Happenings in Humanities

Last week we enjoyed a week of celebrations to mark Humanities Week at St Catherine’s School.

The week kicked off with a special Humanities Week themed Senior School assembly, which allowed students from Years 8 to 12 to share their experiences across a broad range of Humanities subjects.

Our School Captains opened the assembly, evaluating their study of subject in the Humanities domain. Annabelle Motteram reflected that her study in History Revolutions and Humanities based electives ‘Women in power’ and ‘Global citizen’ have challenged and shaped the way she sees the world today. Stephanie Ferrali revealed her belief that humanities subjects are not only interesting in themselves, but are also relevant to what is happening in the world both nationally and abroad. She shared that her study of both Global Politics and Business Management have helped her understand a great deal about the world evolving around us.

Our guest speaker, St Catherine’s Old Girl and Co-founder of ‘Tonic Australia’ Toni Joel (Silver ’82) , kindly presented on her inspirational journey to entrepreneurial success. She pointed out her company’s philosophy of adopting a “fashion industry approach” to the toiletry industry, identifying trends in colour, style and design, which are then introduced into contemporary product ranges for department stores, national chains and boutiques. With backgrounds in fashion and retail, Toni highlighted how both she and her business partner Nikki have always been involved in the overall product development from drawing and design, through to production. She divulged some of her key tips for business success:

1. Choose a business partner who shares the same goals, values and energies, but with a different range of skills.
2. Provide a service, not just a product.
3. Products should be conceived and developed in line with fashion trends – product ranges are developed to meet a buyer’s specific requirements, not the other way around.

Toni also shared the inspiring story behind the start of ‘Off Your Back’, a well-known charity providing warm coats for the homeless. Forty-eight hours after embarking on a viral email campaign to spread her coat donation idea, the collection was up and running, with the St Kilda Crisis Centre distributing the coats. It has since gone from strength to strength with ongoing community support.

Annelise Cody and Georgina Cottrill provided a summary of the Year 11 Legal Studies experience at the Model United Nations General Assembly. The key topic of the assembly was the ‘refugee crisis’. Annelise and Georgina highlighted that in the media, they often only hear about the refugee crisis from the Australian perspective regarding detention centres and the infamous slogan, ‘stop the boats’. The media focus meant that many students felt they were somewhat thrown into the deep end at the Model United Nations General Assembly – in an attempt to understand the apparent difference between the phrases ‘appeals to’ and ‘requests that’ in the draft resolution, while also trying to represent their country’s best interests. Although the students found this challenge daunting at first, they made the most of the experience and finished the day learning many new perspectives on the topic.

Year 8 students, Cara Uzunovski and Emilia Searby conveyed their excitement of the Year 8 Medieval Day on Tuesday 7 August. The day was a huge success which was measured by the level of student engagement with the range of experiences students participated in, including the traditions and customs of the Middle Ages, learning about weapons and battle, clothing and costumes and the games played during the time.

On Friday 17 August, the VCE Business Management Units 1 and 2 class will hold a Market Day during lunch for Senior School students. Matilda Bindley and Elizabeth Anastasiadis explained that in groups of four, Business Management students are required to put various concepts and theories they have learned into practice, in particular, financial considerations when starting a business and most excitingly, the importance of marketing and developing a customer base. Students are well underway with the preparation of themed stalls to provide free experiences, entertainment and deliver high levels of service to their customers.

Students who had participated in humanities competitions were recognised at the assembly. Of particular note are students who received a High Distinction in the Australian History Competition, Angela Yu (Year 8) and Lucia Tabbagh (Year 7). Congratulations to all of the participants.

A sincere thank you must go to all staff in the Humanities Faculty whose teamwork, professionalism and passion ensures students are able to extend their learning beyond the classroom.