Margaret Gurry embodies the Loreto values of justice and verity, having dedicated her life to advocating for education for some of the most vulnerable children in our local community. As the founder of “Friday Night School” Margaret has made a difference to both the students whose access to education has been inequitable and to those students who have benefitted from their partnership in her program. Like Mary Ward, Margaret believes in the power of education to transform lives.

Margaret Gurry completed Year 12 in 1960 having attended Loreto Mandeville Hall Toorak from Year 5, including for 6 years as a weekly boarder. Margaret went on to complete her General Nursing training at St Vincent’s Hospital, graduating with distinction in 1963. She later completed qualifications in Intensive Care nursing and Obstetrics during her 25 year career as a nurse across hospitals in Melbourne and Papua New Guinea. Margaret also worked in the fields of finance and law, including for nearly 40 years as a para-legal.

In 1996, as a member of her local St Vincent de Paul group, Margaret founded Friday Night School. She saw the difficulties that some recently arrived refugee and migrant families in her community had in supporting their children’s educational needs and set up a homework club to offer assistance. Beginning with one family from Timor Leste, and later involving a larger number of families from the Richmond area, the homework club became a weekly tutoring session in East Melbourne, held every Friday afternoon- hence the name “Friday Night School”. The tutors were students and teachers from local Catholic secondary schools and other volunteers, who as the school grew also came to tutor the parents of the children getting help with their homework in the next room. Today, Friday Night School supports over 150 children each week with the support of over 170 tutors, as well as providing scholarships, educational resources and a community of friendship and connection for families, right across Melbourne.

Margaret has been Secretary and Director of Friday Night School Limited since 2009. She has been a Trustee of the Scobie and Claire Mackinnon Trust since 1997, a Board Member of the Sisters of Charity Foundation from 2001-2007 and was Secretary of the Melbourne Refugee Sanctuary Group Inc from 2007-2017.

Margaret’s contribution to the community was recognised through the awarding of a Member of the Order of Australia in 2004; she was awarded an honorary Doctorate of the University from ACU in 2007. In 2009 she was bestowed the Papal Honour of Dame of the Order of St Gregory the Great.