Dr Jane Goodall Visits Barbreck

Dr Goodall’s visit to St Catherine’s on Friday 10 May caused great excitement in the Junior School. The Barbreck girls spent some time learning about Dr Goodall’s life as well as her passion for animals and saving the environment. Dr Goodall captured the imagination of her audiences, and spoke of her work with the chimpanzees, imitating their calls and explaining what each meant.

Dr Jane Goodall spoke to the Barbreck girls about her work studying chimpanzees.

Many people contributed to Dr Goodall’s visit to St Catherine’s. Special thanks go to Dr Sarah Triolo who played a huge part in coordinating her visit, as well as Erica Gill who organised for and donated a bench to be made to commemorate Dr Goodall’s visit. The bench (an artwork) will be located under the tree between the Barbreck building and the Sports complex. A possum box, made and donated by the Men’s Shed, has been installed in the tree above the bench to remind Barbreck girls that we share our School environment with native animals.

The Barbreck Environment Committee excelled on the day, showcasing the wonderful work of our students, their efforts for the environment and their exemplary behaviour in a formal setting.

The Barbreck girls are much wiser about how they can assist the environment as a result of Dr Goodall’s visit. It was a special day in the life of our School and hopefully a memory the girls will carry with them long into their future.

Results of the 2018 Resilience Survey

The Resilience Survey is an online survey which collects, analyses and reports on the resilience of young people in regards to their strengths, life satisfaction, hopefulness, anxiety and depression, coping style, and risk and protective behaviours. Last year, students in Years 3 to 6 took part in the survey.

Against Australian norms, our girls scored particularly well in the following areas:

Belonging – School

School average Australian norm
Care about school 87.75 79.5
Eager to achieve 96 87.75
Teachers urge me to achieve 94 85

Educational Engagement – Learning and Connection

School average Australian norm
Motivated to learn 96 88.25
Engaged in learning 99.25 92.5
Connected to school 97 89.5

In all other areas, there were no common trends other than there seems to be a ‘wave’ pattern of lower resilience levels in Year 3 which increases in Year 4, before dropping again in Year 5, and again building to higher levels in Year 6. This may relate to students’ personal, physical, social and emotional development patterns as they become more aware of themselves and others.

Ms Karen McArdle, Head of Junior School
Year 6 Camp

Point Leo and Golden Valleys Lodge were the venues for the Year 6 Outdoor Education Camp held earlier this term. Surfing lessons, archery, geocaching, flying fox and team trust-building challenges were some of the activities the students participated in during camp. It was a great opportunity for them to develop relationships with each other and experience life in the outdoors.