Learning

Stuartholme School provides a supportive and inclusive learning environment where each girl’s gifts and talents are recognised, nurtured and challenged through an individualised educational program.

 We offer an extensive curriculum which involves many experiences within and beyond the classroom. Stuartholme offers 25 OP subjects, a broad Vocational Education Programme and 47 co-curricula activities.

The School’s highly educated, talented and creative teachers and specialist staff are experts in their field and challenge their students to become independent, critical thinkers, arming them with the confidence to actively engage in their learning. 

Our Co-curricular activities reinforce the value of ‘learning outside of the classroom’. The Co-curricula Program enables students to discover, develop and value their talents, allowing them to grow in self-confidence through a range of age-appropriate learning experiences. Students are encouraged to enjoy and contribute to their community, and to participate in service-learning, social justice programs, study tours, sports, arts and cultural activities, clubs, societies, domestic and international exchanges. Students are engaged in the classroom

 through dynamic teaching strategies and vibrant learning environments. Stuartholme acknowledges a commitment to inclusive education and best practice principles of teaching and learning with opportunities for students to strive for personal excellence.

Enrichment and extension are available through curriculum differentiation, subject offerings, competitions and special programs. In Year 12 students can participate in Music and English extension as well as University Studies in specific subject areas.

Student Wellbeing

Student Wellbeing permeates every activity and interaction at Stuartholme School. The School operates in a sub-school structure (Years 7-9 and Years 10-12); delivering a range of age-appropriate wellbeing programs. Together we strive to celebrate successes, support one another through challenges and create a community that promotes life-long friendships.

Boarding

Stuartholme is Brisbane’s only Catholic Girls’ Boarding School. Many of our Boarders are from regional and international locations and their experiences offer richness and cultural diversity to our community.

A culture of welcome and kindness is emphasised at Stuartholme and boarders’ learn the lifelong skills of communication and respect. Each Boarder calls Stuartholme their home away from home, and together they form and share special bonds where every Boarder refers to each other as ‘friends and sisters’.

Our Boarding staff inspire each girl to do their personal best – to aim for excellence academically and/or vocationally, aim for high-level interpersonal skills and to be compassionate and inclusive.

Boarding options

Stuartholme offers varied Boarding options suited to families with different needs:

• Full-time Boarding
• Weekly Boarding – Monday to Friday
• Senior Boarding – for students in Years 10 to 12 participating in an enhanced academic care program
• Co-curricula Boarding – for Day Students involved in co-curricular activities with demanding hours
• Extended School Day – assisting busy Day Student families, providing breakfast, afternoon tea, supervised study and dinner

Students participating in Weekly Boarding, Senior Boarding and Co-curricular Boarding have access to the same benefits as Full-time Boarders but with greater flexibility. Weekly Boarders go home on weekends and Co-curricular Boarders can board during different sporting seasons.

Ideal location

Stuartholme’s unique location offers Boarders many advantages. The School is ideally nestled on 21 hectares of native bushland in the foothills of Mount Coot-tha, and situated only six kilometres from Brisbane’s CBD. This provides a naturally beautiful environment, conducive to a balanced educational and boarding experience.

To learn more about Stuartholme, please arrange a tour with our Registrar on telephone +61 7 3369 5466 or email enrolments@stuartholme.com

A broad range of co-curricula activities encourage each girl to be involved in healthy and creative opportunities. Our diverse program reflects the value of a balanced school life for personal wellbeing. We also provide an active outreach network which fosters social involvement and responsibility, in line with the Goals of Sacred Heart Education.

As Brisbane’s only Catholic Girls’ Boarding School, Stuartholme provides a specialist boarding experience for girls in Years 7 to 12.

The Stuartholme Boarding mission is to make every girl feel at home, loved as she is, comfortable and secure. When young women feel like this, they can do anything. They are ready to be challenged and extended to become the very best person they can be.

We know that each of these young women can make the most profound difference to the communities they come from, to their families and to the wider world.

Your daughter will belong at Stuartholme. The Stuartholme Boarding House has a culture of inclusion and kindness, where each girl can feel at home.

Built at the base of Mt Coot-tha, only 6kms from Brisbane’s CBD, Stuartholme is close to everything yet provides the girls with a quiet, safe environment where they can live and learn.

The Boarding House

The Boarding House is centrally positioned over two floors in our main building, originally built in 1920. The School’s accommodation has a capacity for 160 students and provides an individual room with study space and high speed wireless broadband for each girl.

Study

One advantage of living in the boarding environment is the additional time girls can apply themselves to their study, which assists in forging healthy learning habits for school and in the future.

Study takes place in a supportive environment under close supervision in Years 7 to 10 with progressively more scope for independent study in senior years.

24/7 high speed wireless broadband and a well-resourced Library Centre, managed by a Teacher Librarian, are available to Boarders until 8.30pm.

Staff

Stuartholme’s boarding staff are highly skilled and dedicated to their boarding roles. They undertake high quality personal and professional development and have regular and collaborative team meetings.

The Stuartholme Boarding staff are very proud of every girl who comes into the Boarding House, the culture of inclusion and kindness ensures everyone is cared for and feels welcome.

Each boarding staff member aims to inspire each girl to do their personal best – to aim for excellence academically and/or vocationally, aim for high level interpersonal skills and to be compassionate and inclusive.

Health & wellbeing

Each Stuartholme student is precious. Our dedicated Boarding staff strive to make each girl feel safe, comfortable and happy during their educational journey.

An integral part of the School ethos is to ensure each student adopts a healthy balance in her daily life. All girls are encouraged to develop early independence in their study habits, to enjoy and contribute to their community and to participate in the many programs on offer. This is supported by the pastoral care structure of The House.

Led by a team of dedicated staff, under the Director of Boarding, this small community fosters a sense of family, belonging and inclusiveness with girls developing and building lifelong friendships with their peers. The Boarding House is organised, supervised and provides pastoral care through the structured ‘House System’.

Professional and caring guidance from the School Counsellor, School Chaplain and Careers Advisor is also available to Boarders.

Activities

The Boarders are able to enjoy and take advantage of the many programmes, facilities, cultural and co-curricular activities which are offered by the School.

We encourage the girls to extend themselves academically, physically, spiritually and culturally and to participate and involve themselves in boarding life and the many opportunities available.

For more information about Stuartholme visit www.stuartholme.com or arrange a tour with our Registrar on telephone +61 7 3369 5466 or email enrolments@stuartholme.com  

Student Wellbeing permeates every activity and interaction at Stuartholme School. The School operates in a sub-school structure (Years 7-9 and Years 10-12); delivering a range of age appropriate wellbeing programs. Together we strive to celebrate successes, support one another through challenges, and create a community that promotes life-long friendships.

Spark Program

Stuartholme School has a long tradition of enabling all learners to recognise their individual strengths to enhance their learning. Coupled with exceptional academic success as a school, this has seen an increase in the number of high achieving students enrolling in recent years.

The SPARK Program has been designed to meet the needs of our high potential students. To find out more please click here.

Careers Program

At Stuartholme, all students engage in career development and career-related learning. Our students are encouraged to access whole-of-school career development opportunities and students in Years 10, 11 and 12 also take part in a tailored, forward-looking Careers Program. To compliment these initiatives, individual career development sessions are available with our Careers Counsellor.

To find out more please click here.

Stuartholme School offers a cost-effective and convenient transport option for getting your daughter/s to and from the school.

Brisbane Bus Lines run four bus routes exclusively for Stuartholme students each morning and afternoon.

Find out more about our bus routes and ticket prices here.

Stuartholme School offers several scholarships and bursaries to assist students and families. Find out more here.

Shelagh Ryan, 1990 Stuartholme School graduate

Shelagh Ryan graduated from Stuartholme in 1990 and is a successful Restaurateur with three Melbourne inspired cafes located in Central London. Shelagh is also Author of Café Kitchen – Relaxed Food for Friends from the Lantana Café, released in September 2014.

Shelagh attributes her success to the solid foundations she received at Stuartholme.

“Stuartholme gave me a really solid foundation. It’s hard to quantify exactly what Stuartholme gives you, but I think its confidence. It’s a belief in yourself, it’s the knowledge that you really can do anything. The School really does teach you how to be an independent self-starter”.

Find out more about Shelagh.

Corissa Miller, 2002 Stuartholme School graduate

Corissa Miller is a Wildlife Veterinarian and Director of Ecotone Wildlife Veterinary Services. Ecotone’s focus is on wildlife management, providing support and advice for fauna research and management programs with large mammal species.

Corissa graduated from Stuartholme School in 2002, before moving into university studies which included a Masters in Conservation through Murdoch University.

"I felt very supported in everything that I did at Stuartholme. I was always made to feel that I was able to try at everything I wanted to do. That’s why I did such a broad range of subjects at school. All of my teachers encouraged me to think for myself, and to question what I was learning. That’s a really important quality in my work now".

Find out more about Corissa.

Since joining Stuartholme in 2020 I am often asked what makes Stuartholme unique. As an educator with over 20 years experience, I have had the privilege of working in a number of schools, but there is something inherently special about Stuartholme and our students.

With less than 700 students, the School prides itself on being small enough for each student to be personally known, yet large enough to offer an extensive, ever-changing and dynamic range of opportunities.

As Brisbane’s only Catholic girls’ boarding school, Stuartholme’s boarding community remains in the centre of our heritage-listed main building. 150 girls live at Stuartholme and every interaction I experience is friendly and open-hearted. The boarders become sisters in the truest sense of the word. We see this bond stay just as strong years after they leave the Stuartholme gates.

Stuartholme is one of over 200 Sacred Heart Schools worldwide, an order founded by Saint Madeleine Sophie Barat in 1800. Sophie’s goal was to educate girls so they could have a transforming influence in society. Her educational approach remains relevant today, putting the students at the heart so they can be challenged in a supportive and affirming environment to reach their potential in all areas of development – spiritual, intellectual, social, emotional, and physical.

It is well established that optimising success for today’s school students is a three-way connect whereby staff and the parents and students rally to deliver outstanding results. Our Growing to Great school innovation plan, optimises success for students through the integration of learning and wellbeing in innovative ways. (Link to video?)

As leaders in girls’ education, our teachers adapt to each student’s learning style, providing the best educational outcome for each student. We pride ourselves on supporting, extending and challenging our students to optimise pathways for their future learning.

In the words of one of our Sisters, Mother Janet Erskine Stuart, a “Sacred Heart education is not meant to turn the children out small and finished but seriously begun on a wide basis. They must leave us with self-knowledge, energy, and purpose.”

I warmly invite you to visit Stuartholme and discover the vibrant and compassionate community which encompasses the values of faith, learning, community, social justice and personal growth that empowers young women to lead. Our community is a true testament of what a Stuartholme School education can provide.

Daniel Crump
Acting Principal