With months of early morning training sessions complete, it was with much disappointment to learn the Head of School Girls Rowing Regatta was cancelled. The annual Head of the Schoolgirls Regatta is the pinnacle event on the Schoolgirls Rowing calendar with a planned 1800 competitors entered in the events this weekend, the Victorian HOSG remains one of the largest Schoolgirl Regattas in Australia.

The St Catherine’s rowers have enjoyed a very successful season to date under the guidance of new Head of Rowing, Brigette Carlile; and we were greatly anticipating this weekend. The Senior Eights have also been quietly building momentum across the season with wins for all three Senior Crews at recent Victorian Championships in Ballarat.

Congratulations must go to our Rowing Captains, Harriette Fortey and Romy Cantwell, and all of our Senior rowers whose leadership, commitment and role modelling to our younger students has been outstanding all season. The exceptional team work, unity and spirit visibly present in the Mercantile Rowing Shed this year is a credit to our Seniors and on behalf of St Catherine’s School, I wish to share my heartfelt commiserations for what was shaping up to be an excellent weekend of Rowing. We look forward to welcoming our girls back to School and congratulating them for a wonderful season of Rowing.

Other Sporting Events

The fluidity regarding COVID-19 necessitates ongoing modifications to St Catherine’s sporting schedules as follows:

Diving and Swimming Carnivals

The Diving and Swimming Championship Carnivals (17 and 18 March) and the Diving and Swimming Finals Evening (24 March) have been cancelled. This decision was based around the close proximity in the marshalling area of girls and staff.

Weekly Sport

Weekly sport fixtures are to proceed as planned.

The outdoor nature of softball and tennis was considered low risk and will continue.

To reduce risks in all sporting activities, we encourage and recommend the use of hand sanitiser for hands as well as equipment, and we further encourage sportsmanship without shaking hands.

The sporting schedule is currently fluid and may necessitate changes contingent to the advice and information received from the Government and relevant sporting bodies.

Covid-19 Emergency Response Update

As a School community, we continue to closely monitor the development of the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak and remain vigilant about the potential risk to our community. Our actions and responses will always ensure the health and wellbeing of all members of our community remains the highest priority. The School has developed a COVID-19 Crisis Management Team, consisting of representatives from the ELC, Junior School, Senior School and Business Management Teams.

To assist community members, the School has created an Information Page available on the School Portal to provide up to date information about COVID-19.
https://myportal.stcatherines.net.au/homepage/23788. 

Please ensure you have the St Catherines School App on your phone to receive instant notifications on updates to this Information Page.

With the increase in diagnosed cases internationally and the confirmed increase in local person to person cases, the School has increased its COVID-19 Response Plan to the following. This includes, but is not limited to the following:

• Reinforcement of hygiene protocols that limit the spread of any infection;
• Review of cleaning protocols across the School, including the protocols of partners such as Waverly Gymnastics and H2O Swimming;
• A review of large group gatherings, with a consideration of alternative or postponed arrangements;
• Development of protocols for responding to potential cases identified across staff and students;
• Preparations for a possible closure of the School;
• Preparations for student continuous learning using online mediums.

Should there be an increase in the number of cases locally or St Catherine’s becomes directly impacted by suspected cases within the community, we will implement further measures. It is indeed possible that confirmed cases in our local community could lead to short term closure of the School. In such a scenario we would be working closely with the relevant authorities.

Undoubtedly, this is a rapidly changing landscape and quite unprecedented in terms of the speed in which warnings and information is being updated. To assist in continuing to protect our community and contingency planning, please adhere to the following:

• Immediately advise our School Nurses, Anne Quirk and Sally Jack (Nurses@stcatherines.net.au) if any member of your family is diagnosed with COVID-19, or has come into contact with someone who has been diagnosed with the virus.
• Your daughter in the Senior School and Years 4-6 will need to take home their electronic devices each evening in the event that the School needs to temporarily close.  It is important that they have access to the resources needed to support their learning.
• Insist all family members maintain a high level of hygiene by washing their hands regularly with hand soap and sanitizer.
• If your child is exhibiting flu-like symptoms such as fever, a cough, shortness of breath, rapid breathing, a sore throat, or a runny nose, please keep your child at home and call your local GP for advice before visiting him/her.

Year 9 Learn@Home Trial Day on Monday, 16 March

In preparing the School for the possibility of an enforced closure by the Victorian government in the forthcoming months, we are inviting our Year 9 students to participate in an important Learn@Home Trial Day on Monday 16, March.

The Year 9 Learn@Home Trial Day will allow opportunity for teachers, together with the Year 9 cohort, to implement an online learning experience utilising the technologies available through the School. Please rest assured, this is a proactive measure to trial live-streamed classes only; the School does not have any students or staff diagnosed with the virus.

The Learn@Home Trial Day on Monday, 16 March is being offered to Year 9 students only.

In selecting the Year 9 cohort to participate in the Trial Day, the School will effectively avoid disrupting our VCE classes and we feel the maturity of this cohort is such that they will manage the day with integrity, independence and honesty. We wish to also seek their feedback throughout the day about their learning experience.

In recent weeks, teachers have been trained to maximise the use of Microsoft Teams, available in Office 365 and accessible through the School Portal. Microsoft Teams will enable a group video call with the ability to check attendance and collaborate through sharing documents and teacher / student computer screens. The opportunity to undertake a Trial Day on a smaller scale with one cohort will be particularly useful and assist the School in effectively adapting to a larger number of students if the situation arises.

As a School, we greatly appreciate the forthcoming cooperation of the Year 9 cohort and their parents in facilitating our Year 9 Learn@Home Trial Day. Once informed, the Year 9 girls expressed a deal of excitement mixed with pride about their capacity to participate in this important trial and the opportunity to assist with their feedback throughout the day certainly valued and beneficial to the School on a larger scale. The Year 9 Learn@Home Trial Day also provides a great opportunity for parents to discuss expectations of your daughter’s academic learning and the level of adult supervision you believe she requires at home for such a day.

School Events

The School is also reviewing all St Catherine’s events in the calendar and will communicate details as needed.  Where appropriate, we will continue to run internal school events, such as the Year 4 Camp next week, with an emphasis on appropriate health and hygiene practices.

For the immediate two weeks, we have decided to postpone the following events:

• Parent-Teacher Interviews in the Senior School: Thursday 19 March and Thursday 26 March
• Concerto Concert: Tuesday 17 March
• Senior DAV Debating: Wednesday 18 March
• Easter Church Services:
  • Senior School: Wednesday 25 March
  • Junior School: Friday 27 March

Possible School Closure

Based on the experiences of other schools to date, a confirmed case on campus may result in a school closure from 1 to 7 days.  It is possible that schools may be closed for much longer periods of time. The School is working on both short and longer-term contingency plans including planning for Boarding and Homestay students.

As such, we are seeking families who would assist with our Boarder Buddy Program to offer some of our overseas students the opportunity to stay in your home should an enforced closure of the School occur. If this is something you would like to seek further advice about, please contact our Head of Boarding, Sue Collister, through School Reception.

Further information and continual updates will occur through our Information Page available on the School Portal:
https://myportal.stcatherines.net.au/homepage/23788

The attached video from the Victorian Health Authority is also very clear and sensible, and raises the awareness of the new classification of a Pandemic as identified by WHO. I encourage all families to watch this briefing from Brett Sutton, Chief Health Officer.