2010 heralds the start of not only another decade of educational excellence for St Aidan’s, but also a year in which the physical face of the school and the standard of facilities our students can access, will undergo a dramatic transformation following a capital investment of over $10 million. With construction now in full swing, the school’s new centrepiece, the $7.5 million Christine Hartland Centre is on track for completion in mid 2010. Due to be officially opened on 24 August, the new hub of St Aidan’s spiritual, physical and creative activities, will feature an array of “best-in-class” education and co-curricular facilities totalling 4,283 square metres over three levels: Lower Ground Floor A doubling of the Ron Archer Fitness Centre; two double-sized music classrooms; two new classrooms and upgraded storage and bathroom facilities. Ground Floor The existing school assembly hall and stage will be augmented through the addition of new toilets and change rooms; three new music studios; a new music classroom; percussion room and double-sized music room. First Floor Significantly enlarged seating capacity through the addition of 300 new tiered seats enabling the entire school community to comfortably attend key school events in fully air- conditioned comfort; two additional drama rooms (one with retractable seating for 100 people). St Aidan’s Junior School will also be the beneficiary of a major capital works program in 2010, with construction starting late last year on the new $2.5 million Junior School Library at Charma Place, on land adjoining the current campus. The new 680 square metre building will feature a state-of-the-art library upstairs and kitchen, all-purpose meeting room and an adjoining landscaped area on the ground level. The new facility will enable the current Junior School Library to be redeveloped in to a multi-purpose laboratory for science and art, along with two additional classrooms. The Junior School Library development follows a major upgrade to the Senior School Library, which was completed in January 2010, and which increased its size by one third. These latest projects, brings the total investment made by St Aidan’s in new capital works projects, facility upgrades and land acquisitions to facilitate the school’s future growth, to over $20 million over the past eight years. While the new Junior School Library has been funded under the Federal Government’s Building Education Revolution, a large portion of the above investment, including The Christine Hartland Centre, has been borne directly by the school and through the generous philanthropic support of the wider school community. As most first-time parents may be unaware of the function and goals of the St Aidan’s Foundation, it is worth highlighting the pivotal role it has played, and will continue to play, in the quite dramatic transformation of the school’s facilities since its inception in 1929. Buoyed by the generous support of the wider school community (parents, alumni and friends), the Foundation has helped raise more than $2.5 million to date as a cornerstone investment behind the continued upgrade of the school’s underlying infrastructure. Continued on page 2. 1 St Aidan’s Anglican Girls’ School Foundation newsletter St Aidan’s Newsletter of St Aidan’s Foundation March 2010 $10 Million in New Facilities On behalf of the St Aidan’s Foundation I’d like to extend a warm welcome to all those parents whose daughters are starting their education, and hopefully what will prove a new life learning experience at the school in 2010. The Christine Hartland Centre rapidly taking shape
Transcript
2010 heralds the start of not only another decade of educational excellence for St Aidan’s, but also a year in which the physical face of the school and the standard of facilities our students can access, will undergo a dramatic transformation following a capital investment of over $10 million.
With construction now in full swing, the school’s new centrepiece, the $7.5 million Christine Hartland Centre is on track for completion in mid 2010. Due to be officially opened on 24 August, the new hub of St Aidan’s spiritual, physical and creative activities, will feature an array of “best-in-class” education and co-curricular facilities totalling 4,283 square metres over three levels:
Lower Ground Floor A doubling of the Ron Archer
Fitness Centre; two double-sized music classrooms; two new classrooms and upgraded storage and bathroom facilities.
Ground Floor The existing school assembly hall and
stage will be augmented through the addition of new toilets and change rooms; three new music studios; a new music classroom; percussion room and double-sized music room.
First Floor Significantly enlarged seating capacity
through the addition of 300 new tiered seats enabling the entire school community to comfortably attend key school events in fully air-conditioned comfort; two additional drama rooms (one with retractable seating for 100 people).
St Aidan’s Junior School will also be the beneficiary of a major capital works program in 2010, with construction starting late last year on the new $2.5 million Junior School Library at Charma Place, on land adjoining the current campus.
The new 680 square metre building will feature a state-of-the-art library upstairs and kitchen, all-purpose meeting room and an adjoining landscaped area on the ground level. The new facility will enable the current Junior School Library to be redeveloped in to a multi-purpose laboratory for science and art, along with two additional classrooms.
The Junior School Library development follows a major upgrade to the Senior School Library, which was completed in January 2010, and which increased its size by one third.
These latest projects, brings the total investment made by St Aidan’s in new capital works projects, facility upgrades and land acquisitions to facilitate
the school’s future growth, to over $20 million over the past eight years.
While the new Junior School Library has been funded under the Federal Government’s Building Education Revolution, a large portion of the above investment, including The Christine Hartland Centre, has been borne directly by the school and through the generous philanthropic support of the wider school community.
As most first-time parents may be unaware of the function and goals of the St Aidan’s Foundation, it is worth highlighting the pivotal role it has played, and will continue to play, in the quite dramatic transformation of the school’s facilities since its inception in 1929.
Buoyed by the generous support of the wider school community (parents, alumni and friends), the Foundation has helped raise more than $2.5 million to date as a cornerstone investment behind the continued upgrade of the school’s underlying infrastructure.
Continued on page 2. 1
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Newsletter of St Aidan’s foundation March 2010
$10 Million in New Facilitieson behalf of the St Aidan’s foundation i’d like to extend a warm welcome to all those parents whose daughters are starting their education, and hopefully what will prove a new life learning experience at the school in 2010.
The Christine Hartland Centre rapidly taking shape
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Continued from page 1.
With tuition fees almost entirely
committed to cover the school’s day
to day running costs and facilities
maintenance, and St Aidan’s status
as one of the lowest government-
funded independent schools in
Queensland (refer inside story),
the many capital raising initiatives
conducted by the Foundation
represent a critical lynchpin of
St Aidan’s current and future
building program.
Foremost among these initiatives
is the current Capital Appeal,
whose target is to raise $1.5 million
for The Christine Hartland Centre
redevelopment.
Another fact of which many first
time parents may be unaware, is
that St Aidan’s remains one of the
last remaining independent schools
in Brisbane to not force parents
compulsorily to make donations
to the school’s Building Fund. It
is, therefore, critical that every
parent seriously consider making
some form of voluntary donation
to our current Capital Appeal.
In all probability, if your sons or
other daughters attend another
independent school in Brisbane,
you will be making compulsory
payments to help fund that school’s
building program.
It is important to remember that
as donations at St Aidan’s are
voluntary, they are also fully tax
deductible, unlike those made
compulsorily at most other
independent schools.
Together with the other Foundation
Board members, I remain
steadfastly committed to ensuring
the students of St Aidan’s today,
and those of tomorrow, continue to
access the highest quality education
environment possible.
Please assist us to meet this goal,
and make an investment in your
daughter’s future at the school, by
financially supporting, in whatever
way possible in 2010, our critical
fundraising initiatives.
Mary Anne Pidgeon
Chair
St Aidan’s Foundation
the St Aidan’s foundation, on behalf of the entire school, extends a huge note of thanks to Mrs Jenny Brice for the extremely generous donation of $100,000 she made late last year to our capital Appeal for the christine Hartland centre.
In recognition of the tremendous financial support extended, Mrs Brice joins an illustrious small group of donors, who in acknowledgement of their major donations and long-standing support of the school, are officially listed as Patrons on the Foundation’s Honour Board. She becomes the school’s seventh Patron, joining Sir Robert and Lady Mathers, the St Aidan’s P & F Association, Steven and Julie Bridges, Kiyoshiro and Nobuko Yano, Ron Archer AM and the Moses Family on the Honour Board’s top rung.
Chair, Mary Anne Pidgeon described Mrs Brice’s significant donation as an incredible fillip to the Foundation’s fundraising initiatives in 2009.
“While each year the Foundation sets fundraising targets at levels required to sustain the school’s longer-term development, we acknowledged that 2009 would prove a challenging year for philanthropic gifts to the school, given the wide-spread repercussions of the Global Financial Crisis.
“While this obviously impacted on the ability of many members of the school community to donate to our Capital Appeal, we were fortunate through the year to receive a number of relatively large donations from a select number of people.
“The donation from Mrs Brice was a fantastic pinnacle for the year, and it enabled us to exceed the fundraising budget for 2009,” Mary Anne said.
Mrs Brice is a past pupil and a past parent, with her daughters Anna, Rebecca and Isabella attending St Aidan’s from 1980 to 1996, and her granddaughter starting in Year 4 this year.
Mary Anne Pidgeon said that 2010 represented the last pivotal year of the school’s three year Capital Appeal, and urged all parents and friends of the school to wherever possible support the $500,000 fundraising target for the year.
She said the Foundation was extremely grateful for every single dollar it received, and appreciated that many families’ financial circumstances limited the amount they are able to donate.
“However, if 500 parents donated only $500 each (with donations being fully tax deductible) in 2010, we would immediately reach half of our year’s fundraising target,” Mary Anne said.
Those wanting to financially support St Aidan’s building program also have the option of pledging a donation. Under this option, which provides greater financial flexibility for the donor, parents with a daughter for instance in grade 8 can commit to an up-front donation, of say $5,000, with the actual payments equally staggered over the five years of their daughter’s senior education at the school.
All donations to the Capital Appeal are being used to help fund construction of The Christine Hartland Centre.
$100,000 donation to Capital Appeal
Karen Spiller, Jenny Brice and Mary Anne Pidgeon surveying progress of The Christine Hartland Centre
it was recently widely reported in the media that government funding for some leading Queensland independent schools would rise by up to 40 percent between 2008 and 2012. it is worth highlighting to all parents that this, unfortunately, is certainly not the case with St Aidan’s which over coming years will see its already limited level of government funding decrease even further.
The school will lose over $850,000 in federal funding from 2009-2012 and exacerbating this loss are proposed changes to the State Government funding that will see an additional drop of $500,000 in funding over the same period.
St Aidan’s continues to be inequitably treated in terms of government funding, solely because its parents’ postcodes and location in Brisbane’s western suburbs.
As a result of these factors St Aidan’s is deemed by the Federal Government to have a high socio-economic status (SES), and therefore is entitled to far less government funding, irrespective of the fact that our students are located across a much broader geographic footprint within
Brisbane and come from families of widely varying financial situations.
Despite the reality of the situation, with some of our families making significant financial sacrifices to provide their daughters a high quality education, St Aidan’s is now one of the very lowest government funded independent schools in Queensland. In fact, as demonstrated by the accompanying SES table, St Aidan’s receives the lowest level of government funding of any independent girls’ school in Queensland.
While the redevelopment of The Christine Hartland Centre is a significant capital
works program for St Aidan’s, and one
that will have a long lasting impact on the
education current and future students will
enjoy, the State Government’s support of
this critical new infrastructure is limited to
only $310,000 of the project’s $7.5 million
capital cost.
This government funding imbalance will
in all probability become even more
marked over future years, and increases
the school’s reliance on the Foundation,
P & F Association and the financial support
of the wider St Aidan’s community as the
primary source of much needed funds to
propel our long-term building program.
Limited Government funding for St Aidan’s
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AllHallows
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IpswichGirls’ Grammar
115
ClayfieldCollege
109
LourdesHill
109
MoretonBay College
110
StRita’s
118
SomervilleHouse
121
BrisbaneGirls’ Grammar
115
StMargaret’s
123
StAidan’s
Indicative SES Scores for 2009 – 2012(highest scores receive least government funding)
Jenny, who attended St Aidan’s from 1967 to 1975 has proved a human dynamo whose untiring enthusiasm and support for the school will be sorely missed.
Her creative input was the driving force behind many of the Foundation’s most successful and popular events.
We are indeed fortunate to have elected two new outstanding directors to the Foundation’s board in Susie Bennett-Yeo who joined in November 2009, and Donald Chandler who started in
February 2010. Susie is a long-standing supporter of St Aidan’s and has an extensive background in sport for people with disabilities.
Her daughters, Rebekah and Kaitlyn, are in grades 10 and 5.
Don Chandler has two daughters at St Aidan’s, Jessie in grade 10, and Georgina who started this year in grade 4. He is the Queensland Manager for Ord Minnett Stockbroking and past President of the Brookfield Show Society and Queensland Club.
They join Mary Anne Pidgeon (Chair), Jackie Knowlman, John Bayly, Robin Levison, Mark Wilson, Lynn Woodhouse, Karen Spiller and Rob Morphet (School Council Chair) on the current Foundation board.
Foundation Board Changes
one of the foundation’s longest standing and most tireless directors, Jenny rylance, has officially ended her 10 year tenure as a board member.
Following 12 months of intensive planning, development and a considerable investment by Mark, Katie and several colleagues, the new on-line auction site, AIDARENA, is due to go live in coming weeks.
Mark said that in addition to traditional charitable organisations, AIDARENA would offer independent schools such as St Aidan’s a user-friendly and highly effective means of raising funds for development projects and capital appeals.
St Aidan’s is expected to become one of the first of several leading Brisbane independent schools to officially link with the new, unique on-line auction platform once it is launched, to bolster its future fundraising capability.
Mark urged as many parents and friends of St Aidan’s as possible to register with
AIDARENA, and to nominate the school as the beneficiary of any sales proceeds resulting from the successful auction of personal items. School supporters are also encouraged to visit the future site and to wherever possible bid for items whose sales proceeds are earmarked for St Aidan’s.
“In the case of an individual who designates St Aidan’s Foundation as the recipient of funds raised, once an auction has been successfully completed, AIDARENA will seamlessly transfer the net sales proceeds to the Foundation and issue a tax deductible receipt to the nominated, successful seller,” he said.
According to Mark, AIDARENA also offered the capability for users to establish specific appeals, to support, for instance, individual school building projects.
The types of items which can be listed for auction on AIDARENA to help fund St Aidan’s building program are much the same as you’d find on Ebay, although Mark says that tradespeople, professionals and businesses are also able to donate their time or services via the auction process.
In order to maximise sales prospects, AIDARENA suggests a live auction period of around 3 weeks duration. It is also highly recommended that the auction be set as an “auto re-list”.
All those interested in raising vital funds for our school’s building projects, should visit www.aidarena.com to register as users.
As a brand new site it has not as yet been linked to Google, so to find it please type http://www.aidarena.com into the address bar. 4
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A limited opportunity exists for parents to stamp their daughter’s names in perpetuity at St Aidan’s by purchasing naming rights to the 300 new chairs to be installed in the christine Hartland centre.
These are the first chair naming rights to become available at St Aidan’s in over five years, and as such demand for the new offer is expected to be high.
Under the school’s last chair donation program, over 165 chairs were
personalised with individual name plaques in the Auditorium of The Archer and Templeton Science and Technology Centre.
Plaques for each chair sold in The Christine Hartland Centre can be engraved to commemorate a special achievement or to simply acknowledge your daughter’s or family’s contribution to this major new development.
Cost per chair is only $150 and as all proceeds will go to help fund the
new centre’s development, the purchase price for most families should be fully tax deductible.
Don’t miss out on this one-off opportunity to leave your personalised stamp on the school’s history. Contact Anne Ferguson on 3373 5929 or by email on [email protected] to book your personalised chair/s.
THE CHRISTINE HARTLAND CENTREName your own seat in
Donate to St Aidan’s via new on-line auction servicethe impending launch of a highly innovative on-line auction service to provide registered charities with new fundraising avenues, is the “brainwave” of current St Aidan’s foundation board member and successful business entrepreneur, Mark Wilson, and his wife Katie.
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Foundation Honour Board
PAtron
Sir Robert and Lady MathersSt Aidan’s P and F AssociationSteven and Julie BridgesKiyoshiro and Nobuko YanoRon Archer AMMoses FamilyJennifer Brice and Family
Senior BenefActor
BenefActor
John and Lyndal BaylyMatthew Hill-Smith and FamilyThe Brett FamilyBruce and Glenys BarclayThe Levison FamilyMrs E A & Mr H C GriffinThe Brett Family
Senior Donor
Betty Davies (Park)The Whelan FamilySt Aidan’s Old Girls AssociationJan and Patrick DixonJohn and Melissa BullwinkelTim and Jennifer RylanceNeil and Tania SheringtonHelen, Bede and Prue KingGeoff and Clemmie BishopR W AxonSpencer Family
Ross and Jo FraserThe Morphet FamilyDavid and Jenny WoodJudith Smith nee RigbyDavid and Julie HendersonRod and Susan ElliottThe Haines FamilyThe Pidgeon Family
Donor
Stephen and Deborah GreenAlison, Andrew, Nicolai and Madeline MorrisJohn and Jane CloustonGibson FamilySteffensen FamilyMr G and Mrs L JonesRod and Nina GillH T and E V LeeRobin and Margaret WhiteMargaret and Peter JollyThe Tidmarsh FamilyR G and A J BrownMr & Mrs MurphyKnyn S and HKate, Meg, Sophie & Libby JacquesSteven and Donna LeighMark and Katie WilsonMr K & Mrs L Morris
ASSociAte
Tsai-Jung PanMeredith and Alexis HartiganThe Crowe FamilyNick and Anna StevensCourtney Morley-Drabble and FamilyJames and Jackie KnowlmanBrabazon FamilyThe See FamilyJohn and Karen SpillerMark and Penny KrauseChris and Genevieve GreigR J and T WaltersMark and Kirsten ElliottO’Hair FamilyNorman Laurie FoxKatahanas FamilyT and M PhelpsMonique and Garry ConnellyThe Hallam FamilyGreene FamilyStephanie and Emilie DerringtonGreg and Gillian HardingFraser and Sue GibsonS and M KordatouAnne and Owen EdwardsNick and Alex DauntRon and Julie Della PianaJune MerrittG H and S BrodieMalcolm and Margaret DavisonMartin and Susan LeonardJohn and Jennifer McLaughlinD and T Knight
David and Sue RussellMark Beauchamp PeacockC J and C H EvansHeikkinen FamilyJohn, Kelyn and Julia FlynnDon and Annatjie HunterC and M BassiliKevin and Karen Dixon and FamilyHolmes FamilyDownes FamilyKate and Tony ChartersHeather BishopSam and Beccie NevilleAndrew and Amanda MolloyKatrina and Tony CarrDrew and Amanda ArmstrongSaxby FamilyJohn and Gillian AstonJ W and D L PollardD and S BurroughRaymond LeeIan and Diane StanislaoCosta EconomouBrett and Jenny MooneyJannene and Robert RathieEric FordK and M HoweBaumann Family Sue and Mike Veitch Leanne HuggettPhil and Verena PrestonThe Macdonald FamilyDarren and Katarina NorrisNoel and Margie GordonThe Cockerall Family G and R SchultzG and M CannellJad and Kristine VinkoIan and Jennifer MunroThe Lacaze FamilyGraeme, Debra, Lara and Madisen GillCraig and Marion O’DonnellD’d & Col MorrowThe Woodhouse FamilyThe McComb FamilyRichmond FamilyIrvine FamilyMoller FamilyThe Matters FamilyThe Shaw FamilyTony & Sharon Weir/Bronte DuncalfTed & Kristine BankowskiBrad & Kathy NowlandThe Trainor FamilyBarry & Judy JacksonThe Geldard FamilyThe Jarratt FamilyStewart & Trudy McConchieBrenda & David GoodingBrian & Elizabeth HillDr A & Mrs L HoganThe Mengel FamilyDrew and Susan Armstrong
The Foundation acknowledges the generosity of its major donors with an Honour Board. Updated twice a year the Board is displayed in the foyer of the Archer and Templeton Science & Technology Centre and has six levels of recognition for the following donor amounts:
• Patron $100,000 & over
• Senior Benefactor $50,000 & over
• Benefactor $25,000 & over
• Senior Donor $10,000 & over
• Donor $5,000 & over
• Associate $2,000 & over
We would also like to acknowledge our anonymous donors
