Mrs Barbara Stone AM

What really defines success?

For some it will be that, in 2008, at MLC School, 18 Year 12 students (11%) achieved University Admission scores of 99+. For others it might be that four of our Year 12 International Baccalaureate Diploma students achieved perfect scores – the greatest number ever in a NSW school. Yet others might look to the performance of three of our recent graduates at the Beijing Olympics in swimming, water polo and rowing, two of them bringing home gold and bronze medals. Or they might see success exemplified in the awarding of the NSW Rhodes scholarship to MLC girls in 2006 and 2007.

At MLC we believe that education should mean much more than just helping your daughter to get the best academic results she can manage. We believe it should be about helping her to become a special sort of person – someone with the skills, knowledge, attitudes and the flexibility to handle new ideas; someone who knows how to make the most of new opportunities; someone with a commitment to learn, adapt and to change not just herself but her world for the better.

Mrs Barbara Stone with Junior School students.

You will find this philosophy at the heart of our curriculum, formal and informal. It is why we focus on developing systems to help us to know your daughter well and to have the flexibility and capacity to support her effectively. It is behind our view that learning to play a productive role globally should be part of every girl’s experience.

At MLC we dare to be more.  We dare to give you and your daughter more. We dare to think differently.  Why? Thinking differently leads to opportunities and discoveries.  To provide the best learning environment possible, we dare to question the ordinary, to research, to refine, to create new ways, to 'zag' when others 'zig'.

Matching that environment to developmental stages - Junior, Middle and Senior school - makes sense to us.  So does supporting each girl's sense of belonging and having fun as she learns to work hard. We look to, and work for, a better future. 

Success breeds success. Helping girls to discover where they can be successful, and supporting them to do this, is at the heart of what we do at MLC School.

This intent lies behind our broad range of curriculum and extra curricular choices; our focus on developing systems to help us to know your daughter well and to have the flexibility, as well as the capacity, to support her effectively.

Young people are best able to cope with the uncertainties and demands of adolescence if they are 'resilient' when faced with difficult decisions. At MLC School we are not prepared to take chances with developing resilience. It is part of our core curriculum. We know how critical it is to have the right environment; one that is safe, caring, supportive, and one that helps to set goals and offers as many chances as possible for success.

Technology is one of the most significant agents shaping the landscape of the future. At MLC School we do not shy away from this fact but rather tackle the challenge head on, ensuring that our girls are confident in using advanced technologies and encouraged to learn in more flexible and creative ways.

To us it means Transforming Learning for every student. Our school community, school culture and school climate are designed to give your daughter every opportunity, not just equal opportunity. We measure our success as a school by the success she achieves in becoming her “best” self, in her capacity to dare to be more!

Mrs Barbara Stone, AM
Principal

National Chair of AHISA 2007–2009

It is with great pride that we announce MLC School’s Principal, Mrs Barbara Stone, AM, has officially commenced her three-year tenure as the chair of AHISA, the Association of Heads of Independent Schools of Australia. AHISA is a professional association for Principals of Independent and Private schools across Australia. Its members currently Head 335 Independent schools from every Australian state and territory and serve the needs of over 330,000 students.

AHISA aims to optimise the opportunities for the education of Australia’s young people through the maintenance of high standards of collegiality, professional practice and conduct among its members.

Through the skills and experience of its members, AHISA also seeks to influence national and state educational policy for the benefit of all young Australians. AHISA values its representation on significant national educational bodies such as
Teaching Australia and encourages its branches to take an active role in influencing educational policy making at state and territory level to support the AHISA’s core objects.

Mrs Stone’s passionate commitment to innovative education particularly in the use of technology and her experience as an influential member of education peak bodies throughout australia make her a very worthy head of this premier body serving the interests of parents’ right to choose independent education for their children.