Message from the
Director
Dear Colleagues,
Our work across the Armidale Diocese is focused on our vision ‘A Christ-centred inclusive learning community that supports young people to realise a hope-filled future’. All of our work leads towards literate and numerate students for a hope-filled future. This is evident in our consistent, coherent instructional framework which ensures that our students are experiencing the best evidence-based learning and teaching.
For the past three years, dedicated secondary school literacy coaches have been working with all staff to build their capacity and, in turn, students’ ability in literacy. The literacy coaches were introduced in our K-10 schools last year. SME: Literacy and Innovation Alicia Pringle has led this work with the literacy coaches and school leadership teams. The focus has been on writing, a skill which is key to ensuring a hope-filled future. On Monday, the work of our literacy coaches was showcased at the Catholic Schools NSW CSSA Writing Across The Curriculum Symposium. Alicia presented the work to an audience composed of school and system staff from across all 11 Dioceses.
As part of the presentation, the following videos were presented:
Teachers & Leaders Working with the Literacy Coach
Credit and our sincere thanks go to Tahnee Denton for her work on these videos which show the impact of the work on students and staff. Our focus on writing is showing improved results in school-based assessments as well as external assessments like NAPLAN. It is exciting to see this impact and it was great to be present at this workshop with many of our Armidale colleagues to celebrate this great work. Congratulations and thank you to Alicia, our literacy coaches, and school teams for your strategic work to improve writing across our secondary settings.
Congratulations
Tim Unwin has achieved Module 1 of his HA/LT certification (Highly Accomplished). He achieved this through participating in the ACU Graduate Certificate in Education (HA/LT course). Tim addressed ten descriptors, which allowed him to successfully complete Module 1. This is a significant achievement for Tim whose evidence was from his experience as a full-time classroom teacher, and his positive impact on his Stage 3 team at St Nicholas’, Tamworth, when he was the Year Six teacher—great recognition for an excellent educator and leader in our system.
Congratulations, Tim.
School Visits
As you know, I will be visiting all our schools this term. I reached the halfway mark last week with 12 schools visited - St Joseph’s, Walgett, St Joseph’s, Glen Innes, St Joseph’s, Wee Waa, St Joseph’s Tenterfield, Holy Trinity, Inverell, St Michael’s, Manilla, St Joseph’s, Barraba, St Philomena’s, Moree, Sacred Heart, Boggabri, St Joseph’s, Mungindi, St Xavier’s, Gunnedah and St Joseph’s, Uralla. We have great Principals leading fantastic Catholic Schools. It has been wonderful to see strong teams working together to achieve outstanding faith, learning and wellbeing outcomes for our young people! Looking forward to visiting the next 12 schools!
The last two weeks, I have visited St Xavier’s, Gunnedah; St Joseph’s, Barraba; St Michael’s, Manilla; and St Joseph’s, Uralla. Even though the schools vary in size and context, the evidence of Living Well, Learning Well is strong and consistent. The adults in the schools show a universal and unconditional positive regard for children and young people. This was clear from how the principals spoke about the school and the staff, and it was evident as I walked through the classrooms to see the collective capacity of the school staff working with young people and each other. It was incredibly affirming of the great work that is happening in all our schools. Congratulations everyone!
And a couple of selfies!
Regina