The first week back of school term is always filled with lively chatter and cheerful greetings amongst our community members. This week was no exception, and despite the chilly Melbourne weather, there was a great deal of warmth and kindness in the friendly banter of our girls.

I welcome to our School community two new teachers in the Senior School: in the Humanities Faculty, we welcome Mr John Novak, and in the Languages Faculty, French Teacher, Ms Concetta Calgaro. In our Junior School, we welcome the return of Mrs Jessica Easton, teaching Year 3 whilst Mrs Lola Ballis enjoys her long service leave, and Mrs Emma Stephens, Teacher Librarian, in the Barbreck Library, whilst Mrs Victoria Baldacchino also takes some long service leave.

In our General Staff, I officially welcome our new Director of Advancement, Ms Jacqueline Williams. Jacqueline has many years of experience in fundraising across both the Education and Arts sectors. Most recently, Jacqueline has worked at The Wheeler Centre, and previously at the Melbourne Recital Centre and Heide Museum of Modern Art.

In our Information, Communication and Technology Department, I also welcome Mrs Henrietta Pius. Henrietta has a depth of knowledge in IT programming and, in particular, expert knowledge of our key software package, Synergetic. Henrietta’s helpful and warm manner will quickly become known to parents seeking assistance with IT matters pertaining to the School.

This weekend, the St Catherine’s Snowsports community will travel to Mount Buller for our annual House Snowsports Competition. The snow blizzards have arrived just in time and will ensure great conditions for skiing and snowboarding across the weekend. In advance, I thank the Snowsports Auxiliary for hosting the Social Evening on Saturday at The Whitt, Mount Buller. The House Snowsports Weekend is one of the few events that draws students together from across the Junior and Senior Schools. The care of our younger Barbreck girls by the Senior girls is always so visible over this particular weekend and adds to the great sense of St Catherine’s community that is evident on the mountain.

Years 8 to 10 Subject Selections

At our Senior School Subject Selection Evening held on Thursday of this week, I took the opportunity to highlight the reflections of some of our teachers after one semester of teaching within the structure of our new academic model. Parents may recall the information I shared at the start of the year, whereby the academic journey of St Catherine’s students is focused towards developing a depth of knowledge within the subjects selected. Drawing on the research of Professor Andreas Schleicher, Director of Education at the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), whose key criticism of the Australian Curriculum refers to it being “a mile wide but an inch deep”. In our remodelling of the timetable this year, we have prioritised greater time in class of our core subjects – Maths, English, Science and Humanities – in Years 7 to 10 to enable a successful platform in which to transition into the VCE years.

A selection of the feedback received from our teachers is included below:

Legal Studies

In Legal Studies, the ability to slow down on the ‘heavy content’ component has meant I am better able to contextualise each legal principle. For example, teaching class actions in civil law, I was able to spend class time having students research current class actions in the Victorian Supreme Court. The students were fascinated to learn about a current class action involving ‘The Family’.

As another example, teaching negligence and the duty of care owed by employers to their employees, I was teaching students about a mesothelioma negligence claim involving Klaus Rabenault and industrial company CSR. Again, students were able to use class time to research the Wittenoom asbestos mine in Western Australia, the history of what CSR knew and when, and their actions of stripping the assets out of the subsidiary company. The additional time makes the teaching more substantial, deeper and contextualised, rather than rapidly moving through a list of legal principles.

Year 10 History

The increased class time for the Year 10 History course has significantly reduced the pressure and stress around ‘speeding’ through the content. Time is now available to show and discuss additional content, such as a documentary using Socratic methods, which we did not have time for under the previous model. Students now have time to see images of primary sources from the 20th century rather than just read about the history in written format. This effectively makes the topics much richer and more enjoyable to study and is a much ‘deeper dive’ into the content for students.

Finally, we are able to include diverse assessments that take longer to complete, such as the Socratic Seminar, which enabled different students to shine and reduced their passivity in class, and also enabled students to develop important life skills such as collaborative group work and building on each other’s viewpoints.

Year 10 Sciences

In the Year 10 Science Full Semester Electives – Chemistry, Physics and Biology, the new model provides the opportunity to instil a deeper understanding of the different scientific disciplines. Students have commented on the depth of knowledge presented in the electives, with the girls showing a willingness to embrace the academic challenges. Teachers have incorporated VCE concepts, key skills and assessment structure into the classroom, thus the elective examinations have followed the VCE format. Students have embraced the challenges and managed the VCE style problems they are likely to encounter next year.

Year 8 Languages

Our Year 8 classes are benefiting from extra time in their single Language course. It goes back to the old maxim ‘time on task’ as the most important factor to deepen understanding. The Advanced Year 8 French class has the time to build their depth of the language. For example, in the topic about school, the class was able to sideline to daily routine using extension language usually taught in Year 9. The strongest students of the cohort have been able to incorporate these explicit details into their writing.

Over the course of Term 3, students in Years 8 to 10 will undertake a process of selecting their Elective subjects for 2020. All the information about the Elective subjects, the required process, pathways of selection and prerequisite details is available through the Subject Selection tile on the School Portal.

Parents are encouraged to talk openly with their daughters about their academic strengths and challenges, and empower their daughters to seek further feedback and pathway advice by talking to their teachers and Heads of Faculty. Staff in the St Catherine’s Careers Office, Miss Sally Wilkinson and Mrs Pauline Van Der Poel, are also available to provide a wealth of information about required subjects for tertiary courses and to assist students with their selections.

Michelle Carroll

Mrs Michelle Carroll