October Monthly Newsletter 2023

“Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere.” – Anonymous Proverb

Our first week of the term was marked as a successful start to Term 4 with a number of events already completed. Last Saturday, we were pleased to host the traditional Year 11 Presentation Ball where I had the honour of presenting the Year 11 girls with their Senior badge welcoming them into Year 12. The event was attended by the Year 11 parents and special guests, and it was a wonderful celebration of the 2024 Seniors. I would like to thank Mr Tim Crowe, Ms Sheri Upasiri, Miss Laura Miller and Mrs Simone Crowther for their excellent organisation and co-ordination of the Pres Ball.

The All-Schools Touch Tournament was held last weekend at the Gold Coast Performance Centre, and the first round of the QGSSSA Badminton Championship which was played on Saturday at Ipswich Girls’ Grammar School. Our girls represented St Hilda’s with great pride and achieved success at both of these events.

This week we were pleased to welcome the return of our House Dinners with the Banksia, Karragaroo and Melaleuca events celebrated on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights respectively. It was wonderful to share the dinner celebration with the parents of the Year 12 girls in each House. With the return to tradition, awards were presented to the Year 12 girls in each House and a special gift was shared with each graduating girl to signify the upcoming shift where each Year 12 student will become an Old Girl upon leaving the school gates for the last time in a few weeks. Thank you to the St Hilda’s Foundation for sponsoring these special gifts. Thank you also to the Heads of House and Mrs Devlin for the organisation of the House Dinners.

It was my honour to attend the 2023 Mayor’s Technology and Innovation Awards at Bond University on the evening of Monday 9 October. A team of our Year 11 engineering students were one of 12 finalists for their CardioCare innovation. It was with great anticipation and excitement that our St Hilda’s team were awarded first place and awarded the People’s Choice Award. It is the first time that a single school has won two awards in this competition. We are very proud of the girls for their creative innovation, their excellent presentation and professional responses when being questioned by the judges. The girls demonstrated a very high standard of ingenuity and innovative thinking. Thank you to Mr Berkmortel for his work and support of the girls.

Well done to the Junior School girls who performed in our first Twilight Concert for Term 4 on Thursday 5 October. The girls performed confidently and the breadth of talent within our school is very impressive. Thank you to Ms Kelly and our Music staff for their commitment and support of our young St Hilda’s musicians.

Finally, I encourage all in our community to read the latest release of the Spirit Magazine – Spring edition. As we continue our focus on the history and tradition of St Hilda’s through the stories of our school, the stories of the journeys of our Old Girls are very inspiring and demonstrate how remarkable our St Hilda’s girls, present and past, are in what they achieve and their attitude to being the best woman they can be.

Enjoy reading this month’s newsletter as important information is shared about the happenings from different areas of the school. I look forward to sharing the term ahead with our girls and families, and I hope to connect with you at the various community events planned throughout the term.

Mrs Amanda Shuttlewood
Acting Principal

This week each of the three Senior School Houses are saying farewell to their Year 12’s. This means that there are House Eucharists and Dinners running from Tuesday to Thursday. In each House the House Captains are giving the reflection during the Eucharist. The first Bible reading describes the call of Samuel to be a prophet of God and has the resounding sentence: “Here I am send me” which is a brilliant depiction of someone grasping their vocation. In Samuel’s case, of course, a vocation to be spokesman for God and to speak out against social injustice. He indeed is an example of the School’s motto: Non Nobis Solum – Not for Ourselves Alone.

The Gospel Reading has two foci: “Do to others as you would have them do to you” and “it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks”. As regards the first focus, all the major world religions have some form of this Golden Rule, but Jesus puts it in a very personal way. Goodness is not seen always in the large aspects of life but in the everyday reactions we have with each other; from helping others to dealing with aggressive people.

The second focus moves from our behaviour towards others to concentrate on what sort of person we are. Our actions and words have consequences for good or bad. As Shakespeare put it in the play Hamlet (in the scene where Polonius is advising his son): “To thy own self be true then follows the night, the day thou canst not be false to any other man.” We are judged by our words and actions just as a tree is known by its fruit our character is known by what we say and do! Therefore, putting the two readings together the lesson is that not only should we accept our vocation – whatever that might be – but also live that vocation with a complete awareness of others. Our thoughts, words and actions should be directed towards the good of all and not just the completion of a task. However meritorious that task may be.

Fr Patrick Duckworth
School Chaplain

Final Twilight Concerts of 2023

The last week of Term 3 and first two weeks of Term 4 have seen musicians from Years 1-12 present some fantastic individual and ensemble performances at three Twilight Concerts held as a culmination of the year’s work. Many of our string 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 a performance by Senza Ragazzi and Years 4-6 Vocal Ensemble.

Congratulations girls!

Secondary SHEP and AHEP Participants

The 2023 Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University State Honours Ensemble Program and Australian Honours Ensemble Program for Secondary Schools were held from 27 September - 1 October. Particular congratulations Lucy Holt (voice) in Year 12 and Aurora Salmon (flute) in Year 10 on their success in gaining entry to the highly competitive AHEP program – an outstanding achievement.

In the SHEP program, we had a further 3 students taking part including:

In partnership with schools across Queensland, SHEP and AHEP connect 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 and this year they had over 4,000 nominations from music teachers throughout Queensland for this particular program with just on 1,000 successfully offered a place in this intake, representing close to 200 different schools thought Queensland over 12 different ensembles (jazz vocal ensemble, vocal ensembles, wind orchestras, string orchestras and guitar ensemble).

Over the course of 4 days/18 hours 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.

Upcoming Performances

Preparations are now well underway 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 your daughter’s involvement.

Janette Kelly

Head of Music

School Sport Shout Outs!
All Schools Touch

Touch Captains Cilla Monie & Holly Smith

Senior Badminton

Last Saturday, our Year 10 and Senior teams went to compete in QGSSSA Badminton. After many weeks of training, the competition day finally came and everyone who competed played incredibly well and enjoyed the day, all while pulling out some impressive results. The Senior A, B, C and 10B all came away with third place which is an amazing effort. 10A came away with second place, 10C came 7th place and Opens placed 8th. All the teams played incredibly well, and we are all looking forward to seeing how the year 7, 8 and 9 teams do next weekend. 

Badminton Captain – Audrey Theobald

Winter Fixtures Round 9 – Netball

For the last game of the season, we had some really tough competition. We would like to commend all the girls on keeping their heads high and making every goal count. Although we didn’t have many victories against St Peters, many teams reached their team goal which is something to be extremely proud of. St Peters were lovely enough to hand out who they thought was the “player of the game” and congratulations to the girls who received these.

Shout out to the Senior As, Senior Cs and the 10As for sticking out the heat and maintaining their energy levels and spirit.

Thank you girls, for such an amazing season, your sportsmanship and support for your peers is something to be proud of, thank you to all the coaches, Heads of Sport and parents for making this season possible and so enjoyable. Goodluck for next year.

Netball Captains – India Rafter & Maisie Alexander

Winter Fixtures Round 9 – Tennis

Last Saturday, our Opens, Seniors and Junior Teams played their last round of QGSSSA Tennis versing St Peters. All our teams played exceptionally well having heaps of fun and giving their absolute best effort in each and every game.

Massive congratulations to the Opens Team becoming the champions this year undefeated through the whole season, along with Senior A coming home with a 2nd place and Senior B and Senior C also winning the 1st place flag. Thank you to all the girls who participated in tennis this year. Being in my last year, I made so many memories and a lot of new friends throughout the tennis season.

A quick shout out to Gabi who had a massive singles match going into a tiebreak. You truly showed a lot of team spirit and demonstrated so much energy and commitment during the whole season. Thank you again and we hope you all participate next year. 

Tennis Captain – Dayna Whiteley-Hall

Winter Fixtures Round 9 – Volleyball

Volleyball Captains – Natalie O’Grady & Jessica Jolly

Winter Fixtures End of Season Results – Netball

Winter Fixtures End of Season Results – Tennis

Club & Non-School Sport Shout Outs!

* Congratulations to Elise Virr who ventured across to New Zealand over the holidays gaining valuable ITF points and now a Tennis World Ranking Number. Way to go Elise.

* The Moreton Group 2023 QLD Optimist State Titles – Congratulations to Addison Greenwood, entering her first Open Fleet regatta, Addie came home with 3rd Female achieving her goal of a podium finish. Way to go Addie!

The St Hilda’s Sport Team regularly gets school sport results and achievements. 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 recognise and celebrate!

Middle/Senior Sport information regarding trials, training and competition is communicated directly to students and can also be found via the school app.

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

St Hilda's Foundation 10 Year Anniversary Gala

Join us for a night of celebration at the St Hilda's Foundation 10 Year Anniversary Gala Dinner on 2 November, hosted at the magical Warner Bros. Movie World.

Your VIP experience commences with pre-dinner drinks and canapes followed by a two-course meal and a four-hour beverage package.

TABLE OF 10 - $2,500

INDIVIDUAL TICKET - $260pp

Dress Code: Formal, Black Tie

* Please note that this is an 18+ event.

Click here to purchase your tickets and join us for a St Hilda’s Foundation event that is not to be missed.

Taylor Swift Raffle

EXCEPTIONAL VIP PRIZE - TAYLOR SWIFT CONCERT EXPERIENCE

Don't miss your chance to secure raffle tickets in advance! We are presenting a rare opportunity of only 500 tickets for an exclusive opportunity to win 2 x Taylor Swift "Karma is My Boyfriend" concert tickets. This extraordinary prize package includes:

• 2 X A Reserve Floor Tickets
• Special Set of Four (4) Taylor Swift Prints
• Exclusive Taylor Swift VIP Merchandise
• Commemorative Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour VIP Tote Bag
• Collectible Taylor Swift Pin, Sticker & Postcard Set along with a Souvenir Concert Ticket
• Special VIP Tour Laminate & Matching Lanyard

Secure your raffle tickets HERE, priced at $100 per ticket.

These tickets are for the Melbourne Concert on 18 February 2024.

The raffle will be drawn at the Gala event. If you are unable to join us at the Gala you will be notified by phone on Friday 3 November.