From the Chair of Council

It is with great pride that we celebrate the wonderful achievements of our school and share that success with our St Aidan’s community.

Fostering a sense of community at St Aidan’s is, of course, one of the Council’s fundamental goals. When you share your victories and your achievements with your community, the value of that achievement suddenly multiplies. Take the recent ATAR results for the cohort of 2022. These stellar results will open doors for the seniors of 2022, but they also serve as exemplars for the seniors of 2023 and beyond. These senior students are showing their younger peers what’s possible, showing their parents, their siblings, their grandparents, their friends and their teachers that all of the support they’ve received has paid off. Because that’s the purpose of community –to support each other through times of need and congratulate each other during times of success.

Our St Aidan’s community is not just the students and staff. It also includes the Council, the Foundation, the P&F, the Old Girls Association and of course our closest neighbours (geographically speaking), our corporate partners, and our friends.

Each of these stakeholders contribute in various ways to help St Aidan’s grow.

Each student at St Aidan’s is seen.

Each individual is counted.

Each girl is encouraged to strive to meet their personal goals.

One example of our commitment to connecting community is the integration of the Japanese school into the St Aidan’s campus. In the most literal, physical sense, we’ve introduced an entire group of people to our space, welcomed people from another part of the world into our own, and vice versa. Inviting these students into our school has given them a new vantage point from which to view Australia, and Australian education. And by the same token, sharing our space with them means our access to Japan, its people and its culture, is more accessible.

Likewise, the recent approval for the construction of our sporting facilities at Ambiwerra presents a new world of possibilities for the St Aidan’s community. By welcoming the wider Ambiwerra community to use those facilities, we will effectively expand the St Aidan’s community in a mutual exchange. We aim to signal that

St Aidan’s is not just a physical place, a collection of buildings, or a place purely for academia. We want to make it clear that we are members of the wider community, and that said, the wider community also belongs to the St Aidan’s family.

Our accomplishments aren’t possible without the support of the whole community. Without your interest in and passion for sports, there’d be no use for such facilities, for a space that allows us to connect with the wider community in a real and holistic way. And the development of the space, and many others like it, wouldn’t be possible without the generous donations made by families and friends of the school.

The great blessing of a strong community is that it builds itself; when the school receives donations, it results in the kinds of facilities and programs that make up the educational excellence and nurturing environment that St Aidan’s is renowned for. As that reputation grows, more young students and their families wish to join this amazing community, and more resources become available, to further build the St Aidan’s community, and the cycle continues.

Our Principal, Ms Toni Riordan, gave a speech earlier this year in which she reflected on what a community truly is, and she had this to say:

“I believe a strong and vibrant community is made of people with a shared set of values and experiences defined by its purpose for being –and ours at St Aidan’s is to be a world-leader in girls’ education.”

St Aidan’s is many things: a pillar of living faith, a benchmark of educational excellence, a hub of inspiring professionals and the epitome of a nurturing environment. But most of all, it’s exactly what Ms. Riordan said - a strong and vibrant community. The vibrance and focus on connecting community is what allows us to fly together.

Mr Stephen Green Chair of Council BE Civil (Uni NSW)