Celebrating our History. Excited for our Future.
The Official Opening and Blessing of our Innovation Hub, the Tullow Centre, was a wonderfully intimate celebration. The event began with a Smoking Ceremony and Welcome to Country followed by speeches, performances, blessings and a video presentation of the Tullow Centre journey. The Tullow Centre begins the next chapter for Kildare College with a point of difference for an all girls’ education.
The Tullow Centre build includes state-of-the-art facilities such as a large Construction Area, Media Studio, Auditorium, STEM / Science / Digital Technology Labs, and General Learning Classrooms. These spaces enhance our extensive curriculum, with further subject offerings for students including Material Solutions – Woodwork, Metalwork, Jewellery, Digital Communications – Photography, Video Gaming and Entertainment Design.
This wonderful new Innovation Hub is a result of hard work, dedication and creative minds.
Thank you to:
- Walter Brooke Architects – especially Carolyn Oades and Paul Townsin for their incredible skills and for walking this journey with us.
- SARAH Constructions – Richard Hough, Ryan Bilsborough, Adrian Chenoweth and Herbie Griffiths who have delivered a state-of-the-art, high-quality building for our College community.
- Peter Smith from the Catholic Education Office for his wisdom and support.
- Kildare Ministries and Kildare Education Ministries – who guide our actions and give us so much inspiration and support. Special mention to Sister Louise Cleary who was so instrumental with suggestions for this building project.
- The Kildare STEM and Science Staff Teams who walked with us every step of the way during the design process.
- A special mention to Paul Beltrame who planted the seed for this tremendous building and to Raymond Kropinski for his incredible vision for teaching and learning.
- Leedall Presentation Systems and our IT Team for bringing the technologies in this building alive.
- To all our suppliers – thank you for helping create this incredible contemporary building for our students.
- Our Design and Publications Officer, Laura Kretschmer for capturing and documenting the Tullow Centre journey.
- Our Business Manager, Lil Mader for her superb project management skills. Coordinating all aspects of the build, Lil was pivotal to bringing the Tullow Centre to fruition on time and on budget. I learnt so much from Lil and she is just amazing!
We were also so excited to open the Tullow Centre for our recent tours – where our entire community was invited to look at our new facilities. It was lovely to reconnect and connect with past, present and future members of our College community – old scholars, past staff members, family, friends, and current and future students commented on our outstanding facilities. Thank you to all who came along and experienced our new Tullow Centre.
Finally, we thank the College community – students, staff and families. Thank you for your patience. Thank you for your enthusiasm and thank you for being so passionate about our beautiful new Tullow Centre, where our students will be able to continue to learn and grow into creative, innovative and inspiring women of great Strength and Gentleness.
Tina Neate
Principal
CESA Thriving People
Our Nunga Group had the exciting opportunity to attend the Thriving People excursion held by CESA at the Living Kaurna Cultural Centre. The venue is a beautiful parkland of cultural significance to Kaurna People.
Students took part in a Welcome to Country and smoking ceremony where they were introduced to elders who would be taking the activities for the day.
While there, students learned about the campfire ovens used by Kaurna People in the area and learned how to throw a returning boomerang accurately (with some success!). In learning about the importance of native flora, students created plant bombs which are small clay spheres that contain native seeds which will be scattered in local scrub land. Students explored a native garden, tasting a range of native plants and learning about their medicinal qualities. Our students also created beautiful quandong seed jewellery and sampled quandong tarts and popcorn. There was also the opportunity to try kangaroo sausages and interact with Aboriginal students from other Catholic schools.
Overall, students gained a deeper understanding of culture and connection to Country.
Gabbi Rigney
Indigenous Education
Women in Politics | Why women need to stand up and speak out
Years 11 and 12 Student Leaders were invited to attend the Women in Politics event hosted by the Alliance of Girls Schools Australasia. Focusing on the role of women in parliament, with an emphasis on the importance of how women can use their voice to shape a future for the vulnerable, this event was a wonderful opportunity to hear the reasons why female leadership is powerful.
Along with students from other girls’ schools, we were able to hear the journeys from a panel of key figures in politics including Old Scholar Olivia Savvas MP, Hon. Heidi Girolamo MC, Andrea Michaels MP, Cr Hannah Evans, and Amy Ralfs A/Chief of Staff, Office of the Hon. Blair Boyer MP. Students were given the opportunity to consider what changes are still needed, how they can continue to support positive change and how their voice can impact our ever changing world.
Emma Ward
Senior Years Coordinator
Our Year 8 cohort was visited by Ms Olivia Savvas MP for Newland. Ms Savvas was recently elected in the 2022 State Election and is also an old scholar of Kildare.
Our Year 8 students are currently exploring Civics and Citizenship including developing an understanding of the importance of democracy, how to be an active participant in it, as well as advocate for change. Ms Savvas shared her journey from student to politician, along with her passion about how to make a positive difference for the community.
The students were thoroughly engaged and inspired during the presentation, which led to some amazing questions for Ms Savvas, but also some incredibly enthusiastic discussions in classes afterwards. It was an amazing experience for the students to engage with a young female politician who connected with them on a range of levels. We are looking forward to the students applying their energy for change as they explore ways that they can make improvements to their local communities.
Shaun Castles
Teacher – Drama, History, and Media Studies
