Our ethos is an inspiring heritage derived from St Angela Merici, foundress of the Ursuline Order.

Angela Merici was born during the Renaissance (about 1474) in Italy.  Captivated by Christ's love, generously open to the needs of others and a woman of prayer, she was sensitive to the critical social and spiritual needs of her times.  She and her first companions consecrated themselves and their entire lives to God and his work.  Angela's writings have given us the heritage of profoundly Christian principles of education that has been developed and enriched in Ursuline schools worldwide for the past four centuries and continues to be the living tradition of this richly endowed educational network. The foundresses, Ursuline Sisters, who have poured their energies and expertise into developing Brescia House School, shared and continue to share with Ursuline Sisters and with their lay co-workers here and throughout the world, the conviction that the educational vision of Angela Merici is an inspiring heritage, a living and proven model that answers the deepest needs of our times.

Three characteristics of Angela's thinking stand out for us in her writings:

• Caring,
• Strength in Unity,
• Relationships based on Love and Charity.

Of caring Angela wrote:

• Willingly hold in consideration
  and have engraved on your mind and heart
  all your dear daughters, one by one;
  not only their names
  but also their condition, and character,
  and their every situation and state.          (Second Legacy, 1-3)
  
  
• Be gentle and compassionate towards your dear daughters.
  and strive to act solely out of the sole love
  and out of the sole zeal for souls
  when you admonish and advise them,
  or exhort them to some good
  and dissuade them from some evil.
  For you will achieve more with kindness and gentleness
  than with harshness and sharp rebukes.     (Second Precept 1-3)
  
  
• Above all, be on your guard
  not to want to get anything done by force,
  because God has given free will to everyone,
  and wants to force no-one,
  but only proposes, invites, and counsels. (Third Legacy, 8-11)

Caring is an evangelical attitude that comes straight from "the loving kindness of the heart of our God"  (Luke 1:78), implying a respect filled with trust in what God wants for each one of his children.

Angela's profoundly human attitude of caring for those for whose education we are responsible, emphasizes the importance of meeting the other person on her own ground, of being aware of the spiritual, intellectual and material needs of each, in fact, of everything that concerns the individual in all her uniqueness, and of striving to understand her behaviour so as to discern in the light of each person's dignity how best to guide each one to fulfilment in her God-given freedom of development.

To Angela, caring means a lively desire and pro-active self-commitment to see each person, even the apparently unpromising, blossom and be fulfilled according to her calling in every dimension of her being. This implies nurturing each person through the phases of growth, guiding her heart to focus on essentials so that she may become, in all her unique beauty, an independent human being capable of love and of openness to others and with the will to promote selflessly justice, peace and harmony in today's world.

Angela always strived for unity amongst her followers and wrote:

• See how important is union and concord.
  So long for it,
  pursue it,
  embrace it,
  hold on to it with all your strength;
  For I tell you:
  living all together united in heart,
  you will be like a mighty fortress,
  a tower of strength.                    (Last Counsel, 10-15)
  
  
• My last word to you
  is that you live in harmony,
  united together,
  all of one heart and one will.                    (Last Counsel, 1)

These words enshrine for us the centrality of unity of heart and mind emphasized by Angela in all our educational endeavours, of willing the good of others, of being prepared to listen to one another, staff and pupils, of avoiding conflicts and divisions on the one hand, and on the other of seeing differences and diversities as opportunities for enrichment of the whole.

Unity manifests itself in the quality of the network of colleagueship we form with one another, in our manner of relating to one another in everyday living, in maintaining occasions for rejoicing and celebrating together. Prayer and worship together lie at the heart of genuine unity.

This unity and harmony is not focused inward in any exclusive way but, on the contrary, creates the strength to reach out to the people of our area and beyond, especially the materially poor and those in any way needy and underprivileged, including all in a broad vision of and commitment to the common good.

Unity, in fidelity to the school's Ursuline heritage, is one of its strongest pillars of Brescia House's educational foundations.

St Angela prized above all relationships based on love and charity

• Do your duty,
  correcting them with love and charity,
  and after that, leave it to God.
  He will do marvelous things
  in his own time, and when it pleases him.   (Eighth Counsel, 7 and 9)
  
  
• You will achieve more with kindness and gentleness
  than with harshness and sharp rebukes..
  charity, which directs everything
  to the honour of God and the good of souls,
  teaches discretion ...                 (Second Counsel, Cf. 3 - 7)

The model of genuine love and charity, as of authentic caring for others and of unity of heart and will, is drawn from God himself who loved us all first.

The love that infuses our heritage is strong and yet tender, both alert and discrete, and as selfless as a mother's love.  It is a love that is based on esteem for each person, humble and attentive to everything concerning that person, alert to find ways to praise and encourage, vigilant of each one's dignity and freedom, confident and patient because respectful of God's plans for each one, concerned to create an educational environment that is favourable to growth in truly human values.

Only genuine love and charity, assimilated and personalized by those in positions of authority and responsibility, can give rise to judgments and attitudes appropriate for guiding those in our care in genuine growth in any given situation.  All aspects of leadership are summed up for Angela in the biblical model of the servant-leader.
She writes:

• Learn from Our Lord
  who, while he was on earth, was as a servant ...
  He says, I am among you not as the one served,
  but as the one who serves.                     (First Precept, Cf. 6-7) 

In conclusion, St Angela left her followers her final counsels, urging them to

• Have hope and firm faith in God,
  for he will help you in everything.             (Counsels, Prologue)

The Catholic Christian ethos of Brescia House Ursuline Convent School depends basically and entirely on its foundation of faith in Christ, his teaching and salvation.  For, as is proclaimed by the school's foundation stone:

Christ is our first Teacher   (Matt.)

And the motto of the Ursulines of the Roman Union, also inscribed on the foundation stones, affirms the same fundamental truth:

For the Glory of God Alone,

The Ursuline schools' motto, which applies to both pupils and staff, echoes again this assertion -

SERVIAM, I will serve God and my neighbour  -

challenging each generation to keep growth in knowledge in the context of growth in faith, and so harvest the wisdom and life vision of the great tradition of Ursuline Catholic education to which Ursuline schools are privileged to belong.

(Quotations from the writings of St Angela Merici are from:Earliest-known
Italian Texts and Translation by a team of Ursulines of the Roman Union,
Rome 1995.)