Principal – Natalie Charles

With temperatures in the mid-twenties all week, it’s been a glorious start to Term II, and it’s clear that the girls have returned rested, focused and (mostly!) happy to be back. 

Like you, I’m excited to see the new building taking shape with the vaulted light filled space of the Frank Osborn heralding new beginnings. Peer closely through the 6.5 metre glass widows and you’ll see the words Nil Magnum Nisi Bonum etched into the travertine – a salient reminder that much like our namesake St Catherine of Alexandria, our work here has great moral purpose and depth to it. The building is currently running on time and on budget. At this stage of the project, the interior starts to come to life with a materiality that has been chosen with the next 130 years in mind – this includes the travertine, the honed concrete, the bronzed steel and of course the handmade bricks from Stawell, Victoria providing the beautiful curvature that you can see on Heyington Place. We have been in a position to take small groups tours of the site over the course of this week, and I warmly encourage you to reach out, should you wish to join one in the coming weeks. 

If the building has been the source of much excitement here at School, so too have the conversations being had about the new Strategic Plan which will see us set a steady course for 2030 and beyond. As you know, we’re engaging with staff, students, parents (past and present), Old Girls and Council to take a considered vision for the direction of this School, and for your daughters, who are at the centre of all that we do. This will ultimately shape how we continue to educate the girls not for school only, but for life. The world is changing in ways that matter deeply for humanity and therefore, for education, and these sessions have given voice to the concerns that you have regarding the vexed and volatile forces at play; the implication that these are having upon your daughters and the role of the School in ultimately supporting the girls to navigate them. There are evident tensions that are deeply felt and widely shared about the challenge of human formation in the 21st Century but from all that I’ve heard to date, the St Catherine’s School community is well poised to rise to the challenge as it has done for the last 130 years.

Finally, I was quietly delighted by the number of Senior School girls who volunteered to join me at the Dawn Service for ANZAC Day tomorrow morning. Their willingness to stand in silence in the pre-dawn light to honour the service and sacrifice of others, reflects the deep sense of community and respect we strive to instill in all our students. 

Lest We Forget. 

Ms Natalie Charles

Principal