The Future of Female Leadership

​​On Wednesday of Week 9, 10 of our Year 8 students travelled into the Sydney Startup Hub to attend the Future of Female Leadership Forum. This event provided an opportunity for our students to immerse themselves in the world of entrepreneurship and startup culture. Throughout the day the girls were challenged by TOI Founder, Anna-Grace Millward, to put themselves forward and focus on developing both their soft (human) skills as well as the hard (technical) skills. The girls participated in a range of workshops including:

• Communication coaching
• Mindset coaching
• Business Modelling
• UX/UI workshop
• Engineering challenge
• AR/AV session

Our students also had the opportunity to enjoy a networking lunch with a broad range of female innovators from across Australia, hearing from Keynote speaker MP Trish Doyle, Parliamentary Secretary for Climate Change, Energy and the Environment.

During Term 3, these students will put the skills they have learnt into practice by developing an innovative solution to a UNSW designed challenge. They will pitch their ideas back in the Startup Hub in September to a group of industry professionals and venture capitalists.

Picture Book Project

Integrated learning highlights the connections between students learning in a range of different subjects to increase engagement and relevance. During Semester 1, Year 7 were challenged to write, illustrate, edit and promote their own story books in a cross curricular Picture Book Project. The project took place during the students’ English, Art, Religion, PDHE and Technology lessons where the students learned about the picture book form and how picture books can help them to understand concepts that they have been learning about in their academic subjects. The girls engaged in a number of workshops including “books with purpose”, “pagination” and Adobe Illustrator to assist them with their creations. They also learned about the picture book industry and created Elevator Pitches to promote their picture books. To celebrate and give purpose to their learning, the girls visited St Charles Primary school where they read and showcased their completed books to the kindergarten students.

Design Thinking in action

To extend our students’ creative and critical thinking skills, Year 10 St Clare’s students entered the Metro Minds STEAM Challenge in Term 2. This program provides students with an opportunity to work collaboratively to design an innovative solution to an authentic Sydney Metro problem. Using the Design Thinking principles, our students identified a challenge on the Metro project. Their focus area was the safety of young women using the metro, however after much research, data and survey analysis and discussion with their Metro Minds Ambassadors, their problem statement became more broad. 

“How can we assist the metro customers in feeling safe at all times while accessing the Metro both in the station and whilst in the carriage?”

The students were lucky enough to work with two Metro experts, Georgia Benson, Senior Manager, Customer & Products, and Tiffany O’Neil, Communications Manager. During their mentoring sessions, the girls asked questions, brainstormed ideas and were given advice on refining their prototypes. 

Our students moved through the empathise, ideate and prototyping phases, to come up with their solution. The MyMetro app, which is designed to enhance safety, accessibility, and convenience for commuters using the Sydney Metro system. The app will integrate cutting-edge technology with a deep understanding of user needs, following a comprehensive design thinking process.

The students created a 5 minute pitch which has been submitted to the Metro Minds challenge. We are so proud of their hard work and are looking forward to hearing the Metro’s feedback.

Learning from local partnerships

St Clare’s College has continued to connect our students with industry professionals in 2024, inviting a range of guests to work with us on campus. These local partnerships add depth to our students understanding and increase their engagement in their learning.

Our Cafe Clare students enjoyed a Q&A with local cafe owner, Mitch from Little Me, Waverley. Mitch spoke to the girls about what is involved in running a cafe, and further refined their barista skills using the St Clare’s coffee machine. Cherie, St Clare’s mum and founder of Whole Green Bakery also spoke with the girls about the process of building a food based business from scratch and how to scale operations. The girls loved hearing stories about the challenges and highs associated with being a female entrepreneur.

The WE Design girls also had the opportunity to hear all about the life of a fashion designer, when the founder of Active School Sports visited in Term 1. Katie took the girls through her career journey, from fashion buyer, to designer, to operations manager, travelling all over the world to help with fashion shoots and shows. The girls then heard how Active School Sports was born after Katie identified a gap in the market and capitalised on this. The students will use the knowledge they have gained from hearing Katies story, to start their own design based business in Term 2.