26 April 2017

Newsletter Articles

POPE FRANCIS: 'MARTYRS ARE THE LIVING BLOOD OF THE CHURCH'

Pope Francis last Saturday paid tribute to modern day martyrs whom he said “are the living blood of the Church". The Pope was presiding over a Liturgy of the Word at the Church of St. Bartholomew on the Tiber, a shrine to the martyrs of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Speaking during his homily, the Pope had words of closeness for the many Christian communities being persecuted today “because of the hatred of the spirit of this world”.

“How often, he said, in difficult moments of history, have we heard it said: ‘Today our country needs heroes’.? Likewise, we can ask, ‘Today what does our Church need?’ Martyrs, witnesses, that is, everyday saints of ordinary life, lives lived coherently; but we also need those who have the courage to accept the grace to be witnesses until the end, until death”.

He said that martyrs are “the witnesses who carry forward the Church; those who witness to the fact that Jesus is risen, that Jesus is alive, who witness to Him with coherent lives and with the strength of the Holy Spirit they have received as a gift.

Pope Francis

CONFERENCE UPDATE

If you have not yet registered you need to do so before the end of April to ensure a spot. I apologise for all the confusion over registration but a glitch in the system caused the GST to be removed. I am sorry if this caused any major issues for schools, anyone still having issues please do not hesitate to contact me. In regards to Masterclasses at the conference, there will be a booking flyer sent to each person registered. As we have to put a cap on the numbers due to the capacity of some of the break out rooms and to ensure that the master classes are as interactive as possible. Pasi Sahlberg, Pak Tee Ng and Louise Stoll will do a repeat of their Master classes. It is imperative that all Principals choose the Master Classes they wish to attend as soon after you receive this flyer as possible. If you have not yet registered you need to do this ASAP as we have been inundated with requests from other states to attend this conference and we will open it up to other states if we have not reached capacity by the end of April. See you in the Hunter Valley.

ACSP GOVERNANCE: EXECUTIVE POSITIONS AND NOMINATIONS

During 2017 positions on the ACSP executive became vacant and have been filled as casual vacancies with Diocesan Chairs. The positions vacant are as follows: 2 primary metropolitan positions (Sydney, Parramatta and Broken Bay); 1 Primary from a diocese less than 40 primary schools; 1 secondary from country diocese of less than 10 schools. To date I have received 2 metropolitan nominations one from Sydney and the other from Broken Bay, 1 nomination from Armidale (diocese less than 40) and 1 secondary nomination from Lismore (a diocese lees than 10 schools). All nominees have accepted their nominations and any further nominations need to be sent to Julie King executiveofficer@acsp.catholic.edu.au

BECOME A CHILD SAFE ORGANISATION

Organisations that involve children in their work should have a strong interest in keeping children safe in those environments. Good child safe policies and practices are the best way to reduce potential environmental risks and keep kids safer in those environments. The child safe approach includes education and supervision of both paid and unpaid staff about appropriate and acceptable behaviours. The Office of the Children’s Guardian encourages organisations to use a range of responses to manage the potential risks in their individual environments, including meeting their Working With Children Check legal obligations. While a criminal record check can be an important tool in an organisation’s approach to being ‘child safe’, they cannot identify people who have not previously been caught or are yet to offend. Organisations that work with children and young people have a responsibility to ensure their safety. There are opportunities for organisations to prevent harm to children by good risk management practice. Information on how to become a child safe organisations can be found at the Office of the Children’s Guardian

NESA NEWS

The NESA Board has decided to postpone the implementation of the Years 11 and 12 calculus-based Mathematics syllabuses. New syllabuses for English, Science, History and Mathematics Standard and Life Skills were released in February for implementation in Year 11 in 2018and Year 12 in 2019. Final drafts of the calculus-based Mathematics Advanced, Extension 1and 2 syllabuses were released for a further round of targeted consultation.

Since that time, NESA has been revising the final drafts based on feedback from experts from schools, sectors and universities to address the issues raised during the consultation. Mr de Carvalho is confident these issues will soon be resolved. However, the extended consultation has meant the courses will not be finalised in time for their release at the beginning of Term 2 to allow teachers time to prepare lesson plans and undertake professional development prior to teaching new courses in 2018.

Accordingly, the Board has decided to delay implementation of the calculus-based Mathematics syllabuses until 2019, for examination in 2020. This will ensure teachers have at least one year of familiarisation and planning. This will also mean that the Mathematic courses will first be examined on a common scale in 2020.

This decision does not affect agreed implementation timelines for Mathematics Standard and Life Skills, or for the English, Science and History courses released in February this year for delivery to Year 11 students in 2018.

WANDANA VISTIS HOLY SPIRIT CARNES HILL

Wandana is a Sydney based Company that specialise in curriculum based Aboriginal education designed to help students explore Aboriginal culture. Using non-tokenistic activities, the students will cover a wide range of educational requirements in a creative and dynamic manner. Covering many areas of Aboriginal culture and its people in song, dance, didgeridoo, art, history and storytelling.

Holy Spirit School, Carnes Hill had Wandana out to their school and the children developed the painting for their school. The painting is a modern contemporary Aboriginal painting which captures the true essence of Holy Spirit School, Church and its community. Inspired by the events of Pentecost where tongues of fire appeared above the Disciples heads, a large flame can be seen at the centre of painting with a blue crucifix at the heart of the flame. We are encouraged to "Enflame our Hearts" and the Holy Bible can be seen at the base of the Flame. Surrounding the flame are the traditional Aboriginal symbols for people seen as U shapes. They represent a place to gather to share knowledge, food & water. Running along the base of the painting can be seen the Creation figure of the Rainbow Serpent which also acknowledges the original inhabitants of the area being the Darug, Gandangara and Tharawal people and there is one colour to represent each of these people. Light radiating out from the centre of the painting depicts the core values of the Church, School & Family radiating out throughout the local community & globally.

To the right of the painting can be seen the Church with its stained-glass windows and areas of the Blue Mountains & beyond. To the left can be seen the city skyline & Sydney Harbour to the east. The many varied coloured dots seen throughout the painting represent the Teachers, students & families both past & present and the values they carry throughout the local community as well as globally.

Carnes Hill children with their masterpiece

UNDERSTAND + ENGAGE YOUR KEY STAKEHOLDERS

Now, more than ever, seeking stakeholder opinions is critical to effective engagement, alignment and planning at individual schools and across school systems.

Every school is unique and it is important to have insights into what is being done well at each school and across the cohort of schools.

School Results Surveys (SRS) enable a tailored and fully customised online survey program to be conducted for your school. Principals can access their own results immediately following survey completion and regional management can access both individual and inter-school comparison reports.

SRS enables you to gain a more comprehensive understanding of your stakeholders than ever before. Fees start from as little as $110 (+ GST) per school survey. This includes online survey distribution to an unlimited number of respondents, collation and provision of highly professional comprehensive and summary reports

THE EQUITY FOUNDATION’S STORYVILLE FREE INITIATIVE

The Equity Foundation’s Storyville initiative was founded on the premise that children must be exposed to storytelling to develop a love of reading. Research shows that one of the best predictors of children’s success in learning to read is being read to aloud.

Storyville harnesses the talent of performers to encourage children to read. The program specifically targets schools with socio-economic disadvantage and/or schools where for a majority of students, English is a second language. These are often indicators that children are not being read to at home.

The literacy foundations built by children during their early primary years are crucial to their ability to do well at school. Research identifies a clear link between the development of cognitive skills such as literacy and numeracy at an early age and higher levels of education achievement, greater employability, higher earnings and greater social participation.

This free program sees Australian performers visit primary schools weekly on a volunteer basis to read aloud to a class of K–Year 2 students.

Storyville connects schools with participating performers. Having a Storyville volunteer won’t add to your workload and is designed to spark a love of reading in your students.

All of our volunteers undergo training before being allocated to participating schools and are equipped with relevant working with children documents. Our volunteers commit to the program, enabling them to establish a real bond with students.

OECD REPORT

Please be advised that the OECD Volume III of its PISA 2015 results report was released on 19th April. The report focusses on student well-being and draws information primarily from the well-being survey, in which, as you are aware, Australia did not participate in 2015.

The report also draws information from the school and student questionnaires and the educational careers and ICT questionnaires (in which Australia participated) and the parental survey (which Australia did not administer) in order to draw broader conclusions about factors that may impact on student well-being in more general terms than canvassed in the well-being survey. As you will be aware, the data from the questionnaires in which Australia participated is not new and some has already been reported on in Volumes I and II of the international reports (particularly around motivation, engagement, attitudes, socioeconomic inequality and classroom discipline), however this is the first time that the data are being reported together to draw conclusions around well-being.

Grants Workshops and Consulting Services

Specialising in Grants, Tenders and Funding consultancy, Keith Whelan provides high level assistance to Local, State and Federal Government, Not for Profit organisations and Private Enterprises, in planning for and accessing extra income streams.

Keith develops Grants Project Management Plans, Grants Calendars and Funding Strategies, enabling organisations to approach grants and tenders in a proactive manner. His Plans and Strategies provide a structured and strategic approach to obtaining extra funding for the progression and completion of projects.

He has consulted with and taught at a number of Universities such as ANU Canberra, University of Adelaide, University of Sydney, UTS, University of Newcastle and Macquarie University. He presently facilitates courses for Research Staff at these Universities in how to attract funding through Grants, Crowd Funding, PAF’s, Trusts and Bequests.

He has also worked with the likes of NSW Health, Caltex Australia and ADCO advising on their respective Tendering Processes for Commercial Contracts.Keith develops Grants Project Management Plans, Grants Calendars and Funding Strategies enabling organisations to approach grants in a proactive manner. His Plans and Strategies provide a structured and strategic approach to obtaining extra funding for the progression and completion of projects. These workshops are 3 hours in duration face-to-face, conference session or a 1 hour webinar.

NSW OMBUDSMAN FREE INFORMATION SESSIONS

Notifying and reporting allegations of workplace child abuse

This free information session will provide an overview of the employment-related child protection scheme in NSW and the role of the NSW Ombudsman.

The Ombudsman’s employment-related child protection functions are outlined in Part 3A of the Ombudsman Act. They require the heads of government agencies and some non-government agencies to notify the Ombudsman of any reportable conduct involving their employees. Reportable conduct includes allegations and convictions relating to abuse or misconduct involving children and young people.

Using case studies as examples, the session will provide participants with:

• an overview of employer obligations under the reportable conduct scheme
• information about how to recognise reportable conduct
• a snapshot of the key steps in responding to a child protection allegation, including risk assessment and management, investigation, sharing information under Chapter 16A and making a finding
• information about the roles and responsibilities of key agencies in child protection such as Police, Family and Community Services (FACS) and the Office of the Children’s Guardian (OCG).
• guidance in relation to notifying allegations and ongoing liaison with the NSW Ombudsman.

Session information is as follows

• 25 May 2017 – Sydney CBD (09:30am – 12:00pm)
• 16 August 2017 – Sydney CBD (09:30am – 12:00pm) – a session for staff working in the Health sector
• 5 September 2017 – Parramatta (09:30am – 12:00pm)
• 15 November 2017 – Sydney CBD (09:30am – 12:00pm)

Registration is essential as places are limited; Register via our website here:

A range of NSW Ombudsman employment related child protection factsheets are also available on our website.

Schoolzine

Schoolzine is proud to be a digital partner and supporter of ACSP NSW - Association of Catholic School Principals in NSW Inc.

Schoolzine has been an industry leader in digital school communications for 10 years. They are dedicated to customer service, product development and understanding the school landscape that keeps them at the top of the industry. Schoolzine’s Parent Engagement Platform consists of 3 packages, an eNewsletter, Mobile App and Website offering. Purchased separately or together, they guarantee each package will make engaging with parents easy and even enjoyable for a school of any size. Schoolzine addresses the need for media-rich, interactive content that engages parents.

Choose how to add this event to your calendar:

Apple Calendar iPhone, iPad, Mac - Download .ics file

Outlook Desktop Outlook - Download .ics file

Android Calendar Android devices - Download .ics file

Other Calendar Google Calendar, Yahoo, etc. - Download .ics file

Download Event