On the final night of Term 1, our boarders and staff at Illawarra celebrated with a special dinner – their favourite pasta dishes and a chocolate fountain for dessert.

We have much to celebrate this term – the return of many of our international boarders, the beginning of the boarding journey for many of our younger boarders, and welcoming new staff to our team. We all acknowledged that it was also the first time since 2019 when our boarders were able to attend School in person, every day.

This term has had its challenges as we continue to manage the pandemic. I continue to be grateful for the outstanding support our boarding staff and our School Nurses provide. These resources, along with our detailed COVID response plan, ensure our boarders remain safe and can continue to enjoy their St Catherine’s education.

I am also deeply grateful for the continued support from our boarders and their families. We are certainly an example of how to live within a global pandemic. On the final Tuesday of term, we also offered a flu vaccination to all our boarders and staff – another important part of our response plan. As we enter the cooler months we shall all have to remain vigilant.

Our Boarding Captains, Jasmine Glass, and Annabelle Green have been excellent leaders, and it was wonderful to finally be able to have a Closed Weekend after cancelling the past two in 2020 and 2021. The activities organised all had the same aim – to include everyone, and for everyone to get to know each other.

We also celebrated Chinese New Year with a special dinner and ended the term with the annual Easter Egg Hunt. Year 11 boarder Phoebe Russell, organised an Opportunity Shop Dress Up Night which was great fun and also contributed much-needed funds to our local charities.

Boarders have always participated in the co-curricular life of St Catherine’s School. The boarders have rowed, run, swum, played Tennis, and been part of our successful Softball teams. Each Wednesday night our Junior Softball Team enthusiastically return to share their latest win. Outside of School, our boarders continue to follow their passions for hockey, netball, AFL football, and volleyball. Our musicians also continue to enjoy their participation in ensembles and choirs and we look forward to the School Musical in the early weeks of Term 2. In addition, the DAV Debating season has also begun.

I would like to also acknowledge the boarding staff who have supported our boarding program, supervised our nightly homework sessions, and coordinated the weekend arrangement correspondences with parents and local contacts this term – Julia, Maddie, Sophie, Babette, Morgan, Lucy, Jess, and Jo. Due to staff having to isolate as close contacts we also welcomed back past boarding staff – Maree and Georgia.

To all our boarding families – have a wonderful and safe holiday.