Academic Care

For more than 128 years St Catherine’s School has been dedicated to ensuring exceptional outcomes for our students.   

We strive in all that we do to develop character, competency, and wellness in each of our students. Through this, all our students have a sense of belonging, can reach their individual potential, and importantly, excel in life post-school.  

A sense of belonging is crucial for students’ wellbeing as it fosters a supportive, connected, and inclusive environment. When students feel connected and valued within their school community, it enhances their overall sense of purpose and contributes significantly to their emotional and psychological resilience.  

It is this culture of academic care that drives our School’s academic excellence. Our VCE results sit comfortably inside the top 10 schools in Victoria and have done so for many years. In 2023, we achieved a median ATAR of 93.4, the highest in our School’s 128-year history.    

These results are achieved through our academic care framework and tightly connected community where the care of our students is paramount.   

Our whole school frameworks offer a broad vision of the types of competencies students will need to thrive in school and life. As educators, we equip our learners with agency and a sense of purpose, and the competencies they need to shape their own lives and contribute to the lives of others.  

“When students sense genuine care from their educators and school community, they are inspired to invest themselves wholeheartedly in their academic pursuits. The connection established through academic care becomes a driving force, encouraging our students to surpass their own expectations and achieve outstanding results,” Mrs Alison Cassidy, Director for Senior Years.

At its core, Academic Care means students are known, valued, and encouraged. It is at the heart of everything we do, inside the classroom and beyond. 

Three Critical Frameworks

Our Model of Academic Care is underpinned by three critical frameworks – Teaching and Learning, Wellbeing and Co-curricular.

Student wellness is central to this Model of Academic Care and intertwined into every innovation and program from ELC to Year 12. At St Catherine’s we know every girl in our care. Our dispositions of Bold, Fearless, Independent and Resilient are our ‘X Factor.’ The St Catherine’s superpower that our teachers capture, harness, and build upon in every lesson, every day.