Balancing the demands of day-to-day life, professional commitments, family time, children’s activities, catching up with friends and finding time for yourself is becoming increasingly more challenging.

Lately in my numerous conversations with students, a common comment made is “this year is going so quickly”. A number of events in the St Catherine’s School calendar have had students and families engaged and enjoying all that our wonderful School has to offer.

St Catherine’s School is a vibrant and energetic environment. Our girls are busy from sunrise to sunset. Some days they will have sports training before school, attend a lunchtime club or help session, and have music rehearsal after school. On top of these, they have also been attending engaging and inspiring lessons all day.

As a School, we are very conscious of how busy life can be when organising and planning our programs. I thought it interesting to share with you a few of the initiatives we have introduced this year to assist with monitoring the daily operations of the School. To make any changes or additions to the School calendar an online application from staff, Parents’ and Friends’ Association, and Auxiliaries is completed and discussed in a weekly meeting. Here, we monitor the application for purpose, value and impact, ensuring events are in line with the School’s Strategic Intent. We also conduct a post event review to assist with future planning.

At the end of each term, an audit of student involvement in co-curricular programs will be conducted, with the aim of monitoring girls over or under loading with activities. We acknowledge there are many events the girls can be involved in, but value the importance of there being a balance with this involvement and their academic success.

The commencement of a new academic year saw information nights, welcome evenings, social gatherings, rowing, GSV, House sports, music lessons, ensembles and MAD night. Recently, we have had both the Years 11 and 12 Formals, and various school trips, camps and exchanges. After months of preparation, this week, we are able to witness the wonderful performances in the Senior School production A MidSummer Night’s Dream.

Our Parents’ and Friends’ Association and Auxiliaries have been working hard on preparations and plans for a number of events and activities. This week you have the chance to support the Drama Auxiliary at A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the Sports Auxiliary in the run/walk around the Tan on Sunday. Upcoming events also include the Mother’s Day Breakfast, Ruth Langley Luncheon, Snowsports Swap, Yulendj Art Exhibition and the Father/ Daughter Dinner.

In an email sent to parents and students this week, we outlined important dates regarding Academic assessments, namely the upcoming NAPLAN and Years 9 to 11 examination schedule. Please note that examinations will commence on Monday 5 June.

Aside from the events mentioned above, I am aware that many people are already looking ahead to 2018.

2018 term dates are now available. An important change to note in the 2018 academic calendar is the finishing times for the last day of each term. St Catherine’s School will be operating for the full day. Please ensure that this change is noted. This change will also mean that further information regarding arrangements for Boarding Parent Teacher interviews will follow.