From the Principal

Welcome everyone to the Conanti Corona Magazine for 2023.

This year, we launched our new Strategic Plan for 2023 - 2025 titled Today’s Boys, Men for Tomorrow. It outlines our vision for the future of St Mary’s College.

We are, proudly, a Catholic boys school in the Edmund Rice tradition, founded in 1899. The social landscape that Edmund found in Ireland when he arrived in Waterford was unjust where many lived in poverty and social structures deeply oppressed the majority of the population. In 1802, he set up a free school for boys living in poverty. His aim was to recognise the dignity of each individual and to liberate them by providing an outstanding education where boys could become whatever they imagined for their future. We hope that you see the echoes of Edmund’s work at St Mary’s College today.

What is the reality of 2023 at St Mary’s College? What would you see if you walked the halls here? Hopefully, Conanti Corona will show that our boys are all at once funny and serious, playful and a little lazy, honest and truly forgiving human beings, connected and disconnected - all wrapped up in a fascinating 1.2-1.9 metre package of testosterone. They are fiercely loyal to the College and to each other. They are diverse - our boys come from the most broken and detached family circumstances to the most affluent, engaged families in the Darling Downs - and from around the world - and we are proud of this. St Mary’s boys are academic achievers, take the lead roles in our school musicals and choirs, help the community in the name of justice, take on the strongest sporting competition SEQ has to offer and care for each other in the name of brotherhood.

Therefore, our role together is to form Men of Tomorrow - young, gentlemen who understand the modern world and to embrace it - with its technology, disruption, and endless possibilities. My hope is that our young men aim for their best lifewhether this be in Toowoomba, other parts of Australia, or beyond. We understand the “working-class” roots of this school, but we want them to truly accept that they are highly intelligent and skilful individuals, ready to take on the world. The most obvious example right now is our 2023 membership of Gateway to Industry - Aerospace, and our partnership with Boeing Defence Australia. We are well-placed on the doorstep of the Wellcamp Airport development for our young men to take advantage of this opportunity.

Conanti Corona 2023 provides a window into the story that is St Mary’s College, Toowoomba. My sincere thanks to our Director of Marketing and Communications, Tyhla Roper, for the publication. As you absorb the stories and pictures within, we hope that you feel part of the journey towards developing our Men for Tomorrow.