Knowing where we’ve come from, is as important as knowing where we’re going…

It might interest you to know that when I first commenced at St Catherine’s School, I was gifted a small pot of soil by the President of SCOGA, sourced from the original site in Templeton Street, Castlemaine, where our founder Miss Jeannie Hood first opened the doors to Castlemaine Ladies’ College in 1896. Her educational philosophy was simple – an education for life, not just for school – and (along with the little light blue Le Creuset pot!) it is one that I hold close, every day.

Truth is, our founder, Miss Jeannie Hood in all her wisdom could never have envisioned back then, the world that her graduates – your daughters and granddaughters – would emerge into, but perhaps she didn’t need to. After all, the truth of what it really means to prepare our girls for a life of meaning, purpose and belonging remains an enduring constant and it has to do with authentic relationships, the careful formation of character, the upholding of values and the eternal pursuit of the ‘good society’. With St Catherine’s Day fast approaching on 25 November and, as we prepare to celebrate our 130^th birthday in 2026, we do so with gratitude for the legacy she has gifted us, and with a confident gaze fixed firmly on the future. How fortunate we are to belong to this community, through our shared commitment to the education and empowerment of its girls.

I write this article with the reassuring (!) white noise of construction all around me. In the quiet, slower pace of the recent term break, we saw significant progress across the campus and grounds. Most notably, the precast honed concrete has been laid which will feature the grandness and form of our beautiful new Music School. Demolition on the Wintergarden was slow and careful, and we are now beginning to witness how the structure will feature in its new imagining. Similarly, demolition on the Frank Osborn building is now complete, with windows and interior framing underway. The exquisite bluestone paving in the front of Sherren House is making good progress, and across the next few weeks we will see this paving extend the length of the driveway, making a stunning, iconic entrance into the School grounds. We are at the stage now where progress will gather pace and look forward to providing you with exciting updates from behind the blue fencing, in the next couple of weeks.

I spent the September break at the AHISA (Associated Heads Independent Schools) Conference in Wellington NZ, and rereading (once I put my phone away!) Johann Hari’s Stolen Focus (Bloomsbury 2022). You may remember him from his best-selling book, entitled Lost Connections (Bloomsbury 2018), in which he investigated the social and psychological factors that cause reactive depression and anxiety, listed in the Contents as: Disconnection from Meaningful Work; Disconnection from Other People; Disconnection from Meaningful Values; Disconnection from Childhood Trauma; Disconnection from Respect; Disconnection from the Natural World and finally, Disconnection from a Hopeful or Secure Future.

Would Jeannie Hood be surprised at the reasons for our existential decline? I think not…

In Stolen Focus he turns his attention to the breakdown of our collective capacity to pay attention in what he describes as one of the biggest crises facing our time: a ‘perfect storm of cognitive degradation, as a result of distraction’. Judging by the time it took me to read the book, there’s a lot of truth in this observation. I encourage you to read or listen to it on audio so that we’re all part of the solution, or as he frames it, the Attention Rebellion!

In the meantime, have a listen to Dr Locke in this episode of The Connected Girl, which embraces the topic of maintaining a healthy connection to a girl as she becomes her own person. ‘After all, is there any relationship, any connection, more vital, more critical in a young girl’s life than the one she has with her parents on the journey from girlhood to womanhood? At the same time, is there any connection more fraught and fragile? Parenting a girl as she moves along the developmental path from dependence to independence is not a job for the faint of heart!’

Natalie Charles

Nil Magnum Nisi Bonum

Nothing is Great, Unless it is Good