October Monthly Newsletter 2024

‘All I wanted to be was myself. And for me that meant flying.’
Elinor Smith, a remarkable young woman, and the youngest pilot in the world at age 16 in 1927

At St Hilda’s we remain committed to ensuring each St Hilda’s girl is afforded every opportunity to explore her gifts and talents, confident in her ability to fly, and succeed, in her chosen endeavours. We work to provide stable flight, through an exceptional academic program, a rich and diverse co-curricular program, and a lived experience of the St Hilda’s sisterhood, girls championing one another and celebrating together each time a girl takes flight towards her dreams and ambitions.

There are no limits, only sky, and there is so much to celebrate when it comes to our remarkable St Hilda’s girls. Over the break, Year 12 student, Audrey, was awarded 2^nd Place in the John Locke Institute Global Essay Prize in the Economics category, out of 35,000 international entries. She was delighted to also be invited to share her work as a speaker at the prize-giving ceremony in London, and to meet Former UK Prime Minister Liz Truss.

At the recent Gold Coast Women in Business Awards 2024, Year 11 Student Sarah, was awarded the Empowering Young Women’s Award. Sarah was one of three students we nominated, and her passion for ensuring equity and access to medical care in regional and remote Australia is a reflection of Non Nobis Solum. She was the recipient of a St Hilda’s Foundation QScan Grant this year and she helps at youth camps in her breaks. Sarah was one of three girls nominated by St Hilda’s and the judging panel spoke very highly of her and fellow Year 11 student, Katy, and Year 10 student, Sienna. This is the second consecutive year a St Hilda’s girl has received this prestigious award, with current Year 12 student, Zara, named the Gold Coast Women in Business Awards, Empowering Young Women of the Year in 2023.

Last week, our Meta Masters Club, supported by Senior School Teacher, Majda Benzenati hosted the inaugural ‘She Leads’ event. A transformative event dedicated to empowering young women across Gold Coast Schools. It was lovely to host girls from All Saints Anglican School and AB Paterson College, with hopes to include further schools in future years. Speakers include Karen Hooper (Head of Productivity, Queensland Treasury), Christie Perrin (Director of GWEN Creative), Joanna Suter (Founder of Mojo Dance), Samantha Reynolds (Managing Director of Braeside), Joanne Bergamin (Director, Communication and Sustainability QEM), Eleyna Benzenati (Founder of Eleven Speech Pathology), and Karen Phillips (Executive Director of Women in Business Australia). An event for young women, being championed by young women, I offer my thanks to all of the guest speakers and sponsors, and to our St Hilda’s girls and Mrs Benzenati for such a special day.

Our Junior School girls have also continued to showcase the spirit of Non Nobis Solum – Not for Ourselves Alone, engaging in service activities within and beyond the St Hilda’s community. In the lead up to Christmas, Junior School girls have been busy preparing special shoeboxes filled with presents, toys, items of clothing and care items for Samaritan’s Purse Christian Charity, who distribute these to children living in vulnerable situations. The Year 6 girls have continued to be wonderful big sisters and role models to our younger girls in Junior School.

The strong sense of belonging and connection within our community is driven by the enthusiasm and commitment of our families. Our connected community makes the St Hilda’s learning journey so special for our students. It has been such a pleasure to share the special occasions of the Year 11 Presentation Ball, the Senior House Chapel Services and Dinners, and the Co-Curricular Awards evenings for Sport and Music over these past few weeks. Thank you to our parents and carers, and in particular our Parent Support Groups, who continue to support our St Hilda's girls to be so involved in life-wide learning. We also inducted our new Student Leaders in the first week of term. Reflecting on the growth in our girls this year, it is truly inspiring, and made possible through the commitment of the families, the staff and the girls themselves.

We held Speech Night earlier this term and it was an incredible celebration of academic achievement, service and character. It was such a pleasure to acknowledge our very strong Year 12 cohort and all of our hard-working girls in Years 7 – 12. We set the room for 1400, and most seats were full. The showcasing and celebration of exemplary journey of service, academic achievement and character of our Year 12s was one of the primary drivers behind this changed format. In 2025, Speech Night will be held in Week 2, Term 4, prior to External Exams for Year 12, 2025. Year 7 – 11 Academic Awards for Semester Two, 2024 will be presented at the Scholars Assembly in the first week of classes in 2025, and Subject Prizes will be presented at the Final Assembly this year. Our top performing academics from the class of 2024 are also invited to return to the Scholars Assembly to share their advice with our younger girls.

On the final day of the year, Thursday 21 November, will hold a Whole of School Chapel service at 11:55 am, in the Sports Complex. Families are warmly invited to attend. We will thank and acknowledge departing and retiring staff as part of this service. School will finish at 3:25pm on the final day.

Next week the Year 12 student move into their External Exams, well prepared and confident in their ability to achieve their intended results. I applaud our girls and the dedicated staff who have supported them along the journey. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers.

As you will read throughout the newsletter, it has been an immensely positive start to Term 4, with our St Hilda’s girls in full flight, engaged in their learning, co-curricular activities and sporting and cultural pursuits with great dedication and success. I applaud the wonderful efforts of our girls.

Thank you for your ongoing support.

Mrs Virginia Warner
Principal

Last Wednesday I designed the weekly Year 3-6 Chapel Service around the story of St Francis as his feast day had fallen on the previous weekend. It was rather ironic that we couldn’t hold the service as it was raining so heavily at the time for it to begin that the decision was made to cancel to save the girls from being drenched on their way in and out of the Chapel! This is rather ironic as not only is St Francis the patron saint of animals, merchants and the co-patron saint of Italy but also, in the modern period, he has become the patron saint of ecology. So, rain certainly falls into his prevue! St Francis was a wealthy citizen of Assisi when only twenty, he experienced the danger of war and a year-long captivity because of it. When he returned to Assisi, he was a much more reflective man that the one who left. Nevertheless, he did attempt one more warlike endeavour as he enlisted in the Papal States army, but he only reached the gates of the city when he heard a voice telling him “Follow the master rather than the man.” A later voice directed him “to go and repair my church”.

At first, Francis took this literally and started rebuilding a dilapidated church but then he realised that it was not a physical building he was to rebuild but to recall the Church to its original vocation. This he accomplished not by words but how he lived his life. It would be a life of poverty and devotion to others which richly amplified a saying attributed to him, that one should always preach the gospel even if in the last resort one had to do so using words! Although he set out to be a hermit, his personality, holiness and vision gradually drew others to follow his example. It was not his organisational skill or leadership which built up this body of followers but rather the charism of his faith and devotion. This was not only shown in his love for the Eucharist, but in his sincere humility and in his insistence that churches should be well kept in honour of the presence of God. He died at the relatively young age of 44 but his example and teaching live on in the women and men of the Franciscan Orders to this day. The prayer attributed to him is well known but I changed into the plural so we have could pray it together in the Chapel Service:

Lord, make us instruments of your peace:
where there is hatred, let us sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.

O divine Master,
grant that we may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying
that we are born to eternal life. Amen.

Father Patrick

Speech Night and Final Twilight Concerts of 2024

The last week of Term 3 and Week 2 of the Term 4 have seen musicians from Years 1 -12 present some fantastic individual and ensemble performances at two Twilight Concerts held as a culmination of the year’s work. Some of our performers were stepping out to perform for the first time, whilst others were testing their performance skills in preparation for upcoming examinations. The audience also were treated to two performances by Senza Ragazzi in their final performances for the year. Congratulations girls!

Further congratulations to all of our musicians who produced some masterful performances as part of Speech Night. Senior Concert Band, Senior String Ensemble, Senior Choir and Senza Ragazzi performed with outstanding energy and skill on the evening.

Secondary SHEP Participants
The 2024 Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University State Honours Ensemble Program for Secondary Schools were held from 26 - 29 September.
In the SHEP program St Hilda’s had 7 students taking part including:

In partnership with schools across Queensland, SHEP connects the finest young musicians with a team of eminent international and national conductors in pursuit of musical excellence.

The girls are always honoured to be nominated by the school for this prestigious program with representatives from close to 200 different schools throughout Queensland in over 12 different ensembles (jazz vocal ensemble, vocal ensembles, wind orchestras, string orchestras and guitar ensemble).

Over the course of rehearsal time with like-minded peers, the students mastered a wide variety of works and their dedication and skills are always very evident in the final concerts as they proudly represent their schools.

Music Fest

On Sunday, 13 October, Junior String Ensemble and Concert Band along with Years 4-6 Choir and Vocal Ensemble, participated in the 2024 Music Fest where not only did the girls perform for esteemed adjudicators but also had the opportunity to work with these adjudicators in workshops following on from their performances. Our musicians were very impressive in the manner in which they took on board all the suggestions of the adjudicators, successfully developing their performance techniques in the process.

Congratulations to Mrs Shari Willner, Mrs Alice Neldner and Mr Chen Yang on preparing our ensembles of this event and congratulations to our musicians for the Silver Awards gained by Junior Concert Band and Junior String Ensemble and the Gold Awards to Years 4-6 Choir and Vocal Ensemble.

Co-curricular Music Awards – Senior School – 11 October

The Co-curricular Music Awards were held on Friday, 11^th October, ofr the first time in the Granowski Auditorium, at which all of our Senior School musicians performed and were congratulated on their efforts during 2024. A great night was had by all and thanks must go to the girls and staff for making the night a fantastic celebration of all things musical. The 2024 Senior Awards list is included here

Music Awards 2024 – Senior School

Music Examination Results

Results from AMEB Music Examinations are starting to arrive from the earlier examinations in recent weeks and congratulations are extended to the following musicians on their hard work to enable the achievement of such pleasing results:

Upcoming Performances

Preparations are now well under way for the remaining Term 4 performance events for you to note in your diaries. For all unshaded events, look out for invitations on Parent Lounge to confirm you daughter’s involvement.

Miss Janette Kelly
Head of Music

School Sport Shout Outs!

QGSSSA Badminton – Congratulations to all St Hildas teams, in particular our Pennant winning Senior B, 9B, 9C and 7B teams.

Queensland School Sport 13-19 Years Track and Field – Congratulations to Paris Barnes who placed 4^th in Shot Put with a PB of 10.25m. Congratulations also to Dior Scholz placing first in the 100m, 200m, 400m and High Jump events.

Non School Sport Shout Outs!

INFQ Queensland State Titles – Congratulations to Georgia Bos who competed at the INFQ Queensland State Netball Titles at Ipswich over the holidays. QLD State Team selection is held during the tournament, and Georgia was selected into the U14 Qld State Team for Indoor Netball. Georgia will be going to Nationals in Perth in February 2025. Way to go Georgia!

The St Hilda’s Sport Team regularly gets school sport results and achievement. The Sport Team loves to be kept up to date with our girl’s achievements across a wide range of club and non-school sports. Please email [email protected] with any sporting news that we can recognize and celebrate!

For all enquiries relating to Middle/Senior Sport at St Hilda’s please email [email protected] and ensure that you have downloaded the isthildas app for all our sporting notices.

Mel Lilley
Director of Sport and Coaching

Don't Miss Out on St Hilda's Foundation's New Event - Business Luncheon!

Join us for an inspiring afternoon featuring two incredible guest speakers and immerse yourself in powerful stories and invaluable insights.

Our keynote speakers include Michael Crossland, a prominent businessman, who will share his extraordinary journey of overcoming immense challenges, both personal and professional, highlighting the transformative power of perspective.

Rebecca Sparrow, a prominent businesswoman and author, will offer profound advice on cultivating lasting friendships, nurturing meaningful connections, and building enduring bonds.

Stay with us for an intimate Q&A session afterward to delve deeper into their experiences and wisdom.


Enjoy a delicious two-course lunch paired with a three-hour beverage package.

Date: Friday, 25 October 2024
Time: 11.30 am for 12pm Start until 3pm
Venue: Royal Benowa Ballroom, RACV Royal Pines Resort
Tickets: Individual $190 each | Table of 10 $1,800


This event supports the continuous scholarship program, graciously backed by the St Hilda's Foundation.

Upcoming Events

Click to view upcoming Foundation events here.

Upcoming Community Events

Click to view here.

OGA Cookbook

St Hilda’s Bush to Beach Cookbook is full of recipes, images and recollections from Old Girls about life at St Hilda’s. Some of the recipes in this cookbook have been passed down through generations, some are incredibly simple, others more complex.

Traditional favourites feature along with dishes that reflect the diverse backgrounds and cultures of the many generations of girls that have made St Hilda’s School what it is today.

St Hilda’s Bush to Beach Cookbook will inspire you! It’s a trip down memory lane and a time capsule for treasured recipes and a must-have for your kitchen.

Head to the Uniform Shop to purchase one just before Christmas!