Principal's Report
Ms Regina Menz
NAIDOC Week - Always Was, Always Will Be
Always Was, Always Will Be recognises that First Nations people have occupied and cared for this continent for over 65,000 years. At O’Connor, we celebrated NAIDOC week last week with many activities. We started with a flag raising and prayer via zoom with the whole school. Our NAIDOC liturgy was done in our Pastoral Academic Care lesson. It was put together with our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and our Lasallian Youth Ministers. It was a wonderful prayer service and we were so proud of our students.
A big thank you to Mr James Russell, Mr Matt Griffin, Mrs Renne Russell and Ms Kate Bloomfield who organised such a great celebration. A wonderful Rainbow Serpent artwork was completed by our community during lunchtimes. This will hang in our library learning centre.
Annual Improvement Plan 2021
We have been reflecting and reviewing our vision and collaborating with Catholic Schools Office to formulate our Annual Improvement Plan for 2021. We have used data provided by staff, CSO and the information from the School Satisfaction Survey that parents, staff and students completed to inform our AIP. Our key focus areas continue to be: Faith, Learning and Collaboration. We continue to strive to achieve learning for all, where learning encapsulates our faith, academic and wellbeing aspects. Our AIP forms the basis of all our work as we work collaboratively to move our learning forward.
On Tuesday 24th November, we will join with the other two high schools in our Diocese, McCarthy Catholic College, Tamworth and St Mary’s College, Gunnedah to reflect on our work in 2020 and our 2020 Annual Improvement Plan. The opportunity to collaborate with the other high schools is a vital component of our shared responsibility and accountability. We will be analysing our progress through the lens of school improvement. These questions which we use often with our students and staff provide a tool for us to analyse that progress
- How are we going?
- How do we know (what is our evidence)?
- What are we going to do next (our focus for 2021)?
Staffing and Leadership Team 2021
We are currently working on our staffing for 2021 and leadership positions. Chris Smyth, Director, Catholic Schools Armidale announced on Friday 13th the appointment of Mr Stephen Chapman as Assistant Principal/Leader of Pedagogy. Steve has been acting in this role during Term 4. I am looking forward to working with Steve in this new role.
Our Leadership team for 2021 is:
Principal: Regina Menz
Assistant Principal: Damian Roff
AP/Leader of Pedagogy: Stephen Chapman
LOL (PAC & Wellbeing): Mellissa Bell
LOL (Inclusion): Katie Biddle
What new learning will you undertake this week?
Regina Menz