Year in Review 2019 Catholic Diocese of Sandhurst 13 Director Of Catholic Education’s Report The Catholic Education Office is an entity committed to the best in educational opportunities and outcomes for the young people entrusted to our schools. We seek courageous renewal and the promotion of the human person through the provision of stewardship and leadership that are credible, contemporary, accountable, sustainable and transparent. Excellence, equity and evangelisation are our cornerstones. We believe that education is not simply a profession, but also an attitude, a way of being. Our Catholicity and our relationship with God remain central to our work. We look to a service model, where all persons are valued and empowered to be their best. We have worked to be faithful to a model based on the guiding principles of Mission, Stewardship, Dialogue, Subsidiarity and Co-responsibility. Early in 2019, our newest Catholic school opened its doors for the first time to 87 students. St Anne’s College, Kialla is a Prep to Year 12 school which will cater for approximately 1300 students. Marist College Bendigo, which opened in 2015, saw its first cohort of students undertake Year 12 studies in 2019. Across the Diocese, 18,857 boys and girls are enrolled in our fortyfive Primary Schools and fourteen Secondary Colleges (which include three specialist settings). In Term 4 we joined with people across the Diocese to farewell Bishop Les Tomlinson and to welcome our new Bishop, Shane Mackinlay. Each has a strong connection with education in its broadest sense and offers support to the schools of the Diocese and to the Catholic Education Office. Two very significant assessments of the crucial work in education were conducted in 2019. Under the guidance of Episcopal Vicar for Education, Fr Brian Boyle, a committee of educators completed the Review of Religious Education and provided a broad range of recommendations to the Bishop which were taken up by a Course Writing Team which will present a revised version of Source of Life to Bishop Mackinlay in June 2020. The Bishop, as the ‘chief teacher’ of the Diocese, holds responsibility for the integrity of teaching in the areas of faith and morals. It is his duty to ensure the programs delivered to our young people are contemporary, faithful to the Teachings of the Church and meaningful in the lives of the students. Source of Life has been the mandated Religious Education curriculum for a decade and underwent a timely review in 2018/19. On a regular basis, all aspects of school operations are checked and assessed following a set of protocols set down by the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority. In Sandhurst, the School Review Committee is examining how best to meet the expectations of the VRQA and assist our schools in maintaining the highest of standards. The Committee is to consult widely with all Principals, their leadership teams and relevant CEO personnel. The process should involve multiple ways of engaging in a dialogue and provide feedback on the past, present and future of school review models in Sandhurst. The Committee will explore a range of evidence-based tools that might be offered to our schools post the ‘fallow year’ and adopt a multi-modal approach to collecting stakeholder feedback. Each year, Catholic Education Sandhurst adopts a theme for the coming twelve months, a call to arms upon which we develop our focus and challenges for those who work with us. In 2019 our theme was Listen with the Ear of Your Heart, a reminder that, as educators, we must actively listen because we are always learning, always open to new possibilities and attentive to the work God calls us to perform. Catholic Education remains a vital arm of the Church in Sandhurst. The school is considered to be the focus of all our aspirations. Through our day-to-day work we seek to help our schools change young lives for the better, to build for the future, to give direction and purpose for young people to become lifelong learners who are committed to a better world. As educators, we believed this focus would serve to remind us on a daily basis that our Ministry within the Faith must always be dynamic, outward looking, ever ready to serve, to challenge, to uplift, to enhance and to improve. With Christ at the heart of our work, we could then be faithful to the core business of learning and teaching, while anchored by the rich teachings of the Catholic Faith. To achieve our goals, government funding is essential. We are grateful to both Commonwealth and State Governments for their financial commitments to the Catholic education sector, but fairness and equity must always be evident. We in Catholic Education remain deeply committed to those young people in our schools, to the need to educate the whole person, to inspire within each of them a yearning to contribute for the betterment of all, to leave the world in a positive state for the next generation. In all we have pursued in Catholic Education throughout 2019, we have endeavoured to remain faithful to the goals we set that deliver the very best in learning for those entrusted to our care. Mr Paul Desmond Director of Catholic Education Catholic Diocese of Sandhurst REPORTS “Give them hope and optimism for their journey in the world. Teach them to see the beauty and goodness of creation and of man who always retains the Creator’s hallmark. But above all with your life be witness of what you communicate…Educators…pass on knowledge and values with their words; but their words will have an incisive effect on children and young people if they are accompanied by their witness, their consistent way of life. Without consistency it is impossible to educate!” - Pope Francis, Address to Young Teachers, 2015
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTQ0MTI=