As a School community, our prayers have been with the Alexiadis family this week and, in particular, young Athena in Year 8 who was injured in a car accident recently. Our Year 8 girls have kept Athena in their thoughts as they rafted and hiked on their Beyond Boundaries Camp at the Mitchell River this week. Their care and support for each other during this difficult time has been extraordinary and has highlighted the strength of character, empathy and composure of our young teens.

Athena is making a gradual recovery at the Royal Children’s Hospital with each day. Thank you for your prayers and thoughts for the Alexiadis family this week. The many emails, cards and encouraging messages of support have been greatly appreciated by Tom, Anna and Eve.

The St Catherine’s School community has demonstrated great strength during this very difficult time. Your heartfelt prayers and thoughts have confirmed my belief in a strong, cohesive and caring community to which we all belong.

Artist-In-Residence

Over the course of this week, the Arts Faculty have hosted Artist-In-Residence and St Catherine’s Old Girl, Rowena Martinich (’97). Rowena has developed an installation to be located on the windows of the Mary Davis Centre, in readiness for the Senior Art Show this weekend.

As a highly acclaimed artist, Rowena’s contemporary and colourful work is most recognisable at Mecca Cosmetica stores and in cities around the world including New York, Beijing and Turkey to name a few. Our students in both the Junior and Senior School have enjoyed the opportunity to work alongside Rowena and look forward to seeing her finished Artwork on Friday.

Community members are invited to attend the Senior Art Show, opening on Friday evening and continuing through to Sunday. Younger students wishing to study Studio Art, Media or Visual Communication at a VCE level would certainly gain from the experience of walking around the 2015 collection.

Festival of Better Learning and Teaching

Also at St Catherine’s this Saturday, we will be hosting educators from across Australia for the Festival of Better Learning and Teaching. Orchestrated by Director of Curriculum, Innovation and Development, Mr Adrian Puckering, the Festival will include three outstanding keynote addresses from:

• Professor Darrell Evans, Vice-Provost Learning and Teaching, Monash University speaking on the theme ‘Better Learning and Teaching’;
• Professor Beverley Oliver, Vice-Chancellor Education, Deakin University speaking on the theme ‘Futures Learning’; and
• Professor Gregor Kennedy, Pro-Vice Chancellor Educational Innovation, University of Melbourne, speaking on the theme ‘Learning Analytics at the school level’

Whilst this is primarily a one day conference for those working in the field of education, interested St Catherine’s community members may also attend; please contact School Reception by 3.00pm today for further details. Be Confident, Show Grit Over the course of the September holiday, I was fortunate to attend two conferences in Sydney. A keynote Address by Dr Adam Fraser, a leading Australian educator, explored the theme of ‘grit’ amongst our younger generations. Recent research now attributes ‘grit’ to be as essential as intelligence, in terms of high achievement. Fraser suggests that in addition to content knowledge and academic skills, students must develop sets of behaviours, attitudes, skills and strategies in their classes. Whilst these character traits will not be reflected in scores on tests, Fraser argues they greatly attribute to a student’s ability to achieve optimum academic performance.

It is not clear what makes people ‘grittier’ than others but it is believed grit is something people can most probably learn. We do know grit can wax and wane as well, depending on the environment. A student, exceptionally self-disciplined about their sport training or Music rehearsal, yet in their Mathematics class, can give up at the slightest frustration. Students with grit are known to persevere through situations. We as educators would be remiss not to provide challenge for our students, to push them and in doing so point out areas of strengths and weaknesses. As a School, we are the bridge between a ‘cushioned’ life of School and the harder edges of the real world.

We enable girls to run the risk of not being selected, not gaining an A, mixing with people other than their friends, learning from someone they may not quite relate to; in other words, we strengthen our students. At Assembly this week, I encouraged the girls, and in particular for the Year 12 students entering their final weeks of School, to show some grit this Term when faced with challenges, to persevere, and not lose sight of goals and to keep dreaming.

Be confident and show that you have true grit!

Mrs Michelle Carroll