Acting Principal, Mr Rob Marshall explores what makes a great school, posing the question, “we are an excellent school but are we great?”

Last week I saw our students perform in the musical Urinetown, in the new and amazing Black Box Theatre.

I have seen many, many school productions in nearly 40 years of teaching, and Urinetown was simply stunning by any criteria. The acting, the dancing, and the singing were all of an extraordinary standard. Being the first production in this new space, the girls rose to the occasion with a performance to remember. I attended the opening night last Thursday and then on Friday I saw the much-acclaimed production of Hamilton in the city. I may not be a theatre critic, but it was our girls’ performance, rather than the extravagant professional production, that will stay in my memory for a long, long time.

By any measure, this performance by our students is the mark of a great school. 

Following the production, I contemplated what makes a great school, and if St Catherine’s is indeed a great school. This may seem a straightforward and even a simple question. It is, I believe, an accurate statement to say we are an excellent school but are we great?  

Does greatness come from achieving great academic results? Is it being successful in significant sporting competitions? Is it about creating a wonderful play or musical production? Is it about having a culture where positive, respectful relationships are an absolute priority?

The answer is not that simple. Of course, a strong academic program is central to the way in which you would measure school performance. So too is doing well at sport and the other areas I have just mentioned. The list of priorities and performance indicators for a school is long and varied. 

Our School Motto, ‘Nil Magnum Nisi Bonum’ – Nothing is great unless it is good, implies there is a condition to achieving greatness. The goodness of intent, spirit, heart, and mind are essential components. Last week I wrote about the beautiful email from another school thanking us for the amazing sportsmanship displayed by our students. This outstanding demonstration of character is certainly what the orchestrators of our School Motto had in mind when they demanded we cannot be great without being good. 

There are indicators which suggest we are indeed a great school. This week the highly coveted Australian Education Awards announced the 2022 Excellence awardees. In 2021 our School Principal, Michelle Carroll, received an Excellence Award within the Principal of the Year Excellence category. She was one of only six nominations across Australia. This public acknowledgment of the calibre of our Principal is recognition of her and St Catherine’s standing in the wider community. 

For the 2022 Awards, St Catherine’s has been nominated in two particularly important categories. 

2022 EXCELLENCE AWARDEES 

• Best School Strategic Plan: recognises the best strategic plan developed by a school in Australia. 
• Innovation in Learning Environment Design: recognises the best innovation in learning environment design developed by a school in Australia. 

Mrs Carroll’s Excellence Award in 2021 was very much an individual honour, although I know Michelle would attribute her Award to the great team behind her. The categories we have been nominated for in 2022 are certainly about the work of the team. 

Our Strategic Plan, Towards 2025 was the culmination of inputs from the whole School community, crafted over a period of time. It brings together the commitment to preparing our girls for the future. We strive for our girls to be Bold, Independent, Resilient, and Creative. These are not mere words. They have been developed through many conversations and through deliberate intent to make St Catherine’s the best it can be. 

The Award for Best Strategic Plan considers the following criteria: 

• Consultation and engagement with the school community 
• Demonstrated strategic development of the plan to ensure it meets defined school needs and business objectives 
• Implementation process that includes clear priorities and goals in defined timeframes 
• Results and progress to date 

Jim Collins, in his hugely popular and influential book Good to Great, comments that “greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice, and discipline.”

The Towards 2025 Strategic Plan deliberately and consciously sets out Six Strategic Intents. It guides the School’s vision for our teaching and learning agenda, which is our absolute focus. 

As part of the Towards 2025 Strategic Vision, value statements have been developed to align our School Values with tangible actions, providing shared meaning, relevance, and accessibility to all students. These Values are Integrity, Empathy, Perseverance, Curiosity, and Gratitude. Each Value is fundamental for each person and indeed a school to be considered good. 

The second Excellence Award is for Innovation in Learning Environment Design. This Award recognises excellence in the design of a student learning environment in an Australian school. 

The following criteria were considered: 

• Consultation and engagement to determine the need for innovation 
• Stakeholder engagement and school community consultation in the design process 
• How the learning environment reflects pedagogy 
• Change management and implementation process to transition into the new space 
• Evaluation of the effectiveness of the learning environment 

During the numerous lockdowns when schools were closed due to the pandemic, our teachers and students had to adapt. The result of this experience over the last two years and our learnings from it has resulted in an innovative, creative and, some may say, a bold model of learning. Our hybrid model of teaching and learning for our Years 10 and 11 students involves a combination of synchronous and asynchronous teaching. In other words, some face-to-face and some online learning. This transformation has been the culmination of research, learning from our experience, and designing a learning model which suits the complex and contemporary demands of today and tomorrow. 

When discussing change in organisations, Jim Collins remarks “lasting transformations from good to great follow a general pattern of build-up followed by breakthrough.”

Over several years this is exactly what St Catherine’s has done, and continues to do. Our teachers and students, with the support of parents, have been working hard to produce the St Catherine’s we see today. The development of the Black Box Theatre is an obvious example of our School striving for greatness.  

I may be biased, but our girls who performed in Urinetown are an example that St Catherine’s is a great school.