connects She who dares
S T C AT H E R I N E ’ S S C H O O L | B A R B R E C K S T R AT E G Y
B A R B R E C K S T R AT E G Y St Catherine’s School’s Towards 2025 Strategic Plan was distributed to all families earlier this year and is available at stcatherines.net.au/about-us/towards-2025. The Strategic Plan articulates our six key strategic intents and establishes our focus for educating and nurturing young girls.
Barbreck is set to grow in 2022 – a new class introduced in Year 4 and a return to three classes at Year 5. From the moment a young girl arrives, walking up Anne Smith Avenue, past our Barbreck Girl statute and into the beautiful surrounds of our Barbreck buildings, she is encouraged to be bold, to inquire, to question, to learn and contribute. Articulated within Towards 2025, St Catherine’s defines a distinct Barbreck strategy. Unique and exceptional in focus, we shape the whole child during her junior school journey, wrapped within the warmth and care of the Barbreck environment. This focus encompasses the development of young minds and embraces carefully crafted academic programs and a personalised approach, recognising and nurturing every Barbreck girls’ abilities and potential – academically, physically, socially and emotionally.
2021 NAPLAN results have placed the School as a top performer in the region.
INTENT ONE Academic Achievement The Barbreck Teaching Model Underpinning the strength of our NAPLAN results is the recent introduction of the Barbreck Teaching Model: Gradual Release of Responsibility (GRR). Guided by the leadership of our Head of Junior School, Ms Karen McArdle, the Model is shaped by teacher-led direct instruction, providing modelling, scaffolding and guidance of students through to independent practice. This approach enables teachers to build every students’ confidence with their learning and at all levels of their academic journey.
STEM Agenda A key component of the Barbreck Strategy is the consolidation of the STEM Agenda for all Barbreck girls. Undoubtedly, building every girls’ capabilities in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics enables Barbreck students to springboard into the Mathematics and Science programs offered in St Catherine’s Senior School.
We welcome a new STEM Specialist in 2022. It is with great pleasure we announce our 2022 Barbreck STEM Specialist Team: • Prep to Year 5 – Ms Tori Shaw Tori is an experienced Science educator. She is excited about the opportunity to engage Barbreck girls in understanding their world and share her love of learning and thinking critically and creatively through science experimentation and investigation. • Year 6 – Ms Vanessa Jackson-McRae Our Senior School Head of Science, will instruct and mentor Year 6 girls as part of the Barbreck Transition to Senior School Program. The Barbreck STEM Agenda will also adopt the use of a specialised Mathematics teacher for Years 5 and 6 programs in readiness for Senior School transition.
INTENT TWO Student Wellbeing & Leadership Commencing in 2021, St Catherine’s has established a focussed Health curriculum utilising the expertise of Health and Physical Education specialist, Mrs Jenny De Nardis. The Health curriculum covers age-appropriate topics including: nutrition, consent and personal safety education programs. We look forward to expanding this program through the development of a Barbreck Wellbeing Festival, in addition to extending the Ambassador Leadership Program in Years 5 and 6.
Led by their classroom teacher, every Barbreck girl will enjoy a pastoral care program providing weekly touchpoints to assist them in positive social and emotional growth, in addition to obtaining their E-Licence which is underpinned by a cyber-safety unit of work. The pastoral care program in Years 5 and 6 encompasses the Ambassador Leadership Program – designed to strengthen students’ personal leadership attributes and skills as they transition into captaincy roles in Year 6.
Learning Plus St Catherine’s School intentionally maintains optimal class sizes to ensure every student is known and known well. Our students are supported and encouraged to explore and discover what makes them unique and achieve their greatest personal success. Through our Academic Honours (Extension) Programs and a heightened level of learning care for students requiring additional support, personalised learning will be provided under the guidance and expertise of our Head of Learning Plus, Mrs Elka Gaensler. Mrs Gaensler is renowned for supporting and partnering with parents in navigating the tailored educational journey of their daughter/s. Supported by our Academic Advisory Program, each girl grows to understand her own learning journey with encouragement to strive towards achieving her own personal and academic goals, in conjunction with celebrating her successes.
INTENT THREE
INTENT FOUR
INTENT SIX
Co-curricular Engagement (Her Signature, Her Voice)
Exemplary Staff
Equip our Future
St Catherine’s School’s culture of learning is realised by the professional expertise and ongoing development of our educators and staff. Through our staff professional learning programs, we build a culture of learning – where educators and students share a common language. Through this understanding and approach the foundation of high-quality learning is achieved.
In recent years, the re-development of the Barbreck building, complete with STEM Lab, Language Classroom and Auditorium have provided optimal learning and teaching environments for our Junior School students and staff. We also look forward to providing our Barbreck girls the opportunity to learn, rehearse and perform in our new Black Box Theatre in 2022.
At the commencement of the 2022 school year, we will proudly open St Catherine’s new Black Box Theatre. A boutique performance and rehearsal space for our Barbreck Music recitals, Years 5 and 6 musicals and home to our rejuvenated Barbreck Dance program offering Ballet, Jazz and Acro. The new Theatre has been designed with the needs of all our Performing Arts students and educators in mind, ensuring our students are in the best environment to learn, rehearse and perform across a number of disciplines, as well as delivering high quality productions to audiences and educational enrichment for our students.
The new Black Box Theatre will support Music recitals, Years 5 and 6 musicals and a rejuvenated Barbreck Dance program.
Our teachers build every students’ confidence in their academic journey. For our Barbreck educators, this has encompassed the development of the Barbreck Teaching Framework; we will also continue work with implementing our whole of school Thinking Agenda, specifically targeting the Barbreck Humanities (HASS) programs with the Harvard Project Zero – Thinking Cultures and Routines – to instil a deeper inquiry of the content.
INTENT FIVE Embracing our Community
To ensure a seamless delivery of Co-curricular information to parents, a designated Co-curricular mystcatherines page has been established to provide clear access to Barbreck parents on the breadth of after-school activities available.
At the heart of Barbreck is our community of current parents and members of our wider School network, including our Old Girls, all dedicated to fostering, strengthening and enhancing opportunities for our students. We take great pride in building parent partnerships through the work of the PFA and Class Representatives to ensure our cohesive and unique community spirit remains active and vibrant. Within our modern and open Junior School grounds our Barbreck community joins together at the Forecourt or Village Green, specifically designed to bring our community together and celebrate events such as the annual Teddy Bear’s Picnic, Christmas Fair and Year 6 Graduation Bell Ringing Ceremony.
ST CATHERINE’S SCHOOL
SCS2021
In the coming year, we continue to build our capacities in Sports with the appointment of Mr Ian Pope to lead our St Catherine’s Swimming Squad. Ian is current Head Coach of the Melbourne Swim School and his experience and expertise will be of great benefit to our junior athletes. We look again to the energy, expertise and Snowsports passion of Mr Tom Crebbin, Junior School Coordinator of Sport to ignite an exciting season at Mt Buller in Term 3, 2022.