A Community That Shapes Us
As I sat down to write my final newsletter for the term, I realised that I was once again going to write about community. It made me smile because, if you have read my reflections throughout this year, you will know that I return to this idea often. I don't think that is accidental. There are many things I could write about when reflecting on a term at St Mark’s, academic achievement, programs, facilities, performances, sporting success, innovation and our plans for the future. All of these things matter enormously, but I find myself continually coming back to the people behind them and the relationships that connect us. Perhaps that is because I believe one of the most important things a school can give a young person is the experience of genuinely belonging somewhere.
A school should be a place where young people are known; where they discover what they are capable of; where someone notices when they succeed and when they struggle; and where they learn that they have something valuable to contribute. Through being part of something larger than themselves, they also begin to understand the responsibility we have to one another. So, yes, I find myself writing about community again, but this term has given me some particularly powerful reminders of why it matters.
Perhaps none was more poignant than our final Year 12 Assembly. Their final week at St Mark’s is deliberately designed as Spirit Week — a chance for our Year 12s to have fun together, celebrate friendships and traditions and enjoy those last precious days of school, while still participating in their classes and finishing well. They were wonderful. There was plenty of laughter and fun throughout the week, but as we gathered for their final Assembly, something shifted. Looking out at our Year 12s, I found myself with a catch in my voice. I could see the emotion on their faces and the many tears as the reality of finishing school began to sink in. It is easy to talk about creating a sense of belonging; it is quite another thing to look at a group of young people and see how genuinely sad they are to leave a place and people that have been such an important part of their lives.
In my words to them that morning, I spoke about courage, our Word of the Year, and reminded them that courage is not about being fearless, but about being prepared to take the next step even when we don't quite know where it will lead. I also reminded them of the words that have accompanied them throughout their St Mark’s journey, Seek Truth and Wisdom, and encouraged them to carry those words with them into whatever comes next.
We thanked the teachers who have walked alongside them, not simply in Year 12 but throughout their years at St Mark’s, as well as their PCG tutors, their Head of Year, Mrs Lia Parsons, and the Senior School leaders who have supported and cared for them. We celebrated our Head Prefects, Cohen and Chelsea, and our outgoing Prefect team before watching leadership pass to our Year 11 Prefects through the Walk of Honour. There is something very special about that moment each year — one group of young people stepping forward to take responsibility for their School as another prepares to leave it.
Our Year 12s are not quite finished with us yet, of course. Our ATAR students now turn their attention to their mock examinations, while our General students move into work placements and other organised activities. We look forward to coming together again in Week 2 next term to celebrate them and mark the conclusion of their St Mark’s journey. For now, I simply want to say how proud we were of them in their final week. The laughter of Spirit Week and the tears of that final Assembly both spoke of friendships formed, memories accumulated and a place that has mattered.
At a very different point in their St Mark’s journey, our Year 6 students provided another wonderful reminder this week of what school can be. I walked into the Pavilion for our Year 6 Market Day to find it absolutely buzzing. There were 192 engaged and excited students selling products they had imagined, designed and created, from candles and homemade goods to 3D-printed keyrings and fidget toys, as well as games, activities and a photo booth.
The Pavilion was filled with smiling faces and excited chatter as students explained their products, the process of creating them and the design thinking that had taken an idea from its beginnings to something tangible they could share and sell. Around them were equally proud parents, listening, asking questions and celebrating what their children had achieved. My sincere thanks to Alex McNamara for the enormous amount of work involved in bringing Market Day together, particularly amongst calendar clashes and the inevitable obstacles that accompany an event of this scale.
Standing amongst it all reminded me again that learning looks different for every child. This term I have had the privilege of listening to beautiful music, watching our Year 11 Drama students deliver a performance that genuinely blew me away — I felt it could quite comfortably have been on a WAAPA stage — cheering from the sidelines at interschool athletics, listening to our students speak with confidence and conviction in public speaking, and reading some remarkable pieces of student writing and essays. For one young person, success might be finding the courage to stand on a stage and perform; for another, pushing themselves through the final metres of a race. It might be crafting an argument, wrestling with an idea in an essay, composing music, designing something on a computer, working collaboratively with others or confidently explaining to an adult at Market Day how an idea became a product.
Behind all of these experiences, of course, are people. Experiences like these do not simply happen, and there is a group of people I particularly want to acknowledge as this term draws to a close. Across St Mark’s, our Heads of Year, Deputy Heads and Heads of Primary, Middle and Senior School play an enormously important role in the lives of our students, and much of what they do happens quietly and will never appear in a newsletter.
They are often the people who notice, the student whose smile isn't quite the same that morning, the young person who has finally achieved something they have been working towards, or the student who simply needs someone to listen. They help repair relationships when things go wrong, work alongside teachers to find different approaches, speak with parents and carers, advocate for students and celebrate the wonderful moments, achievements and milestones along the way. Their work sits at the intersection of learning, wellbeing and belonging and requires enormous care, judgement, patience and compassion. To our Heads of Year, Deputy Heads and Heads of Primary, Middle and Senior School, thank you. And to our teachers, Education Assistants, support staff, coaches, mentors and the many others who surround our young people every day, thank you too.
It takes many people to ensure that almost 2,000 young people can come through our gates each day and know that they belong, that they matter and that somebody knows their story. This brings me to another word that has been very much on my mind this week: service.
At the end of this term, we farewell Mr Stewart Shattock, who joined St Mark’s in 1997 and has given over 29 years of service to our School. Stewart's contribution has reached far beyond his work as a teacher of Chemistry and Christian Studies. He has accompanied students on Outdoor Education expeditions, supported countless early mornings of interschool badminton, led prayer groups and Christian Studies, and contributed to the life of St Mark’s in ways that cannot possibly be captured in a position description.
For just shy of three decades, generations of students and colleagues have benefited from Stewart's kindness, humour, faith and willingness to serve. There is something quite extraordinary about giving that much of your working life to one community. Perhaps the greatest impact of that service is found not in the individual things we can list, but in the accumulation of thousands of small moments over many years — conversations, encouragement, laughter, advice, turning up, helping out and simply being there.
We see that same spirit of service across our School every day: teachers staying a little longer to help a student, coaches standing on sidelines, staff accompanying students on camps and tours, parents volunteering at events, students giving their time to help others, and people quietly doing something simply because it will make a difference to somebody else.
Research increasingly confirms something that communities such as ours perhaps already know instinctively: giving our time and participating in community life matters. Volunteering and community participation are associated with social connection, a sense of purpose and belonging, and wellbeing. At a time when loneliness and social isolation are very real challenges in our wider society, creating places where people know one another, contribute and feel that they belong is perhaps more important than ever.
Amongst the wonderful craziness of Market Day, something happened that brought this together for me. A former St Mark’s student came up to say hello. As we talked, he told me how much he missed the sense of community he had experienced at St Mark’s and then offered to come back and volunteer his time to help with our Outdoor Education camps, sessions to empower Year 9 students, reading groups or really anything that he could do to help, I have thought about that conversation several times since. Here was a young person who had finished his formal education at St Mark’s but still felt connected to this place and its people. He wasn't asking the School for anything; he simply wanted to give something back. I can think of few greater compliments to a school. I will be calling him tomorrow.
While our students and many of our families enjoy a well-earned break, there will be plenty happening across the campus during the holidays. Our undercover courts will undergo repairs in preparation for the redevelopment of the outdoor courts and improvements to the surrounding fencing. There will also be visible changes in Floreat, with new carpet being installed as we begin the first stages of something about which we are particularly excited; reimagining Year 6 at St Mark’s.
When I say reimagining, I mean much more than changing a physical space. Our staff have been doing significant work on what the Year 6 experience at St Mark’s can become, thinking deeply about both the learning that happens within the classroom and the environments in which that learning takes place. The central breakout space will be reinvigorated and furnished to support collaboration and creativity as well as quiet, individual learning. During the Christmas holidays, our Year 6 classrooms will also be refurbished so that the physical environment begins to reflect the learning we want to see happening within it.
The most exciting part, however, is not the carpet, furniture or classrooms; it is what will happen inside them. Our staff have been working on the Year 6 program itself and, without giving too much away just yet, I can tell you there is something really special coming. At its heart are the ideas of belonging, discovering and creating. We want Year 6 to be a year in which our students feel deeply connected to their community, discover more about themselves, their strengths and the world around them, and have authentic opportunities to create, collaborate, solve problems and bring ideas to life. What I witnessed at Market Day this week — 192 young people engaged, purposeful, creative and excited about their learning — offered a wonderful glimpse of what that can look like. We are very excited about what is taking shape and look forward to sharing more with our families soon.
Perhaps it is fitting that I began this reflection by admitting that I seem to write about community rather often. When I look back over this term — at the performances, sporting fields, classrooms, essays, speeches and Market Day stalls, at our Year 12s saying goodbye and the countless quieter moments that will never make their way into a newsletter — I keep arriving at the same conclusion. Behind all of it are people: people who teach, organise, rehearse, coach, encourage, drive buses, set up chairs, mark drafts, stay late, arrive early, listen, console, celebrate, volunteer, solve problems and notice when someone needs a little extra help.
There was a lovely symmetry in what I witnessed this term. At Market Day, I watched our Year 6 students excitedly discovering, creating and finding their place. At our final Assembly, I watched our Year 12 students shed tears because they were preparing to leave a place that had become part of who they are. Then I met a former student who told me he missed that same community and wanted to return, this time not as a student, but to give something back.
Perhaps that is part of the journey we hope for every young person at St Mark’s: to belong, to grow and, eventually, to give back.
It is also one of the great gifts people such as Stewart give a school. Over almost three decades, thousands of individual acts of service accumulate and become part of the culture of a place. Students observe them, experience them and, sometimes many years later, choose to offer that same generosity to someone else. Perhaps that is why, when I sit down to write these reflections, I keep coming back to community. Buildings matter, programs matter and results matter, but ultimately it is people and the way they care for one another that make a school a community.
As we farewell Stewart and thank him for his remarkable 29-and-a-half years of service to St Mark’s, perhaps the most fitting way to honour that contribution is to continue building the kind of School he has helped create: one in which people belong, contribute and care for one another and, long after they have left, still feel that St Mark’s is a place to which they can return.
To Stewart, thank you for your commitment to St Mark’s, for your care of generations of students, and for the kindness, humour and devotion to God that you have brought to our community. And to every member of St Mark’s who has contributed to the life of our School this term, in ways both highly visible and quietly unseen, thank you.
I wish all of our families a safe and restorative break, with time to enjoy the people who matter to you, and I look forward to welcoming everyone back for Term 4.
Ms Roseanne Madden
Interim Principal
