Happy Anniversary Cathedral College!

Cathedral College Wangaratta is proud to celebrate our twentieth anniversary in 2023. In twenty short years, the College has established an outstanding reputation for providing a high-quality, Prep to Year Twelve learning environment for the young people of the Rural City of Wangaratta and the Northeast region. It is appropriate that we celebrate this significant milestone and give thanks for the foresight of the Diocese of Wangaratta, its leaders and community members who understood the importance of providing a low-fee-paying, independent schooling option for the community.

The 2023 school year will be an exciting time for the College as we recognise and celebrate our past and look forward to the next exciting phase in the history of Cathedral College. There will be various opportunities this year for our community to gather and celebrate the significant occasion of our twentieth anniversary. In May, we will introduce our first Founders’ Day celebration. This will be an opportunity for community members who have played an integral part in the growth and development of the College to celebrate with our current students, staff and broader school community. I look forward to seeing many past students, staff and community members at these events throughout the year.

Each year at Cathedral College, we develop a school-wide theme that identifies an important aspect of the College which we want our school community to focus on. Cathedral College has traditionally used the tagline of Belong. Discover. Achieve to help articulate the essential values of our College. It is appropriate that in our twentieth year, we revisit these values as our school-wide theme in 2023. In simple terms, Discover describes the many opportunities our students are provided to assist them in identifying their individual strengths, passions and talents. Belong identifies the school culture we create to ensure students feel safe, connected and supported in and outside of the classroom. Achieve describes the high expectations and pursuit of excellence that all students are expected to strive for. Each individual is unique, and we walk alongside our students as they discover what excellence looks like for them.

The health and wellbeing of our school community remain a priority for the College in 2023. Our new strength and conditioning gymnasium will be opened at the end of Term One and will be another addition to the high–quality sporting facilities that the College enjoys. The gymnasium will be utilised by our health, and physical classes, including the expanding VET certificates, offered to our students. Our STRIVE Sporting Academy students will benefit from this new facility, along with the many community groups which utilise the excellent sporting facilities that our College enjoys. STRIVE is expanding in 2023 as we introduce basketball to the program.

This year, our College has partnered with The Resilience Project to embed a whole school approach to the concept of mental health and wellbeing. The Resilience Project assists our staff in delivering emotionally engaging programs which provide practical, evidence-based strategies to build resilience and happiness. The program has its foundations in the concepts of gratitude, empathy and mindfulness and also incorporates emotional literacy, connection and physical health as cornerstones for positive mental health and wellbeing. We look forward to working closely with The Resilience Project to support our young people in developing lifelong strategies to support their mental health throughout their lifetime.

Providing genuine and authentic opportunities for our students to develop as community leaders is integral to a Cathedral education. Traditionally, our student leadership model has been based around our house system with Junior, Middle and Senior school students appointed to House Captain positions. In 2023, we have introduced four new leadership positions, which allow for greater input and direction from our student body. These positions include; Anglican Identity and Service Leader, Arts and Culture Leader, Environment and Sustainability Leader and Student Wellbeing Leader. We look forward to our school leaders working alongside staff to provide authentic opportunities for our young leaders to demonstrate initiative and implement new ideas.

In our twentieth year, Cathedral College Wangaratta is thriving; we have much to celebrate and look forward to in the years ahead.

Staff Reflections - 2003-2023

Current and past CCW staff share reflections
on their time at Cathedral College Wangaratta
and how the school has evolved.