Located in Taylor, Agnes Shea High School will open in 2025.
01 May 2024
Canberra’s newest public school has been named after late Ngunnawal Elder Aunty Agnes Shea.
Located in Taylor, north Gungahlin, Agnes Shea High School will open for Year 7 and 8 students in 2025 and grow to cater for up to 800 years 7 to 10 students over time.
Representatives from the United Ngunnawal Elders Council, including Aunty Agnes’ granddaughter Selina Walker, attended the school construction site this morning to mark the occasion.
Among her many achievements and contributions to Canberra and its various communities, Aunty Agnes Shea was a founding member of the United Ngunnawal Elders Council, a member of the advisory board to ACT Health, helped establish the Ngunnawal Bush Healing Farm and was a member of the ACT Heritage Council.
Her achievements and dedication were rightly recognised many times throughout her life. She was a recipient of the Centenary Medal in 2001, received a Medal of the Order of Australia in 2004, an ACT Senior Citizen of the Year award and a place on the ACT Honour Walk in 2010.
Aunty Agnes worked to improve outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Canberra while also improving non-Indigenous Australians’ understanding of Aboriginal culture.
Aunty Agnes’ granddaughter, Selina Walker, says seeing this recognition will be uplifting and empowering for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.
“It does so much for our young people, to be able to go to see [their people] highlighted in a different way … not just in a verbal way, in an acknowledgement of country, but to actually be able to see names in lights, and then learn about the person that she was.
“We wanted our own kids and their kids to be able to say, ‘That’s my family member, that’s my great great grandmother, or my great great aunty’, because those are the things in our culture that matter,” she said.
The school's Principal
On hand today for the unveiling of the school's name was the recently appointed inaugural Principal of Agnes Shea High School, Daniel Mowbray.
Daniel has been the Principal of the University of Canberra High School Kaleen for the past five years.
He is driven by strong values and wants to ensure that every Canberra student has equal access to high-quality education.
“The opportunity to build a school in a new community, a diverse community, many of whom are new to Canberra as well, to really create something special with that community, and creating that culture, that’s the thing I’m most excited about,” Daniel said.
“Aunty Agnes was a fierce advocate for social inclusion. Whether it be with our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community, or the many other diverse cultures that make up the wider ACT community, we want to create a really inclusive school that is welcoming of everybody and is really set up to meet everyone’s needs from the start.”
Work will now begin on designing the Agnes Shea High School logo and uniform. This work will be done in consultation with Principal Daniel Mowbray, the architects, and Aunty Agnes’ granddaughter Selina Walker.
Once initial designs are drafted, the wider community will have the chance to have their say on the logo and uniform design options through YourSay.
An enduring legacy
Towards the end of Aunty Agnes’ life, the family decided that “no matter what, we were going to ensure her legacy and her spirit never ever passed … to keep people talking about Aunty Agnes.”
They will collaborate with principal Daniel Mowbray to ensure Aunty Agnes’ values are reflected in the new school’s culture. Selina says her Nan believed in guiding children, but also in “letting kids be kids”.
“She didn’t like to be with the adults, she liked to be with the kids. She knew that was where the future lay,” Selina said.
An advocate for education as the pathway to becoming a successful contributing community member, Aunty Agnes would approve of the school’s focus on inclusion.
“Nan never saw race or age. She saw people. It didn’t matter who you were, where you were from, she’d have a conversation with you. And if you did wrong, she’d point that finger at you and tell you.”
Enrolment information
The Priority Enrolment Area (PEA) for Agnes Shea High School is the same as for Margaret Hendry School.
From 2025, residents of the following suburbs will be in Agnes Shea High School’s PEA:
- Taylor (all)
- Moncrieff (all)
- Jacka (north of Appleford Ave).
An information session for parents and carers enrolling their child at Agnes Shea High School in 2025 will be held from 5:30-6:30pm on Thursday 30 May at Margaret Hendry School.
2025 enrolments are now open at education.act.gov.au.
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