Parents commemorate the Seymour College Centenary with a unique sculpture

The parent community at Seymour College has been busy over the past year fundraising for a sculpture to commemorate the school’s centenary. Despite the huge effort and cost involved, they were determined to give the school something long lasting that they hope will be around for another 100 years.

Designing the Centenary sculpture

The brief was to create something very unique to Seymour College. As the school is known for its inclusivity where students have a strong sense of belonging, parents liaised with students about what it means to be a Seymour girl before commissioning a local sculptor to work on the design based on the students’ ideas.

The centrepiece is a big thistle linking to the school’s strong Scottish heritage and represents strength and resilience. It also features an older student supporting a younger student holding a paper plane which symbolises advancing onwards and upwards, striving for excellence. At the bottom are three seats with the school’s motto of strength, optimism and justice, as well as other words students used to describe their experience at the school.

Belinda Pozza, President of the Parents’ & Friends’ Association, said working on the sculpture has been one of the most rewarding projects as it was a big expense, and something that parents had to work very hard to achieve.

The P&F also received a grant from Edstart as part of our Parent Association Initiative that went towards the sculpture.

Encouraging school community involvement

The P&F Association at the school has been going for 86 years with the goal to support the school and encourage community involvement.

As well as the many initiatives such as a Mothers’ Day morning tea, garage sales and wine drives using Seymour College winemaking families’ wine to raise money, the association also started the second hand uniform shop to support families as uniform items can be expensive and quickly add up.

The shop opens once a month and people can donate their uniform items at any point. Members of the P&F spend time sorting through the items and anything without the school logo that they’re unable to sell are donated to children in need in countries overseas. The shop has been well received raising around $50,000 from donated uniform items since opening.

Leaving a legacy

Parents are pleased to be leaving a unique legacy with the Centenary sculpture and while it has a rusted effect, it will never rust away with the sculptor assuring that it’ll still be here in many years time.

“All up with the installation, it was $45,000 which when you fundraise is a lot of money. The grant from Edstart was such a big help - it honestly made such a huge difference,” said Belinda.

We’re glad to be able to contribute and help parents deliver this wonderful gift to the school in the year of the Centenary.

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