. It is clear that they were able to understand exactly how having courage can help them effectively manage the challenges that such situations present.
At the conclusion of the conference, the girls researched and investigated a courageous hero of their choice. This culminated in a presentation whereby the girls dressed up as their hero and invited their friends and family to learn about their hero and the ways in which they have shown courage in their lives. The heroes the girls chose to research in the past have been truly diverse and range from modern day heroes such as Turia Pitt to historical heroes such as Anne Frank and Amelia Earhart. The girls thoroughly immersed themselves in their characters and ‘walked a mile in their hero’s shoes’, as they enthusiastically shared the volume of information they had so carefully gathered. It was wonderful to see how our girls have been truly inspired by their courageous hero.
“Having courage helps me try my hardest and opens up more doors for me to learn and develop. A highlight of the Courage Conference was the rock climbing wall. I enjoyed it because I got to choose which level of difficulty I wanted to climb and by the end I was on a harder level.”
Miranda, Year 5
At Lauriston, the acquisition of strong leadership skills are significant in the development of our girls, and a range of opportunities are provided in and out of the classroom so they are well versed and experienced leaders by the time they transition to Year 7.
Leadership in the Junior School formally commences in Year 2 with girls completing an Inquiry unit on leadership, acting as buddies to our Preps and supporting them in the transition to School, hosting Junior School assemblies and by being involved in School tours and events.
The program builds from here and reaches its pinnacle in Year 6 with every student practiced in the five building blocks of leadership: confidence, organisation, responsibility, teamwork and public speaking.
At Lauriston, we believe that all girls have the capacity and potential to lead, and we therefore subscribe to a distributive model of leadership which allows every student to undertake a leadership role. Year 6 girls undertake specific training to fully prepare them to take on positions of leadership and act as role models. This involves learning how to:
• speak up and display moral courage
• step up and take responsibility
• have a go and develop self-confidence
• work effectively in teams and learn to collaborate with others
• show the way through leading by example
A highlight of the Year 6 program each year is the Leadership Conference which consists of incursions, workshops and guest speakers designed to teach the explicit skills of leadership. Australian World Champion aeriel skiier Jacqui Cooper was our guest speaker in 2022 and she captivated our girls with a particularly inspiring and poignant speech, sharing that she overcame many challenges throughout her career and emphasised to the girls the value of leadership, persistence, determination, believing in yourself and goal setting.
We often emphasise that leadership is action – not just a position or title – and earlier this year our SRC leaders delivered a proposal to have a range of new games available to all students for use during lunchtime. The SRC researched, voted and delivered a compelling pitch that the games would give more girls the opportunity to be active outdoors and build new friendships, all while having fun. The student voice is important at Lauriston and this fabulous student initiative was backed all the way.
With every student at Lauriston encouraged to be a leader, I am sure our girls will continue to show initiative and make a positive difference to Lauriston and their communities.
Chris Toms Vice Principal, Head of Junior SchoolA highlight of the Leadership Conference for me was listening to Olympic aerial skier Jacqui Cooper speak about her journey. I learnt that in order to achieve your goals it takes dedication , hard work, self-belief and courage. As a leader of the Junior School, I wish for me and my fellow Junior School leaders to be remembered as inclusive and respectful students. I would like younger students to look up to us as students who never gave up and were very caring.”
Sophie, Year 6
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By learning to speak, read, write and spell, all of us gain the ability to engage meaningfully with others, express our thoughts and feelings, and acquire access to a wonderful world of literature, imagination and information.
Literacy is taught in the Junior School by carefully balancing the explicit teaching of skills while also encouraging a love and appreciation of language. Every day we see literacy in action in our classroom via reading, writing or spelling lessons or embedded into our day using real-life learning experiences. Literacy learning is purposeful, and our girls have a strong understanding of ‘why’ this is so through shared learning intentions, clear objectives or personal goals.
Phonics and word knowledge are taught from Prep to Year 6 through a systematic phonemic-based method. All classroom teachers have participated in SMART Spelling professional learning to ensure strong understanding, a consistent approach and common language. From their first day in Prep, students begin developing their phonics and word knowledge based on SMART Foundation, extending throughout the School into Year 6 where students explore more complex word origins including Greek and Latin roots.
Reading is also taught systematically using a phonemic-based approach which links to our spelling program. Students learn to read a wide variety of texts, including decodable readers early on to free choice chapter books in the middle primary years. Targeted reading groups and teaching specific comprehension and fluency skills help develop their understanding.
Handwriting is also an explicit focus for the Junior School, with our youngest students mastering their pencil grip, writing posture, and letter and number formation. As they progress into years 3 and 4, they write using clearly-formed joined letters and develop increased fluency and automaticity as they work up to earning their ‘pen license.’
Students who require individual literacy assistance participate in Minilit or Macqlit, an evidence-based, explicit early literacy intervention program.
The above are all integral parts to a successful literacy program but applying these skills to engaging and ‘of interest’ experiences is where the real magic happens. At Lauriston, teachers create many opportunities for girls to make connections and link their skills.
This year, the Prep letter walk saw children exploring and searching for letters in their local community. When visiting the zoo, Prep and Year 1 students read and recorded facts about animals while navigating the language of position and direction (How we go to the seals?) through words such as left and right. Literacy is embedded through STEM projects such as the Year 1 augmented reality fairy tale - recently crafted through the use of the creative storytelling Toontastic App. With the knowledge that they are more able to record a narrative using words once they can visualise it, our Year 3 students use LEGO kits to provide girls the opportunity to create then see a narrative they have developed come alive through play and construction.
Procedural texts gain purpose when real-life examples exist and this year our students have experimented making ice cream and constructed pirate hats. Collecting and recording family recipes has also allowed procedural texts to become a valued activity in our Year 3 Celebrations unit and a way to share traditions within our wider community.
Speaking and listening skills come alive for children when they are required to share or present to an actual audience. Readers Theatre is a popular drama approach to developing reading fluency in Year 3, and the girls love to read a script and perform to their peers. The importance of thorough research and documentation becomes more important when Year 4 students present their First Nations project as an Expo. Persuasive language is also explored when trying to encourage visitors to the attractions of Melbourne through an Inquiry unit exploring our city.
Our Junior School Library is generously resourced and children have weekly Library lessons throughout their primary years. They spend time examining, responding to, and creating literature. Class novels and picture books are shared daily, as reading aloud fosters a love of books and helps children to get hooked on books and associate reading with pleasure. The introduction of Book Club in Year 4 engages girls in conversations and discussions on literary experiences, sharing responses and expressing a point of view. Hearing children discuss their favourite book, defending their opinion or sounding out a new word are all examples of literacy coming to life. And with the dedication and love of literacy from our Lauriston teachers, they are sounds we are lucky enough to hear every day.
Kate Hehir Assistant Principal - Junior School
“I really enjoyed the book Two Hands Together by Diana Kidd because it had so many sudden plot twists that made me excited and curious . It was very enjoyable to read. The book was great and it showed the many feelings that the characters expressed.
I think you should read it as I very much enjoyed it. My favourite character was Lily because she was the main character and she loved writing ghost stories like me so I sort of have a connection to her on that point.”
At Lauriston, we see the Arts as integral to a holistic education wherein the whole person is identified, appreciated, and grown. This sense of self and self-worth is fostered through acknowledging the creative actions of those past and present and how such actions have benefited societies culturally, financially, and socially. It is through the Arts that students can give voice, sound, and visual reference to issues of personal and social concern. It is through the Arts that students can experience and take confidence in what makes them an individual.
In years 7 and 8, students are often given the same theme to explore using guided techniques and language. Examples of this include the interpretation of Van Gogh’s Sunflowers where paint mixing and colour theory are explored, and our Year 8 students learning skills in printmaking as they explore aerial and Indigenous perspectives of what it means to have a sense of home. It is always remarkable and rewarding to see how a theme is manifested individually by each student and how such diversity of response is encouraged, respected, and valued within a Lauriston education.
Building confidence, pride and enthusiasm for art making lays the foundation for individual experimentation and risk-taking; signs of a successful arts practice. Teaching and learning throughout the Senior years of an arts journey is decidedly a shared experience between teachers and students, and one that builds upon a student’s prior experiences. This practice of consultation ensures that students have the guidance and support to progress from directed to independent arts making.
This process of scaffolded learning through the development of skills, communication, and encouragement enables students in performing and visual arts areas to use ‘the skills of their trade’ to make statements that assist them in understanding themselves and the world around them. I reflect on a recent Year 12 student who based one very powerful work on conflicts and issues in current American society and another who chose to explore the impact of humanity on our environment with a particularly effective work targeting bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef.
Creative and critical thinking undertaken through the problemsolving process within an arts practice builds lifelong skills relevant to a plethora of professions within the Arts and beyond. The ability to work through concepts, accept and benefit from failed trials and develop the ability to see those trials as positive learning experiences that help build maturity, resilience, and confidence.
The Lauriston Arts program prides itself of having informed, professionally, and actively engaged staff who genuinely respect the creative process and the value it has in building open-minded, socially aware, and spirited young women. Their expertise and the success of our program is only further enhanced with the support of the whole Lauriston community who encourage and celebrate the artistic pursuits and results of our students.
David Morrison Head of Arts
Lauriston’s Artist in Residence program is designed to enhance a student’s awareness of artistic practice, extend artistic engagement outside the School environment and facilitate discussion with artists. Often the artist, in the time of their residency, will leave a physical and permanent artwork. This was the case with our most recent artist, Carla McRae. Carla worked with Year 10 students to create a mural based on the theme of transition . Our girls brainstormed concepts related to Howqua and Armadale and drafted, refined and painted a colourful and environment enhancing mural located in the corridor below the Arts precinct.”
aking new friends”, “belonging”, “a greater sense of community”, “giving back to others”, “learning more about the world around me”, “having fun”, “a cool way to spend my lunchtimes”… these were just some of the reasons students gave in response to the question, How is your involvement in clubs an important part of your Lauriston experience?
Whether it’s Model UN, Amnesty, PRIDE Club, Greenies and Sustainability, Linguistics, Debating, Public Speaking, Coding Club, SRC or the Community Service Committee, participation in lunchtime clubs and interest groups provides our students with a much greater sense of belonging to their School.
“I think it just connects me to a lot more people…”, “I feel more connected with the School…”, and, “they make me feel like I am part of a community, not just going to classes every day”, are typical responses from students.
Currently, Lauriston has 15 different lunchtime clubs, interest groups and committees available to students in years 7 -12, and membership is the highest we’ve seen in many years.
We have more teams in years 8, 10, 11 and 12 registered for the Debaters Association of Victoria (DAV) Schools Competition than ever before and the buzz of excitement and energy at their lunchtime meetings and preparation workshops is palpable. To support the growing interest in debating, this year we have created a special internal debating competition for our Year 7 students who are keen to debate but not yet old enough for the DAV competition. Kezia and Sara, our 2022 Debating Captains, are excited to be able to share their passion for debating with students across all year levels and revel in their role as coach and mentor as they support the teams and create new friendships and memories.
Research shows that connectedness is an essential foundation to social and emotional wellbeing, and it forms one of Dr Kenneth Ginsburg’s 7Cs, the essential building blocks of resilience which underpins our SHINE wellbeing program. Connections with family, friends, communities, and peers offer young people the security to act independently or to come up with powerful solutions as a group. As Abigail, one of our 2022 SRC Prefects put it, “I am so grateful to have the opportunity to interact with students in other year levels and lead the process of making change at School… we have been able to find constructive and effective ways of implementing change and encourage the enterprise of other students”.
This spirit of enterprise and desire to make a difference has seen this year’s SRC establish four sub-committees to work on specific projects: a group to review the uniform, a group to continue the work begun in 2021 to rewrite important student policies into student-friendly language, a group to consider academic and timetable issues and a group to review the establishment of new student clubs. These sub-committees were established before the end of Term 1 and the students’ eagerness to get started bodes well for what is to come.
Opportunities seized and connections formed through involvement in a club can help students appreciate their passions and strengths, and be able to utilise these when facing challenging circumstances. We want our students to find new interests, feel connected to their School environment, peers and teachers and to learn and understand how to listen, share and communicate with others within the School community.
Membership and participation in our clubs and interest groups also provides a vehicle for students to broaden their skills and knowledge beyond the classroom. Social management is one such skill outlined in the Australian Curriculum General Capabilities framework for all Australian students from Prep – Year 10. The general capabilities play a significant role in equipping young Australians to live and work successfully in the 21st century. The capabilities involve students learning to communicate effectively, work collaboratively, negotiate, resolve conflict, and develop leadership skills. In a club, students learn how to interact and empathise with others in an authentic setting and with a shared interest.
So, while lunchtime clubs are most definitely “cool” and “fun”, they undoubtedly provide a way for our girls to further develop the essential skills and attributes to use today and in their futures.
Anne Wallington Deputy Principal, Head of Senior School
By getting others involved in debating and public speaking, we help girls have a platform for their voices and opinions and show them how to be courageous and open-minded to both their own and other opinions. A highlight for the Debating Club was our first round of DAV Debating at Scotch College. Over 100 girls showed up to support Lauriston and voice their opinions and arguments. A large majority of our teams won and came back to us with grinning smiles and a new sense of confidence, which we were honoured to be able to facilitate.”
Kezia, Year 12, Debating Captain
Everything about the Howqua experience is unique and this was made more evident over the past few years. While many Year 9 students across Australia experienced months of home learning, Zoom and minimal co-curricular opportunities, our 2020, 2021 and 2022 Howqua cohorts have been particularly lucky to experience a good deal of time on campus, albeit with modified programs during times. This has been largely due to an immense amount of work, co-operation and trust between students, parents and staff, and perhaps a bit of Howqua luck!
Emerging research shows that one aspect of COVID-19 that has been particularly debilitating for young people has been the social isolation. Students who were lucky enough to attend Howqua managed to maintain not just all-important face-to-face relationships with their peers, but the opportunity to enhance existing relationships and build new ones. These occur not just by living with others in a House, during wellbeing sessions or in class, but also during the challenging Outdoor Program and the myriad of activities and responsibilities girls undertake throughout the Howqua year.
By stepping out of their comfort zones, girls at Howqua have a unique opportunity to develop a greater understanding of who they are and enhance their appreciation for those around them. When they become directly aware of the impact that their words and actions have on others, they become more thoughtful about behaving responsibly towards other members of the community and are developing skills that will last a lifetime. Our girls gain a greater understanding that taking responsibility for their actions and the consequences, both positive and negative, are part of growing up and this assists in the development of their communication skills. While it is not always an easy journey, the rewards are significant and our staff are often on hand to assist.
Learning to acknowledge differences in a constructive manner and to work with one another’s strengths and weaknesses ensures each girl’s personal growth and can often occur in unexpected circumstances, be it sweeping, vacuuming or mopping, lighting a fire, collecting kindling, playing House soccer, singing and dancing in a music battle, hiking up a long hill, setting up a tent in the rain, preparing food, or having the confidence to voice an alternative opinion during classroom discussions.
As one student puts it: “Howqua gave me new confidence in myself. In my ability to learn, to try, to develop relationships with other people. It helped me bridge who I was to who I want to become.”
While there are many benefits of a Howqua year, perhaps the greatest benefit of this shared experience is the girls’ ability to transfer the skills learnt to later Schooling and then through their lives. The Howqua year is transformative on so many levels and the girls are certainly grateful to have been able to attend this unique program over the past years in particular.
Sam Ridley Vice Principal, Howqua
We recently caught up with Feng-Yuan Liu (2004). Yuan is the Founder and CEO of Metro Dietetics and her passion for nutrition and desire to help her clients be at their best led her to becoming a world-renowned dietitian and coach for small business owners striving towards peak performance.
As a successful dietician, can you provide us with insight into why you do what you do and what drives you?
Nutritional science is a rapidly progressive science. Fundamentally, I do what I do because I genuinely believe in the power of nutrition in disease management, but also in prevention.
Early in my career I knew that there were so many gaps in the existing dietary guidelines and so I took it upon myself to research and bridge those gaps, develop a new set of protocols, and bring the latest science to my clients. For each of my clients, I turn the science into practical and implementable advice that they then adopt and benefit from.
What I see on the other side of the work I do isn’t just the symptomatic improvements with people’s health – of course it’s really cool when their chronic pain goes away, when their doctors are recognising such an improvement in their mental health that
they feel comfortable reducing their anti-depressants, when they can start sleeping through the night and wake up feeling refreshed again, when their weight starts to come down after stubbornly trending upwards for the last several years. Rather, it’s what those improvements give them (or give BACK to them) as far as their lives go that truly highlights the importance of the work we do – when their improved mental clarity and focus, and improved energy levels mean that they’re making better business decisions, bringing in more revenue, being more present with their kids, their partners, being more limber and in less pain and able to engage fully with life itself.
You spoke recently at our Founders’ Day Assembly about your journey since graduating. What influences of Lauriston have you drawn upon throughout your career?
When I sat to write my Founders’ Day speech, I was amazed to see just how much the Lauriston values have become part of who I am and how I’ve operated over the years.
When I first started out, as a dietitian launching headfirst into private practice, I had to summon a huge amount of courage to take that leap. There was a lot of fear, of course, but greater than that fear was my determination to succeed.
As I progressed as a clinician, having intellectual curiosity meant that I was always reading, learning and expanding my knowledge and skillset so I can continue to show up at the highest level for my clients. This ultimately drove me to speak openly about the errors and limitations of the dietary guidelines, (which took a decent amount of courage in itself!) and establish myself as a thought leader in nutrition for metabolic and hormone health.
Now, as far as the business side of things, anyone in business can attest to the fact that building a business is a creative venture. It literally requires you to identify the problems experienced by a cohort of people, and creatively engineer a solution that solves these people’s problems. Since I work with people, I spend a lot of my time developing and nurturing relationships - with prospective and existing clients, my peers, and other businesses that are in alignment with my values.
Ultimately, my business has given me the ability to create a life that I can engage with fully, in a way that’s meaningful to me.
Being a changemaker requires the ability to fully trust in yourself. How do you go about doing this in order to create opportunity?
When I first started in Lauriston in Year 7, I had come from a local public primary School where I was always top of the class and performed really well in athletics, representing the School in state events.
However, when I got to Lauriston, all of a sudden I found myself well outside of my depth – I was nowhere near the fastest runner, I wasn’t the brightest or the one who performed the best academically either. I guess at this point things could have gone one of two ways – I could have allowed that to define me OR, what I did instead was see it as an opportunity to rise to the challenge.
The ability to reframe situations so I can continue to work on bettering myself has been a big part of my journey since leaving Lauriston. Whenever I feel out of my depth (which is often), I find myself excited by the challenge, knowing that it will be an opportunity to grow and be better.
I still have plenty of days where the self-doubt creeps in and I feel like an imposter. But one thing I’ve learnt is that it’s okay to doubt your knowledge, skill or experience, as long as you trust in your resourcefulness to acquire that knowledge, skill or experience.
This shift in mindset has allowed me to courageously leap into unknown territory, fully trusting that I have the agency and resourcefulness to succeed and grow from those experiences.
Do you have any advice you would give to girls who were interested in pursuing an entrepreneurial career path?
I once heard a statement ‘entrepreneurs, not governments, change the world’ and I truly believe this. Entrepreneurship is where courage, creativity and curiosity collide to help us identify the problems that people face in this world and come up with solutions to these problems. To be an entrepreneur though relies on us having an enriched set of life experiences and a wide network of people to draw on for support, for connection and for new opportunities.
At the heart of entrepreneurship is advocacy. When we believe in our cause more than we necessarily believe in our ability to succeed, it becomes easier to face our fears, and do the thing anyway. The interesting thing about that is ONCE we actually do the thing, our self-belief grows too.
So, if you have a cause that you believe in and currently see gaps where new solutions need to be created to truly fulfill your cause, then you absolutely have a duty of care to become part of the solution, creating the change in this world that you wish to see.
A willingness to sit in the discomfort of being out of my depth, and see it as an opportunity to grow and learn, PLUS the courage to give things a go regardless of ‘failure’ or ‘success’ have served me immensely on this entrepreneurial journey.”
By boarding the bus, our Year 9 students took the first step in their transformative year at Howqua. Hundreds of supportive parents, siblings, grandparents and friends gathered at the buses to wish the girls well and share in the excitement of the amazing experience that lay before them. A core value at Lauriston is courage: it’s something we aim to develop for life and we know that it takes courage for our girls to leave for Howqua and it takes courage for parents to let them go.
Throughout their time at Lauriston, girls learn about a variety of cultures and they enjoy celebrating these. In the Year of the Tiger, our Chinese New Year Junior School Assembly was a nod to past traditions and to the future as we were treated to a colourful Chinese New Year performance.
Our Senior School House diving and swimming carnival took place at MSAC in Albert Park. Showing a Lauriston girl’s signature determination, commitment to giving things a go and spirit ensured the girls fully enjoyed the packed program of events. Congratulations to Irving House for taking home the winning trophy!
The Prep letter walk provides a real-world context for the girls to develop their literacy skills including knowledge of sound and letter relationships and to see that print is all around us. Each student is allocated a letter of the alphabet to search for in the environment by observing signs, car number plates and shop windows. They record their observations in the form of a tally, building on our mathematics focus of counting efficiently and accurately. The girls express such glee when helping their friends spot letters around them! Our destination was the Union Street Gardens where they enjoyed morning tea and a play before returning to Blairholme.
Our Year 7 students have spent this week getting to know each other, pushing themselves beyond their comfort zones and creating wonderful memories during their ‘Welcome to Senior School’ camp. They certainly lived up to the ‘unleash greatness’ motto of the camp demonstrating grit, determination and an incredible team spirit that will prepare them for the years ahead.
Our Emu, Koala and Possum children brought a special teddy friend to Kindergarten for a fun and furry picnic in the garden. The children loved playing with their teddies and sharing stories and playing games with the other children.
The Lauriston community were treated to a fabulous night of high-calibre performances presented by our Senior School musicians. Soloists, small combos and small ensembles performed a range of classics by artists such as Nat King Cole and Stevie Wonder; as well as modern twists and contemporary pieces by John Legend, Amy Winehouse and Melody Gardot. Congratulations to all students who performed in this event and to the staff who assisted with the preparations – bravo!
As an all-girls educator, Lauriston understands the importance of providing girls with equal opportunities to develop confidence in their thinking, leadership qualities and ability to contribute. Every day our pledge is to help our girls break boundaries, to stand up for themselves and what they think is right, and to forge new paths for the benefit of the greater whole. This is what we celebrated this Interational Women’s Day.
Irving Hall was abuzz at the end of Term 1 as the Year 5s presented their research projects on a chosen courageous hero to the wider community. Dressing up to represent the persona of their hero, each student used multi-media formats to communicate their learnings of the attributes in their hero which made them courageous, and how their attitude of courage created positive outcomes.
With a helping hand from Ian the Gardener, our Preps learnt where different foods come from and harvested pumpkins as big as they are from the vegetable patch at Blairholme. Following the harvest they reaped the rewards by cooking pumpkin soup!
So much fun was had at our Blairholme Picnic Races in Term 1. The girls participated in sprints, relays and novelty races with equal amounts of enthusiasm and concentration. There was plenty of cheering from parents on the sidelines and beaming smiles from our youngest sports stars!
The I Am Mindful box is a proactive, prevention-focused toolkit that helps students manage their mental health and allows them to have a greater understanding of what is happening in the moment. As part of our SHINE Program, Year 7 girls received their I Am Mindful box at the beginning of the year and were excited to explore the range of textures, smells, and sounds. They are continuing to use the box to assist with emotion regulation and distress tolerance.
The sun was shining at the inaugural student-led Senior School picnic. It was a wonderful opportunity for different year levels to mingle and enjoy music performances, games and a bake sale during lunch time. This was followed by a Prefect-run wellbeing session including origami, yoga, board games and quite a fierce game of dodge ball!
Each week a number of our students and teachers give up their time to volunteer at Friday Night School, tutoring students from non-English speaking (often refugee) backgrounds. Housed in a bluestone building in Richmond and buzzing with studious activity, this immensely rewarding and challenging experience has enriched the lives of both tutors and their students for over 22 years. As always, we are very grateful to all of the student tutors and teachers who support Friday Night School.
Year 10 STEM students visited Moorabbin Airport as they continued to explore The History of Flight & Space Travel, Aerodynamics, Meteorology, Navigation & Flight Planning, Human Factors, and Astrophysics. The girls had the opportunity to sit in the pilot’s seat, experience the full-motion simulator session in what was a very memorable excursion, no doubt inspiring our students to pursue a career in aviation.
Congratulations to our remarkable runners with 30 students in Years 4 - 6 competing in the District Cross Country in Term 2. Our girls ran extremely well with Lauriston placing 2nd overall. We also had 14 teams enter the Athletics Victoria All Schools Road Relay in May. Our Year 6 - 12 athletes showed great dedication and teamwork as they cheered our Under 18 girls to victory.
A captivating Year 6 incursion saw students immerse into a new unit that explores the customs and history of our First Nations people. Taught by Wurundjeri Elder Murrundindi, students learnt dances, heard Dreamtime stories, looked at artefacts and their uses and created Aboriginal art to forge a greater knowledge and understanding of Indigenous culture.
The Year 12 VCE Theatre class performed their version of Radium Girls by DW Gregory in the Black Drama Room and it was wonderful to enjoy live theatre again. A thought-provoking and inspirational story performed with warmth and humour, our girls delivered a wonderful ensemble performance based on the true story of female labourers who were poisoned and killed by their factory’s radium-based paint.
Grandparents are cherished members of a child’s extended family and it was clear to us on Grandparents’ Day that the relationships they share with our children are rich, caring and often playful! Kindergarten children were excited to show their special visitors around and get them involved in lots of different activities including reading stories and music classes.
On a wintery afternoon, Lauriston’s Senior AFL team defeated St Catherine’s 14-6 to win the Huntingtower Heyington Shield!
This annual match brings a friendly rivalry to the Girls Sport Victoria AFL season and is a celebration of community with both Schools joining forces with Breast Cancer Network Australia to raise money and awareness.
At the end of Term 2 we farewelled Sam Ridley, Vice Principal – Howqua.
When families send their daughter to Howqua, they want to know that she is in safe hands and will be well looked after. Sam has been not only our safe pair of hands, but a person who has always looked for the good in everyone and someone who cares deeply about the personal development of each individual student.
I particularly like this quote from Kurt Hahn - ‘There is more to us than we know. If we can be made to see it, perhaps for the rest of our lives we will be unwilling to settle for less’because I believe that Sam has always strived to instil in our Year 9 students the personal qualities that will support them to embrace their strengths and lead purposeful lives.
On a personal note, I have valued Sam’s leadership and it has been a pleasure to work closely with him over the last 12 years. We wish Sam and his family all the best.
Susan Just PrincipalIt’s safe to say Mr Ridley is a Howqua legend and the way he conducts himself in a positive, passionate, level-headed, encouraging and inspiring manner is admired by all. My Howqua year would have been very different without Mr Ridley because he’s so personable and understands and empathises when needed. A memorable moment with Mr Ridley would be when he found me after getting ‘geologically challenged’ during a rogain competition. I was so glad to see him and he chatted to me the entire way back to campus!”
Amelia, Year 10
Mr Ridley has played such a transformative role in so many Lauriston girls’ lives – it’s hard to imagine Howqua without his warmth, dedication , and determination to help every student succeed .”
Bella Crouch (2018)
‘Rids’ is an incredibly warm human being who heightened my year in every way possible. His words of advice, his jolly smile, his contagious laugh and his unwavering commitment to genuinely help us all created such a positive environment at Howqua, one I will always be grateful for.”
Georgia, Year 12
We are so proud that Mathematics teacher Echo Gu was named as one of The Educator’s 2022 Rising Stars. This award recognises professionals working in the K-12 education space aged under 35 and is based on teachers demonstrating leadership, innovation and achievement in their career to date.
As a Mathematical Methods and Specialist Mathematics, and IB Mathematics teacher, Echo is passionate about inspiring young girls to pursue careers in STEMrelated fields and as such has lifted the profile of STEM careers at Lauriston. Echo is also Lauriston’s Student Data Analyst, a critical role that has helped centralise student data and better enable teachers to deliver individualised learning programs by tracking every student’s results and progress.
We are excited to announce that Julia Lippold, our Senior School English teacher, Senior Years Coordinator and Wellbeing Program Developer has been recognised in The Educator’s Most Influential Educators Awards for 2022.
Julia’s passion in creating challenging, inclusive and safe learning environments has seen her spearhead the EAL Program at Lauriston, create learning materials to suit various learning styles in remote learning and face-to-face learning environments, launch a Linguistic Club for Lauriston students and collaborate with the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority on a range of projects.
We are proud to announce that our Principal Susan Just has been named by The Educator as one of 2022’s most influential educators.
Susan’s areas of interest in curriculum and teacher development have led to her participation in a number of peak educational bodies, committees and task forces. She is currently a representative for Asia-Pacific on the IB Heads Council and was awarded a Fellowship with Australian Council for Educational Leaders (VIC) in 2021. Susan is also a member of the Australian Heads of Independent Schools Association and is on the Board of Trustees for the Invergowrie Foundation.
Susan places emphasis on the importance of social and emotional wellbeing, which has resulted in working with staff to establish a personal development program from the primary years of School onwards. Informed by current research, it helps to ensure that girls feel a strong sense of connectedness to their peers, teachers and School.
rchival collections tell the stories of individuals and organisations. Lauriston’s Archives provides tangible evidence of how our past students lived and holds documents that record their actual words. Since 2019, Year 7 students have been introduced to our archival collection and have seen first-hand how we preserve our history. This experience of connecting with past generations of our students enhances our Year 7s’ self-identity as part of Lauriston’s enduring history.
Equipped with their worksheet ‘Investigating the History of Lauriston Girls’ School’, Year 7 students explore a selection of old uniforms, trophies, badges, photographs, School yearbooks and other memorabilia as they discover what life at Lauriston was like 100 years ago.
This year, I presented an example of the original hockey stick belonging to Winifred Curwen-Walker (Beecher, 1922) and the photograph of our championship team featuring Winifred and her hockey stick. I asked them what they can glean from the piece of blue and white striped fabric wrapped around the hockey stick and explained that the fabric shows the actual colour of the sash placed across each student’s chest that was part of the sports uniform at the time.
The Year 7 students then looked at examples of Schoolwork from past students to show them how teaching and learning has changed over the last 50 years. A 1982 ‘Computer Awareness’ assignment by Lauren Rose (1984) included Lauren’s view on the role of computer technology for the future. She astutely wrote that: “The computer is reshaping our society. Soon it will be part of our daily lives.”
The ‘Computer Awareness’ assignment shows how Lauriston’s educators have always realised the importance of teaching our students resilience when dealing with change and the ability to embrace and work with new technologies. Putting this assignment in context, in 1982 students were still taking classes on how to use electric typewriters.
My favourite example of past Schoolwork shows that Lauriston students have always seen themselves as global citizens. In 1986, the ongoing Cold War between the West and the communist states of the Soviet Union, provided a real threat to world peace. Form 1M (Year 7) sent a compilation of poems and drawings entitled ‘1M’s Peaceful Protest’, to the Honourable Bob Hawke who responded with a thank you letter and returned the students’ work back to Lauriston. Form 1M’s protest to the Australian Prime Minister was a courageous venture that showed the strength of our students’ convictions.
I enjoy being able to engage with our Year 7 classes and provide them with primary resource material to observe and interpret. Our collection demonstrates that Lauriston students have always been taught to believe that they have a voice, are resilient and embrace change.
Our Founders, Lilian and Margaret Irving, would indeed be proud of our students and their legacy of courage continues to inspire generations of “Lauristonians” today.
Lisl Bladin ArchivistSchool photographs 1975, memorabilia, Valedictory Program and invitation 1975, The Lauristonian 1972
School needlework ‘throw over’ circa 1950s
Lauriston painted mulga bookend and University of Melbourne Bachelor of Arts Degree certificate, 1963
Photographs and video footage of student activities
Mary’s School reports, School homework, certificates, events programs, memorabilia, tea towel and Lauriston Sketch Book 1989
Lauriston Life, May 2009
Lauriston Life, editions 2007-2009
Rasmussen, C. Lauriston 100 Years of Educating Girls 1901 – 2000, The Helicon Press Pty Ltd, 1999.
1942 Lauriston staff photograph
Lauriston crockery, circa 1950s
Photographs, 1998 Headmistress’ Annual Report, Valedictory Program 1988 and memorabilia
Marsh, M. A. My Very First Book A Picture Alphabet Book For Little Folks, Humphrey Milford London, circa 1907
Moreton Bay Fig poster and Lauriston Schoolgirl fridge magnet, 1960s
‘Red Hands Across The Family’ program 1965, New Guinea School Tour 1964 itinerary.
Queensland reunion booklet 2003, reunion booklet with Lauriston’s School song, 2000s
Virginia Midgley (Mollison, 1975)
Val Maine (Haysom, 1955)
Kathryn Moss (Hales, 1956)
Malcom Owen
Mary Newsome (Reynolds, 1953)
Diane Di Gemma (parent of Chloe Di Gemma, 2019) Elsie Ho (2013)
Kate Nixon (1986)
Kathy McRae for Isobel Symons (former teacher)
Andrea Stafford for Marie-Louise Stafford (Leng, 1953)
Anna Wilson (Murray, 1990)
Penny Smithers for Hilary Feltham (1946)
Edwina Winter (Mollison, 1973)
Anne Abbink (Beckingsale, 1965)
The annual luncheon of the Elizabeth Kirkhope Circle (EKC), Lauriston’s bequest society, was a true celebration of the spirit, courage and generosity.
As I welcomed everyone to the RACV Club I could not help but wonder how different the members of Lauriston’s community are in their life experiences but how splendidly similar they were in their outlooks on life.
Whether they were from the Silent Generation (the 1930s), are Baby Boomers or Millennials, their display of individuality, empathy, and how they embrace community and life with confidence, showcase the true and lasting values of Lauriston.
The courage displayed by the Irving sisters in Melbourne at the end of the 19th century, when life choices for women were constrained by their gender, class, financial resources and social structure of the colonial society, is fundamental in underpinning what a Lauriston education is.
Some of the first generations of Lauriston graduates entered universities in the early 1900s, with Dorothy Andrews being the first university graduate in 1916. The number of Lauriston girls completing university study continued to grow and they were ready to shape the change in the status of women in the early 20th century.
The societal changes in Australia at that time contributed to the elevation of women to the status of citizens able to contribute to
the public sphere of work and politics. And culture too – I am sure our girls enjoyed My brilliant career, the first novel of the Australian author Miles Franklin, which was published in 1901, just before Lauriston was founded.
I love listening to the stories of our older bequestors and see the smiles on their faces when they share their memories of School days – wearing hats and gloves, learning in “Little Lauriston” (classes for girls and boys from 4 to 7 years old started in 1944 and closed in 1957), or collecting 2000 eggs for the annual hospital appeal in 1962 as part of the Social Service Program. They can’t forget square dancing too! The Grand Square Dance in the Hawthorn Town Hall in 1953 attracted 500 dancers, and Mrs Kirkhope was known to join the dancers herself!
But back to 2022. The EKC luncheon is a celebration of those in our community who had and have the foresight and generosity to leave Lauriston a gift in their will. Established in 2011, the Circle is growing every year thanks to the passion our wonderful benefactors have for Lauriston and for the education of girls.
At the luncheon we were thrilled to listen to young students and alumnae about life at Lauriston today. Our 2022 School Captains, Selina Richter and Tegan Gheri, made compelling presentations proving that courage still shapes Lauriston girls, and that they do not shy away from taking risks and accepting new opportunities and challenges.
Throughout its history, our School has been sustained and developed from generation to generation by inspiring acts of generosity, both large and small. Gifts left in wills have had, and will continue to have, a major impact on the School’s ability to provide contemporary teaching and learning facilities, and to offer young women the opportunity to experience an outstanding education.
For these reasons, I am thrilled to welcome every new member to the Elizabeth Kirkhope Circle and I am proud to present Pamela Fitz-Gibbon (1971), Vivienne Harkness (1957) and Ruth Tideman (Principal 1983 - 2000) to the Lauriston bequest society.
Susan Just and Alix Bradfield thanked the new bequestors and presented Pamela and Vivienne with special EKC Pins. Ruth Tideman, who lives in Adelaide, will receive her EKC Pin in June.
Alix Bradfield, a former parent and grandparent at Lauriston, who also chaired the School Council for six years and is a bequestor and Honorary President of the EKC said: said “It’s ex citing to leave a bequest to a world she knows nothing about but knowing that there will be a need and the education of girls will play a major part”.
If you have already made a decision to leave a gift for Lauriston in your will, please let the School know so we can welcome you to the Elizabeth Kirkhope Circle, acknowledge your contribution and explore with you the many different ways your gift can be used to benefit future Lauriston girls.
You can find out more about the Lauriston bequest program and discover stories about School benefactors at www.lauriston.vic.edu.au/bequests or by calling Bo Rutecki, Advancement Associate on 03 9864 7680.
Bo Rutecki Advancement Associate
It’s exciting to leave a bequest to a world she knows nothing about but knowing that there will be a need and the education of girls will play a major part.”
Alix Bradfield
“I was very fortunate that I was able to spend 13 years at Lauriston. Even though I was never an academic, I was very grateful to be able to develop, pursue and greatly enjoy the particular interests I did have - friends, music and, most importantly, social service.
From my earliest years I was Social Services Captain of my class and got others involved in knitting singlets or booties for babies! To encourage interest and action, I recommended our class visit the then called Berry Street Foundling Home, which made such an impression on my classmates that our class supported Berry Street for the remainder of our School years.
That experience largely influenced my career path. After spending several years as a primary School teacher, and then a member of the Australia House Promotions team in Great Britain, I became a fundraising manager for NFP organisations, including Berry Street and the Sudden Infant Death Foundation. I formed my own consultancy and ran special national fundraising events including World of Trivia for epilepsy and muscular dystrophy, and Red Nose Day for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. The education, awareness and fundraising programs I managed were made easier as a result of my primary teaching training and social service experience at Lauriston.
Following my working years, I chose to volunteer and support those charitable organisations, which directly related to my own family’s life experiences such as breast cancer (which I have had twice) and stroke (following my husband’s severe stroke 10 years ago).
I spent many years at the amazing Breast Cancer Network Australia and my local Boroondara Stroke Support Group, where I have been president for the past six years. Being involved with these two charities was my own way of saying a personal thanks for the invaluable hope, friendship, encouragement, and support that my late husband Peter and I had received from these excellent and caring organisations.
Now, at 82 years young, I am delighted to say that six of my friends from Lauriston are still my very wonderful friends today, with whom I share lunches, operas and weekends away.
My life has followed a social and community service path. Since being a young child at Lauriston I always wanted to do what I could for people in need, and I know that this stubborn determination of mine was enabled by my education at Lauriston where, through leadership roles, I was encouraged to pursue my non-academic leanings which, in turn, have allowed me to make a difference to the many wonderful and courageous people I have met along my career path.
I strongly believe that this is the strength of Lauriston educationto enable and encourage students to follow a path that will bring fulfilment to themselves, and which can help them in their chosen fields to make a positive difference to the lives of people they will meet along the way, regardless of their learning abilities while at School.
I sincerely thank Lauriston, particularly some very understanding teachers, for tolerating my naughtiness and lack of application, while at the same time allowing and encouraging me to follow the pathway I had chosen.”
“Ruth thinks with clarity, acts with great determination and has served this School with the utmost integrity … We feel honoured to have worked with her...” Nicole Lukins, Head of Senior School and Pat Fernandes, Head of Junior School in a tribute to Ruth Tideman AM in the Lauristonian in 1999.
“My term as Headmistress of Lauriston began in January 1983 and ended in July 1999. The School had an enrolment from 3-year-olds to Year 12 girls of approximately 850 with four sites in Armadale. The main campus catered for Junior School and Senior School students, while younger children were taught in houses acquired for the purpose nearby prior to my arrival.
As with society in general, change is inevitable in Schools where young people are involved, and so over the next years the School Council and I were occupied with the task of providing the wherewithal to prepare Lauriston girls to move into the rapidly approaching 21st century with all the opportunities the new era was offering.
While School fees had been designed to cover tuition, it was obvious that more funds would be needed to provide the enlarged infrastructure and programs. Schools in Melbourne, including Lauriston, began to envisage expansion by establishing foundations to raise funds specifically to address the need to expand and lower the dependence on government funding. Lauriston Foundation, one of the first foundations in the girls’ Schools, was established in 1985 and has been well supported by mums and dads, Old Lauristonians, grandparents and many others.”
Ruth Tideman was born in South Australia and studied biochemistry and organic chemistry at the University of Adelaide. After marriage, she taught in Adelaide and the United Kingdom before being appointed Deputy Headmistress of the Wilderness School in 1978. Lauriston took a new direction with the arrival of Mrs Tideman as a Headmistress in the 1980s. Among her significant initiatives were the consolidation of the Junior School and the introduction of pre-Prep classes, implementation of the Reggio Emilia philosophy for early childhood education, the introduction of the International Exchange Program and the International Baccalaureate Diploma for years 11 and 12. She was also the driving force behind the development of the Howqua campus for Year 9 girls, which opened in 1993.
Mrs Tideman was Chairman of the Invergowrie Foundation 1992–1995, and in 2001 was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for services to education.
It has been enormously rewarding to watch the Lauriston slowly but very deliberately changing, and to live through the Howqua years of our girls’ education. Playing an active role in their development was something of a milestone in my life.
At that stage in my career, I was running eight retail art shops, developing one of the largest art wholesale/distribution companies in Australia, and assisting my then husband John with running and expanding our educational paint manufacturing company in Bayswater. Art and the world of art education has been with my family for many years, with my father being instrumental in art material retail and wholesale across Australia since the late 1950s, influencing my personal business career.
On reflection, I could say Lauriston really taught me time management, or should I say, Ruth Tideman did with her dynamic and passionate but no-nonsense approach to what needed to be done. They were good lessons, helping us to evaluate how to approach life.
Our two daughters have grown to be successful and well-developed young women. Although with totally different views and roles in life, they are well grounded –something Lauriston has influenced, and which John and I greatly appreciate.
I heartily endorse Lauriston’s motto ‘A School for life’. It sits very well with me, particularly as my granddaughters will, I hope, one day join the School.
“School life was so different in the 1960s. For me, the School now is barely recognisable and so different to the days I spent in the sandpit, with warm milk bottles to greet us for morning tea, and a Tuck Shop order once a week if I was lucky!
But I am still in contact with about 10 of my School friends and we have many laughs and share many memories. That is surely a great thing!
I would have to say my particularly happy memories of Lauriston came from School experiences of my daughters Sarah (1999) and Kate (2004), and our family’s involvement with the School during their education.
It’s one of the reasons why I want to keep my involvement with Lauriston alive through my bequest to the Art Education Department of the School”.
On reflection, I could say Lauriston really taught me time management, or should I say, Ruth Tideman did with her dynamic and passionate but no-nonsense approach to what needed to be done. They were good lessons, helping us to evaluate how to approach life.”
AMANDA LYNCH (1982)
This year Amanda and her cohort of 1982 will be celebrating their 40 Year Reunion. Recently we have reconnected with Amanda who is living in the USA.
In 1982, the mantra was that Lauriston girls could achieve anything they strived for and, despite ample evidence to the contrary, Amanda Lynch (1982) took this at face value.
A circuitous and unplanned route has led Amanda to chairing the Research Board of the United Nations World Meteorological Organization (WMO). This group of 30 leading scientists from across the world is responsible for coordinating UN scientific programs and establishing research priorities for weather, water, and climate. The WMO is home to the secretariat of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which issues assessment reports on the science of, impacts from and potential responses to climate change, guiding critical international negotiations such as the Paris Agreement and the Kyoto Protocol. But this is a volunteer role. In Amanda’s day-job, she teaches students as the Sloan and George Lindemann Jr Distinguished Professor of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences at Brown University, where she is the Founding Director of the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society. Amanda also holds a position as Honorary Professor at Nordland Research Institute in Norway, and she often works as an expert consultant to the World Bank and other bodies at the United Nations. Amanda has published over 100 scientific research papers in meteorology, climate change and political science, and she just started writing her fourth book.
Driven initially by the love of mathematics fostered at Lauriston by the famous Barbara Lynch, Amanda’s career as a meteorologist, climate modeler, political scientist and philosopher spans continents and disciplines. Amanda began this journey with a mathematics honours thesis working with researchers from the Bureau of Meteorology on east coast lows, famous most recently for flooding the NSW and Queensland coasts. Amanda followed this with a doctorate in Earth Sciences at Melbourne University and then – taking a leap into the unknown – a postdoctoral fellowship and then assistant professorship in Alaska working in Utqiagvik to develop the first Arctic regional climate system model. Then followed seven years at the University of Colorado in Boulder before returning to Australia as a Federation Fellow at Monash University. Amanda missed the larger research community of the United States, so she returned to take up her current position at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. In amongst all of this, Amanda has managed to bring up a family – her son is an artist, and her daughter is a budding quantum physicist in her first year at university.
Weather and climate touch everything humans do and everything that we aspire to. Because of her fundamental commitment to human dignity, Amanda realised quite early that she needed to understand social processes as well as physics to make a real impact on the problems that matter. This is a high-risk strategy in an academic career, but one that has paid off. Her one guiding principle has always been to say yes to opportunity, and not to second guess her decisions. After all, how hard can it be? Men do it. So can we.
Abby has been living in Düsseldorf, Germany for nine years, and her whole family attends the International School of Düsseldorf, an IB World School. Abby is a teacher of Prep and her husband
Mike teaches MYP Design to Years 7 and 8. Their children, Ellie (15) is in Year 9 and Jamie (13) is in Year 7.
Abby and her sister Marnie Pearce (1995) started at Lauriston in 1983 and both went through to Year 12. Abby loved Outward Bound, Duke of Edinburgh and Music Camps. She still plays the flute in the community orchestra in Düsseldorf, and sometimes gets called in to support the flute section in the junior orchestras.
After VCE, Abby went to the University of Melbourne and did a Bachelor of Science. When she finished it was hard at the time to find jobs in scientific fields, so she went into client services in the banking and finance industry. Abby did a Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance and moved to Sydney to work for Macquarie Bank.
Abby and Mike moved to China as a “this is best for our family” option when Ellie was 18 months old, and for Abby to extend maternity time, and for Mike to work at Dulwich College Shanghai. Soon after arriving in Shanghai, they met several “teaching couples” with young families and moving around the world to exciting locations with kids and they both thought this an exciting option! At that time Abby was pregnant with Jamie, but as soon as he was born, she commenced an online post graduate diploma in primary teaching and learning. Abby says, “Online learning before online learning was commonplace!” Abby has also done a Masters in Learning and Development.
Abby says, “Life in an International School is a constant changing environment, due to students coming and going. Many families come into the community for only a couple of years and move again. This develops resilience, as friends change constantly. After being here for a long time, it is hard to say goodbye to many friends, but we are also richer for meeting more. The expat community is welcoming and friendly as everyone was new once!”
Abby loves being a teacher, and helping children develop and grow, but it is their curiosity and interest that surprises her most. Her grade level has 34 kids in it, and 25 speak a language other than English at home. All of them are also learning German.
COVID-19 lockdowns gave Abby the time to experiment with baking sourdough bread and she hasn’t been back to buying bread since. Together as a family they enjoy bike rides, which inspired their last summer holiday, cycling the full length of the Rhein River from the source in the Swiss Alps, through Austria, Liechtenstein, France, Germany, and home to Düsseldorf. They unfortunately had to stop there due to the devastating floods in Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands in July. But plan to finish it off in the first week of the upcoming summer vacation in June.
For the future, Abby is excited to be just about ready to return home! Living in Europe has been the greatest adventure and they consider themselves to be the luckiest family to explore so widely.
We look forward to welcoming Abby and her family home to Australia very soon.
We recently connected with Anushka Paris-Carter who is a much-loved member of the Class of 1989. Anushka lives between New York City and Winston-Salem, North Carolina with her two children and a 12-pound poodle who likes to hike mountains and is a proficient squirrel terrorist. Anushka’s eldest daughter Sasha, is pursuing a degree in music composition, and her youngest, Zoe, is in Year 9 at an Arts Conservatory, studying ballet. Anushka works in the theatre making plays. She also has a small business fitting and selling pointe shoes to dancers.
“I am the daughter of Estonian WW2 refugees on my mother’s side. I was raised on brown rice, tofu, no sugar, fish for breakfast, and the legacy of a weird name.
My earliest memories are of the water. Every morning there was a swim before School at Parsley Bay. Afternoons consisted of jumping off rocks into the pool at Bronte or navigating the waves at Bondi with kids from the Holsworth Centre.
My parents separated when I was four and my mother, being devoted to all things gorgeous, rented a large Victorian, in Paddington. She stocked it with a cast of characters to help pay the rent. Two of my favorite people in the world lived in that house, Grazyna Kulig and Andy Stewart. Graz and Andy have since gone on to have children of their own. One of their daughters, Tamasine Stewart (2007), is also an Old Lauristonian. I make it my business to do everything in life that they do. I married an Andy, I had two girls, and I drive the same VW that they do. They were like parents to me, and I will continue copying them always in the hopes that I will one day become one, or both of them.
I moved to Melbourne when I was 8 and a half. As a teenager I used all my magical thinking and wishing skills to try and summon work in the theatre. I spent Saturday mornings at the National Theatre in St Kilda following people in the supermarkets and bringing their physical attributes back to class to show my fellow hopeful colleagues how to create character.
Despite lacking in all talent as an actress, I was lucky enough to land a job working for the ABC. I was 11 years old. The show was called Fame and Misfortune. It starred Kylie Minogue and Ben Mendelsohn. I had a challenging role that required I become something of an arborist. I had to hang out of a tree for five days and my one line was “Yeah!” I yelled it at Kylie with all the academy award winning energy I could muster.
Life at Lauriston began in Year 9. I was so pleased to be there. I adored my English literature teacher, Jennifer O’Neal, who taught me we all lived and died alone (John Donne). I learnt that I was utterly hopeless at writing English literature essays, and that D.H. Lawrence was super saucy. Mrs O’Neal opened a world to me that was both a refuge and a lifelong source of inspiration. To this day I read fiction daily. I use poetry in my work always, and I bore people to death with my opinions about both constantly.
David Morrison, my Art teacher, helped me forget about the stage and introduced me to the Renaissance and photography. Mr Morrison helped me put together a portfolio that secured a place for me in the photography department at RMIT.
My favourite thing about Lauriston were the girls. Some of whom, to this day, remain my nearest and dearest. They’ve housed me, they’ve fed me, and we’ve raised kids together (via endless hours on FaceTime). There’s been death, divorce, taxes, and triumphs and through it all, we’ve laughed until we can’t breathe. We’ve also cried oceans together.
We all cried a lot when half my year got expelled on the last day of Year 12. There was a tram strike and Mrs Tideman thought we were pulling a stunt by not showing up for School on time. She banned us from performing our end of year concert.
I flew to New York and worked nonstop. I worked nonstop on every rat-infested, cockroach-ridden boiling hot or freezing cold stage Manhattan had to offer. I did underwater puppet shows, Shakespeare, Movement pieces, played old women, children, furniture, and rock stars. The best characters I played all had questionable job descriptions, ethics, morals, and skirt lengths.
My Aussie accent helped me book Voice Over commercials. I did looping work for Australian movie stars. I hosted the X-Games for a short stint. I helped women deliver their babies. At the same time, I was deeply sad. There was immense grief for the people and the place I’d left behind. The Australian land and outdoor living were constantly on my mind. I long for Australia and my friends constantly.
Having kids in America has complicated things even further because while my children hold Australian citizenship, their lives are here. The trade-off is that with my children came even more friends. Half of us have children with special needs.
My child, who is on the spectrum, inspired me to make a play about autism. This child has raised me in many ways I cannot even begin to enumerate. The play was my attempt to help bridge the gap between the neurotypical world and the neurodiverse world. We hired an autistic actor who has since gone on to have a hit show on Amazon. My daughter wrote music for the piece, our set designer had a son on the spectrum, one actress has a brother on the spectrum and another actress worked in special ed. We interviewed nearly 200 people in the autism community to create multiple narratives that hopefully offered more than one perspective. The play was produced Off Broadway, on Bleeker Street in Soho. It was a less flea-bitten theatre than I was used to, but it did the trick. We even had two Lauristonians in the audience! Samantha Pirenc Bright (1989) and Tami Stewart (2007).
The play brought with it a new community of friends and mentors. It remains one of the greatest joys of my professional life to this day. The play has since gone on to have a life around the United States and in Israel. I hope one day it will come to Australia. Perhaps to the stage at Lauriston Girls’ School, where I once looked out over a sea of young women dressed in blue and asked if anyone had seen a rhinoceros.”.
Lina moved to the UK in 2012 after graduating from Monash. This was driven by a desire to travel, a British passport, and the fact that her parents had amended their plans of retiring in Fiji to retiring in the UK (Lina expresses that it’s an unfortunate choice for all involved!)
Lina has lived in London now for about eight years, and recently bought a flat in Brixton in South London firmly cementing her identity as a South Londoner. She lives with her friend Cat who’s a music consultant and DJ - they both picked up roller skating during the pandemic to get out of the house and not kill each other and have kept it up ever since, with Sundays in Hyde Park a staple of the Summer. Some of Lina’s closest friends to this day are her Lauriston friends, and a lot of them have lived, or are living, in London.
Lina says, “Having friends who’ve known you through all stages of your life is an invaluable, if occasionally irritating, asset. I’ve always been very grateful for the strength of the friendships I made in my School days, they’ve kept me very very grounded over the years, and are regular hiking buddies when our schedules align. At the moment I’m trying to organise a hike in Northern Norway with two old Lauriston friends!”
While initially it was a challenge to adjust to life in the UK and especially London, Lina now feels like it’s home, and she plans to stay for the medium to long term. However, she still misses Melbourne coffee!
Lina was gracious enough to be part of this year’s Careers Expo in May at Lauriston. Dialling in from London, she was a panelist on one of the online seminars and captivated the attention of our senior students – they loved hearing her story and of her diverse and dynamic career pathway.
Following her graduation from Monash and her move to the UK, Lina completed her CIMA qualification (Chartered Management Accountant) while working for the BBC as a Finance Analyst.
In her seven years at the BBC, she has been embedded in different content making divisions, from international news to youth entertainment, with a strong focus on value for money for BBC audiences.
Lina was a Finance Business Partner for BBC News and is a member of the BBC’s youth board, but just recently has been made Private Secretary to the Chairman of the BBC. Even though this title may be UK-specific, the equivalent title may be translated to Chief of Staff. This has allowed her to be involved in the challenging and interesting task of managing the external stakeholders of a public service broadcaster.
In her time at Lauriston, she studied the IB with a focus on the sciences as her original goal had been to study medicine. She did not get into medicine and the resulting pivot to a joint B.Com/B.Sci degree was a tough choice, as was dropping out of the B.Sci one lecture in!
While it was challenging to find a new career path after working hard towards a different goal, and required making some big decisions, it ultimately led to a fascinating and varied career. What has driven Lina’s career so far to date has been a desire to have a stable profession that provides job certainty and to also work in a creative field and be able to follow artistic pursuits both inside and outside of work. Lina’s aspirations for her career are that it will always have an element of public purpose, and that she will be able to have a positive impact in what she does. Her aspirations for her home life are that she doesn’t kill her 18th houseplant. Life is all about balance!
“I’ve always been very grateful for the strength of the friendships I made in my School days, they’ve kept me very very grounded over the years, and are regular hiking buddies when our schedules align.”
Sneha Avargerimath moved to San Francisco, California after graduating from university thinking it would be fun to experience a new place for a year or so. Very soon after she arrived, Sneha met her husband and seven years later has recently married, having two weddings in India and California!
Sneha is an architect and interior designer for a small custom residential firm in Palo Alto but has also had the opportunity to start her own studio this past year which she says has been both a challenging and exciting experience.
To top it off, Sneha and her husband recently purchased a 90-year-old Spanish style house that they are slowly fixing up and turning into their dream home. Sneha is an avid traveler, a reality-TV tragic, loves to read and as of late, is enjoying gardening.
From a young age, Sneha always knew she wanted to be an architect, wanting to design ‘cool houses’. Even though she felt she had very little understanding of what that entailed, she knew it was something that she wanted to build a career and life around.
Sneha has had a lot of great mentors over the years, both in her personal and professional life. The strongest influences have been those who have pushed her to aim higher and taught her the importance of remaining curious and asking the ‘dumb’ questions.
At School, Sneha was most interested in Mathematics and Visual Communications. She liked the non-subjective aspect of Math, with the creative freedom of Vis Com.
Sneha became interested in architecture when her family designed and built their house. The chance to curate and design the environment she and her family lived in, was very appealing. She consequently did her Bachelor of Environments and Master of Architecture at the University of Melbourne, spending summers gaining work experience at a small residential firm in South Melbourne, and then finally Sneha secured a full-time position at a San Francisco-based firm after graduation.
Sneha says that even though she loves design and the process of creating, it is her interactions with people that have become the most rewarding and motivating part of her job. “Working in the residential industry, you often have the opportunity to form very personal relationships with your clients and consultants, so it’s been fun to see those become the cornerstones of my day-to-day”, she says.
Sneha explains that architecture is as much about communication as it is about design.
“We often assume that people understand our ideas or visions immediately, but it’s so important to know how to articulate them in an aspirational and considered way.”
Starting her own business this past year has been a huge milestone, but one of her biggest accomplishments has been creating a work-life balance that she is happy with.
A formal education makes for a great foundation, but there is nothing like real-world experience. Sneha’s advice: Take as many internships as you can, and continuously expose yourself to the different people and opportunities in the industry.
As of now, Sneha’s goals are to complete the large remodel project her and her husband have planned for their home, go full time with her business, and continue taking time for family and friends amongst it all.
A formal education makes for a great foundation, but there is nothing like realworld experience.”
Susan grew up in Kooyong with her parents, brother and sister and was at Lauriston for 12 years noting the school was a big part of the lives of Susan and her sister Merran Morwood (Michaelis, 1980).
She initially thought she may be destined for a career in foreign affairs or international media, but she was fascinated by airplanes and aspired to a career in aviation. She had a dream of working for Qantas and, in a time where there were not any female commercial pilots in Australia, Susan undertook a challenging and crooked path to one day become a pilot.
Susan completed a degree in marketing and joined Budget Rent-a-Car in the sales department however meeting people working for airlines and going on trips within Australia only served to increase her curiosity about flying. Susan had friends who were commercial pilots and they suggested she fly with them. Susan was immediately hooked and in 1987 she was issued her commercial licence and awarded the CAA Sir Donald Anderson Award for the best academic merit award amongst (the very limited number of) female pilots.
Susan became a flying instructor in 1988 and was given her first opportunity flying charter and regular transport flights with Air North out of Darwin. She joined Eastern Australia Airlines out of Sydney in 1991 and then joined National Jet Systems flying contract operations for QantasLink. She was based out of Canberra flying the British-built 4 engine regional jet aircraft, the British Aerospace BAe 146.
In retrospect, almost straight away when flying on the ‘146’, Susan noticed a strange odour which coincided with a range of short-term symptoms, including headaches, fatigue, difficulty concentrating and a feeling of pressure in her head. This odour was well known amongst Susan’s colleagues, but Susan was told the oil fumes were normal.
Regrettably, in July 1997 her symptoms worsened, and she feared she was having a stroke.
Susan knew that her condition wasn’t isolated and learned that there was a design flaw - a problem with all modern aircraft using ‘bleed air’. The odour, she was to later learn, was the base stock of the engine oil. Susan officially lost her pilot medical certificate in 1999 and her job in early 2000, after going public at a year-long Senate Inquiry. An Inquiry that concluded that there most definitely WAS a problem.
Susan was involved in researching the problem and would spend hours working alongside a professor at the School of Safety Science at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney. Their research found evidence that the air in aircraft comes directly off the engines unfiltered and is contaminated in normal flight.
In 2010, Susan was awarded a PhD from UNSW for her work on the health and flight safety implications of exposure to contaminated air. She went on to complete an MSc in air safety and accident investigation at Cranfield University in the UK.
Susan was diagnosed with stage 2 Invasive Lobular Breast Cancer in mid-2013. This led to a double mastectomy, reconstruction and radiotherapy and a long road to recovery.
She continued her research work and became the Head of Research for the Global Cabin Air Quality Executive (GCAQE), writing papers, speaking internationally and busier than she’d ever been.
Susan was re-diagnosed with lobular breast cancer in mid-2016 but was determined to keep going. Susan was awarded a visiting research fellow position at the University of Stirling in Scotland, which was upgraded to an ‘Honorary Senior Research Fellow’ position in 2020.
In 2021, Susan was advised that her cancer had returned and that it was now stage 4. She is currently undergoing treatment, doing well and has no adverse effects having got to it early. However, workplace exposure to chemicals should not lead to ill health - acute, chronic or a diagnosis like hers.
Susan lives in West Sussex, England, and loves her life in the country with her husband. They are building a new garden and walking on as many official ‘footpaths’ in the countryside as possible. They are also making a documentary on the cabin air topic called Aviation’s Darkest Secret and a short film to raise awareness about her story and lobular breast cancer. She has recently set up a charity foundation, the Loraine Michaelis Foundation, to help make the world a healthier place to live and work.
Kate Blamey is one of two coaches for the Australian Freestyle Mogul Team who recently won a gold medal with Jakara Anthony in the Women’s Mogul event at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
Kate was a professional mogul skier herself, before transitioning into coaching. She was Co-founder of the Australian Mogul Skiing Academy, which develops young club athletes into elite level skiers. Kate then spent three years in the USA as head coach for the highly regarded, Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club, in Colorado, where she helped qualify four young female skiers onto the US Ski Team.
After Kate’s coaching success in America, she was recruited back to the Australia to join the NSW Institute of Sport as part of the Australian national coaching team. As the only female coach Kate brought a unique set of skills to the team. Throughout the last four years, Kate was a key contributor that not only led to Australia’s sixth ever winter Olympics gold medal, but also World Championship medals and more World Cup medals.
Kate’s journey into coaching started at Lauriston where, as a young girl, she had the determination and commitment to participate in any sport or competition she could access. When she left Lauriston, Kate completed a Bachelor of Exercise and Sport Science and a Master of Human Nutrition at Deakin University, knowing that her pathway was leading her towards sport and wellbeing.
Kate takes a very wholistic approach with her coaching; she works relentlessly for her athletes to achieve success, both in sport and life. Her coaching direction is driven by understanding the individual athlete, identifying their areas of improvement, and working tirelessly to achieving the goals they both strive for. She believes it is important to be honest and upfront with her athletes, even if it is sometimes hard to hear.
Kate, along with the rest of Australia, is, of course thrilled and gratified with the amazing results of the Australian snow team and especially the success achieved by Jakara Anthony, the Gold Medal winner in the Women’s Freestyle Mogul event.
Kate was also delighted to be able to watch and support fellow Old Lauristonian Tess Coady (2018) win Bronze in the Slopestyle event.
We are so proud that Kate is a national team coach – one of very few female ski coaches in the world! We love that she knows that just because it isn’t easy and it isn’t the norm, that doesn’t mean it’s impossible.
We were delighted that Kate was the Guest Speaker at this year’s Fathers of Lauriston Dinner.
Congratulations to Tess Coady (2018) who will soon be added to our Olympic Honour Board after her Bronze Medal success in Beijing.
Tess was a student at Lauriston throughout her junior years which is when she discovered her love of snow sports. Years of dreaming big and working hard have paid off for Tess in the most delightful way and her family, and the wider Lauriston community, are so proud.
Congratulations to Caroline Ramsden (2010) who has recently been appointed Chair of the Victorian Young Finance Professionals group of FINSIA.
We are thrilled to congratulate Chloe Hooper (1991) who launched her latest book Bedtime Story in May at Readings Books in Carlton.
Bedtime Story was born in 2018 when Chloe’s partner Don was diagnosed with an aggressive illness. As a way to tell this life-changing news to their two young sons, Chloe explored children’s stories of the past to find what practical lessons children’s literature - with its innocent orphans and evil adults, magic, monsters and anthropomorphic animalscan teach about grief and resilience in real life.
Chloe also featured in a wonderful podcast with Gregory Dobbs from The Good Reading Podcast, where she chatted about the revelations she experienced in her exploration of children’s literature, how we started avoiding talking about death and loss with children, and how the right language can bring wisdom and light to a difficult subject.
The society runs four shows each year and undertakes all maintenance of the gardens. It is only managed by volunteers and unfortunately the volunteer base is slowly reducing, due to many of the volunteers ageing. The society ran their annual Plant Collectors Sale in March and were lucky to have Gardening Australia at tend to film a number of the volunteers talking about the gardens and what it is like to volunteer.
Melanie was interviewed by fellow Lauriston alumna Jane Edmanson and they talked about the importance of new generations coming to volunteer to keep the society alive. The episode is due to be shown later in the year.
Melanie would love to show the Lauriston community the Ferny Creek Horticultural Gardens, to encourage you to become a volunteer as well.
We were very excited to read about Rosheen Kaul (2009) who talks about her multi-faceted career pathway, which has led her to where she is today – Head Chef at stellar Melbourne restaurant Etta.
Melanie Davey has been volunteering at the Ferny Creek Horticultural Society since 2019. The society is in its 90th year and manages an established garden of 10 acres in Sassafras, Victoria. It’s a beautiful place, with forested spaces, full of plants like rhododendrons, and then open spaces full of perennials, proteas and rock garden plants.
The OLA is thrilled to congratulate Mim Haysom (Darragh, 1991) who has recently been recognised in the CMO Awards. Each year the CMO50 recognises Australia’s innovative and most effective marketing leaders.
CAROLINE RAMSDEN (2010)
MELANIE DAVEY (OWEN, 2004)
AND JANE EDMANSON OAM (1967)
Jacqui Jiang has recently connected and has formed a mentor relationship with a younger alumna who is currently in second year university. Earlier this year, the young alumna, having had two years of online learning, feeling a little unsettled and lacking in confidence, contacted the alum nae office at School to seek support. After careful vetting and consideration, we matched her with Jacqui who provided her with some advice, guidance, and moral support. We were so pleased when Jacqui reported to us that this mentor match was ticking all the boxes. Here is what Jacqui had to say:
“I want to say a huge thank you to the School for contacting me about the opportunity to tutor/ mentor an Old Lauristonian girl. I was asked if I could help with managing stress and university work. We figured that the best arrangement for both of us would be to organise 1-3 sessions each week, depending on her university workload and our other life commitments. My mentee has been a joy to work with - to be honest it doesn’t feel like work at all. It has been very special to connect with and give support to a Lauriston student.”
The Alumnae Office was equally delighted after receiving a note from the young graduate’s mother.
“I just wanted to say a MASSIVE thank you to Catherine McVean for helping me find a tutor for my daughter. Jacqui, the young alumna who has supported my daughter for the past few months, has worked out so well. My daughter is now confident and happy with her uni work and she is relieved to have this support. We are so grateful for the continued connection with the Lauriston community that continues long after new graduates leave.”
The alumnae office is proud to offer wonderful opportunities that supports students and young alumnae. Support may be academic, career and life support through our tutoring and mentorship program.
If you have a child who needs some academic support, or perhaps you are a young alumna who may need a little bit of advice, encouragement and wisdom from someone who has already walked the path you may be embarking on, we have dozens of alumnae and members of our community who have put their hand up to help.
Please contact Catherine McVean, Alumnae Relations Manager, via mcveanca@lauriston.vic.edu.au with details about what you’re after in a tutor or mentor, and we’ll reach out to our vast and very talented pool of members.
SHIRA SEBBAN (MOLDOFSKY, 1980)Congratulations to Shira Sebban who has been awarded a Medal (OAM) in the General Division for service to the Jewish community as part of the Queen’s Birthday Honours.
Based in Sydney, Shira is a registered community migration agent and writer. She works pro bono for Human Rights
For All, a law firm that supports asylum seekers, refugees and stateless people, particularly those in long term detention. She also serves as a Holocaust and human rights guide at the Sydney Jewish Museum, with the aim of combining lessons learned from Jewish history with her passion for social justice. Shira is also a member of Supporting Asylum Seekers Sydney (SASS).
Her articles have appeared in online and print publications including The Sydney Morning Herald, The Guardian, Biostories, The Australian Jewish News, Independent Australia, New Matilda, Eureka Street, Jewish Literary Journal, The Forward, Alzheimer ’s Reading Room, and Online Opinion.
Shira did not expect to be honoured and told us: “I always say that I am a full-time volunteer, and when I do something, I give my whole heart. While it is lovely to be honoured, I would be doing this work regardless.”
On Monday 9 May we welcomed over 70 Old Lauristonians whose children and grandchildren are current students at Lauriston.
Capturing this special photograph was indeed a challenge, and with dozens of students also involved in the photoshoot meant we had an overwhelming logistical task on our hands!
We finally managed it, with the help of several cups of coffee! Once the children went into class (and the Year 6s off to camp), many of our guests undertook a brilliant tour of the wonderful Ullmer Sports and Wellbeing Centre, due to be completed later in the year.
It was a magical morning with tradition, sentimentality, the recalling of fond memories and the celebration of the Lauriston generations a highlight for all.
We had several multi-generational families attend, including (pictured) Geraldine O’Sullivan (Newton, 1962), daughter Lucy O’Sullivan (1990) and granddaughter Georgia in Year 7.
It was such a wonderful morning to share with my daughter and granddaughter.”
“
On Friday 8 April we welcomed back the Class of 2017 to celebrate their 5 Year Reunion. The girls loved catching up with Mr Morrison, one of their favourite teachers, and they were completely excited to reunite with each other – especially considering the last two years of limited social opportunities. The girls also enjoyed sitting in their seats and exploring Irving Hall and soaking up the warm atmosphere of a place that brings back many fond memories.
The School was thrilled to welcome back nearly half of the Class of 2012 cohort on Friday 17 June. Guests were treated to a tour of the school, including a sneak-peek of the Ullmer Sports and Wellbeing Centre and a walk past the Fig Tree. A few came down from Sydney especially for the reunion and those attending in person had fun welcoming some of their cohort from the USA and Northern Territory via a livestream. It was also very touching to witness our alumnae celebrate their reunion with their teachers Noel Broadway, Trevor Smith, and Deb Scally.
The 93rd Inter-School Golf Challenge Cup was held on Monday 21 March at Commonwealth Golf Course. There were 112 women playing, mainly in groups of four. 29 Schools were represented, including this year’s Lauriston team of Bronny Sterck (1976), Phoebe Dixon (1974), Di Hasker 1992) and Amanda Allen (1976).
As always there was an individual stableford event as well as a team event. The winners were:
Kitty McEwan Memorial Trophy (Individual A Grade)
Virginia Andrew – St Leonards (38 points)
Nell Goff Memorial Trophy (Individual B Grade)
Sandy Fraser – The Hermitage (39 points)
Golf Challenge Cup (Team Event)
Clarendon (with an aggregate 129 points)
Our team finished in the top half of the field with an aggregate score of 120 points. It was a lovely day and, as the result of a successful raffle, produce stall and donations, a cheque for around $4,000 will be presented to McAuley Community Services for Women.
Amanda Allen (1976)
At the end of May, the School was thrilled to welcome back many alumnae who provided an invaluable insight into the career paths they have undertaken since leaving Lauriston. Students from Years 10 through to Year 12 attended physical and online seminars and listened to our alumnae as they spoke about the careers, the challenges they’ve encountered, and the accomplishments awarded over the years.
We invite you to visit our website to read about the following alumnae who featured in some of these seminars.
In 2021 the Old Lauristonians’ Association proudly launched a Fellowship to celebrate and support the professional development of Lauriston alumnae. In line with the OLA vision and mission, the Fellowship provides a $5,000 contribution to support an Old Lauristonian so that she can undertake professional development, research or further study in her chosen field, or enable her to deliver a unique project.
Applications for the 2022 OLA Fellowship are now open and close on Monday 1 August 2022.
In the previous edition of Lauriston Life, we were delighted to honour the Best family who has been part of the Lauriston community since 1927 with nine girls having attended the School and two girls current students today. After the publication went to print, we were advised of the sad loss of Jennifer Plowman (Best, 1964) who passed away late 2021.
Since then, we received a wonderful tribute written by Jennie’s friend Wendy Duncan (Briggs, 1964), remembering many happy times spent with the Best family.
Gregarious by nature, Jennie was very popular with students and teachers alike, displaying enormous energy and enthusiasm in all aspects of School life.
It was no surprise when Jennie was offered the position of School Captain in 1964 - an obvious and very worthy choice.
Jennie brought to her captaincy a list of fine attributes - an understanding of the responsibility of a School Captain, excellent organisational skills, a great ability to form good working relationships with people, and the ease with which she brought out the very best in those around her.
Jennie excelled at being an exceptional representative, both within the School, and outside in the wider community. Jennie always displayed the values and principles which Lauriston is known for over many, many years.
I was extremely fortunate to know the Best family and also enjoy the company and friendship, over the years, of Jennie’s sisters, Carolyn and Georgie.
When I recall childhood memories spent with Jennie during our primary and senior years, the following immediately come to mind. I remember my weekends spent with Jennie at the Best’s home - a
huge house where one could become lost and a beautiful old garden full of established trees in which to play. It was a magical and mysterious experience to spend weekends there. At night, when we went to bed, there would be so much to talk about - I remember multiple visits by Mrs Best informing us that it was surely time to go to sleep! The Best family were always so welcoming to me, and I was in receipt of much of their hospitality during my childhood years.
I was fortunate enough to share some wonderful summer holidays down at Cowes with the entire Best family. There were hot, lazy days spent at Sutherlands Beach - we would spend the entire day on the beach and in the water and, at lunchtime, devour bread rolls filled with a vast array of very tasty fillings. They were extremely happy days.
I also have very happy memories of Jennie and I regularly visiting Oaklands Hunt Club outside Melbourne. It was so exciting to see the tradition of the hunt - men in very handsome pink coats, the trumpet sounding for the hunt to begin and the wonderful pack of hounds running with the horses in search of that fox. On a cold winter’s day, there was homemade, hearty asparagus soup to enjoy, along with an array of hot pies and quiches while we moved around the hunt club grounds to catch a glimpse of the progress of the hunt.
Jennie was an excellent athlete and excelled at athletics, hockey, and tennis. During our senior years at Lauriston, Jennie and I were in the same Athletics and Hockey teams and had such fun in the matches we played against other Schools in our Association. Our favourite match-up was against Clyde (now Braemar College), a boarding School situated on Mt Macedon approximately one hour’s drive from Melbourne. We loved the fact that we had to travel outside Melbourne, the competition was fierce, and we mostly played against boarders from the country.
After the match, we were invited to lunch where the tables were groaning with the most wonderful collection of homemade delicacies, and we were always the most eager of participants.
I also remember the day Jennie purchased her first car - a Triumph - we all thought it was the most sophisticated event in the world to drive one of these zippy little cars. After our exams had finished, we drove down to Torquay with a group of friends who had organised a house to rent at the beach. It was so much fun to plan it all, how we would cater for an entire week, what would our wardrobes consist of and the excitement of being away with a group of fine friends and being independent was very exciting indeed.
Jennie will be missed beyond measure by all her family and her many friends made over a lifetime from the many and varied activities and interests she pursued and participated in with such relish. With loving condolences.
Vale, Jennie.
Wendy Duncan (Briggs, 1964)
Jennie will be missed beyond measure by all her family and her many friends.”
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Rosemary Olive Upjohn was born in November 1930 and attended Lauriston from Grade 1 in 1936, right through to completing Year 12 in 1947. She was a lovely friend to many and a dedicated sports woman throughout her School years.
Lauriston was deeply saddened to hear that Rosemary passed away on 27 December 2021. She will be missed by her sister June Cameron (Upjohn, 1951), brothers John and David and sister-in-law Brenda Upjohn (Doggett, 1952).
She was a loving mother to Sarah Beaumont (Gough, 1974), Anna Le Deux (Gough, 1980) and son Stewart. Rosemary was also an adored Granny Rose.
We extend our heartfelt condolences to the Gough and Upjohn families.
BERYL SCHUMER (1941)It is with much sadness that we advise our community of the passing of Beryl Schumer from the Class of 1941. During her time at School, Beryl loved her sport and was involved in tennis and hockey. In her final year, Beryl was Dux of the School. Beryl was Vice Captain of the Hockey Team in 1941 and was Vice Captain of Mitchell House. Beryl was also a Prefect in her final year at Lauriston.
Our deepest condolences go to her sister Doris Ross (Schumer, 1942) and her family.
ALISON WESTERN (Smith, 1949)It is with much sadness that we advise our community of the passing of Alison Western (Smith), who was a beloved friend and member of the Class of 1949. Alison passed away on 21 January 2022 after a long battle with dementia.
At School, Alison was a keen tennis player, and she continued her connection to Lauriston throughout her life, often attending School occasions where she would meet up with her friends.
Alison will be missed by her children Karen, Rick, David and Julia, son-in-law Filip, daughter-in-law Heather, 9 grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
MARGARET MCPHERSON (Harrison/Falk, 1953)Lauriston Girls’ School together with the Old Lauristonians’ Association was saddened to learn of the passing of Maggie McPherson (Harrison/Falk), who was a member of the Class of 1953. Maggie was the daughter of Old Lauristonian Barbara Falk (Cohen, 1928). Maggie passed away on 11 February 2022.
We send our best wishes to Maggie’s family.
was a lovely friend to many and a dedicated sports woman.”
We were saddened to be advised of the passing of Cherie Glaser. Cherie was a member of Andrews House, was a Probationer at the School in 1951 and studied English Expression, Modern History and Art.
It was no surprise to learn that Cherie, along with her husband Walter Glaser, were a very professional writer and photographer team, who travelled the world to write interesting, offbeat material for publications worldwide.
This interest and fascination for travel may possibly have been inspired by Cherie’s husband’s history dating back to WWII in Austria, 1938. Cherie’s husband’s family’s emigration to Australia was instigated by a group of Melbourne guests at a dinner party in Toorak, held in 1938!
Cherie and Walter took a trip to Turkey some years ago where they met a young Romanian. He had escaped from the communist regime and wanted to make his way to the West. They tried to assist him in obtaining a visa and helped to support him in Turkey until he could emigrate to Canada.
Care and compassion for others has crossed the generations of the Glaser family. Walter and Cherie would often share the story of their son, living in Israel and who took in a Muslim family who had fled Sudan on foot, sheltering the refugee family of six in his home in Jerusalem while campaigning for the rights of asylum seekers.
“We need not be a head of state or similar in order to change the world,” says Cherie’s husband, Walter.
MARGARET O’BRYEN (Goode, 1947)Lauriston Girls’ School is saddened to learn of the passing of much-loved member of Class of 1947, Margaret O’Bryen who passed away on 14 February 2022. Margaret was a very passionate Old Lauristonian and was so very proud to be a Laurie girl. This was evident by the stories, memories, and memorabilia she collected over the years.
We were thrilled to welcome her two years ago, to the Founders’ Day Assembly and luncheon, accompanied by her loving son Mark, where she clapped along and thoroughly enjoyed coming back to her School.
ELIZABETH BOLTON (Trumble, 1951)
Lauriston Girls’ School together with the Old Lauristonians’ Association were recently saddened to hear that Elizabeth Bolton (Trumble, 1951) passed away on 2 December 2021.
[Cherie] travelled the world to write interesting , offbeat material for publications worldwide.”
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Our co-educational 3 and 4-year-old Kindergarten programs are grounded in robust inquiry and play-based learnings which support children as they are challenged to solve problems and engage with their community and the environment.
A combination of an expertly planned curriculum with rich learning environments means our children can immerse themselves in both child and teacher-led play, learning to embrace new experiences, build social skills and develop their curiosity.
It’s a grounding that has seen Lauriston Kindergarten create children who can express themselves with confidence,developfoundational skills in literacy and numeracy and above all, enjoy learning.
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