About Us
Loreto College, Marryatville, a private, independent Catholic day and boarding school providing outstanding educational opportunities for girls from Reception to Year 12. It is one of many schools throughout the world directed by the Religious Congregation known as the Institute of Blessed Virgin Mary (IBVM) or Loreto Sisters.
The Order was founded by an Englishwoman, Mary Ward, in 1609. Her belief was that education could make a critical difference in her troubled world, especially an education centred upon the care and development of faith. Some 400 years later, the spirit of Mary Ward continues to inspire us to offer a Catholic education which liberates, empowers and motivates students to use their gifts with confidence, creativity and generosity in loving and responsible service.
Loreto College, Marryatville, is one of eight IBVM schools across Australia. Our sister Loreto schools can be found in New South Wales (Kirribilli & Normanhurst), Victoria (Toorak & Ballarat), Queensland (Coorparoo) and Western Australia (Mt Claremont & Nedlands). Our schools share strong ties, working together in a collaborative spirit of kinship.
Our own Loreto College at Marryatville, a private school in Adelaide, was established in 1905. Today it caters for some 900 students from Reception to Year 12 and is 'home' to some 70 boarders.
communication chart 2013.pdfOur Principal
Mrs Rosalie Gleeson
Welcome to our proud history and our exciting future.
Together, with over 150 'Mary Ward' schools around the world, we celebrate 400 years of excellence in the education and advancement of women.
Mary Ward believed passionately in the potential of women to contribute significantly to society and the church. She said 'there is no such difference between men and women that women may not do great things'. Some 400 years ago, her vision for and belief in women had a ripple effect, which disturbed accepted norms. Boldly, she proclaimed that 'women in time to come will do much'.
Now is that time. For four hundred years Loreto students have been given a strong sense of the greatness of a woman’s mission. 'All making the world richer for your having lived in it.' (Mother Gonzaga Barry, 1893).
Our founding Australian Superior, Mother Gonzaga Barry, wrote in 1875 that our goal is:
... to cultivate, to train, to develop, to strengthen and to polish all the physical, intellectual, moral and religious faculties which constitute mature and human dignity in the child. We shall truly be repaid when our pupils grow into women, of simple pursuits it may be, but of lofty aims, individuals whose characters will exert lasting influence on the world in which they move.
My vision then as College Principal, is to ensure Loreto Marryatville remains faithful, in all we do, to this time-honoured tradition of educational excellence through 'a schooling of the heart'; where learning is placed 'at the heart, of the heart and about the heart'.
