Twilight Picnic

It was wonderful to see so many of our Barbreck Community at the Twilight Teddy Bear’s Picnic on the Village Green last Friday. The weather always turns it on when we have a Village Green event and Friday provided a gorgeous afternoon of sunshine, enjoyed by all.

The Best Dressed Teddy was a wonderful competition for our younger girls. We had teddies from all over the world represented. The older girls participated in a digital graphic competition, illustrating their teddy in numerous locations around the world. This was a new competition which the girls really enjoyed, as they demonstrated their photographic and digital skills – mediums in which they love to work, create and explore. The judges had a difficult time selecting the best at each Year level as the standard was exceptional across all entrants. Congratulations to all involved.

Thanks go to the wonderful PFA Class Reps who worked tirelessly with the Years 4 to 6 parent helpers on the stalls. The food, ice-cream and drinks added to the wonderful time had by all. Special thanks go to the Ktenavos Family for their donation of their delicious, and always highly sought after, Lickt ice-creams.

House Cross Country

Congratulations to all our Barbreck girls who participated in our first Barbreck House event for 2022, House Cross Country. This was another wonderful opportunity for our School community to join together and cheer for our girls! The House spirit was alive and well within Beaulieu-Blair, Davis, Holmes Kilbride and Langley Templeton. Well done to our House Captains for keeping their Houses motivated and enjoying the day. Congratulations to Davis House who were overall winners. Barbreck Sports Coordinator,Mr Tom Crebbin provides further details of the day’s events in his report here.

Connecting Students to STEM

Following on from my communications last week, it was wonderful to receive such positive feedback on the interviews of our expert STEM team, Ms Tori Shaw, STEM Specialist in Barbreck and Ms Vanessa Jackson-McRae, Senior School Head of Science. The interviews captured the enthusiasm both Tori and Vanessa have for Science and STEM. This enthusiasm, matched with their expertise and experience, ensures our girls will develop a deeper understanding of the content, extend their skill levels and increase their enjoyment in STEM. Both videos are available to view via the thumbnail image.

Last week, Mr Robert Marshall, Deputy Principal – Strategy and Culture, wrote a Blue Ribbon article, Sophisticated Science in Barbreck, discussing the Year 3 STEM class he observed. He was amazed at the complex and sophisticated level of thinking the girls were able to apply, and how they followed the scientific inquiry method so well, commenting that “…after the experiment was completed, they had to write a discussion of their results followed by a conclusion. This is pretty much the same process you might find in a lab being used by PhD students!”

Our girls all have an outstanding capacity to learn and think at sophisticated levels. Within each of our Thinking Classrooms within Barbreck our girls are extended, moulded and challenged in engaging ways. Girls who attend Barbreck develop complex reasoning skills and critical thinking routines that improve their capabilities to work at higher levels.

Ms Jackson-McCrae explores the many and varied opportunities for Science in the Senior School in her article in this week’s Blue Ribbon here, along with Year 12 student, Cecilia Lau, Senior School STEM Captain, who shares her vision for STEM at St Catherine’s, here. Both these articles provide a wonderful glimpse into the many avenues available for our Barbreck girls as they continue into their senior years.

Heightened Level of Care – Global News

As a Barbreck staff we are continually monitoring the emotional wellbeing of all our girls.

Being global citizens with real-time news brings everything much closer to home. The current situation in the Ukraine is emotionally impacting us all, and our hearts go out to the people of the Ukraine. The information and footage coming from the Ukraine can be confusing to young minds, and the footage is graphic. I encourage parents to be discerning with the news content being viewed whilst your daughter is present.

During times such as this, we can all feel a sense of helplessness – as there is little we can do to assist. These feelings are felt more so by the young and very impressionable minds of our girls, who do not have our more sophisticated filters to synthesise the vast amounts of information and footage they see, or the emotions that they provoke.

Shortly, Ms Lena Wintermantel, our Junior School Provisional Educational Psychologist, will be providing advice on strategies parents can use in these types of situations. This week, St Catherine’s School also launches the SchoolTV resource on mystcatherines, a parenting resource to further support the invaluable partnership between home and school.

SchoolTV provides parents with acccess to an extensive range of wellbeing and mental health resources which have been developed by psychologists, Dr Michael Carr-Gregg and Dr Emma Woodward, who bring together a range of resources from other trusted wellbeing professionals. Further details on this initiative can be found in our Director for Student Wellbeing, Ms Merran O’Connor’s Blue Ribbon article here.

Out of School Hours Care – Term 1 Week 6 Activities

Upcoming activities for Term 1 Week 6 detailed here.

St Catherine’s School offers an Out of School Hours Care program to all ELC and Junior School families. The program is implemented by our provider ‘After the Bell’, and operates within the ELC building. Parents are reminded that if you need to use the Before School Care or After School Care service, registrations need to be made in advance with ‘After the Bell’. Please allow up to five business days for your registration to be processed before your child can begin attending the program. Registration is free. All families are encouraged to register so that you can use this service in the event that you are unable to pick up your child.

Before School Care – 7.00am to 8.45am

After School Care – 3.00pm to 6.00pm

Registrations can be completed via the ‘After the Bell’ website.

Please phone 9758 6744 for all enquiries.