Maeli Davenport, Spirit and Wellbeing Captain 2024

I have really loved St Catherine’s culture of having a tight-knit community. Hence why as the School Spirit and Wellbeing Captain I have loved using student platforms, such as the student-led assemblies, to promote this culture of connection.  

A highlight for me was organising an interactive questionnaire with Cultural Diversity Captain Xi (Sissi) Zheng called ‘St Cath’s Around the World’ for the Harmony Week Assembly. This questionnaire allowed us to show, through prompting people to sit down in response to our questions, how diverse the School community really is. Fascinating things we learned from this are that most of the school community can speak two languages, with Emmanuella Christov being the last one standing, able to speak an amazing four languages.  

Inspired by Ms Spanos’s ability to remain calm and promote all things wellbeing, I decided, along with the Year 12s, to revive a small tradition that the Year 12s used to do with the Years 9 to 11s before their mid-year exams – writing letters of encouragement for their lockers. With these notes, the goal was to emphasise the importance of self-care and encourage the younger Years to embrace the exam experience.  

I would like to thank all the teachers, especially the Heads of Year, on behalf of the students for working so hard to create a School environment filled with support to help us come together and achieve our goals.