PRESS RELEASE

“Lowther Hall Anglican Grammar School Announces
New Principal, Ms Elisabeth Rhodes”

Lowther Hall Anglican Grammar School, Essendon has announced that the new Principal from January 2013 will be Ms Elisabeth Rhodes.

Ms Rhodes is already known to the School and wider community as Deputy Principal since 2003. Following a rigorous process designed to identify the exemplary leader to take Lowther Hall forward her appointment was the unanimous decision of the School Council.

Ms Rhodes is a communicant member of the Anglican Church of Australia, a passionate advocate of girls’ education who has worked as a leader in girls’ schools for 14 years and a member of the Victorian Executive Board of the Australian Council for Educational Leaders.

She was educated at Presbyterian Ladies College and later the University of Melbourne, graduating in Arts (Honours) and Law before undertaking her Graduate Diploma of Education. In 2012 Ms Rhodes gained her Master of Education (School Leadership) also at Melbourne University.

Over the past 10 years Ms Rhodes says she has “developed an abiding affection for the Lowther Hall community and an ongoing commitment to sustaining the School as a leading educational institution in Victoria”.

I hope that you will enjoy finding out about Lowther Hall and all it has to offer. We are a school large enough to offer a broad, rich curriculum yet small enough to ensure that each girl is well known by the staff.

There are many things that make Lowther Hall a special place including:

• our commitment to excellence for all;
• our Christian ethos;
• our sense of family;
• our unique history; and
• our rigorous approach to teaching and student learning.

Girls at Lowther Hall experience an education which is designed to enable each to leave us confident that she is prepared for the opportunities and challenges that might lie ahead.

Please contact us if you would like to learn more about Lowther Hall or if you would like to arrange to visit us in Essendon.

Elisabeth Rhodes
Principal

As adults, we want our children to be happy and successful as children and as adults. We want them to develop knowledge, skills and personal qualities and characteristics that will enable them to be confidently themselves. We want them to have every opportunity to use their talents to enrich their own lives and lives of others. 

As a school of 800 girls from Kindergarten to Year 12 on a single campus, we are large enough to offer a broad, rich curriculum yet small enough to ensure that each girl is well known by our staff. Our size and our focus on girls from Kindergarten to Year 12 make us unique in this part of Melbourne. 

Our main building “The Mansion” was originally built as a family home and stands at the heart of our school community.

Your daughter at Lowther Hall joins our school family in a network of relationships which we hope will be lifelong.

This generation has more opportunity and faces more complexity than any before it. It is therefore critical that our young women think deeply about their lives and what is important to them. At Lowther Hall we want them to explore the full range of human activity. Our learning program assists them to consider themselves as creatures of mind, body and spirit, ready when they leave us, to step into the adult world optimistically and confidently.

Each girl will have a different path forward based upon her unique set of interests, talents and skills but the qualities that she will need to build a fulfilling and successful life will be consistent.

At Lowther Hall we have identified the qualities we seek to develop in the Lowther Hall girl:

• SHE HAS A CLEAR SET OF VALUES WHICH SHE CAN ARTICULATELY COMMUNICATE AND APPLY TO HER LIFE
• SHE IS COMMITTED TO THE PURSUIT OF EXCELLENCE
• SHE IS CURIOUS AND KNOWS HOW TO LEARN
• SHE IS RESILIENT AND ABLE TO ACCEPT AND LEARN FROM FAILURE
• SHE IS PREPARED TO TAKE A CONSIDERED RISK
• SHE HAS A SENSE OF BELONGING
• SHE UNDERSTANDS HERSELF, HER STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES
• SHE CARES FOR OTHERS AND FOR HERSELF
• SHE IS CONFIDENT AND INDEPENDENT
• SHE CAN WORK WITH OTHERS AND TAKE THE LEAD
• SHE UNDERSTANDS THE WORLD AND HER CAPACITY TO SHAPE IT
• SHE IS OPTIMISTIC AND HAS A SENSE OF HOPE FOR THE FUTURE

I invite you to visit us so that you can see at first hand what Lowther Hall has to offer.

ELISABETH RHODES
PRINCIPAL

Lowther Hall’s motto affirms its wish to serve both the local and wider community. This service is expressed in fundraising for charitable causes and in the giving of time and effort to community groups. Fundraising activities are held each year for various causes.

In addition and of prime significance is our support of the Lowther Hall Mainuddin Primary School in the Bhola Island region of Bangladesh. The construction, staffing, resourcing and maintenance of this school have been fully funded by students of Lowther Hall. Built in January 1995, the school has around 400 primary school age girls and boys who would otherwise not have the opportunity of receiving a school education.

Year 9 girls undertake a community service placement, often in neighbourhood schools or homes for those who need special care. The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme, for students in Year 9 up, has a major component of community service.

It is not enough for students to achieve academic excellence. Tolerance and understanding of the needs of others are essential.

Non nobis solum.

We are an inclusive Anglican school and welcome girls of all abilities, all cultures and all faiths. Each girl at Lowther Hall has the opportunity to explore and develop her faith and her values.

Through our programs in Philosophy and Religious Studies and through our school policies and practices girls learn to make decisions based on their core values. Central to our curriculum design are the notions of essential questions and enduring understandings. Girls grapple with a range of challenging issues in every subject area.

We encourage an awareness of God’s love for all people and we affirm the teachings of Jesus Christ. Chapel services are held regularly and our Christian worship culminates each year in our Carols Service at St Paul’s Cathedral. The Christian value of treating others as we would wish to be treated is central to our expectations of the Lowther Hall community.

The Class of 2012 has achieved excellent results and can be justly proud of their achievements. The vast majority will gain entry to the tertiary course of their choice. Thank you to the staff who worked in a focused and dedicated way to ensure that the girls were well placed to do their very best.

• 100% of students successfully completed their VCE.
• The median ATAR score was 90.3, placing 52% of our students in the top 10% of the nation.
• 33% of the cohort scored an ATAR over 95 placing them in the top 5% of the nation.
• The median study score was 36.
• 24% of study scores were 40 or higher.
• 52% of graded assessments were A or A+.
• Perfect study scores of 50/50 were obtained in English and Visual Communication and Design.

The Lowther Hall students with ATAR scores of 99 or above:

Lowther Clarke Scholar (Dux) of 2012 Lucy Kingsley 99.35	Alice Mulleeney 99.05	Giulia Virgato 99.05	Ruby Brady-Welsh 99.00

Comparison Results 2012-2011

We are proud of all of our girls whose results are the product of diligent and determined effort. For some, the VCE journey was complicated by a range of personal circumstances and we particularly commend the girls who have achieved their best in spite of such additional challenges. We wish all of our graduates success and happiness in the future.

Elisabeth Rhodes
Principal

Dates for 2013

• Term 1 Mon 4/2/13 – Thurs 28/3/13
• Term 2 Tues 16/4/13 – Fri 28/6/13
• Term 3 Tues 16/7/13 – Fri 13/9/13
• Term 4 Tues 8/10/13 – Mon 9 Dec
  
  NOTE:  Mid term break - Mon 4 November 2013

Public Holidays - 2013

• Labour Day – Mon 11 March
  
• Anzac Day – Thurs 25 April
  
• Queen’s Birthday – Mon 10 June
  
• Melbourne Cup Day – Tues 5 November
  
  NOTE: Mid term break - Mon 4 November - VCE exams continue

Please find below the Annual Reports for Lowther Hall 2011, 2010 and 2009, and Curriculum 2012 respectively (requires Adobe Reader in order to view. You can download it here.)

Lowther-Hall-Commonwealth-Government-Reporting-Requirements-2011.pdf (PDF, 1.21Mb)
Lowther-Hall-Commonwealth-Government-Reporting-Requirements-2010.pdf (PDF, 1.1Mb)
Lowther-Hall-Commonwealth-Government-Reporting-Requirements-2009.pdf (PDF, 2.25Mb)