We have had an exciting first week for a variety of reasons - all good and wonderful.
Firstly, I want to share with you the very much anticipated news that the Determinations Panel of the Sydney City Council approved our Development Application to develop facilities on the Challis Avenue boundary of the College. Many of you would be aware of the complexity of development approvals. You would, therefore, appreciate how extraordinary it is that in this inner city, heritage-rich, densely populated residential neighbourhood, our application was unanimously approved. I believe we have been successful because our development application is for facilities not follies; it is respectful, responsible and responsive to the current and future needs of the College. This is a wonderful achievement and a testimony to the confidence that so many people have in the future of St Vincent's. It is of course only the first step and now there will need to be difficult decisions made about staging to ensure affordability and that the operation of the College is not too constrained during what will be a challenging construction period. I am very grateful to my Colleagues, Directors of the Board, and the many consultants who have contributed to the success of this application to construct a multi-purpose hall, a roof top court, new music/drama facilities, refurbish Garcia and build an indoor pool. While still a long way from sitting in that new hall, or swimming in the pool we are definitely closer this week, than last!
Secondly our HSC candidates made a very positive and confident start to their HSC exams. English is a compulsory subject starts the exam period with two papers on Day 1 & Day 2 of the schedule. Students are always so happy to have these exams completed.
Thirdly, we have welcomed the graduating class of 2030. We welcomed the parents of the cohort on Thursday night and today we have inducted the Students, who will commence Year 7 next year, into the Vinnies' Spirit. They have the making of an outstanding cohort and they showed character and strength today.
Finally, we are in reunion season - last weekend we welcomed the Class of 2019 back for their 5th year reunion and tomorrow we will host the Class of 1964 for their 60th reunion. The Class of 2019 were at such an exciting time of their lives - close to, or just finishing their degrees, new relationships, travel completed or on the horizon. They were delightful, accomplished and outward focused young women. The living embodiment of our commitment to educate courageous women of action. I am sure the Class of 1964 will be equally engaging to be in conversation with on Saturday.
Classes of 1964, 2019, 2024 or 2030: Same spirit, different times!
PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE
Photo of the week
Reminders and Events
DEPUTY PRINCIPAL
DIRECTOR OF TEACHING AND LEARNING
DIRECTOR OF FAITH AND MISSION
TEACHING & LEARNING
FROM THE ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FROM THE ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
Extension 2 Showcase ‘Selections and Reflections’ evening
As a student of the Extension 2 English cohort of 2024, I had the pleasure of sharing my work and reflection of my time with the course in the Parlour at the end of last term. Around the support of friends, family and staff and the future cohort of 2025 the environment was an intimate immersion into a diverse range of pieces. My work, a piece of Performance Poetry entitled ‘7 DAYS OF DEATH’ was more than an HSC Major work, but a way for me to reclaim my voice and reconcile the tensions within coming of age as a young girl. As a writer the labour of love that comes with producing a work is not an easy one but standing with a finished project after crawling out of the learning pit is the most satisfying and irreplaceable feeling. This course has challenged me and showed me I could write things I never would have imagined. The platform for me to share my work at this showcase was empowering and reminded me of all the relationships that have made me the writer and person I am today.
Cate McGregor
Congratulations to our 3 students - Indie Whitford, Maggie Hutchinson and Cate McGregor on completing their Major Works and Reflection Statements. Here are some extracts from the evening about each of their Extension 2 journeys.
Cate McGregor
Whenever I admit to people my age that I do four units of English I am met with a frightened glare to which I always quickly reply with “oh but I love English”. Yet the phrase in itself isn't enough. It must be repeated so people believe me; “I love English”, “I love English”.
See I’ve repeated it so much that I think I've almost forgotten the passion it had when I said it for the first time.
I guess you could say my relationship with English this year could be related to marriage where love isn’t just the butterflies and jittery happiness you experience when you see someone for the first time, or in my case writing the first words of a poem.
But love in marriage becomes a choice; the same way the love for my Major Work I have is a love I have made a conscious choice to nurture every step of the way.
A choice to keep writing even if I was beginning to hate the work I produced.
A choice to get up for every morning class.
A choice to read just one more article
And so every time I’ve uttered the phrase “I love English” it was a choice. Did I always mean it? Maybe not, but choosing to love English ended up being the best thing I did this year.
Initially, I composed my Performance Poetry piece entitled “7 Days of Death” for myself to reconcile the tensions between my gender and cultural identity. I was born in China and predominantly grew up in the US before moving to Australia, and so the struggle to find my place in the world as a young girl has become intertwined with cultural displacement. However, what was so comforting about this journey was throughout my research and reading, my personal struggle seemed to translate into a collective struggle where many young girls, just like me, are too trying to see themselves outside of the male gaze. My project depicts the connection between the lifespan of one female persona to the biological milestones that have culturally defined the female body historically through a masculine lens in a structure of seven days.
Using the Performance Poetry form was the ideal medium for me to reclaim my voice throughout these milestones hoping to challenge patriarchal perception but also reflect the ongoing hyper sexualisation of the female body as nothing more than a reproductive unit.
The real tragedy of my work's message is that as women we will carry this subjugation within us. Our struggle is ingrained in our collective identity. However, the real beauty of this message is that the female experience is not one that faced alone.
To quote my own major work:
“There is an oath to our sadness, a knowledge that we would do this together”
And it's fitting that I have both my mother and grandmother here today as well as my closest friends who have shown me what it means to be a strong, independent young woman. I truly believe the relationships and friendships I have made with other women are the most special thing this life has to offer me.
Indie Whitford
When we started this course, Ms Playoust always said: sometimes a writer's job is to just sit at their desk and force themselves to write and I would always nod and smile, like I understood what that meant. Creative writing had always come so naturally to me; it was a beautiful reprieve from the demands of my other subjects - a reward after spending gruelling hours on drawing out organic compounds, crying over trigonometry or my Merchant of Venice essay. Then I started Extension 2 English. I quickly learned how cold it is to sit on the school bathroom floor in my summer uniform, crying after finding my favourite pages in draft 1 with massive X’s through them. I quickly learned I needed to improve my posture if I was to spend countless hours staring at my laptop in frustration and being unable to type a single thing. And sure enough, I quickly learned Ms Playoust was right. Sometimes a writer's job is to just sit at their desk and force themselves to write, holding the hope that each draft moves them closer to doing justice to their concept, the research they’ve worked so hard to reflect and critique.
Being asked to summarise my experience in this course is an almost impossible task because there is no way to detail the amount of crushing despair, yet joy and ecstasy this course has brought me. There is no way to adequately describe the excitement of a breakthrough, emailing Ms Playoust at 1 am with a new idea and feeling the triumph of knowing the next draft is going to be better than the previous one. ‘Peaks and Troughs’, Lucy Fraser (Extension 2 student from last year) described the course as to the three of us when we were in Year 11; and she couldn’t have been more right. But climbing up those troughs, emerging through the struggle, is the most gratifying feeling I have ever experienced. Looking back on draft 1, my gothic story about a crazy psychiatrist which was 3,000 words over the limit, and seeing my finished product, I cannot thank this course enough for the way it has pushed me and forced me to constantly move, to grow, to evolve. To know that joy and frustration aren’t mutually exclusive emotions and the real skill comes in picking yourself up off the bathroom floor and keep drafting, keep researching. To the girls thinking about doing Ext 2 it certainly isn’t easy, but nothing worth doing ever is.
Maggie Hutchinson
Seeing my play on stage just then was such a rewarding experience. The Extension 2 journey has definitely not been linear but it has been an opportunity that I would describe as invaluable. To have a subject that provides a platform for pure expression and creativity offered me as a student a mechanism to flourish in ways that I have never experienced before. If I read my first draft of ‘Gin and Tonic’ to you I think you would find that compared to my final product it is unrecognisable. Ms Playoust as our mentor has been integral in this process as she recognised the potential for me to push the boundaries of writing and experiment with my passion for drama and performance. Gin and tonic is something that I am extremely proud of and I am so grateful to possess a sense of pride in something that I will cherish forever.
In Extension 1 we are currently studying Hamlet ,so to finish my description of this course I would like to use one of the most iconic philosophical questions in literature
To be or not to be? Oh to be! This is what Extension 2 has encouraged in me. This course allowed me to recognise what I could be. Even when I thought there was no way I could be, I was subtly encouraged to be….. And so I became. “The magic of live theatre” lies in its unpredictable nature. There is value in every performance, in every effort, expression, conscious or unconscious. The curtains rise, the lights come on, and we give everything in the moment, crafting a story that deserves to be told. Extension 2 was not just a mere subject. It was our stage to roam; we were part of something deeper. In every word, every silence, something is being voiced that struggles to speak for itself. As the stage lights dim, and it seems our show has ended, luckily the show will go on as we have explored who we are and who we could become.
PERFORMING ARTS
Mamma Mia!
LEARNING RESOURCE CENTRE
SPORT REPORT
CAREER NEWS
IN SYMPATHY
The College community offers its condolences to the following families who have lost a loved one recently:
To Jemima (Yr12) and Lyla Hickey (yr 7) who lost their Grandfather
May he rest in peace.