Prayer for Family

Lord be beside us, all every day

Guiding and leading us gently always.

Lord be above us, help us to see

The hope of the future, of all we could be.

Lord be beneath us, carry us when

We’re too shattered or tired to really have strength.

Lord be ahead of us, smoothing our paths

Protecting and blessing the places we pass.

Lord be behind us, healing our wounds,

Forgiving our mistakes and making us new.

Jesus, be within us, this family is yours

Now and forever, you are our Lord.

Amen

I was saddened to hear of the passing of Queen Elizabeth ll before heading to work this morning.

Buckingham Palace released a statement just after 6.30pm on Thursday local time (3.30am Friday AEST), confirming the Queen had died at her Balmoral estate in the Scottish Highlands.

Queen Elizabeth II reigned for 70 years, celebrating her Platinum Jubilee on June 2, 2022. My condolences to King Charles, family, friends and the Commonwealth on the passing of our late Queen.

Please see HERE for Pope Francis' Response.

God our Father,

Your power brings us to birth,

Your providence guides our lives, and by Your command we return to dust.

Lord, those who die still live in Your presence, their lives change but do not end.

I pray in hope for my family, relatives and friends, and for all the dead known to You alone.

In company with Christ, Who died and now lives, may they rejoice in Your kingdom, where all our tears are wiped away.

Unite us together again in one family, to sing Your praise forever and ever.

Amen.

Well it is good to be back onsite today after the NCEC Conference this week! Melbourne lay down some incredible weather for this time of year and it was wonderful catching up with my colleagues from this Diocese and my old Sandhurst crew.

The National Catholic Education Conference was deferred for two years from the original 2020 date due to COVID restrictions and the 1400 delegates who attended came from as far away as the Philippines/ Oceania Region.

With high hopes and four years to plan, the theme of the conference was; "The future is listening".

Sunday commenced with registration, Welcome to Country and the opening address by the Chair of the National Catholic Education Commission, Mr Nicholas Moore and by Melbourne Archbishop Peter Comensoli.

The following three days contained a mix of keynote speakers and individual sessions ranging from school improvement to student wellbeing, Respectful Relationships, Student Voice and religious education programs.

Our Master of Ceremonies for the conference was the lovely Geraldine Doogue AO, who navigated her way through welcoming keynote speakers and hosting conversation sessions.

I was fortunate enough to attend sessions such as:

Dr Simon Breakspear on System Change: Rethinking Resistance
Prof Francis Campbell conversation on "The identify of the Catholic School for a culture of dialogue"
Embedding Quality Mathematics Learning and Teaching
Principal Perspective on Initial Teacher Education
Benefits of Teacher Education Students working in schools
Formation; an accompanied journey by one of my former Catholic Identity Leaders in the Sandhurst Diocese Sr Dr Geraldine Larkins (Sisters of St Joseph)
Leadership and Governance Responsibilities and Co-Responsible Mission-focussed partnerships (Philomena Billington)
Numeracy and Parent Engagement
Catalyst: Building Evidence based professional development approach for system improvement (CEACD)
The Faith Celebration Program: A successful catechetical and evangelisation program for students (John Burland and Cheryl Fernandez)

It was certainly interesting to hear Most Rev. Anthony Fisher OP, Archbishop of Sydney and Chair of the Bishops Commission for Catholic Education likening Catholic Education in Australia to the baking of a fine chocolate souffle.

The ideal that you want all parts of the souffle to rise: Bottom, middle and top, just like you want all students to rise in their academics and social and emotional learning.

You want the Chocolate to permeate all of the senses; sight, smell and the taste. In Catholic Schools, this flavour is our Catholic Lens; Who are we? What do we stand for? What sets us apart from other school systems?

To the final aspect of food should be enjoyed by all, just as all families should be given the opportunity to join a catholic school system.

That, in Catholic schools, we have universal access to education where students can thrive in mind (intellect), Aesthetics (appreciate the beauty and wonder that surrounds them) , social relationships. That we undertake this work through the knowledge that in order to design our future we need to deeply understand the past.

One of my favourite sessions was by Dr Jordan Nguyen the author of "A humans guide to the future" and presenter of a number of science TV programs on SBS and ABC such as "Becoming Superhuman"and "Meet the Avatars".

Dr Nguyen spoke of his childhood and his schooling in Western Sydney, the reasons for his life motto "One life, persist to improve many" and the importance of following your instincts as students and educators for inspiration to encourage engagement in school and life as a whole.

He spoke about the opportunities he has been given and in return able to provide to others by dreaming big and working towards the inclusion of all. Although Dr Jordan works with technology everyday and highlighted the importance of embracing it in this era of imagination...he detailed that in life, it is the humanity not the technology that drives his work.

Our closing speaker on the afternoon of our final day was Professor Donna Cross from the University of Western Australia and the Senior Research Fellow and Strategic Advisor for the Telethon Kids Institute.

Her opening remarks were poignant.. "if we want students to do well, we need to care for our educators".

Over my 17 years in education I have seen first hand the steady erosion of the wellbeing and care of educators in Australian schools.

It was interesting to hear the aspects following been identified all over Australia in schools, and range from; increased administration duties, an over filled curriculum where our educators are required to cover aspects of learning that traditionally were the responsibility of parents or community, the lack of respect of educators and schools from governments and parents, the move away from home school partnership of behaviour management to one where parents are time poor; or lack skills or capacity (for multiple reasons) in raise children in today's norm and as a result have a greater expectation on the schools and educators to take on the additional role of parent, counsellor, sports coach etc.

Professor Cross continued to detail the challenges facing educators, students and parents in today's environment and reiterated the overriding need for all students to be 'at school' as often as possible.

That attendance is critical for the wellbeing and social learnings of students. Schools are a sanctuary for students, where they are safe, have learning support, access to trusted adults, to routines, to friendship support and opportunities for play, physical and learning activity.

The driver to build the emotional learning of all students to ensure they have the opportunity to build resilience and self esteem. I would couple this with the main aim of all schools to support students to grow into adults who are EDUCATED, INDEPENDENT and LIKEABLE as possible.

Overall, the NCEC provided amazing opportunities to listen and engage with leaders in their respective fields. I look forward to taking some of these learnings further into what we do here at SMOTA.

On a lighter note I caught the vision of our boys relay team with the Year 3/4 students! We were all so excited to see them run what looked like a clear, clean run.

Congratulations to all Polding participants and in particular to their parents for all of the travel arrangements. Photos from today are in the sporting section of this newsletter.

Have a wonderful weekend and good luck to our local Guyra Super Spuds in the Grand Final!

Blessings Zoe

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