St Hilda’s School

I’ve had the absolute pleasure of visiting St Hilda’s, a beautiful and prestigious school for girls in my electorate, several times over the last month. First, it was to celebrate the commissioning of the new principal, Mrs Virginia Warner, a great asset to the school community whom I know will make a very lasting difference. At the commissioning, I saw—for the very first time, I think—an all-girl eight-piece saxophone section in the big band, and I couldn’t resist offering the music master a sound workshop on the instrument that I played for 35 years as a professional. I enjoyed the workshop, which was a great success, very much. The girls told me that they learned an awful lot, which made me very happy.

On International Women’s Day, I attended the prep-to-year-6 assembly and I told the story of Gladys Moncrieff, the great light opera singer after whom the electorate of Moncrieff is named—an inspirational woman who moved to the isle of Capri, and settled on the Gold Coast the year I was born in 1968. The year 6 students at St Hilda’s have been learning about the Australian political system and they’re coming to Canberra, so I spent some time talking to them about this place before their upcoming school trip. I took some time with the year 6 girls to answer their questions, and many of the hands were still raised at the end of the Q&A session—I’ll get to that next time. What a privilege it is to represent St Hilda’s and their families in this place as the member for Moncrieff.