Included this week:-
- Resilience Project
- Study Leave/Long Service Leave
- 2019 Staffing/Classes
- 2018 Arts Festival
- Next Assembly
Over the last few weeks, as part of an upcoming Principal’s retreat, I have been revisiting an educational book I read many years ago. The book is called ‘The Courage to Teach’ by Parker Palmer, it is always interesting returning to things after a period of time or change and seeing what stands out to us. We do this constantly at school with our regular review of practice and policy and for me rereading this time highlighted something I hadn’t considered previously in my roles.
It really does take incredible courage to get up in front of a classroom and put yourself on display. Very few professions operate in such a public and personal space as teaching does. Teachers daily put themselves out there, who they are and what they care about, within a subject and with individuals as well as their professional knowledge and understanding. The great ones bring that sense of self to all that they do, showing their students how much they care for the content and for the individuals in front of them. This level of public and personal also leaves them incredibly vulnerable to criticism and critique, couple that with the fact everyone ‘knows’ school and you have potential for a high risk environment. Teacher burnout continues to grow and is an area greatly supported (or damaged) by the parent community around a school.
Last week our 1/2 community went beyond putting themselves out there to our community. St Columba’s hosted 24 other educators from schools around the state coming to watch what we do and how we do it. These teachers put their personal and professional lives on display at great risk to their own sense of self. The feedback from all visiting educators was astoundingly positive and really does highlight the many incredible things we have in place at St Columba’s. We are fortunate to have the many dedicated professionals we have working here and I would like to thank the 1/2 team and Julie Cooper for the incredible ‘extra’ efforts they have put in over the last weeks to make this event such a success.
Resilience Project
You have hopefully noticed via the app that tickets are now on sale for the upcoming parent session with the Resilience Project team to be held at Loreto College on Monday 10 September 2018 at 7:00pm.
Teachers and students will also be working with the presenters at school and this is a great opportunity to take part in an evening that is sure to support some of the great work taking place in school and at home already.
Tickets can be purchased at https://www.trybooking.com/412417 at the special price of $5.00 until the end of August. Tickets purchased from the 1st of September will be at the full price of $10.00.
Study Leave/Long Service Leave
This term has already been a busy one with a number of staff taking Long Service Leave. For families of LG11 students, Torie will shortly be leaving for Leuven(Belgium) as part of a study group heading over to KU Leuven (University) to study the Enhancing Catholic School Identity project. A large focus for Torie on this trip is the creation of sacred spaces and ways in which they can be used to engage and contextualise our approach to faith and scripture. Torie will be away from the start of week 8 (3rd September) and returns at the start of Term 4. LG11 will be taught by Ellen Gleeson. I am also taking part in a study tour at the end of this term spending two weeks visiting schools in Vancouver and Los Angeles to look at Professional Learning Communities and what is currently working in their systems that can be adapted for Australian schools. I will be away for the final week of the term and Julie Cooper will step into the role as Acting Principal. Mrs Alison Thorpe is also taking Long Service Leave for the last two weeks of this term and will be replaced by Noreen Baxter.
2019 Staffing/Classes
We are currently beginning the process of looking at staffing for 2019. As part of this process I would ask any parents who may have additional information regarding their child’s educational needs that we may be unaware of to please put this in writing and pass it on to either your child’s classroom teacher or myself. This may be relationship information, changes to family situations or new medical information we don’t currently know. I would remind parents this is not a wish list and whilst every piece of information will be considered in the process we are managing 320+ students and 40 staff, not everything is possible. Even if you have already had a conversation around these needs it can be a good idea to put it in writing to ensure things aren’t missed during this busy time.
Arts Festival
The children have been working very hard on their items for the Art Festival to be held next Wednesday 29th August. Please refer to the Arts Festival section of the newsletter for further details.
Next Assembly
Our next assembly will be this Friday 24th August at 2.40pm and will be lead by LG 5.
At this assembly Grade 5 buddies will be introducing another group of Foundation students to our school community:- Imogen, Rexley, Audrey, Mitchell, Ethan, Grace and Harvey
Back to main
It really does take incredible courage to get up in front of a classroom and put yourself on display. Very few professions operate in such a public and personal space as teaching does. Teachers daily put themselves out there, who they are and what they care about, within a subject and with individuals as well as their professional knowledge and understanding. The great ones bring that sense of self to all that they do, showing their students how much they care for the content and for the individuals in front of them. This level of public and personal also leaves them incredibly vulnerable to criticism and critique, couple that with the fact everyone ‘knows’ school and you have potential for a high risk environment. Teacher burnout continues to grow and is an area greatly supported (or damaged) by the parent community around a school.
Last week our 1/2 community went beyond putting themselves out there to our community. St Columba’s hosted 24 other educators from schools around the state coming to watch what we do and how we do it. These teachers put their personal and professional lives on display at great risk to their own sense of self. The feedback from all visiting educators was astoundingly positive and really does highlight the many incredible things we have in place at St Columba’s. We are fortunate to have the many dedicated professionals we have working here and I would like to thank the 1/2 team and Julie Cooper for the incredible ‘extra’ efforts they have put in over the last weeks to make this event such a success.
Resilience Project
You have hopefully noticed via the app that tickets are now on sale for the upcoming parent session with the Resilience Project team to be held at Loreto College on Monday 10 September 2018 at 7:00pm.
Teachers and students will also be working with the presenters at school and this is a great opportunity to take part in an evening that is sure to support some of the great work taking place in school and at home already.
Tickets can be purchased at https://www.trybooking.com/412417 at the special price of $5.00 until the end of August. Tickets purchased from the 1st of September will be at the full price of $10.00.
Study Leave/Long Service Leave
This term has already been a busy one with a number of staff taking Long Service Leave. For families of LG11 students, Torie will shortly be leaving for Leuven(Belgium) as part of a study group heading over to KU Leuven (University) to study the Enhancing Catholic School Identity project. A large focus for Torie on this trip is the creation of sacred spaces and ways in which they can be used to engage and contextualise our approach to faith and scripture. Torie will be away from the start of week 8 (3rd September) and returns at the start of Term 4. LG11 will be taught by Ellen Gleeson. I am also taking part in a study tour at the end of this term spending two weeks visiting schools in Vancouver and Los Angeles to look at Professional Learning Communities and what is currently working in their systems that can be adapted for Australian schools. I will be away for the final week of the term and Julie Cooper will step into the role as Acting Principal. Mrs Alison Thorpe is also taking Long Service Leave for the last two weeks of this term and will be replaced by Noreen Baxter.
2019 Staffing/Classes
We are currently beginning the process of looking at staffing for 2019. As part of this process I would ask any parents who may have additional information regarding their child’s educational needs that we may be unaware of to please put this in writing and pass it on to either your child’s classroom teacher or myself. This may be relationship information, changes to family situations or new medical information we don’t currently know. I would remind parents this is not a wish list and whilst every piece of information will be considered in the process we are managing 320+ students and 40 staff, not everything is possible. Even if you have already had a conversation around these needs it can be a good idea to put it in writing to ensure things aren’t missed during this busy time.
Arts Festival
The children have been working very hard on their items for the Art Festival to be held next Wednesday 29th August. Please refer to the Arts Festival section of the newsletter for further details.
Next Assembly
Our next assembly will be this Friday 24th August at 2.40pm and will be lead by LG 5.
At this assembly Grade 5 buddies will be introducing another group of Foundation students to our school community:- Imogen, Rexley, Audrey, Mitchell, Ethan, Grace and Harvey
Back to main
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