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Companions in Learning program with St Aloysius’ College

Companions in Learning program with St Aloysius’ College

As a Mary Ward school, Loreto Kirribilli’s tradition spans more than 400 years. We believe that a strong education creates 'seekers of truth and doers of justice' who take action to improve the world for others around them.

Our 2020-2023 Strategic Plan Inspired Minds – Catalysts for Change is born out of this belief. Our renewed purpose is to support our students to make a positive impact in a rapidly changing world, and to lead and collaborate with others to do the same.

We seek to do this by providing valuable educational, spiritual and community-focused experiences that enrich each girl’s journey and propel their personal development.

With those ambitions in mind, we are pleased to advise that Loreto Kirribilli will be building upon its longstanding relationship with our neighbour St Aloysius’ College through a program called Companions in Learning.

In many respects, the decision to develop a more formal companion program continues what already exists between the schools. The schools have always enjoyed a warm informal association for the more than 100 years that we have educated young people on the Kirribilli Peninsula. Over the years, this has been expressed in many ways including sharing facilities, joining together for church services and other observances, cultural activities such as Shakespeare Bites, and collaborative events such as the Tech Interschool Challenge.

What these activities have demonstrated is that the school communities share deep values, and that working with each other adds an additional dimension to our respective institutions by fostering shared extra-curricular experiences between girls and boys.
The schools have agreed that this relationship is beneficial to our students, our staff and our school communities, and we have concluded that we should enhance it through a structured program of activities.

With a foundation of common Catholic and educational values in the Ignatian tradition, Companions in Learning will serve as a platform for the two schools to work together on extra-curricular experiences across four important pillars:

1. Social Justice – joint activities in accordance with Catholic values that support each school’s respective mission on social justice and equality.

2. Community Engagement – events that allow students to come together to exercise their roles as members of the community, with particular focus on the Kirribilli area.

3. Respectful Relationships – authentic opportunities for students to develop their capacity for respectful relationships with members of the opposite sex.

4. Academic Companionship – shared academic programs for students so that they can acquire knowledge together, in an extra-curricular capacity, from one another, and from the alumni of both schools.

Companions in Learning will also enable the schools to utilise their proximity to one another on the Kirribilli Peninsula through strategic sharing of resources, providing greater value to both students and parents.

It will not in any way change the fundamentally independent character of our schools, nor does it impact our respective missions as single-sex schools, with all the benefits that this model successfully provides to our students.

While this is the latest development in an old relationship, we are excited by its potential to deliver new experiences that will help form and prepare our girls for the outside world.

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