Next week, we celebrate Family Week (8-14 August) as part of our bicentenary celebrations of Catholic education in Australia. While the current restrictions will make it difficult for many school communities to celebrate through their normal liturgies and gatherings, I encourage our schools to mark this occasion in a significant way. 

Since the very beginning, families were often the driving force behind the foundation and operation of Catholic schools. Lay people and many married couples, ran small Catholic schools, such as James and Eliza Hayes who taught students from 1838 at St Patrick's Parramatta, and Mr and Mrs William James from Sydney who established the first Catholic school in a temporary chapel on Pirie Street in Adelaide in 1844.  

With the removal of government funding to Catholic schools around the 1880s, Catholic education continued to grow through the work of religious priests, sisters and brothers, with the ongoing financial support of families where possible, and the continuing commitment of parents to send their children to a Catholic school. 

Today, Catholic schools are grateful for the support of successive governments recognising the important contribution we make educating one in five school aged children. However, our parents and families continue to support the growth and sustainability of Catholic schools through tuition fees, contributions to building levies, and through fundraising and volunteering in a host of ways. 

Parent engagement and the active involvement of parents and carers in their children's education cannot be under-estimated. The research shows children have more successful outcomes when their parents are closely connected to their learning and school communities.

In celebrating Family Week, we can be grateful for those parents and families who contributed to the foundation and growth of Catholic education in Australia during very difficult circumstances. 

It's not lost on me, that over the last 18 months our parents and carers have been called to take on greater involvement by supporting their children's learning at home during COVID-19 restrictions, with many families facing their own challenging personal circumstances during this period. 

We also acknowledge the work of Catholic School Parents Australia, our diocesan and school-based parent networks who contribute so much to the engagement and representation of Catholic school families, and advocating for school choice and the needs of Catholic school students and communities.

We have a great legacy to build on as we face the future of Catholic education with faith and determination, just like those families that came before us. 

Jacinta Collins 
National Catholic education executive director