Paddy McEvoy
Principal April 2013 – present
Paddy McEvoy completed her secondary education at St Aloysius College from 1980 to 1984. She was the youngest of eight children and her four sisters graduated from SAC in the 1970s. In Years 11 and 12, she was an active member of the Student Representative Council.
After graduation, Paddy undertook a Bachelor of Mathematical and Computer Science at the University of Adelaide, followed by a Graduate Diploma of Education. One of her lecturers in Sociology of Education was Sr Deirdre Jordan RSM, former Principal of SAC. In 1989 she completed a teaching placement at SAC as a Mathematics teacher and upon graduation, she was employed as a Secondary Maths Teacher at the College.
Paddy taught at SAC from 1990 to 2006 and took on the role of Mathematics Coordinator and Year 12 Coordinator. She completed her Masters in Education project investigating the factors that influence girls’ choices in mathematics pathways in their senior secondary years of schooling. St Aloysius has a proud record of building girls’ confidence in Mathematics and encouraging them to maintain their studies of Maths to Year 12 level. This has contributed to the high proportion of graduates pursuing STEM pathways beyond school.
In 2007, Paddy was appointed Deputy Principal (Curriculum) of St Mary’s College, a Dominican girls’ school on Franklin St, Adelaide, where she worked alongside another SAC graduate, Eileen Young (Principal St Mary’s 2005 to 2017), for seven years.
Paddy was appointed as the first lay Principal of St Aloysius College in April, 2013. Walking in the footsteps of so many outstanding women of Mercy, Paddy has continued the College’s commitment to educating young women who are confident, compassionate and willing to act for change in our world. SAC enables students from a diverse range of cultural, socioeconomic and religious backgrounds to achieve excellent academic results and, more importantly, to make outstanding contributions to society as young women of Mercy.
By Neville Stapleton
Archivist, St Aloysius College, 2020
