It has been exciting to welcome our staff and students back over the past couple of days. While the School is always a busy place, the holiday break brings with it a different kind of busyness. Each break includes an ambitious schedule of works that would be too disruptive to complete during term time, and I am pleased to say all went well on that front. However, the energy and activity our people bring to the School is, without question, the best kind of busyness.

On Monday, during our extended professional learning time, teaching staff from across the School had the opportunity to work with Ben Lawless, the founder and director of a Melbourne-based consultancy company focused on developmental assessment and learning design. Alongside his consultancy work, Ben teaches evaluation and assessment at the University of Melbourne. Working in faculty-based teams, staff collaborated on designing assessments for future use, with valuable critical feedback from Ben and his team.

Our professional staff too had the opportunity to collaborate together, working with James Field, Managing Director of CulturePathAI. James helps schools and EdTech companies navigate the opportunities and risks of generative AI, offering clear guidance on AI governance and adoption.

These opportunities to come together and learn at the beginning of each term are always valuable and appreciated by all.

Continuing the learning theme, in the final week of last term, I had the privilege of attending and presenting at the International Coalition of Girls’ Schools (ICGS) Global Forum on Girls’ Education in Toronto, Canada. The Forum brought together over 600 educators, researchers and school leaders from around the world, and provided a valuable opportunity to explore contemporary thinking about how girls’ schools can best prepare young people to thrive in an increasingly complex and rapidly changing world.

The timing of the Forum was particularly exciting, coinciding with the vibrant atmosphere created by the first round of World Cup soccer matches. Toronto was alive with visitors from around the world, providing a fitting backdrop for conversations about global citizenship, leadership and the future of education.

I chose to focus on sessions exploring entrepreneurship and the assessment of competencies. These discussions challenged traditional notions of success and highlighted the growing importance of helping students develop capabilities such as creativity, collaboration, adaptability, initiative and problem-solving. Of particular interest was the work being undertaken internationally to better understand how schools can assess and provide meaningful feedback on these complex competencies while maintaining academic rigour.

The Forum was a wonderful opportunity to connect with educators from girls’ schools across a diverse range of countries and contexts. Through these conversations, I gained fresh perspectives on curriculum innovation, student agency and leadership development, and established several promising professional connections for our team as we work towards our strategic objectives together.

I appreciated the opportunity to pause, reflect and learn alongside educators from a wide range of cultural and educational contexts. School leadership can often be consumed by the immediate demands of daily life, and the Forum provided valuable space to think more deeply about the broader purpose of education and our responsibility to prepare young people for an uncertain future.

I left Toronto feeling both challenged and encouraged – challenged to continue reimagining what learning can look like for our students at Ivanhoe Girls’, and encouraged by the passion, generosity and expertise of a global network committed to helping girls thrive. The experience reinforced my belief that, while the future may be increasingly complex, girls’ schools have a vital role to play in developing confident, capable and compassionate young women who are ready to shape that future.

Ms Narelle Umbers
Principal