As the year commences, I thought it was a good opportunity to introduce the Mathematics staff of St Catherine’s School. The Mathematics staff members are:

• Miss Tamara Andrews who teaches Further Maths and Years 9 and 10. Tamara is also in charge of Trips and Exchanges and is Holmes Kilbride Head of House
• Mrs Julie Buntz who is taking Mrs Cherie Johnstone’s classes while she is away
• Ms Loretta Carter who teaches Further, Specialist and Years 9 and 10, Loretta is also in charge of Daily Organisation
• Miss Jeanette Gunn teaches Mathematical Methods and Year 10 and is Dean of Year 12 as well as the Coach of the Water Polo team
• Ms Susan Hobson teaches Years 7 and 8 and is also an important part of the Physical Education and Humanities Faculties
• Ms Katy Johnson teaches Further Mathematics and Years 7, 8, 9 and 11
• Mrs Cherie Johnstone will be teaching Years 7, 8 and 9 and is heavily involved in the Gymnastics program. We are looking forward to her return after an illness.
• Mrs Angela Klancic teaches Methods and Years 8, 10 and 11
• Mrs Amanda Ladbury-Webb teaches Methods and runs the Mathematics Honours Program
• Mrs Caroline Morrison teaches Years 7 and 9 and also runs the Maths Support program

I asked each of the 10 teachers a few questions and found out some fascinating facts.

The dominant comment from all was that they all have a passion for Mathematics and a love of teaching. Building relationships, interacting with students, watching them develop skills and confidence and witnessing the ‘I get it’ moment are some of the observations made.

It is interesting that the children of the staff comprises 17 sons but only six daughters with ages ranging from four to the mid 30s. Tamara and Angela have School age children and consequently spend a large part of their weekends driving their children to various sporting fixtures, which is allowing them to gain the skills of an on-call Uber driver! Tamara and Loretta each have a son in Year 12 and are going through all of the emotions associated with this challenging year from the parent’s view.

The staff members are a fairly sporty lot, some playing, others watching. Loretta is a keen hiker and has been involved in many School camps using her skills, Susan is an Olympic runner and is still heavily involved in Australian Athletics, managing a team travelling to Botswana later this Term. Cherie is involved in Gymnastics and is a judge at Nationals each year and Jeanette has coached many Water Polo teams and even managed the Australian Women’s Water Polo team at several Olympics.

Travel is a passion for several Mathematics teachers. Julie was first employed at St Catherine’s when she was sunning herself in Greece, Katy and Amanda, who are both from the UK have travelled extensively and love returning to visit friends and relatives. Caroline had a fantastic Long Service Leave trip to the US last year and made us all envious be sending photos from places like the Grand Canyon.

The energy and passion was evident in all of the responses and so I can safely say that the St Catherine’s girls are in safe hands in their Mathematics classrooms.