It has been a pleasure to welcome our students back to School this week and to greet many parents at the Heyington and Barbreck School gates during the morning. The lively and excited chatter as our girls returned to their Senior School classrooms, the Boarding House and Co-curricular pursuits this week was palpable. Our Junior School girls quickly settled into the Barbreck routine with great enthusiasm and the ELC children returned with the excited eagerness of three and four-year-old children. I trust you are all well rested and had a very enjoyable holiday break with your families. We look forward to a wonderful Term 1.

Leadership Induction 2021

On Monday, we celebrated the Year 12 Leadership Induction Assembly, our first Assembly of the year. I encouraged our Senior School students to seize every opportunity in the classroom this year and in the vast array of Co-curricular programs offered at the School, as well as ensuring new students are invited into their friendship groups and also to try new Co-curricular activities. This is their opportunity to shine and to demonstrate what it is to be a St Catherine’s girl.

It was wonderful to welcome parents to our Induction Assembly during which we acknowledged all our Year 12 cohort by presenting them with their Year 12 badge and to induct the Student Leaders of St Catherine’s for 2021.

I spoke to the girls about the significance of wearing their blue Year 12 jumper and how our younger students will look up to them; girls who have not yet had the experiences or lessons to be learned that they have had at School. Many of the younger girls will model themselves on our Year 12 students and admire their efforts looking to them to be the ‘voice’ of the student body bringing a sense of both pride and responsibility.

In recent times, we have been surrounded by some striking female leaders. It is difficult not to go past the newly appointed Vice President, Kamala Harris, the first female Vice President in America who quite famously, during the campaign last year, reclaimed her own time during the vice-presidential debate.

While Mike Pence, the Vice President of the time, didn’t quite reach Donald Trump’s level of shouting over his opponent and the moderator, Mike Pence’s interjections were met with a succinct line when he refused to acknowledge requests to stop talking. Kamala Harris, repeated at least four times over the course of the debate:

“Mr Vice President, I’m speaking”.

By the end of the debate: “I’m speaking” was trending on twitter with over 50,000 retweets with calls for every young girl to hear this, and to fuel their capacity to find their voice.

Looking closer to home, we see women finding their voice. This Australia Day, 844 people received the country’s highest honours, including Order of Australia awards, meritorious awards and distinguished awards.

Most notably, Grace Tame, a 26-year-old sexual assault survivor and advocate, was named Australian of the Year, becoming the first Tasmanian to do so in the program’s 61-year history. Grace Tame led a campaign called: “Let Her Speak” which won her the right to publicly self-identify following abuse she suffered as a teenager; she used her voice to push for legal reform and raise awareness about the impacts of sexual violence.

My theme at Assembly was about ‘speaking’ and in particular girls and women feeling empowered to speak and use their voice.

This year, at St Catherine’s we have asked Mr James Brown to lead our own St Catherine’s Girls Leadership Project called: USE YOUR VOICE whereby we wish to establish an amazing Girls’ Leadership Program focused on encouraging and empowering girls to step forward and embrace every opportunity.

The Leadership Program is established around the motto: ‘Use Your Voice’ and will prepare young St Catherine’s women to aspire to Leadership roles. Not all acts of leadership require ‘speaking’ nor require an official title or specific captaincy or role. Often our actions speak louder than words and, as such, the acronym VOICE identifies the following key attributes of leadership we wish to engender:

• Voice, Ownership, Inclusion, Compassion, Empowerment, Strength

With the inspiration of our School Co-Captains, Lucy Campbell and Clementine (Cece) Newton-Brown, together with the Year 12 cohort, each and every student is encouraged to find their VOICE.

125 Foundation Day Service

On Thursday 4 February, we commemorated the 125^th anniversary of St Catherine’s School. For those who did not have the opportunity to attend our Live Stream Service, please find below my address at our Foundation Day Service. I also invite you to view the first photos in our gallery captured yesterday.

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Good morning and welcome to today’s Foundation Day Service commemorating the 125^th anniversary of St Catherine’s School.

Thank you Murrindindi for our Welcome to Country – as a School, we truly appreciate your contribution to commence our Service today and every time you visit.

Welcome The Reverend Keiron Jones for participating in our Service today.

I also welcome Ms Kate Barber (’96), Deputy Chair of Council, President of the School Foundation, Mrs Gina Israel (’76), Members of School Council and Council Sub committees, President of the St Catherine’s Old Girls’ Association, Mrs Chrissy Ryan (’79), Past Head of Junior School, Miss Anne Smith and Past Deputy Principal, Mr Paul Cross – wonderful to have your attendance today, parents, Old Girls, staff and members of our wider St Catherine’s School community and, of course, our girls and boys from Campbell House, our Barbreck girls, their Captains Chloe and Claudia and students in Years 7-12 with their Captains Cece and Lucy. Welcome.

On this day, 125 years ago, our Founding Principal, Miss Jeanie Hood opened the doors to a girls’ school in Castlemaine, which is now known as St Catherine’s School, Toorak.

In her early years as Headmistress, Miss Hood is quoted as saying, “Without an intelligent knowledge of the past, can the present be rightly understood? For the two – past and present – are irrevocably joined together.”

It is this sentiment that encapsulates much of what we are celebrating today. We reflect and pay respect to the vision and dedication of Miss Hood, who, at the age of only 34, left her familiar surrounds of Richmond to establish, enrol, nurture and educate young girls in regional Victoria.

This week our Year 12s challenged the Senior School students to adopt the word ‘dare’!

DARE is their guiding ‘thought’ in their actions this year, one cannot help but see a clear thread that unravels into the past when a young woman dared to conceive the idea of establishing a new school.

One can only imagine the thoughts of Miss Hood as she stood on Templeton Street, Castlemaine, 125 years ago today (probably at this exact time, 9am) – and opened the school front door for the very first time and welcomed students inside; little could she perhaps imagine how that one act, coupled with her hard work and foresight, would engender stories that span generations of St Catherine’s School students, stories that changed lives.

Little did Jeanie Hood know at the time, that she had just opened the front door to a school that has through its 125 year history established itself within the educational culture and fabric of Melbourne and Australia.

A visionary leader and contemporary educator of her time, Miss Hood’s aspiration for her School was to develop “not only students, but girls gifted intellectually, morally and physically to be the women of the future.” This intention resonates into the 21^st century and is just as relevant today for our girls as it was 125 years ago.

It speaks to core values that transcend and echo through time.

Since our School’s Foundation on 4 February 1896, St Catherine’s School has remained committed to Miss Hood’s vision through the work of Principals, such as, Ruth Langley, Edna Holmes, Mary Davis, Dorothy Pizzey AM, our Head of Junior School, Anne Smith – all stewards of the School for a time. These impressive leaders, and others, were all earnestly committed to educating generations of remarkable young women.

So that today, in 2021, 125 years later, their names remain familiar to our current students and staff, as they walk the halls of the Edna Holmes Centre for Science, the Dorothy Pizzey Centre, the Ruth Langley Research and Learning Centre and, of course, the much-loved Mary Davis Centre; our Barbreck girls arrive at School every day and walk up the Anne Smith Avenue – these are all places in our School that today honour their contribution to St Catherine’s School.

Indubitably, as our School’s future unfolds, we recognise that our success is contained in respect for this past.

As we celebrate this magnificent milestone, I would like to think Miss Hood would be proud to witness (this sea of blue caps), the success of our students, the commitment of our staff and the warmth and strength of our School community.

Thank you for attending this Foundation Day Service today and for supporting St Catherine’s School.

To understand your history is to understand who you are and why – with thanks to Mr John Steven

One of the major highlights of the 125 Anniversary Foundation Day Service was listening to our Senior and Junior School Captains and SCOGA President, Chrissy Ryan, read stories about our history so ably and passionately written by School Council member and past parent, John Steven.  Into each of the stories of four iconic St Catherine’s sites – Sherren House, Barbreck, Warburton Campus and the Clocktower, John wove the human element: the people, the conversations, the bonds, the memories and tough decisions made, as well as the service given, by those who dwelled within and built the character of these places.

John wrote, “To understand your history is to understand who you are and why.” For the 700+ students, staff and guests who heard the stories in person on the Junior School Village Green, and parents viewing via live-stream, the effect was the same. Goosebumps and tears on hearing our history brought alive so beautifully by the readers and John’s careful words.

We thank John for his deep consideration of St Catherine’s School demonstrated by his enthusiasm for preserving our history through these and other stories available on our website. In people like John lives the blue-ribbon spirit.

125 Year Foundation Service

You may have missed the opportunity to view the live streaming of our wonderful event yesterday. I invite you to watch the service here and share in the stories of our 125 year history.