Learning enrichment

Our students experienced an exciting range of enrichment experiences. Gifted and talented programs are established across both the junior school and senior school to encourage participation in creative and challenging activities. Many of our high potential learners enjoy being creative through literature and narratives; and to engage students to think critically about the issues we face in today’s world, we offer a variety of programs to encourage these skills. Enrichment opportunities are a chance for the girls to extend themselves and compete against a strong cohort of other high potential students.

Ms Natalie Miller Director of Learning Enrichment K–12

St Catherine’s competed in the Evatt Model United Nations competition over several weeks and venues across Sydney. We had an enlightening and enjoyable experience as we learned more about how the UN Security Council is run, and how to negotiate and debate with other ‘Nation’ teams. We discussed issues including fake news, lethal autonomous weapons and protection of common water resources, which were topics we had heard about but not fully explored. Meeting other interested people was exciting as we became more engaged with current news and the other teams. Overall, it was a great experience as we learned so much more about the world around us.

I loved the da Vinci Decathlon because we went to Knox Grammar School and met a lot of other students. There were 10 different tasks we had to try and complete; art and poetry, cartography, code breaking, creative producers, engineering, English, general knowledge, ideation, mathematics and science. We had the opportunity to try new things and helped each other to figure out the problem.

Rhianna Jones, Annabelle Strachan, Emily Beckley and Sarah Myatt competed in the National Finals of Future Problem Solving at Monash University. We analysed a cloud storage problem and developed creative solutions. This rewarding experience developed our critical thinking and teamwork and we were thrilled to be part of such an exciting weekend in Melbourne.

Year 6 girls Juliet Brooker, Lucie Brealey, Jazz Wilson, Meera Arora, Melanie Kang, Libei (Lisa) Wang, Freya Jensen and Ariel Vivian, attended GATEway8. We competed in six tasks in mathematics, English, science, humanities, visual arts and music. We placed third in English, first in science and second overall, out of 25 schools. It was lots of fun.

Lucie Brealey, Year 6

On 10 April students from the junior and senior school competed in the St Catherine’s Interschool Chess competition in the Jane Barker Hall. We were the only girls’ team competing against Bellevue Hill Public School, St Spyridon College and Woollahra Public School. It was a tough competition but a lot of fun. Both our teams made the semi-finals and St Catherine’s came third overall.

Eva Steed, Year 3

A group of 11 students travelled to Customs House for the Girls Write Up workshop. We heard from a wide range of female authors, playwrights, directors, opinion piece writers and poets, who discussed various issues and areas of inspiration. We also attended seminars of our choice, which included pitching ideas to magazines and comic strip composition. The day was highly engaging and powerful and everyone found something unique to take away from the experience.

Rebecca Rosenberg, Year 11

Maisy Lam-Po-Tang, Scarlett Craig, Claire Smith and Charlie Barry attended the Kirby Cup Moot Court Competition at Western Sydney University, Parramatta in November. The competition consisted of knockout rounds, where two barristers, a solicitor and a court officer worked against other schools in a case regarding the falsification of immigration documents. Each team would either defend the applicant or represent the Minister for Home Affairs. Overall, it was an extremely beneficial experience allowing us to think on our feet and experience the emotions of a court case. Our team placed second on the day out of 12 schools. Consequently, all four students received conditional offers to study Law at Western Sydney University.

Charlie Barry, Year 10