For St Margaret’s Anglican Girls School the start of the 2021 school year marks a record-breaking milestone for enrolments as preparations are made to welcome students back to school this week.
In its 126th year, enrolments have reached an historical high with 1135 new and returning students starting this week and the boarding house at near capacity with 183 students living on campus.
The school has seen a steady and consistent increase in enrolments over the last five years with a growth of 5% in the last twelve months.
Principal Ros Curtis attributes this sharp increase in enrolments to the school’s strong reputation in the community.
“St Margaret’s has a 126-year tradition of delivering a holistic education focused on nurturing and developing students’ academically, physically, spiritually and mentally.
“We have a team of exceptionally skilled and dedicated teaching staff who are invested in ensuring each student receives a world class education,” she said.
The performance of the 2020 Year 12 cohort is testament to the school’s direction with 43.2% of the cohort achieving an ATAR of 95 or above, placing them in the top 5% of the state.
With the school’s growth has come the expansion and improvement of learning facilities to ensure a world class offering for students.
In 2020, St Margaret’s unveiled a state-of-the-art sports and wellbeing precinct, transforming one third of its Ascot campus to house a water polo sized heated swimming pool with two 50m lanes, tennis courts with lights, gymnasium with an oak sprung floor, a strength and conditioning gym, an indoor climbing wall featuring seven belay stations and 76m2 of climbing, a dedicated ergometer room to support rowing and modern health and physical education classrooms.
Opening in early 2021 is a dedicated Year 12 studies centre.
Last year St Margaret’s was also named the country’s top Boarding School in the Australian Education Awards for the second year running while also receiving an Excellence Award for Best STEM Program. The school won an Innovative Schools Award for the third consecutive year while Principal Ros Curtis won a School Principal of the Year Non-Government Excellence Award and the Head of Faculty Science and Technology Chris Dunn won an Outstanding Teacher of STEM Award.