At St Catherine’s, we love to celebrate the achievements of our Old Girls; their stories are inspirational and serve to motivate and encourage our current body of students. Over the course of the holidays, I invited the past School Captains of St Catherine’s, dating back to 1945, to pen a letter of encouragement to our current Year 12 girls as they commence their final term at School.

A final term of School that follows a year that was divorced of the much-embraced friendship, fun and bonds that are kindred by being on campus together. Needless to say, the response from our Old Girl community to my call for action has been overwhelming in number. Their sense of the community spirit, sisterhood and care for the Class of 2020 ever so present in their words. I look forward to gifting this extraordinary collection of over 50 letters to our Year 12s as they enjoy their final weeks at School on campus.

This Sunday, we celebrate International Day of the Girl Child and it is a timely reminder to stop and reflect on the enormous potential embodied by the 1.1 billion girls aged under 18 who the United Nations says “are poised to become the largest generation of female leaders, entrepreneurs and change-makers the world has ever seen.” The United Nations urges this week to share stories of inspirational girls and girl-led organisations in our communities. So, in the spirit of celebrating the International Day of the Girl, I share extracts of just some of the stories of our past St Catherine’s School Captains, penned within their letters I have recently received. 

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Dear Year 12 students….

“Even now, five years later and studying a post-graduate, I am still bewildered by the effectiveness, diligence, work ethic and passion one develops in their final year of school. I suppose that is why I’ve spent much of 2020 thinking about you. Year 12 at St Cath’s is such a singular, unique experience – yours even more so. You have dealt with the usual pressures and pleasures that the final year brings in a world that is shifting beneath us.

Hard moments are an inevitability of life. In these moments, we reference and exercise the values and emotional scaffolding that St Catherine’s has gifted us: self-reliance, kindness, persistence, a sense of self-worth. We know we have the resources within ourselves to overcome trying times. As a year-group, you have had to draw upon these resources sooner than most. You have thrived in unimaginable circumstances. I loved engaging with the early online assemblies, watching how you have so aptly adapted and led the school with a smile and a steady hand. I felt a certain pride in seeing you dress-up and celebrate on your last day in the common-room before the second lock-down. Something about partying in the face of upheaval conveyed a fighting spirit I recognise in myself and so many of my school friends. Maybe that’s something that St Cath’s has bestowed in all of us – a determination to find the good and happiness in any situation. Keep celebrating girls, it’s so important.

It’s unimaginable to think that the Year 7s I knew in Year 12 are finishing up. Joining you in Fiji, (in Year 9) I had the luxury of checking-in halfway through your senior schooling and I knew then you were a special bunch. I hope the fizzy joy and giddy conversation that filled up the clocktower in my final year is still with you, and that it never leaves.

Breathe deeply, study hard, be kind to yourself and connect with your classmates. We are so proud of you.”

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“I have been thinking about you a lot lately because during my school years, Australia had another epidemic, and I’ve been remembering how different things were then, compared with the challenges you are facing at the moment. In my time, the School did not have to close but we did have to take precautions – lessons outside, and trying to keep well and healthy – nothing like the restrictions that have had to be imposed to try and stop the spread of COVID-19.

So dear students, I wish you all the very best for the coming weeks and the years to come. I hope that apart from studying you have had the time to think seriously about your dreams for the future, even if it is a little unclear at this time, what this will be! The main thing is to hang on to those dreams and at some time in your life, you will achieve them. Believe me I know.

But that’s another story…”

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“It is with very mixed feelings that I conjure from the deep dark past, my final year at St Catherine’s. At one level it is of course just the usual passage of years (63 years!) but at another it is because my years at School were a major imprint on my life and all that I was to achieve or witness in the next sixty.

So, as you face this same moment, amidst this extraordinary pandemic, think back on all those experiences, good and bad, as foundational matter on which you are going to create a whole being, a full story of your own. Others will colour the edges, but you have the skeleton already in place.

For me one of those ‘bones’ was the quality of the teaching I received at St Catherine’s. Nearly all my teachers had lost a husband or partner in the Second World War. But all showed a devotion to the art and discipline of their field which they imparted to me – biology, history (especially Ren & Ref), maths and music. When I got to Harvard University I found I was well prepared and able to go into many second-year subjects because I had been taught so well.”

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“In 1956 when I was selected in the Olympic Team, the publicity and media attention was relentless. Franz (my coach) took me aside and said “Always keep your family and friends close – for they are your support group, and will be the only ones there for you when all this is over”. He was absolutely right.

The same is true during this pandemic.

I grew up as a small child in WWII – 5 years of curfew at sundown, total blackout in the streets, food rationing and clothes rationing. We came through it all together by observing the restrictions and supporting one another. Be patient – these difficult times do not last, all will be well.

As the Monty Python song says, “Always look on the bright side of life”. Everything will be okay – be patient, stay safe and well.”

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“Not long after WWII there was a Psychiatrist who wrote his doctoral thesis on survivors of the prisoner­-of-war camps. He found that those who believed that their incarceration would not last forever, who were able to look beyond the horror around them, and concentrated on what they would do when it was all over, tended to be those who were able to quickly resume a normal life when they returned home to Australia.

With this study in mind, I encourage you to look to the future, to life after the exams and after COVID-19.

What are your hopes and dreams? How can you fulfil them?

You will have increased your stock of self-reliance, resilience, patience and flexibility. Access them to achieve your goals.

In this sombre year, you have been forced to concede that life throws us curve balls, that there are, and will continue to be, things we cannot control. Look for another path. There will always be one.”

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“Despite a difficult year, St Catherine’s will still provide you with wonderful role models who are teachers. Some of the women whom I remember are Mrs Baumgarten, our French teacher, who came to Australia after the War. She had a wooden hand. She never discussed it but I would love to know now what happened to her. Mrs Taylor was Deputy Head and taught us English Literature. There was not a girl who came to the School whom she did not know and remember. It was incredible! Mrs Taylor’s portrait is on the wall in the old dining room. She would look at me during Council meetings to ensure (it felt like that anyway) that I did the right thing and that I did not let her down. And then there was Mrs Mancini, our English teacher, who reinforced my love of reading fiction. I think of these women and know how influential they have been in my life.”

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On behalf of all the staff, I wish our Year 12 girls the very best for this term and whilst we are saddened by the things you have missed in your final year by not being on campus together with your friends and teachers, we look forward to acknowledging your leadership and contribution to St Catherine’s over many years.

Over the coming weeks, the current Year 12s will relinquish their captaincy roles to the Year 11 students. In a time-honoured tradition at Assembly, the School Captains’ blue blazers and the coloured House coats proudly adorned with badges and inscribed quotes added each year by the outgoing captains are passed down the line. Such fun school assemblies and events draw us together as a community and serve as a reminder that we can pivot back to life at St Catherine’s with ease. 

Next week, we welcome the return of our Barbreck girls and three cohorts of VCE students in the Senior School. Of course, we will dearly miss the Year 8 and 9 girls on Monday but Ms Brady (Head of Year 8) and Ms Molloy (Head of Year 9) are leading the countdown with the girls to Monday, 26 October.

The School, and separately Illawarra Boarding House, has re-opened this week with well-developed COVID-19 Safe Plans. We remain extremely cognisant of facilitating the health of many people through the implementation of stringent risk mitigation strategies to ensure a safe and healthy learning environment for all. As such, temperature checks upon arrival, physical distancing measures and mandatory wearing of masks for appropriate ages in our students in the Senior School and all staff are part of the COVID-19 Safe Plan. No adults, other than school staff, will be permitted on the School premises without prior appointment, and parents are urged to please not congregate at the School gates.

My best wishes for the term ahead.