This morning, we hosted a series of small group tours where we welcomed dozens of prospective families and their gorgeous daughters onto the campus to learn more about St Catherine’s. They came with a myriad of questions and points of entry in mind, but they were all united in their desire to make an informed and intentional decision about the next stage in their daughters’ education.  And as always, this was another opportunity for us to learn more about the forces that motivate choice for them.

In addition to our first-class facilities, exceptional academic results, and strong sense of what it would mean to belong to the St Catherine’s School community, we were reminded again and again of the priority placed on this all-girls’ education.  And when I asked what that would look like for their daughters, the same word came up again and again and that word was confidence.

Loren Bridge, the Executive Officer of the Alliance of Girls’ Schools Australasia provides further insight into what’s required to build confidence in girls.

“While Australian values reflect gender equality, the principle isn’t supported by the facts. Unfortunately, research has illustrated repeatedly that girls experience gender bias in co-ed classrooms — with implicit biases in students and teachers privileging the contributions and achievements of boys and eroding the confidence of girls as they do so. This bias begins as early as preschool — with girls being relegated to helping roles by boys who take the lead in projects, or even experiencing inadvertent exclusion and discouragement by adults from traditionally male activities. Confidence deficit is used to explain many things from girls’ subject selection in high school to poor body image and the under-representation of women in sport and senior leadership roles.”

This is a position supported by UNESCO’s latest report, highlights ongoing barriers that limit women’s and girls’ access to sports worldwide. (UNESCO Report: Women and girls’ access to sport still lagging far behind | UNESCO) Given the vital role sports play in fostering leadership, confidence, resilience and overall well-being, these findings affirm the work that we’re doing here at St Catherine’s to promote excellence both inside and outside, the classroom. Here, every athlete and every captain is a girl; no one group colonises the Football, Soccer, Rugby or Cricket and our coaches (some of them, elite athletes) empower our students by example, to see that they can achieve at every level – which naturally brings me to the stunning results achieved in St Catherine’s sport this week alone!

At the Head of the School Girls’, on the Barwon last weekend, our 1^st VIII came First in the Open Division 1Coxed Eight, winning the Head of the School Girls’ whilst our 2^nd VIII came Second in the Open Division 2. We also earned a Silver Medal in the Division 5 Cox’d 4 and a Gold Medal in Division 1 Year 10 Double Scull. Our 1^st VIII crew remains undefeated this year and is well placed to do extremely well at the Nationals on the Barrington in Tasmania, next weekend.

On Monday 17 March, the GSV Representative teams for Softball, Volleyball and Tennis competed against the APS top teams at Yarra Valley Grammar and a huge congratulations must go to Violetta in Year 11 on being selected for the first GSV Rep Softball Team in 25 years! Better still, her GSV Rep Softball team went on to win the tournament.

On Wednesday our swimmers competed in the GSV Division 1 Championships at MSAC where they finished 6^th overall. It’s no mean feat for a school of our size to achieve a Division 1 rating, not to mention the fact that our Year 7 Medley Relay set a new GSV record with a time of 2:11:18, beating MLC’s record of 2:11:56. We qualified for a total of 29 events for the upcoming GSV Finals Night and I look forward to joining you in supporting our girls from the stands.

For our much-loved Head of Sport, Mr Nick Racina, this is all in a day’s work. Sadly, Nick finishes up at St Catherine’s today, after a very successful nine years in the role to take on the position of Head of Sport at Ivanhoe Girls’ Grammar, at a school that is much closer to home. I know you’ll join me in wishing him and his young family all the very best with this new chapter – he’s certainly departing us on a high. Happily, a name (and face!) known to many of you, Ms Olivia Cody, has been appointed to the position of Acting Head of Sport for Term 2 and will also be responsible for Club Netball during her tenure. Liv will be ably supported in her endeavours by Mr Nick Brimacombe, our new Sports Administrator whilst we actively recruit for a Head of Sport to drive a comprehensive sports strategy across the school. There’s certainly exciting times ahead!

Nil Magnum Nisi Bonum