Penrith and South West school leaders share their hopes for 2024

School’s back for another year and Sydney’s brightest, creative and talented students are leading the way to motivate their peers as captains.

Leaders from year 6 and 12 across the city’s public and private schools have shared what they are looking forward to most in the new year, and what they hope to achieve as school leaders.

Meet our young and upcoming leaders for 2024.

Corpus Christi Primary Cranebrook

Corpus Christi Primary Cranebrook leaders Lily and Elijah.

Lily Manners is excited to make a difference at her school and learn what it's like to be a leader.

Lily wants to do medical studies after school and be a school teacher or dance teacher. In 2024, she hopes to achieve her learning goals and try new things with confidence.

Fellow school leader, Elijah Vella is an avid writer and is looking forward to working with others in a positive way so that everyone has a year to reach goals.

Elijah aspires to be an auto electrician like his dad. "He does things that fix fire trucks to make them work."

Our Lady of the Way Primary Emu Plains

Our Lady of the Way Primary Emu Plains leaders.

At Our Lady of the Way Primary Emu Plains, Lucas is looking forward to being a leader and starting new things to help the school.

Lucas hopes to become an engineer or possibly make it as an NRL player after finishing school.

Charley has always wanted to become school captain ever since kindergarten and wants to help her peers be the best they can be.

Ruby ran for school captain because she loves helping teachers and students. She wants to make her school a great place for students to learn and teachers to teach.

Emmaus Catholic College Kemps Creek

Emmaus Catholic College Kemps Creek leaders Isabella and Peter.

Isabella Brglevski is excited to engage with the Emmaus school community and represent them in the wider society. Isabella admired the leadership team as a junior and is honoured to have been elected by her peers and teachers to maintain the servant leadership of previous captains.

Isabella wants to pursue further education in psychological science and eventually combine her passion for law and psychology to become a forensic psychologist.

Fellow school leader Peter Sara ran for school captain to help show those who struggled with a voice to find theirs and to show that anyone can try for a leadership position. Peter wants to achieve higher results in his studies and help create a stronger sense of community.

After school, Peter aspires to major in architecture and do further study in civil engineering.

Caroline Chisholm College, Glenmore Park

The senior leader's team at Caroline Chisholm Glenmore Park

Audrey Cocks became a school captain to share her love of learning with others in the hope others can enjoy school as much as she does.

“School is a gift, I wanted people to have the love and passion for the school I do, and to embrace learning every day because if you do school can be so gratifying.”

Her goal as leader is to become a confidant who “all students felt comfortable to come and talk to about anything”.

Fellow leader Sofia Maiorana wants to make her peers “become the best young women and learners they can be”.

She hopes to achieve this by showing others how to be kind and respectful to each other.

Beyond the school gates Sofia has set herself the goal of studying either medicine or medical science at University and make a career out of “helping others through their most vulnerable moments.”

As vice captain Aurelia Parsley is excited about the possibilities which lay ahead and collaborating with her leadership colleagues to enact meaningful changes and improvements in the school.

After school Aurelia plans to pursue a career either in agriculture or conservation and research with a specific interest in learning about sustainable agriculture practises.

Xavier College, Llandilo

Georgia Grady and Jai Johnstone from Xavier College.

Georgia Grady became a school leader because she wanted to make a positive difference in her school community, reaching that goal has been “exhilarating” and her “biggest accomplishment”.

In how she hopes her 2024 will shape up Georgia says she wants to achieve podium ranks in at least three subjects before graduating to University.

Similarly, fellow captain Jai Johnstone is immensely proud to call himself a school captain and have the opportunity to enact change.

“To be elected felt like a seal of approval from my peers, and gave me the confidence needed to be the best captain I can be.”

In looking beyond the school gates Jai wants to gain admission into the University of Sydney to study English.

Holy Spirit Primary, St Clair

Kiara Wickramanayaka and Makur Agok from Holy Spirit

Student leaders Kiara Wickramanayaka and Makur Agok make a powerful duo with their combined leadership qualities of enthusiasm, respect, and honesty making their school a great place to learn and grow.

Kiara has set her sights on becoming either a teacher or an environmentalist as she believes “we are all stewards of creation and should care about taking care of the environment”.

“I want to teach others how important this is.”

Makur’s hope for the future is to play soccer and travel to South Sudan with his family where he will raise money to provide fresh drinking water, food and jobs to the community over there.

St Mary MacKillop Primary, South Penrith

Jack Vella and Capri Wallace.

School captain Capri Wallace threw her hat into the ring for leadership roles because she wanted “to be an approachable role model who is happy to make a difference”.

Looking beyond her schooling years Capri wants to improve her singing and become a singer and travel to Italy and see the Isle of Capri - the place she’s named after.

Fellow captain Jack Vella says it’s been “a huge honour” to be apart of the school leadership team and a wonderful opportunity to show people kindness and inclusiveness in the world.

Penola Catholic College, Emu Plains

As Penola Catholic College’s leadership duo Imelda Wright and Benjamin Norris are focusing their efforts on being role models and voices for the school.

Benjamin said his goal was to “lock in place the improvements” he’d made in his younger years and give back to the school community by “leaving the school better than it was”.

Imelda shares a similar leadership vision, as school captain she recognises her role as “to reflect what the student community wants”.

Meanwhile, College vice captains are out to leave a legacy of their own, Montana La Rosa says during her leadership she wants to leave a lasting positive impression so “when we’re gone students will say ‘remember those school leaders’.

Fellow vice captain Charlie Thomas is motivated to lead by example by “helping others with their problems”.

Read the full article from the Daily Telegraph

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Daily Telegraph
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21 Jul 2026
From Facebook
📚✨ Welcome Back to Term 3! ✨📚 Our school was buzzing with excitement today as we welcomed our students back for the first day of Term 3! It was wonderful to see smiling faces, hear holiday stories, and watch friendships reconnect as our classrooms came alive once again. We are looking forward to a term filled with learning, growth, faith and new opportunities for every student. As we begin this new term, we also embrace our 2026 school theme, "Belong to Something Greater." Together, we will continue to build a community where every child knows they are valued, connected and called to make a positive difference in the lives of others. ❤️ Welcome back, everyone! We can't wait to see all that this term will bring ❤️

17 Jul 2026
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