As we head towards the end of the school year, Christmas, and our summer break, it is an opportune time to reflect on 2025 at Tintern. It has been a wonderful year of achievement, activity, growth and partnership across the School and our community, and I would like to touch on a few highlights.
We began the year reflecting on what we believe were Tintern’s strongest results since the advent of the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE). These outcomes arose from the committed and consistent work of a wonderful group of young people, who were brilliantly mentored and taught by our dedicated staff, and supported at home by caring and committed families. We were very proud of our 2024 leavers and are similarly admiring of our 2025 Valedictorians, who will receive their results on 12 December.
Our new VCE Centre is well advanced and remains on time and on budget for use by our most senior students in our 150th year, 2027. This will be a truly state-of-the-art facility, supporting not only academic achievement but also broader student growth through our developing coaching program for Year 12 students.
Our Celebration Evenings across both the Junior and Secondary Schools have been vibrant and powerful presentations of the breadth and richness of life at Tintern. Music, drama and other co-curricular performances sat alongside academic achievement and leadership recognition to make these evenings memorable and meaningful. Speech Nights are no longer the lengthy events they once were, characterised by long speeches and limited student presence (thank heavens), and ours have been engaging, enjoyable and of an appropriate length.
Student leadership in 2025 has been remarkable, particularly across our Year 6, Year 9 and Year 12 cohorts. Strong and visible leadership, alongside student voice and agency, are clear signs of a healthy and open community where all members are valued, respected and believed in — foundations of our Tintern Compass and community culture. Equally evident has been the leadership shown by students who do not hold formal roles. This initiative, visible across the School, is a reassuring indicator of student confidence and a willingness to live our factis non verbis (by deeds, not words) motto, which urges action and contribution in the world beyond words alone.
As is always the case at the end of the year, we farewell a number of staff who are retiring or moving on to new roles. We thank all staff for their contributions to Tintern throughout 2025. In particular, we farewell Mrs Allison Prandolini, who has served as Head of the Girls’ Junior School for the past seven years. When she joined Tintern, Mrs Prandolini brought with her a strong commitment to courage and strength in girls’ education, fostering impressive self-belief, autonomy and confidence among our Junior School girls. Her focus on curriculum and teaching and learning has driven important development across the Junior School, work that has been expertly enacted by the outstanding team of teachers she has recruited and developed during her time here. We wish her every success in her new role as Head of Junior School at Wesley College, St Kilda Road.
Looking ahead to 2026, I am excited about the forthcoming communication regarding our new Year 9 program, to be shared in mid-2026 for implementation from 2027. While not yet complete, our review of Year 9 and the redesign of key elements will ensure students are engaged, challenged and well prepared to move into Senior College as thoughtful, educated citizens, ready to launch into their final years of schooling.
Our community is now well aware of our changes to device use across the School, designed to further strengthen student wellbeing and online safety. While I am confident this shift is in the best interests of our students, I also acknowledge it will present challenges. With the government’s age-based social media ban, there is significant change underway for our young women and men, and both School and families will need to support them through this transition, which they will feel keenly.
I wish all families a wonderful and celebratory end to the school year, a happy and holy Christmas, and a restful and enjoyable summer.
Factis non verbis
