Partnerships

Our local community is an integral part of our identity as a learning community in the northern suburbs of Melbourne. As a Catholic school, we are aligned with our local parishes and parish primary schools, we see the connection between secondary and primary spanning Prep through to Year 12 and enjoy the opportunity to make meaningful learning centred partnerships. These have included initiatives such as Reading for Life, From Kitchen Garden to Table and sports coaching.

We are actively engaged with our local council and look forward to hearing from community groups and those with expertise from which our girls may offer their energy and enthusiasm as well as develop life long skills.

The International Coalition of Girls' Schools

The International Coalition of Girls' Schools (ICGS) is the leading advocate for girls’ schools, connecting and collaborating globally with individuals, schools, and mission-aligned entities dedicated to educating and empowering girls.

Gender equity and equality is an urgent, enduring, and global imperative, which demands that girls’ schools continue to forge educational spaces where the learning and healthy development of girls is prioritized. Girls’ schools are also intentional places of inclusion and belonging, where students discover who they are and how they want to go forward in the world. ICGS member schools are therefore called upon to recognize each student as an individual, to create and maintain learning communities that foster the full scope of healthy identity development, and to acknowledge the compounding disadvantages of intersectionality, while also honoring their institutional identities in accordance with their school missions, policies, and practices.

Girls’ schools have long been vital leaders for social and gender equity and equality, and they will long continue to be.

Today, the International Coalition of Girls’ Schools serves more than 550 girls’ schools across all sectors in 22 countries. In 2022, ICGS merged with The U.K.-based Association of State Girls’ Schools and the European Association of Single-Sex Education. A merger with the Alliance of Girls’ Schools Australasia becomes official in January 2024.

‍

BRIDGE

Mercy College has a partner school relationship with SMP Progresif Bumi Shalawat, a progressive Islamic junior (years 7-9) high school located in the town of Sidoarjo, East Java, Indonesia.

This partnership has been established through the BRIDGE (Building Relationships through Intercultural Dialogue and Growing Engagement) Program. The BRIDGE Program is facilitated by the Asia Education Foundation, a national not-for-profit initiative of Asialink at The University of Melbourne.

This ongoing partnership enables our Mercy students to develop:

• New knowledge of Asia and Australia
• A deeper intercultural understanding
• Strengthen their Indonesian language skills
• Real-life ICT skills

First Nations Scholarship Program

Mercy College has entered into an Agreement between Aborigines Advancement League (AAL) and The Lady Gladys Nicholls Hostel (Hostel) where we have entered into a partnership to house and educate two Indigenous students each year.