Our Mannequin Skirt represents artworks completed by our students who nominated to be involved and also photographs of our school, features and activities.

The skirt showcases four bands featuring our Acknowledgement of Country, Local Features of our Loreto Normanhurst Community and Current Faces and Activities our staff and students are involved with at our school.

The rainbow that is such a significant part of our story is a focus of our artwork for the skirt.

It was a rainy day in June 1896. As Mother Mary Gonzaga Barry, Mother Dorothea Frizelle and Mr Frank Coffee approached the Osborn property on Pennant Hills Road, the sun burst through the clouds and formed a beautiful rainbow over the estate. Reverend Mother voiced her delight. Her quest was over. “This is where I will build my school” , she said. On Sunday 28 February 1897, the foundation stone of Loreto Normanhurst - then called Loretto Hornsby - was laid by Cardinal Moran.

At this time Loreto Normanhurst dominated the hill on which it was built. There were no houses, only bush and paddocks. The view was unsurpassed this side of the mountains. To the north and west lay undulating forests to the Hawkesbury River, to the east the city and chain of suburbs, and to the south the Parramatta district, and the orchards of the garden of New South Wales. The bush was a much loved feature and still is a much-loved feature of life at Loreto Normanhurst and this is why we have chosen to showcase the Loreto Bushland so significantly through our artwork of the Mannequin Skirt. This is represented through the vast Veronica Reid oval, tall blue gums, the eucalyptus flower, our beautiful gardens, our frangipani tree that features near the Teresa Ball statue at the entrance of our Loreto Primary School and the exquisite Mother Gonzaga Barry rose. Throughout our artwork we have also featured the Loreto Bushland Cemetery. Our cemetery contains the graves of members of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The small cemetery is in a delightful bushland setting at the rear of our school, it is bounded by a low stone perimeter wall, with all tombstones of a similar design.

Our Acknowledgement of Country is symbolised by images and artworks created by our First Nation students. The artworks represent the land on which Loreto Normanhurst stands — Darug and Guringai Country, where the school community gathers. The artworks show the expansive mountain ranges that the school is built upon and the people who come together to form its community there. It reflects the school’s journey, honouring both its past and present.

The artworks of the cockatoo, stingray and platypus have been designed by our Year 8 First nations for Year 8 Songlines Immersion in 2023.

Mother Evangeline Kendall had a profound and positive influence on the lives of her students. She made life interesting for the junior boarders, reading them stories at night and inspiring in them a lifelong interest in reading, and taking them on picnics in the bush on Saturdays. A gifted artist, Mother Evangeline’s Art classes awoke great interest in her students and broadened their horizons in the world of Art. As Head of the Art Department, she left a strong and inspiring legacy. Her impact on our school was so significant that we chose to feature the portrait painted by Jane O’Hara from the graduating class of 1972 in our artwork alongside other significant women who have been instrumental in our Loreto Normanhurst story, the much-loved feature the sculpture of Mary Ward and Teresa Ball.

Today, at Loreto Normanhurst, there are over 1200 students and 250 staff, magnificent new buildings and facilities, including the Mother Gonzaga Barry Centre, the Primary School and the Loreto Normanhurst Agricultural Technologies Centre – Osborn Orchards. We look forward to the the development of our new Boarding School planned to open in 2025.

Our Year 12 Graduation is a significant celebration, with significant rituals including the Liturgy of Thanksgiving, and the symbolic releasing of doves, surrounded by our graduating year 12’s which we have captured in the design of our Mannequin artwork. The activities we offer our students are represented through our artwork through our academic and extracurricular activities we offer including; sport, dance, liturgy, oratory, design, and creative arts.

The hallways, classrooms and staffrooms are filled with lively chatter and excitement. And so our Loreto Normanhurst story continues as, day by day, we live and work and grow, in faithfulness to the Gospel of Jesus, to the vision and spirit of Mary Ward, and to Mother Gonzaga Barry’s desire that her “dear Loreto children would be like a string of goodly pearls. I will string my pearls on a triple cord, strong and sure”.

In 1997 on the occasion of the centenary of Loreto Normanhurst, Sr Deirdre Rofe, former principal, wrote: “So, much shifting and changing, but as the school prepares to move into the next century of its life, there is reason to believe that the rainbow which gave Gonzaga Barry such an omen of hope when she first sighted Normanhurst still spans that expanse of sky between the bush and the school” . It is a reminder of Mother Gonzagas words “Leave something behind which others can build” which continues to resonate with Loreto Normanhurst today reminding us that our actions, values and achievements should create a foundation on which others can build.