It was a pleasure welcoming our Year 12 students and parents at the Leadership Conference Breakfast. Our guest speaker at breakfast on day one was St Catherine’s Old Girl, Georgia Beattie (‘04) who provided some sound advice based on her time at School and throughout her career, encouraging the girls to “learn to stay in their lane” and “get comfortable asking for help”.

The Conference that followed focused on developing an understanding of leadership as our Year 12 students prepare for the forthcoming year. It was a busy and productive day filled with team building activities, workshops and presentations, providing the girls with some very important and relevant take home messages which we will continue to revisit on throughout the year.

Our Keynote speaker at the Conference, Rachael Seymour imparted to the girls the importance for Leaders in 2021 to take responsibility for practising and cultivating their own resilience so that they can be more adaptable to this fast paced, uncertain world. She emphasised to the girls that we don’t just wake up more resilient, less anxious and great communicators. Rather our role is to live a life where we are always practising/evolving and most importantly taking more responsibility for how we show up.

There was renewed energy and excitement late in the afternoon of the conference, when the girls were presented with their blue Year 12 Jumpers; a rite of passage that symbolises the leadership of the cohort.

As part of their Leadership Induction the Year 12 cohort engaged in a ‘meet and greet’ with the Year 7 students on their first day of Senior School. The warmth and care our Year 12s imparted on our youngest members of the Senior School put them at ease and no doubt alleviated a lot of first day nerves of both the girls and their parents alike. Beyond meeting the Year 7 students at the gate, the Year 12 cohort carried out individual tours of the School and engaged in a range of ‘get to know you’ activities to help the Year 7s feel welcome and provide them a sense of belonging.

Year 12 Student Highlights

“Hearing from Rachel Seymour at the Leadership Conference who shared some valuable strategies for developing self-awareness.”

“The highlight of the conference was meeting the new Year 7s. Even though it was pouring with rain it was great to see the girls in their St Catherine’s uniform with a big smile on their faces.”