Principal Report

Principal Message Week 7 Term 1 2020

Last Thursday and Friday staff participated in two days of professional learning. The opportunity to come together as a professional learning community is extremely important for staff and for the school community. Professional learning communities in schools involve collaboration, sharing and the ongoing critical examination of teaching practices in line with professional standards. They are learning-oriented and promote the growth of teachers and students and are highly effective in ensuring that school- wide pedagogical changes are sustainable.  They develop teachers’ confidence and self–efficacy and when teachers implement the same learnings and strategies across the school they create consistent learning experiences for students which in turn promotes high levels of achievement for students. 

Over the past two years we have focused on teamwork and on building strong teams within and across the school. Our current school improvement plan has as its goal for Leadership and Management, To embed a strong professional learning culture of mutual trust and support with a focus on sustainable school improvement. With the intended outcome: That staff will be empowered to be high quality teachers and to improve student- learning outcomes. And our new Strategic Directions follows this premise with the following goals and actions:

Learning & Teaching

To provide an inspiring, progressive, inclusive and rigorous learning experience for all.

We believe learners will be empowered to face the challenges ahead through learning experiences that are relevant, purposeful and engaging.

Capacity Building

To foster and support an innovative, contemporary and reflective learning and feedback culture throughout the school.

Our culture of learning supports and promotes collaboration and continuous improvement.

Catholic Life

To think beyond ourselves and live out our faith through service and action

Through our Catholic values and motto ‘the little school with a big heart’ we foster and support a culture of care, inclusivity, empathy and action.

The two days were highly structured and focused on curriculum and student learning. With any pedagogical shift, it is imperative that everyone is on the same page and that there is a shared vision and a sense of purpose. This is about everyone taking on a collective responsibility for student learning which ultimately helps to sustain commitment and accountability across the school.

Day one focused on the development of our Program of Inquiry and day two on prayer and prayer spaces. The two days were highly complementary to each other, much more so than we might have expected. Over the past few years we have moved away from Religious Education sitting outside of our units of inquiry and instead we have tried, wherever possible, to embed it within the units of inquiry. By doing this we ensure that we are engaging our students in critical thinking and rich dialogue so they may gain an understanding of how the Catholic traditions and teachings sit in the broader world context. I am confident that the work we undertook over the course of the two days to develop our Program of Inquiry is going to provide our students and staff with richer, more rigorous, relevant and engaging opportunities that will challenge them to think beyond what they now think possible and ignite a passion for learning.  

Within the newsletter you will read more from staff about these two days and the work we undertook.