Welcome to Middle Senior School at St Hilda’s – A Place to Flourish, Belong and Shine!
At St Hilda’s, we believe in the boundless potential of every girl. Guided by our school motto, Non Nobis Solum—"Not for Ourselves Alone"—we empower our students to embrace learning, discover their strengths, and step boldly into a future filled with possibilities.
A Thriving Environment for Every Girl
Middle and Senior School is a time of exploration, growth, and self-discovery. Our unique Wellbeing program, “Thrive”, ensures that every girl is seen, heard, and supported in a positive learning environment. With a deep focus on wellbeing, we nurture resilience, resourcefulness, and relational and reflective learning—equipping our students with the confidence to take on challenges and the curiosity to seek solutions.
Opportunities to Flourish
From leadership development to sports, music, drama, and a vibrant co-curricular program, our girls have endless opportunities to explore their passions. These experiences not only build skills but also cultivate friendships, teamwork, and a sense of belonging that lasts a lifetime. Students are encouraged to seek new learning experiences that complement their exploration of whole learning. With a focus on service learning, St Hilda’s Girls learn about the importance of compassion, collaboration and hope.
A Connected, Supportive Journey
Middle School is a bridge between Junior and Senior years, and we ensure this transition is filled with encouragement, mentorship, and excitement. With strong connections across year levels, our students learn from each other, gaining insight, inspiration, and confidence to step into leadership roles. Each student becomes not only a valued member of a year group, but an integral member of a Thrive group. Together with their Thrive teacher, students explore topics that influence and impact their age group. This proactive approach supports our learners to develop strategies and skills to assist them in their a learning journey.
A Future Without Limits
At St Hilda’s, we don’t just educate girls—we equip them to lead, to innovate, and to make a difference. Through cultural awareness, teamwork, and personalised pathways, we prepare each student to embrace the endless opportunities that await. This is Middle, Senior School at St Hilda’s— is a vibrant place where girls know themselves, embrace the power of learning, and step forward with courage, compassion, and conviction.
The future is bright, and it starts here!
Ms Tania Gallen
Head of Senior School
Mrs Lisa Roper
Head of Middle School
Learning Framework
St Hilda’s School learning design applies the elements of the Cognitive Load Theory, but also incorporates a constructivist approach where appropriate, acknowledging that whilst explicit instruction and teacher-directed orchestrating of activities is a necessary component of effective classroom practice, learning is also socially constructed and students need to have the opportunities and space to grapple with the more unfamiliar ideas through activities that enable collaboration and problem-solving, calling on the logical reasoning and prior knowledge to build new, shared understanding, as well as individual competence and excellence.
What you can expect from teaching and learning in our classrooms are:
Quality Learning Environment
Students engage with high-quality instruction, designed using the principles of explicit teaching, as well as inquiry-based learning. Teachers use research-based strategies (e.g., Teaching WalkThrus) to deliver content effectively while supporting students’ learning growth and wellbeing.
Dual-Focus Teaching
Each lesson combines subject-specific content with intentional development of learning dispositions with the domains of resilience, resourcefulness, relational capacity and reflectiveness, preparing students to become self-regulated learners.
Language of Learning
Our pedagogical vocabulary encourages students to think critically about how they learn and develop, as well as what knew knowledge, skills and understanding they are building. We recognise that success is defined by both academic strengths and learning dispositions (Claxton, 2007). These require our students to engage in learning with an adaptable mindset in order to make informed and effective adjustments when faced with any uncertainties (Martin, Nejad, Colmar & Liem, 2013).
High Expectations and Clear Norms
Structured classroom environments promote deep learning, underpinned by mutual respect, inclusive practices, and consistent feedback. Our students are encouraged to articulate innovative thinking, develop their capacity to be resourceful and engage productively in collegial dialogue and relationships with peers, teachers, and the wider school community.
Continuous Assessment for Growth
Assessment is formative and summative, aimed at tracking progress and providing targeted feedback to enhance learning outcomes. Students and parents are able to review feedback through a continuous cycle and shortly after summative assessment is completed.
HONOURS PROGRAM - Enrichment and Acceleration
St Hilda’s School acknowledges that for some students, an accelerated curriculum pathway may be deemed appropriate to ensure that they are able to continue to thrive as a learner, whilst for others an enrichment approach is a more suitable option. Our Honours Program caters for these needs in the following ways:
Subject-Based Enrichment
Students in Years 8-10 English have an opportunity to engage in highly differentiated lessons to extend and enrich their learning.
Subject-Based Acceleration
For students meeting the Honours Program criteria, subject-based acceleration in English and/or Mathematics may be provided. This allows eligible students to participate in higher-level classes with minimal disruption by attending a higher grade for specific subjects.
Alma Loreaux
Head of Teaching and Learning