Profile
Marise McConaghy believes that girls’ education is consequential work and that she has a responsibility to contribute beyond her environment. That belief has carried the principal of Queenwood School for Girls in Sydney across three states, through three of Australia’s most storied girls’ schools, and onto the boards of some of the world’s most influential education organisations.
McConaghy is direct about what drives lasting change. It comes from growing the capacity and conviction of the people within a school community, what she describes as building from the inside out. At Strathcona Girls Grammar in Melbourne, at Brisbane Girls Grammar before that and now at Queenwood, she has invested heavily in staff development, coaching and mentoring and in creating conditions where teachers feel supported to take risks.
Alongside that internal focus, she holds a firm belief in connecting schools to the world beyond their gates – to universities, to research and to international networks. “When teachers and school leaders see what is possible elsewhere and when they are part of conversations about the future of education at a national and international level, their ambition for themselves and their own students grows,” she says.
Queenwood carries more than 100 years of heritage and genuine clarity about what it stands for: truth, courage and service. McConaghy’s challenge is not working out what the school believes – it is keeping that belief alive and relevant in a world that increasingly measures education in metrics, rankings and visible outcomes. Young women today face real pressures around performance, identity, mental health and purpose. Her response is not to reduce challenge, but to deepen culture.
“Girls’ schools, when they are working well, do something irreplaceable,” she says. “They give young women the space to find their voice, to lead without apology and to develop the character and confidence to make a genuine contribution to the world.” McConaghy’s conviction is that wellbeing and academic excellence are mutually reinforcing, and schools that invest in relationships and character development are better placed to deliver both.
Perhaps McConaghy’s proudest professional achievement is less visible than the institutions she has led. It is the cohort of women she has mentored into leadership and staying alongside them as they grew. Many are now leading schools and organisations of their own. “I believe education is fundamentally relational,” she says. “The most important things that happen in a school happen between people.”
As a board member of the International Coalition of Girls’ Schools (ICGS) – a body connecting 550 schools across 21 countries and representing more than 350,000 students – and as former board president of the Alliance of Girls’ Schools Australasia, McConaghy has helped build a global infrastructure for the case for girls’ education.
For her, the work is never finished, and she would not have it any other way. “I have never lost the sense that this work matters enormously,” McConaghy says.
47 Mandolong Road, Mosman, NSW 2088
8968 7777
marise.mcconaghy@queenwood.nsw.edu.au
linkedin.com/school/queenwoodschool
queenwood.nsw.edu.au
Marise McConaghy
Principal
Queenwood School
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1994–2014
2015–2023
2017–2023
2023–2026
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Deputy Principal, Assistant Principal and Dean of Students at Brisbane Girls Grammar School
1994–2014
Principal at Strathcona Girls Grammar School
2015–2023
President/Director at Alliance Girls’ Schools Australasia
2017–2023
Board Director at International Coalition of Girls Schools
Global Leadership Institute Mentor
2023–2026
Principal at Queenwood School since 2024
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