Guests at the St Catherine’s community event of the year, A Winter’s Night, thoroughly enjoyed their evening with friends. Beautifully transformed into a magical snowy forest, complete with falling snowflakes on the dance floor, our almost unrecognisable School Hall provided a great back drop to dance the night away. St Catherine’s musicians, Phoebe Hamilton (Year 12) and Charlotte Aston (Year 8) each performed a spectacular welcome to commence the evening.

The evening was a wonderful success and I would like to take this opportunity to thank the members of the 2018 Ball Committee, co-chaired by Lisa Steven and Liz Addison-Baker, in conjunction with the creative talents of Peta Gray, for their superb efforts on behalf of the School.

A Winter’s Night was generously supported by a number of local businesses to close the Her Future Begins Here campaign. Thank you in particular to our Dark Blue sponsor, South Yarra BMW, for their very generous donation of $10,000 and Dody Oliver and her team providing the entree and mains . Thank you also to our Gold Sponsors: Factor, Arbory, e&s, Baden Cooke, Elizabeth and Alister Campbell, Catanach’s, SilverStar and Mogul Ski World and to our Light Blue Sponsors: Jellis Craig and Excelkos. The evening’s activities raised an incredible $90,000.

The Her Future Begins Here campaign commenced in 2016 with an ambitious target of three million dollars to support the development of the new Junior School and the School’s STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) agenda, specifically the refurbishment and upgrade of our six laboratories in the Edna Holmes Centre for Science in the Senior School. The STEM agenda also includes a purpose built laboratory in the new Junior School.

In just over eighteen months, the School community has successfully raised $3.236 million.

I look forward to welcoming you to view the new Junior School on the evening of Wednesday 20 June. Tours of the new building commence at 6.00pm with a farewell ‘toast’ to the old Barbreck building at 6.30pm. To assist with the organisation of this evening, RSVP is essential. Please RSVP online or email Meredith Taylor, mtaylor@stcatherines.net.au.

The School’s STEM agenda responds to the growing need to promote STEM based careers for girls. Research indicates that seven of the top ten emerging jobs will be tech-based. An investigation of the gender gap in STEM education by Microsoft and KRC Research, based on interviews with 6,000 girls and young women aged 10 to 30, has found that the high priority placed on encouraging girls and young women into STEM in the United States has not been as successful as hoped, especially in technology and engineering. The report, Closing the STEM gap: Why STEM classes and careers still lack girls and what we can do about it, found that girls’ confidence in coding and programming wanes as they get older, highlighting the need to connect STEM subjects to “real-world people and problems”, as well as tapping into girls’ desire to be creative.

The US Bureau of Labour Statistics predicts that the highest growth in job numbers between now and 2030 will occur in the technology sector. This is already creating unmet demand for technology and computing professionals.

According to the Smithsonian Science Education Centre, 2.4 million STEM jobs in the USA will go unfilled in 2018, while a survey found that 42% of STEM jobs on LinkedIn require computer science or coding skills.

A December 2017 report by LinkedIn listing the top emerging jobs in the United States over the past five years found that “tech is king”, with seven of the top ten being tech-based, including the top two emerging jobs: machine learning engineers (usually computer scientists or mathematicians who work in artificial intelligence) and data scientists.

The Microsoft and KRC Research report investigating the gender gap in STEM found that one of the reasons that girls and young women fail to identify with STEM is that “they assume it doesn’t align with their desire to be creative and make an impact in the world”. Of the 6,000 survey participants, 91% of girls and 80% of young women described themselves as creative, while 72% of girls and 66% of young women said that it was important that their job or career “helps the world”.

Providing girls with a dynamic and engaging program in STEM subjects from the early primary years is a focus for St Catherine’s. Building their confidence, interest and perseverance, particularly in Mathematics, remains critically important as well.

It is wonderful to note that just under a third of our graduates from 2017 have transitioned into STEM related tertiary courses and our VCE Physics classes are growing. Science teachers, Mr Fiachra Barry, Ms Lee Brandt and Mr Stephen Brown have worked together to create an exciting physics vibe across the VCE classes.

In the Senior School, four of the Science Laboratories are now complete, with the refurbishment of the chemistry and biology labs due for completion in July. The new physics lab has received rave reviews from both our science staff and the girls.

Click on the image to take a tour of the new Physics Lab

Parents are invited to view the labs at our next Open Morning on Thursday 14 June. Let me take this opportunity to remind parents and the wider community members to remember the importance of the STEM field of study when they complete the St Catherine’s Annual Giving Form.

Mrs Michelle Carroll
Principal
Michelle Carroll

Mrs Michelle Carroll