Building our community

One of the many aspects of St Michael’s history that became clear during 2020, our 125th anniversary year, was the School’s proud tradition of philanthropy. The School has greatly benefitted from philanthropic gifts since its very first days. The initial purchase of Marlton House was funded through a philanthropic gift. In later years, The Quad was the subject of a blockbuster fundraising campaign enthusiastically led by Sister Scholastica, and the Gymnasium was funded through a campaign conducted by parents. It was therefore fitting that in our Anniversary year, the School continued the tradition, and we conducted our first ever Giving Day to support an expansion of the Scholarship program. It is the intention to grow the philanthropy program in the coming years to support key projects of the School and a philanthropy strategy has been developed with two main aims: • to establish a sustainable scholarships program through planned growth of the St Michael’s Scholarship Fund, and • to assist the School to maintain, and continually improve, the facilities and infrastructure expected of a leading independent school to provide the best learning environment for our students.

For more than 100 years the St Michael’s Scholarship program has helped provide students with the benefit of a high-quality education that has enabled them to explore their talents, unlock their potential and given them the skills and knowledge to change the world. Our ambition is to expand our Scholarship program so that we can continue to help as many students as possible have the same opportunities. In 2022, our next Giving Day will encourage our extended community to help us achieve our goal of expanding the number of Scholarships we offer each year. The redevelopment of St George’s Church is the second major philanthropy project for which we will be seeking support in 2022.

The School is justifiably proud of its Performing Arts program which both nurtures students of outstanding talent and encourages all students to discover the joy of creativity. In recent years the Performing Arts program has been based in the heritage-listed St George’s Church. This much-loved building has a rich history as a vibrant hub for the community. However, over time the building has degraded making it increasingly unfit for the School’s purpose and putting at risk its distinctive heritage features. We are therefore delighted that, in 2022, St George’s will be redeveloped to house state-of-the-art performance facilities, including a 400-seat auditorium. The design will leave intact the original fabric of the building and preserve the many heritage features, so that on completion the Church will be a striking blend of tradition and innovation. Read more about this exciting project on page 11. In the coming months we look forward to telling you more about these important projects and how you can be involved.

St Michael’s Grammar School 25 Chapel Street, St Kilda VIC 3182 Australia Telephone: +61 3 8530 3200 community@stmichaels.vic.edu.au stmichaels.vic.edu.au

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