In 1909, an Italian pioneer in education, Dott. Enrico Wilfred Cortis, embarked on the project of founding a Vatican-sponsored school for boys in Rome. When Church and State relations became strained, the School closed down but the Cortis Family decided to relocate to Malta and operate a girls’ school in Malta. The School was passed on to his unmarried daughter, Ms. Laura Cortis and took the name of the scholarly saint, St. Catherine of Alexandria, and made a name for itself all over Malta.

Decades later, the School was passed on to Ms. Cortis’ niece, the charismatic and highly respected Mrs. Maria Rita Mangion Cortis. Parents flocked to register their children in the school-house in High Street, Sliema, but after some years, these premises could no longer provide for the physical, psychological and educational needs of this growing population of young Maltese and International students.

Indeed, twenty years later, Mrs. Marie Midolo, great grand-daughter of the Founder, and her husband, Mr. Paul Midolo, took a major courageous step, the re-location of St. Catherine’s High School to the present spacious and airy premises in Pembroke. It took much toil and perseverance to see the construction and finishing of the school through, but the will to hold the School’s flag high and to keep up the reputation of excellence in education that the School had earned over the years, were the pillars of strength for the Head of School and her husband.

Since then, St. Catherine’s has flourished from a small, private, elitist school back in 1909, to a fully-fledged comprehensive co-educational institution that is the St. Catherine’s High School of today. In 2014, the School Headship was passed on to Ms. Sue Midolo, current Head of School, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Midolo. Together with her husband, Mr Brian Gauci, Chief Operations’ Officer of the School and with the strong Management Teams that have been set up, Ms. Sue Midolo plans to take the School to greater heights of excellence, investing her care, time and passion to continuing the mission embarked upon by her ancestors back in 1909.

Thus, from generation to generation, the direction of the School has been kept by members of the same family – united, professional, dedicated, educational visionaries who breathed life into the School, never flinching in time of struggle and stress, and rising to meet the challenges of the times. Currently, the School is governed by the St. Catherine’s High School Institution Board members who works tirelessly to continue the legacy of the members of the family. As a result, St. Catherine’s flag flies high at all times, contributing to create holistically well-educated citizens of Malta and of the world, who are capable of meeting the changing work and academic expectations of the times they live in, and who are capable of influencing the environment through sound ethical and spiritual values.