Our School has a wonderful history and many stories that our community is deeply connected to.

As we celebrate our 125 Year Anniversary, we invite you to step back in time through some of the many stories that make up life at St Catherine’s.

Michelle Carroll
Foundation Day Service, Address
4 February 2021

“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.“