MELBOURNE – In 1875, a group of seven sisters were transferred from the Irish Loreto Abbey Dalkey school in Dublin to Victoria.
Over the years, they opened new schools with the aim of providing local girls with a high standard of education in an environment that promoted freedom, justice and sincerity.
In August 1924, the Loreto sisters bought the historic Mandeville Hall, which had been their convent for years. All around the hall stood the Loreto Mandeville Hall Toorak School.
The girls-only institute now houses about a thousand students and has grown enormously over time. Structures with ultra-modern architecture now stand alongside the historic building, which is now used for music classes.
Among the languages taught at the school, Italian has been introduced fairly recently with a program that has grown to have classes from Years 7 to 12.
Giulia Raco, promoter of Italian at Loreto, has followed this adventure from the very beginning.
“It wasn’t easy, because the French language was well established, but we soon reached a large number of enrolments,” Raco explained.
“[The success of the program was] also thanks to the support of the school, the headmaster, the other teachers and the parents, who supported us from the beginning.”
From left to right: Teacher Tiziana Launech, students Sara and Giorgia and Italian assistant Ilaria Zarrelli
Tiziana Launech, one of the school’s four Italian teachers, guided us during our visit. Launech showed us not only the impressive school facilities, but also explained the fundamentals of their Italian program which focuses heavily on grammar. At the same time, the program engages with material that is interesting and relevant to the pupils.
“In class, we try to entertain the students with different activities, using films and music as well,” explained Launech.
“Music is one of the things the girls love the most, and although we listen to a lot of modern songs, from Mahmood and Blanco in particular, in the end they always prefer traditional songs like Volare and Quando Quando or the classics by Mina, for example.
“We try to offer them opportunities to deepen their knowledge of culture, such as study trips to Italy which finally resumed this year after the pandemic.
“[These trips] are a source of great inspiration and enthusiasm for the girls,” she points out, “and so are competitions such as the poetry recitation competition organised every year by the Dante Alighieri Society of Melbourne”.
Launech believes the school’s students are very ambitious and motivated, and her belief is evidenced by the fact that some 70 of them - from Years 9 to 12 - wanted to participate in the recitation competition.
Of the 70, no less than 15 made it to the finals and seven were awarded prizes in the various categories. Their success is a glowing endorsement of the school’s Italian program.
Two of them, Giorgia and Sara, joined us to tell us about their relationship with the Italian language and to recite the poems that took them to the podium of the 2023 edition of the Dante Alighieri Poetry Competition.
Giorgia, a Year 12 student, won second place in her category with her recitation of Canto 1 of Dante Alighieri’s Paradiso.
Her connection to the Italian language is heartfelt, as her maternal side of the family comes from the province of Potenza, where many relatives still live.
“Italian is important to me because it allows me to communicate with my grandmother and my family in Italy, even if it is sometimes difficult. I was born here, and I struggle a bit with grammar,” she revealed.
Giorgia loves cooking traditional dishes with her mother who, according to Giorgia, is very good in the kitchen. She also enjoys listening to music, as she herself is a violinist and a lover of singing.
“The choice of Dante was because he represents the Italian language par excellence, although it wasn’t easy to fully understand the meaning of the text.”
The recitation of the poem Veglia by Giuseppe Ungaretti enabled Sara, Year 11, to win first prize in the Dante Alighieri Society competition for her category.
The result must have brought great satisfaction to Sara, who was very impressed by the meaning of the poem.
Her relationship with Italian is also rooted in family history; her grandmother migrated to Australia many years ago and Sara practises the language at home, with her grandmother and her mother.
Music is also a tool for her to connect with the culture. “I really like Marco Mengoni,” she confessed, assuring us that Italian will certainly become an important part of her life.
The girls performed their entries with great ease, and even though they were not speaking in their mother tongue, they proved they were worthy victors.
