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We’re two terms in and you may have already met Jess Martin our Deputy Principal of Pastoral Care. Jess Martin’s appointment reflects St Brigid’s College’s ongoing commitment to pastoral excellence and student wellbeing. Her compassionate leadership and dedication to service enriches the community and support students to flourish both personally and academically. A Calling to Make a Difference For Jess, the decision to join St Brigid’s College was guided by a strong sense of purpose. She was drawn to the opportunity to work in a community where she could make a meaningful and positive impact on the lives of young people. This aspiration reflects her belief that schools are not just places of learning, but spaces where students should feel safe, valued, and supported as they grow. A Journey Grounded in Care and Connection Throughout her professional journey, Jess has remained focused on supporting young people and fostering environments that prioritise wellbeing. Her experiences have shaped a leadership approach grounded in empathy and understanding, ensuring that every student feels respected and empowered. This dedication to student-centred care underpins her work and continues to guide her vision for pastoral leadership. A Compassionate and Service-Driven Leadership Style Jess describes her leadership style as compassionate and service-driven, with a strong emphasis on building meaningful relationships across the college community. She believes that fostering a genuine sense of belonging is key to enhancing student wellbeing and engagement. Her approach is closely aligned with the Mercy values that are central to St Brigid’s College—respect, justice, compassion, courage, service, and hospitality. These values inform her daily practice and decision-making, ensuring that her leadership not only supports individuals but also strengthens the collective spirit of the community. Priorities for Pastoral Jess is focused on building strong connections and understanding the unique needs of students across Years 7–12. She is committed to: Getting to know students personally, gaining insight into the challenges they may face Strengthening pastoral care structures, ensuring programs are responsive, inclusive, and impactful Collaborating closely with staff to create an environment where every student has the opportunity to thrive These priorities reflect her belief that effective pastoral care begins with listening, understanding, and working together. Supporting the Whole Community Jess sees her role as one that extends beyond students to include staff and the wider college community. She hopes that every member of St Brigid’s will feel known, valued, and supported. By building on the strong foundation already in place, she aims to celebrate what is working well while contributing to positive and meaningful growth. Life Beyond the College Outside of her professional role, Jessica values balance and wellbeing in her own life. She enjoys Pilates, tennis, shopping, and spending time at the beach, all of which help her recharge and maintain a healthy perspective. A Message to Students Jess shares a simple yet powerful piece of advice for students: “Be kind to yourself and to others.”

This is the first of a series of getting to know our teachers and staff at St Brigid’s College. As a College, there have been some changes to the Academic teaching structure, as well as new faces who have joined the College over the last 12 months. Here’s us getting to know our Deputy Principal, Teaching & Learning (Year 7 to Year 12), Mrs Marsha Pengilly:   Share with us your experience and some of your achievements as an educator. My teaching career has been quite diverse in location, I began my teaching journey in the public system which grew to a range of Government High schools in the city and in the country, this included a two year stint at Harvey Senior High School where I was also employed as a House Mother at the Agricultural Campus. I then moved into Catholic schools where I started at Sacred Heart College and then with Emmanuel College before moving to Santa Maria College (SMC) where I taught for 20 years holding numerous roles in my time at there. Like SMC, St Brigid’s is a Mercy School and I thoroughly enjoy working within this environment. To be able to share the rich history and traditions of Catherine McCauley is a great point of difference. The values of Mercy Education connects to me both professional and personally and I believe provides an excellent foundation for our students. My years in girls education has developed my expertise in this valued and niche area of study and development. I have developed an extensive knowledge and skill set around ensuring our girls are able to learn and grow to become strong Mercy women of the future who will light the way for others. What have been the pivotal / milestone moments in your career as a teacher and now as Deputy Principal? A definite milestone was completing my Master of Education: Leadership and Management, at the end of 2023 which has enabled me to successfully work in the leadership roles I have held. I particularly enjoyed being the Dean of Students at SMC where I led the students in each of the year groups from Year 7 to 12. This provided a very broad understanding of the academic and pastoral needs of each of the year groups which is essential in my current role. Another very unique highlight was accompanying SMC students in Years 11 and 12 on an Art Tour of Milan, Florence and London in 2019. Seeing the students experience such amazing art and the impact this had on their learning to enrich their own work and also their understanding of the masters. This trip further inspired my passion in the Professional Development and Teaching and Learning areas. The growth in academic achievement is limitless when we provide high quality, real world learning opportunities and experiences to both our students and teachers. In my new role at SBC I hope to continue facilitating this for our community.  What are your favorite subjects to teach? One of my pet subjects is Accounting and Finance. In 2024, we introduced Accounting and Finance to our Year 11 and 12 ATAR subject selection, with a view to this being taught in future years. For students studying A&F, the course work is entirely new as students are generally not exposed to these concepts in lower school. The students I have taught love the challenge of this course and the opportunity to learn something completely new and different. They are also able to see the real-world application of A&F into their lives. I am always excited to hear of previous students who have embarked on careers in the business world and how their initial enjoyment of A&F has sparked their curiosity and progress in this field. I also really enjoy teaching maths and supporting students to gain more confidence in their abilities. I try to encourage my students to have a growth mindset to maths and challenge them to feel positive about their abilities in this subject area. How do you envision our students growing both pastorally and academically at SBC?  I am looking forward to seeing the growth of our students academically at SBC. It is a privilege to be a teacher of secondary students and to journey with them as they move through the senior years of their education. It is at this time that you really see the students grow and mature as they find their passion and work out where they intend to head post school. Supporting students as they shape their future goals and work toward achieving them is such a unique opportunity. What is the biggest point of difference in learning/teaching at SBC? Our environment provides unique opportunity for our students to learn about our impact on the environment. Being able to walk in our own school grounds and see almost perfect bushland and to be able to study our native flora and fauna on our doorstep provides some amazing real life lessons and great classroom experiences for our students. The amazing boarding community at SBC and what they provide to our college when they bring their diverse backgrounds and “home” experiences to our community. Means our students learn from and gain an understanding of the world, beyond the hills.      

Gear up for adventure! Last week, our intrepid Year 11 Biology students swapped the classroom for the great outdoors, participating in a special field camp at Dwellingup alongside Mazenod College. This immersive experience provided a first-hand look at the fascinating world of ecological monitoring. Guided by the esteemed Mr. C, Environmental Educator of the Year, the students learned the art of fauna trapping – a crucial skill for understanding native animal populations. Just before sunset they set traps to capture nocturnal visitors, waking before dawn with anticipation to see what critters called the bushland home. Their efforts were rewarded with the exciting discovery of three Mardos and a curious Quenda! While the day brought a quite a bit of rain, the students’ spirits remained high as they delved into the techniques of flora surveys. Despite returning a little soggy, their knowledge and enthusiasm were truly enriched. This valuable camp experience forms the foundation for an exciting project back at St Brigid’s. The Year 11 biologists will now conduct a baseline flora survey of our very own school bushland. Armed with this data, they’ll then develop a conservation plan to ensure this precious ecosystem thrives for future generations. Stay tuned! We can’t wait to see the amazing results of their exploration and conservation efforts.  

At St Brigid’s College, we light the way for all our students…..We believe that every student deserves the opportunity to become a successful learner and a confident, creative individual, who is not just good at learning but good at life. Many in the community are well aware of St Brigid’s College for students in Years 7 to 12. However, our Primary campus, located side-by-side to our Secondary campus, is filled daily with the laughter, learning and fun, in a high impact teaching environment. Our passionate and highly skilled educators utilise evidence-based and researched strategies, placing a strong emphasis on literacy and numeracy in our classrooms. Through inquiry learning, project-based, and deep learning, students not only acquire knowledge but also learn how to apply it effectively in real-world scenarios. Our co-educational primary campus (Pre-Kindy to Year 6) is supported by our Head of Primary, Ms. Anne Tan, as well as our Deans of Students Ms. Christine Padua and Ms. Catherine Brink. Together they champion the education vision implemented daily, whilst, fostering a culture where our educators are inspired to evolve into proficient researchers and implementers of cutting-edge teaching methodologies across various disciplines, benefiting our young learners. If you’re considering enrolling your child at St Brigid’s College we warmly invite you to contact our College Registrar, Patty Majko at majko.patty@stbrigids.wa.edu.au or for a conversation, call us on 9290 4200. You can also book in for one of morning tours here https://www.trybooking.com/CNZAH

Kyra Clayton, graduated from St Brigid’s in 2022, and she recently won South Metropolitan TAFE’s VET Secondary Student of the Year Award . Kyra was one of seven recipients of the award out of a total of 24,000 TAFE students. Last week Kyra visited the College to provide some mentorship to our Year 10s. Kyra spoke about the various pathways to tertiary study, how she navigated them at St Brigid’s, the subject choices that worked for her as well as her personal epiphanies when it came to study styles and her abilities. “The dedication and perseverance of my teachers pushed me forward to be the best I can be, and they never let me give up or do anything less than my full potential. St Brigid’s allowed me to find new opportunities and ways to achieve my goals which were outside of the school’s set curriculum. This game me the drive to push myself to amazing opportunities and to do the things that have lead me to where I am today, “said Kyra. Today, Kyra is enrolled at ECU, where she is pursuing an Undergraduate Degree in Human Resource.  

During Term 1 our St Brigid’s College Year 3 –8 students were invited to participate in the Education Perfect Global Language Competition in Italian. The EP Languages Championship (EPLC) are a free event where students can compete at their own ability level. This competition is designed to help boost students’ personal learning journey, engage the students with curriculum-aligned content, and motivate them to compete on an international stage. They spent many hours outside of the classroom aiming for the highest possible score.  The competition created a lot of excitement amongst our students and drove a more in depth engagement in Italian. Students who reached medal status within our competition, showing great dedication in practicing the Italian language were invited to a Pizza Party on Tuesday 10th May during lunch time as a small acknowledgement of their achievement. It was great to have the cross section of both our primary and secondary students celebrating their achievements together!