Sponsored by Queenwood
Cameron Bayley
When accepting her Australian of the Year honour earlier this year, astronaut Katherine Bennell-Pegg reflected on the far-reaching impact of empowering young people.
“Far greater than the promise of technical breakthroughs is the unlocking of the aspiration of our young people.”
As a graduate of Queenwood School for Girls in Sydney’s Balmoral, she is compelling proof that her alma mater equips its students to soar. Fittingly, the school motto, Per Aspera ad Astra – “Through struggle to the stars” – captures the spirit of a school where character matters as much as achievement.
However, at Queenwood, character is not built in the classroom alone.
Qualities worth cultivating
Founded more than a century ago with just five students, the school has long understood that the qualities most worth cultivating – truth, courage, and service – are forged through the full breadth of a life well lived.
“We door-knocked every year for the Salvation Army Red Shield Appeal and donated flowers to local nursing homes every September for the school’s birthday,” recalls Antonia Watson, class of 2010, now a head and neck surgeon.
It is this ethos, grounded in service, shaped by community, and strengthened through challenge, that Queenwood alumnae say remains with them long after graduation.
Stephanie Carter, class of 2010, now Special Counsel at Barry Nilsson, remembers the generosity of the older girls around her.
“Looking up to older girls who were generous with their time and guidance – on and off the sports field – instilled in me a sense of responsibility to do the same for younger girls,” she says. “This is something that has followed me into my professional career and my identity at work.”
It is a thread running through many Queenwood stories: the understanding that courage and service are not abstract ideals, but daily practices.
Lauren Rockliff, class of 2001, who has since held senior roles at Deutsche Bank in Australia and the UK, traces her confidence directly to her years at the school.
“It definitely changed the way I saw myself and led me to believe I was a leader and could initiate change and make a difference,” she says. “That love for camaraderie and team spirit – I still miss school sport.”
The influence of Queenwood’s teachers is woven throughout these stories. Carter recalls two teachers who encouraged her to apply the same discipline to her studies that she brought to the sports field.
“They invested so much time and care into my approach to learning,” she says. “I will always be grateful to those teachers for the early impact they had on my approach to school studies as well as my identity in the school community.”
The school is passionate about giving students the conviction that struggle is not an obstacle to achievement, but the path towards it.
Watson describes a school that taught her to “combine passion with discipline, sit with discomfort, and see setbacks as part of the process”.
“That mindset continues to carry me through the demands of surgical training, where resilience and consistency matter just as much as talent,” she says. “Queenwood created an environment where it was safe to fail.”
That safety had little to do with comfort and everything to do with confidence grounded in values.
“Decisions anchored in those values provided a steady sense of direction and confidence,” Watson reflects.
The surgeon, who was head prefect in 2010, also remembers when former Governor-General Quentin Bryce visited the school. “I watched her step out of the car, resplendent in a bright pink suit and leopard-print heels, carrying both authority and individuality with effortless confidence,” says Watson.
“I was completely transfixed. It represented the culmination of thirteen years at a school that encouraged us to construct our identities unbridled by societal expectation.”
That image of a woman leader arriving at a school full of girls preparing to make their own mark on the world captures something essential about Queenwood.
The school has long attracted inspiring women to its community. What it could not have fully anticipated is how many of its own graduates would become those women: surgeons, lawyers, bankers, scientists, and leaders carrying Queenwood’s values into boardrooms, operating theatres, courtrooms, and communities across the world.
Per Aspera ad Astra. Through struggle to the stars.
Not simply towards achievement, but towards a clear sense of self, the foundation from which meaningful lives, leadership, and contribution begin.
And, one day, becoming the light that helps guide others there, too.
Discover Queenwood at its upcoming open mornings. Register now.
