St Mary’s principal listening and learning
News
Heidi Senior was checking out the cycling route from her new home in Prospect to St Mary’s College on the western edge of the Adelaide CBD when she came unstuck trying to navigate the vast aquatic centre emerging on the tip of the parklands.
The new principal at St Mary’s since January this year, she’d captained Tasmania there when competing for state water polo titles in her late teens.
It begs the questions, ‘do you want your pupils – who range from Reception to Year 12 – to play sport for sport’s sake alone? And is competition a good thing?’
Her answer is unequivocable. Take off the brakes.
“I want them to pursue things in a way that gives them joy. And if having a really good spirit of competition gives you joy, then you give it everything you’ve got. Some people really don’t enjoy competition and that’s fine too.
“But those of us who know what high level competition can feel like, you know the thrill you can get,” she said.
“And that’s the same as the joys you get standing on the stage, getting a standing ovation at the end of your music performance, or your dance recital. It’s that sense of, wow, that adrenaline rush that you get from high level performance, whether that’s in the arts or sport or any other pursuit.”
Heidi is new to South Australia as well as St Mary’s, the Dominican college founded in 1869 and the oldest continuously running school for girls in the state.
“You’re trying different things to find that dynamic place, you’re coming back to what you feel is justifiable. You’ve got to be a listener,” she said.
Her time at St Mary’s has gone swimmingly to date.
“South Australia is beautiful. If I’m not in Hobart, then Adelaide feels close to coming home.”
St Mary’s has offered a fresh dimension to what was already a storied career, including a BSc in zoology and a Bachelor of teaching.
With 22 years teaching experience under her belt in Tasmania, she moved to Melbourne in 2023 for her dream job with Edmund Rice Education Australia (EREA), to enhance learning outcomes for young people.
A dynamic two years which led to her becoming director of professional practice and partnerships, meant that the job had changed significantly and when the St Mary’s role came up – she’d already visited Adelaide several times with EREA – she was entranced.
“I got this incredible sense that this was a special place and that there was something important here,” she said. “Sometimes you just know you’ve made a really good decision.”
Immediately she set about her personal project at the school which has nearly 700 students and around 100 staff.
“My goal is to get to know every student’s name. I’m probably not yet at 50 per cent but I’m working on it. It’s achievable in a school under 1000.”
One-to-one chats with the principal accordingly, it seems, are not unduly difficult for anyone to arrange, including one ambitious year seven girl who wanted to tell Heidi about her dreams for the future while being keen to grill the principal on her vision for the future so she could understand where the school was heading.
“I aim to be someone who is approachable, who has the children’s best interests at heart and is never too busy to be able to stop and chat,” she said.
The history of St Mary’s – dating back to 1869, with its chapel standing since 1871 under the watchful legacy of Mary MacKillop – played its part in bringing Heidi to Adelaide.
“My mum was on the founding staff of the MacKillop Catholic College in Hobart. I remember learning a lot about Mary MacKillop from her involvement as a teacher. And every now and then this brilliant female Australian saint pops into my life.”
The first year has been busy. Already a new school strategic plan, which runs until the end of 2029, has been launched as part of her remit and two new deputy principals have been brought on board.
There has been work too on the St Mary’s College brand which can be distilled to just two words, ‘I am’.
“It’s about every girl and her purpose and her reality. So me knowing their names, means I can understand them and know them.
“We did some work on rebranding for the school and a lot came down to the story of this place – a place of connection and being known. So ‘I am’ is an expression of that.”
