From the Principal – Issue #3, 2026

From the Principal – Issue #3, 2026

Acknowledgement of Country

Dear Parents/Guardians, Friends & Students of SAC,

This week we celebrated the achievements of the Class of 2025 with a beautiful assembly. Surrounded by family and friends, we congratulated them on the hard work and commitment that helped them achieve outstanding results and thanked them for their generous contribution to the life of the College. Old scholar Sarah Cumming (Class of 1997) was our special guest for this event and her words of encouragement reminded everyone how Mercy values continue to shape lives well beyond school. I am sharing here the speech of Emily Thomas, Dux of the College for 2025. Emily’s words of gratitude reflect a wisdom well beyond her years.

Ms Paddy McEvoy
Principal

I am sincerely humbled to have this opportunity to speak to you for one last time, with gratitude for all that this College has taught me and for the opportunities each of us has been given, opportunities we so easily take for granted. So improbable is this moment to me that even if angels had descended from the heavens and told me I would be standing here today, I still would not have believed it. I feel so incredibly blessed to have this moment and to be able to share it with you.

Year 12 is a phenomenon. There is something about it that resists explanation, something that binds people together in a way no other year quite does. It carries with it a bond unlike any other, one that quietly transforms peers into friends, and friends into family. It is in our shared series of “lasts” – our last Mercy Day, the last time we button our uniforms, the last walk to school – that the weight of these moments settles in, carrying both the sweetness of memory and the ache of knowing they will never come again.  Something that truly defined the Class of 2025 is that when one of us faced hardship, none of us carried it alone. We created a collective strength to bear that weight together. With this bond in mind, I dedicate this DUX award to the Class of 2025, because it is together that we have achieved excellence.

No success is ever the result of individual effort alone, and we carry this truth with us as we reflect on the people who guided us. On behalf of the graduating class, we owe our teachers more than words can express.You have served us with patience, belief, and care for that we will forever be in your debt. Everything we become traces back to the seeds cultivated and nurtured by every teacher who has taught us. It gives me great honour to imagine a future where we may give back to you, whether as nurses caring for you, teachers guiding your children and grandchildren, or simply as people who carry forward the values you instilled in us.

I would also be remiss not to honour Catherine McAuley and the Sisters of Mercy, whose vision of educating young women continues to shape generations. Thousands have walked these halls before us, and thousands will follow, but we carry the responsibility of being a living testament to that vision. Thank you, Ms McEvoy, for continuing to lead this community with the values first instilled by our founders.

Along the journey of life, I have learnt that what we sometimes believe we have lost in this life is often returned to us many times over, if only we are willing to see it. When we stop looking at what is absent and instead recognise what surrounds us, we begin to understand how abundantly blessed we are. I have been blessed not only with a family bound to me by blood, but with people bound to me by love, those who have supported me like a sister, guided me like a mother, and loved me like a father. Your quiet encouragement, your steady presence, and your unwavering belief in me have shaped me in ways I will carry forever.

To my sisters Nava and Mandi, you have taken on many roles throughout my life, second mothers, teachers, doctors – but above all, my best friends. The sacrifices you have made and the responsibilities you shoulder have made it possible for me to be able to be standing here. You have paved the way before me and set the bar impossibly high, a standard that continues to shape the woman I am becoming.

It is often through another’s sacrifice that we are gifted the beauty of our own lives – blessings we inherit without ever fully seeing the cost. For me, that was my mother. You left behind the only life you had ever known, fleeing a country of hatred in search of opportunity, safety, and community for your children. You walked that path alone, so that we would never have to. Though you were denied the opportunity to complete your own education due to injustice – something I hope we all strive to abolish – I say without hesitation that you did, because you were with me every step of the way. In the darkness of winter mornings, in late-night pick-ups, in moments of worry, your love and presence were constant, proof of a love that fascinates me; to me, a mothers love mirrors the love of God: steadfast, patient, and infinite. In that love, I see the true role of a mother: service in its purest form, giving without counting, carrying without complaint, and shaping the hearts of her children long before they can shape themselves. Whatever light I carry into the world began with you. If there is any meaning in what I have achieved, it is because you carried it long before I ever could.

I want to acknowledge God, for as the sacred texts remind us: “With a look He granteth a hundred thousand hopes, and with a glance He healeth a hundred thousand incurable ills.” Without His divine confirmations, I would not be standing here today.

Sitting where you are now, it is easy to believe that those who stand at this podium must simply be ‘smart’. But there is no such thing as being inherently smart. I am not naturally gifted; I am persistent, dedicated, hardworking, creative, and willing to learn. While some things may come more easily to others, success is never built on ability alone, it is shaped by effort, discipline, and the courage to keep going not just when it is easy to but when everything feels like an obstacle in your way.

We all know what academic success requires, so I won’t dwell on it, but I do want to share one lesson that stayed with me – that growth is built quietly over time, not suddenly in Year 12. How often did we tell ourselves that the work in earlier years didn’t matter, scrolling through our phones and promising ourselves we’d try when it finally mattered? But success rarely begins under pressure. It begins much earlier, in the years we are tempted to dismiss, through the habits we form and the small decisions we make to do what needs to be done today rather than waiting for tomorrow to force our hand. The most valuable advice I was ever given was simple: “look at what you need to do right now, and just do your best.”

However, beyond results, we must recognise the responsibility each of us carries in shaping the culture of SAC.  Every day, we wear the words Loyal en Tout, loyal in all things. Loyal to God, to one another, to our school, and to ourselves. This loyalty is not passive; it asks something of us. It calls us to embody the Mercy values in everything we do, to act with compassion, to choose justice, to lead with courage, and to uphold integrity, even when no one is watching. So, if you take only one thing from my speech, let it be this: never be the reason someone doesn’t want to come to school, doubts their worth, or feels excluded. Be the reason someone smiles in the corridor. Be the reason someone feels seen. Be the person people are grateful to call a friend.

So may we leave not just with knowledge and experiences, but with hearts ready to serve, spirits eager to uplift, and a commitment to excellence that reaches far beyond ourselves. After all, you can take the girl out of SAC, but you can’t take SAC out of the girl.

Thank you.

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