It been a tough month. The latest lockdown, the onset of some pretty ordinary weather, school is back in Learn@Home mode for all years up to Year 10 and our academic program heads into the busiest time of the year. Such is the strength of the St Catherine’s community, students, parents and teachers, that we are just continuing on. Yes, it is a challenge, there is no doubt about that, but everyone has risen to the occasion. Yesterday, I observed our Year 11 students doing their end of semester English exam. Our Year 10 students were doing their English exam online. Again, this has been a real challenge for us to organise everything in a hybrid environment but from our perspective, we are committed to business as usual.

The latest lockdown has meant, like it has for so many organisations, having multiple contingency plans in place should circumstances change. Lessons learnt in 2020 have been well applied in 2021. Of course, our School is at its best in face-to-face mode, but we have shown, through the dedication and commitment by our teachers, and the willingness and enthusiasm of our students, is that we don’t just cope, but we do the job required of us very well.

You might have possibly expected a high absentee rate with the current lockdown and the poor weather, but all our Year 11 girls were here promptly at 8:15am yesterday morning ready to sit for their exam. It was a similar experience with the Year 10s online. Everyone present; although we did have a couple of students affected by the storm and had lost power making an online exam not possible. Arrangements were quickly put in place to support them.

To provide an example of the professionalism of our staff at the moment, an interesting thing happened yesterday morning. One of our teachers lives in the hills out of Melbourne. She was due to supervise the Year 10 English exam online. However, the big storm caused a power outage at her home. So, she jumped in her car, and at an extremely early time this morning drove to Melbourne. She had to divert around the flooded Yarra river and take the best part of two hours to arrive at school before 8:30 this morning so she could attend to her duties. This is so typical of the care and professionalism our teachers provide every day to all of our students.

Lockdown or not, we have been and will continue to ensure we provide a great education for all the girls at St Catherine’s.