After last year’s disjointed year, in 2021, we would like to focus on reigniting the St Catherine’s spirit throughout the whole School and community. To achieve this we believe that the key is to encourage girls to immerse themselves into all the Co-curricular activities that St Catherine’s has to offer. In doing so, we want to foster new and stronger connections throughout the School to ultimately create a sense of cohesion across all Year levels.

We believe the whole School is keen to jump into this year with a heightened sense of engagement as a result of reflecting on the past year and the loss of the activities that couldn’t occur in the online space.

In the spirit of jumping straight back into the School environment, on the Thursday before School started, the whole Year 12 cohort and parents attended a breakfast at the Kooyong Tennis Club where we heard from Georgia Beattie (’04). Georgia shared her entrepreneurial career path of her two unique and successful businesses in hospitality and agriculture. We were inspired by Georgia’s confidence in her ideas along with her awareness of her impact on the environment.

After the breakfast, the cohort went back to the Barbreck Auditorium to participate in the Year 12 Leadership Conference. Here we discussed what we as a cohort want to achieve whilst solidifying our key goals. Hearing from a number of guest speakers, the cohort’s perception of leadership was redefined from something that is unattainable to a capability of every one of us.

This year, we as Year 12s are aiming to positively influence the girls around us as the most prominent form of leadership. Together we decided on the word “dare” as our theme for the year. To us, this word encourages girls to be bold in their choices, take advantage of opportunities and “dare to dream”.

Overall, the Year 12 cohort is excited to make the most of our last year at School and to leave our impact on those around us.