A NEW YEAR 6 TRADITION: ARCHIVE HER STORY

Throughout St Catherine’s 125 year history the ‘thread that binds us all’ remains the stories, lives and legacies of our students.

To mark St Catherine’s 125 year milestone, our Year 6 students will commence the Archive Her Story Project. The Project aims to capture the thoughts, memories, emotions and reflections of our senior Barbreck students’ time throughout their primary years.

Every Barbreck girl has her unique story to tell. Over the next six weeks, our Year 6 students will utilise the Book Creator app to create a digital memoir. Our aim is to store these stories as part of St Catherine’s School Archives for future students to read and enjoy.

To help make this a success, students will require parental help to access and copy photographs, jog memories and sequence some events. As part of the Project we would like to capture the thoughts of Year 6 parents, including reflections of their time at St Catherine’s School.

The Archive Her Story Project will culminate in an evening event where girls will showcase their stories. Digital copies of the completed stories will be provided for all families along with information concerning creating hard copy versions.

This is a wonderful opportunity for the girls and I hope, with parental support, they can create a wonderful keepsake of their time in the primary years.

Further information regarding this project will be shared through our Year 6 classrooms in due course.

Why Girls Only?

A recent UK study (AQR International, 2021) of 3,000 students found girls were typically more confident, more likely to study STEM based subjects and be more academically successful than girls within co-educational environments.

Ms Loren Bridge, Executive Officer for the Alliance of Girls’ Schools Australasia, attributed these benefits to “the unique environment in which girls are encouraged to embrace competition, fearlessly explore subjects that are traditionally male dominated and challenge each other every day.” She also acknowledges the exceptional pastoral care provided to students at girls’ schools through mental wellbeing and developing resilience.

Research has shown girls’ confidence declines between the ages of eight to 14. These are important years for girls as they begin to develop a sense of self, identify their strengths and begin to pursue interests across a range of opportunities both within and outside of school.

At Barbreck, our girls are encouraged and supported to freely explore, try, test, express and enjoy finding out about their likes, dislikes, strengths and talents without feeling self-conscious. Our Barbreck educators recognise that when girls are self-conscious, it inhibits their willingness to explore, often leading to missed opportunities and eventually regret for not making the most of opportunities offered.

Every girl at Barbreck is encouraged to take full advantage of the many opportunities available to them and express themselves freely across their chosen interests.

The pastoral care, health and wellbeing programs, Ambassador Program in Years 5 and 6 and our Junior School Psychologist, provide knowledge, skills and scaffolded support to mitigate the dip in self-confidence experienced by many girls in the mid-upper primary years.

Every girl at Barbreck is encouraged to take full advantage of the many opportunities available to them. Our Music program and extensive ensemble opportunities, physical education opportunities across a range of sports and our expanding after school program, that has recently included dance programs in ballet and jazz, along with School musicals and a variety of clubs, all combine to provide an environment tailored for our girls to express themselves freely.

Out of School Hours Care – Week 5 Activities

Upcoming activities for Term 3 Week 5 detailed here.

St Catherine’s School offers an Out of School Hours Care program to all ELC and Junior School families. The program is implemented by our provider ‘After the Bell’, and operates within the ELC building. Parents are reminded that if you need to use the Before School Care or After School Care service, registrations need to be made in advance with ‘After the Bell’. Please allow up to five business days for your registration to be processed before your child can begin attending the program. Registration is free. All families are encouraged to register so that you can use this service in the event that you are unable to pick up your child.

Before School Care – 7.00am to 8.45am

After School Care – 3.00pm to 6.00pm

Registrations can be completed via the ‘After the Bell’ website.

Please phone 9758 6744 for all enquiries.