Last week I had the pleasure of attending the Diocese of Wagga Wagga's Bicentenary of Catholic education in Australia celebrations and the launch of their new commemorative book, Our Story: Sowing the Seeds from Generation to Generation (see story below).

As a Victorian, it's been many months since I've been able to travel to visit dioceses and speak with diocesan and school leaders, staff and students. It was a wonderful occasion and reminder of the great work of our schools. 

For the 30 schools in the Wagga Wagga diocese and the other 1,725 Catholic schools across Australia, there are a few characteristics that reflect the people who have contributed to Catholic education  over two centuries - grit and determination, ingenuity and enterprise and, most importantly, faith and hope. 

While the 200 year celebrations have almost concluded, our theme 'Faith in the future' will continue to be a strong reminder of the hope and confidence we can have about Catholic education in the future. 

Nowhere is that more present than on the faces of our young people today who, despite the disruption, isolation and months of lockdown for many, show that same resilience and spark of hope in their future. Our hope is that we fan that spark through support, witness and encouragement.

For those students sitting final exams, I wish you the very best as you complete this stage of your education, and move into further study, apprenticeships, work or other endeavours. 

It's reassuring that the longitudinal data* tells us Catholic school graduates experience higher employment outcomes and rate themselves as happier than other graduates.

While there's always more we need to do to lift education standards for all students, it's good to know that our schools are contributing in a meaningful and positive way to the lives of the students in our care, and that's something to be very hopeful about. 

Jacinta Collins
National Catholic education executive director

*Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth 2019

Bishop Mark Edwards with principals and student representatives from Mater Dei Catholic College and Kildare Catholic College.

A special Mass was celebrated by Bishop of Wagga Wagga Mark Edwards OMI in St Michael’s Cathedral on 3 November to mark the Bicentenary of Catholic education in Australia.

After the Mass, Bishop Edwards launched the commemorative book, Our Story: Sowing the Seeds from Generation to Generation, which looks at the history of each school in the diocese and recognises the vision, courage and dedication of the early founders.

It also acknowledges the support of parishes, religious congregations, Catholic leaders and educators involved in Catholic education.

Director of Catholic Education Wagga Wagga Elizabeth O'Carrigan OAM, Catholic Schools NSW CEO Dallas McInerney and National Catholic Education Commission executive director Jacinta Collins.

The celebrations were attended by Independent Wagga Wagga MP Joe McGirr, National Catholic Education Commission executive director Jacinta Collins, Catholic Schools NSW CEO Dallas McInerney, as well as representatives of religious congregations, school leaders, student representatives, local dignitaries and community representatives.

In his homily, Bishop Mark addressed the student representatives gathered and said the commitment to Catholic education over 200 years was "all about you".  

"...we are centred on you and the development of your whole person," he said. "We want you to be the very best you can."

He said Catholic schools provide a spiritual enrichment, a spiritual growing... or, as they would have said in the 1850s, a passing on of the faith.

Today, the diocese’s 25 primary schools and five secondary schools educate more than 8,600 students from diverse backgrounds and employ more than 1,500 staff.

In a recorded message played at the commencement of the celebrations, Jacinta Collins said Catholic schools, all across Australia, were built and sustained by the commitment to the Church’s mission of education and through sheer hard work.

"The 30 schools in the Wagga Wagga diocese share this story of determination and the resilience of the clergy, lay men and women, and religious congregations who built and staffed schools through years of great hardship and financial struggle," Jacinta said. 

"As you fondly look back and remember the contribution of those that came before you, I know you will also look ahead with great faith in the future in our shared mission to ensure our schools are places of learning excellence and enriching faith in the service of all students in our care, as evidenced by your recent successful learning fair where all schools participated in celebrating their progress towards excellence."

WATCH THE RECORDING OF THE MASS LIVESTREAMED AND JACINTA COLLINS' MESSAGE BELOW

Photos: Catholic Education Diocese of Wagga Wagga

Thousands of Australian teachers who participated in a program to support the teaching of the subject Digital Technologies in the classroom gained digital skills and confidence that proved vital for the switch to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.

ACARA’s Digital Technologies in focus (DTiF) project was a four-year program, funded by the Australian Government, designed to upskill teachers and support them to teach Digital Technologies, a relatively new subject.

The project has been independently recognised to improve student engagement and achievement in some of the country’s most disadvantaged schools, but it also has provided timely tech skills to teachers.

“This has been invaluable for many schools and teachers who participated and then found themselves delivering remote learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” ACARA CEO David de Carvalho said in a media release.

“Teachers told us they strengthened their own digital skills and felt more able to confidently cope with students learning from home.”

Teacher Rebecca Keough from St Mary’s Catholic Primary in Moruya NSW said some staff were initially reluctant to engage but improved in ability and confidence.

“Our focus was meeting teachers at their point of need. Some staff are willing to dive in and some are more reluctant,” she said. “A big win was that by the end of it, a lot of staff knew there are so many ways that you can engage with the Digital Technologies curriculum. Now teachers are asking questions and taking on challenges to improve their own practice. We’ve grown a lot in that respect."

“Our ICT capabilities have needed to really amp up due to COVID, and staff who had participated in the DTiF program were really empowered. It enabled staff to realise that if they need to learn something new, they can.”

More than 160 schools participated in the DTiF project with 49 per cent of schools regional areas, 29 per cent from remote or very remote regions and 22 per cent in metropolitan areas across Australia. 

The benefits were highlighted in a review by a team of academics at the Deakin University School of Education, which undertook a three year close-up study of six participating schools.

The reports are available here or to access ACARA's resources including illustrations of practice, video content, vodcast tutorials, classroom ideas, lesson plans and assessment tasks visit the DTiF website.

Featured in Education Review this month, Mater Dei Primary School in Toowoomba share their journey of lifting the educational standards for the 420 students at the school. Following is an extract:

Going from good to great isn’t necessarily easy. When something is going well, often there is no impetus to do it even better. “Why bother, the results speak for themselves? Our students perform well above norms.” In these circumstances, it can take a conscious effort to entertain possibility, shift practice and do things differently. Despite this, Mater Dei Primary School in Toowoomba, Queensland, made the deliberate decision to move from good to great. 

In 2017, the school committed to a three-year “visible learning lighthouse project". Informed by John Hattie’s seminal meta-analysis of what works best in education (Hattie, 2009), the project formed the basis of a re-evaluation of practice. Enabled and supported by the Toowoomba Catholic Schools Office (TCSO) and facilitated through Corwin Australia, the three-year project has now embedded practices that illuminate possibilities for all.

Essentially, we:  

• Prioritised strategically for time, people and money
• Facilitated staff selection of impact coaches
• Established broader teams of key influencers
• Established localised baseline data on effective teaching and learning via a) student voice b) teacher perception and c) collective teacher analysis of lessons and classroom practices
• Identified student and staff behavioural dispositions essential to productive learning
• Integrated the dispositions into a) school behaviour support processes and b) staff individualised reflection and goal setting
• Refined teacher practices through a) consistent integration of high yield strategies and b) development of “Hub” spaces for collaborative data analysis and formative teacher planning
• Developed an illuminating Possibilities Learning Framework which reflects the interrelationship between teachers, students and the curriculum premised on a) learning dispositions, b) learning process, c) action/impact cycles and d) school culture
• Celebrated our collective efficacy

As a school community dedicated to moving from good to great, we are not content to remain where we are in this journey.

While we recognise we have come such a long way in the last three years, as with any effective learner we continue to set goals and articulate our next  steps. With changes coming in the Australian Curriculum, we will be renewing the cognitive verbs each year level uses in their LISC and ensuring teacher clarity with changes. We are also further developing our Taking Action Cycle template to include greater rigour, and using it in new contexts, such as with our school board.

Finally, as with anything, the rate of change is not uniform. It’s important that we ensure our whole school community is walking this journey together and that no individual or group is being left behind. Building our  accountability to ourselves and each other in this way will continue to ensure our school genuinely illuminates possibilities for all. 

Read the full article via Education Review

Archbishop of Melbourne Peter A Comensoli is hosting the online launch of Professor Greg Craven's new book, Shadow of the Cross on 18 November 2021.

The launch will include a panel discussion with former Prime Ministers Tony Abbott and Kevin Rudd, and Archbishop Peter A Comensoli, moderated by National Catholic Education executive director Jacinta Collins.

In Shadow of the Cross, Greg Craven argues that Catholic social teaching remains an important resource for addressing the central challenges of Australian politics. His critique of liberalism, social democracy, and conservatism from the perspective of Catholic social teaching offers a vision for how Australian political debate might be done better.

Featured in the book are responses to the essay by Kevin Rudd, Tony Abbott, Philip Booth and Sandie Cornish, and an epilogue by Fr Frank Brennan, each offering their own thoughts on the future of politics and policy, and the utility of Catholic social teaching as a resource for policymaking in their responses to Craven’s analysis.

This event is free to attend but bookings are essential.

Event details
Thursday 18 November 2021
8.00pm to 9.30pm (AEDT) 7.00pm to 8.30pm (AEST)
Via Zoom - A zoom link will be forwarded to registered attendees on 18 November.
The event will be recorded

The National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) recently released a research report, VET for secondary school students: insights and outcomes, examining the merits of vocational education and training (VET) for secondary school students in preparing students for work or further training from the perspectives of students, parents, industry stakeholders and employers.

The research also explored the models of provision used in government and non-government school sectors. Case studies of a sample of government and non-government schools that have been successful in state, territory and or national training award competitions, or nominated as having successful programs, provide useful learnings for the VET sector.

Findings include:

• The number of students in VET for secondary school students has ranged from about 230,000 to 260,000 over the past 10 years
• During this period, Certificate II qualifications have been the most popular qualification (131, 220 students in 2020), followed by Certificate III (88,720 in 2020) and Certificate I (12,520 in 2020)
• School-based apprentices and trainees represent a small proportion (7.4% in 2020) of VET students with the most common in business services, retail services and tourism, travel and hospitality

Feedback sought from students and parents sheds light on how decisions for students to undertake a VET course were informed including:

• 41.1% of students surveyed planned to achieve an Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) on completion of Year 12
• Of these, 68.4% intended to count their VET studies towards their ATAR
• 64.5% of students surveyed said one of the reasons for doing VET was "to get a qualification"; 49.8% said it was "to help them get a full-time job when leaving school"; 45% said it was "to be able to use the facilities, equipment and materials that are available in the course"
• 70.6% of students had decided to enrol in the VET course themselves
• 77.5% indicated that they had "always wanted to learn the skills and knowledge" in the course they had chosen, followed by "I want to get a job in this industry" (52.8%)
• 59.7% of the students surveyed described their aspiration for their final year of schooling as being "to complete Year 12 and obtain their Senior Secondary Certificate of Education", while for 27.7% it was "to achieve an ATAR"
• For 60.6% of the students, what best described their post-school aspirations was to undertake further education or training, followed by gaining full-time/part-time or casual employment (28.6%)
• The majority of parents surveyed (79%) had encouraged their child to enrol in a VET course while at school, with most reporting they had received sufficient information to inform their decision

Download full report

Sally Towns to take up the role of Brisbane Catholic Education executive director

Dr Sally Towns has been appointed as the new executive director of Brisbane Catholic Education and will start the role next year.

With more than 26 years in teaching and school and system leadership roles, Dr Towns is currently director of Catholic Schools and chief executive officer of Diocese of Lismore Catholic Schools Limited.

Current BCE executive director Pam Betts will retire on December 10 and Dr Doug Ashleigh will act as executive director until Dr Towns commences next May.

“In welcoming Sally, I pay great tribute to the contribution that Pam made to Brisbane Catholic Education and the Archdiocese of Brisbane for the past nine years and wish her well in the future," Archbishop of Brisbane Mark Coleridge said.

Dr Towns started her professional career in the Canberra-Goulburn Diocese and has taught in a number of schools in the Diocese of Lismore.

In 2008, she took up an appointment as deputy principal and then as principal from 2009 until 2015 at MacKillop Catholic College, Hobart.

Dr Towns moved into system leadership with a role as director of School Effectiveness in the Catholic Education Office, Diocese of Cairns in September 2015.

In this role, she took on significant leadership and administrative responsibilities. She was appointed as director of Catholic Schools in Lismore in July 2019.

Read more via Brisbane Catholic Education

Students from St Mary's College, Mary MacKillop Catholic College, St Saviour's College and St Joseph's College.

Celebrating World Teachers' Day

Read more from Diocese of Toowoomba Catholic Schools

The National Catholic Education Commission (NCEC) is hosting its second professional learning enrolment workshop for educators and leaders across Catholic schools and education offices.

An enrolment toolkit resource has also been created for staff. 

On this day of Remembrance, we remember the courageous men and women who gave their lives in wartime and as a result of war.

As we remember the lives that have been lost, let us promise each other to work for the freedom of all who are oppressed in the world today.

We ask this prayer in the name of Jesus who taught us how to live.

Amen

The Ode 

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning. 

We will remember them. Lest we forget. 

Source: Catholic Education Cairns Remembrance Day Prayer for Families