From the Principal

Dear Parents

Our Year 12 2015 graduates will have completed their final WACE examinations during the week. We hold them in our prayers to keep safe, as a large group of them celebrate the conclusion of secondary schooling in the south-west next week.

An invitation to parents

At the end of this year, we have three out of seven elected Board Members retiring – Vice Chair and Chair of the Marketing Committee Mr Michael Weir and Chair of the Building Committee Mr Paul Nicholls have both served six years, whilst Co-Chair of the Risk Management Committee Mrs Clara Kirika has served for three years. Other elected members include Board Chair Mr Greg LeGuier, Chair of the Finance Committee Mr Russell Hardwick, Co-Chair of the Risk Management Committee Dr Antonia Girardi and Mrs Deborah Talbot. The Board meets approximately once per month, with most Committees meeting once or twice per term. Along with appointed Board member Mrs Carolyn Bay (P&F Representative), each and every Board Member together has assisted me in meeting various strategic objectives in the College.

I am extremely grateful to our Board Members voluntary service and commitment to ensure the learning experience and environment for our students continue to improve, despite changes to the State and Commonwealth grants which have presented us with some financial challenges, which have been met. This has meant we have been able to keep fees affordable compared to like schools in terms of Socio-Economic Status (SES), which determines the level of funding received.

In the last copy of the e-News, I invited interested parents to consider their nomination to the College Board. The AGM of the Board and Parents and Friends will be held next year, but in preparation for the 2016 academic year, Board Chair Mr Greg LeGuier will be inviting interested parents to nominate for the College Board early in December. Interested parents and community members who wish to contribute in this important way are asked to consider nomination. Alternatively, parents may also consider nominating to belong to one of the committees: Finance, Building, Marketing, or Risk Management.

Visits from Catholic Education WA: School Improvement Review and Director’s Visit

The Annual visit from Catholic Education WA on behalf of the Executive Director Dr Tim McDonald was postponed to last Friday 13 November, when Director of Teaching and Learning Mrs Gabrielle Doyle visited the College on behalf of Dr McDonald.

A panel comprised of School Improvement consultants and a colleague Principal visited the College to undertake this process on Tuesday 10 and Wednesday 11 November. The panel constituted former Principal and CEWA Chair Mr Michael Ciccarelli, School Improvement Advisor Mrs Eileen Climo, Mr Andrew Watson Principal of Mandurah Catholic College, and Mr Stephen Gibson, the Project Manager for School Improvement.

The College agreed to trial a school improvement review process at the invitation of Catholic Education WA (CEWA) after I had already commissioned the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) to undertake a comprehensive School Improvement Review process at AvÐÔ°® Christi College in 2014. This allowed the Leadership Team to provide valuable feedback to the panel regarding the process.

The School Cyclic Review (SCR) focused on the effectiveness of a school s engagement with self-review, the impact of self-review on school improvement and the future directions for the improvement of student outcomes that the school has identified. SCR occurs once in a 5-year period and contributes to the compliance of school re-registration regulations in this State.

Parent and Student Representatives were interviewed, and the panellists also visited classrooms as part of the process. A number of groups of staff representing the College were involved in this review process including a group of teachers and support staff, representatives of the Teaching and Learning Council and of course, the Principal and the Leadership Team.

As you would expect, our strategic goals come from our annual review of the Quality Catholic School Improvement Framework that CEWA has mandated will be used as a system-wide school review and improvement process. In 2015, College staff reviewed the following three (3) of a total of 14 components:

• Integrating Catholic Faith, Life and Culture - The extent to which the Gospel teachings and values are both written into and practised in the school and its culture, to provide a spirit of service to society.
• Analysis and Discussion of Data - The extent to which there is a high priority given to the school-wide analysis and discussion of systematically collected data on student outcomes, including academic, attendance and behavioural outcomes, and student wellbeing.
• Pastoral Care of Students - The extent to which the school is aware of, and identifies the pastoral care needs of students, and responds to these needs.

From this review, our Strategic Plan will be updated for next year, as we do on an annual basis to ensure our goals remain relevant and current.

As Principal, I report on the progress of the goals achieved for the year in the Annual Report which is distributed at the beginning of the following year.

All improvement efforts in schools are concerned with improving provision for students and ultimately with student achievement.

This has been a focus for the College for a number of years and was the main purpose of the cyclic review.

Seeking the prayers of the community

It is with sadness I inform the community of the sudden death of one of our parents, Mr Bradley Puls, much loved father of Max (12Ch) and Darcy (11Ch).

A funeral service will be held at Fremantle Cemetery, Carrington Street, Hilton on Friday 20 November at 2.00pm. For friends who wish to support Max and Darcy at the funeral, we recommend that they be accompanied by a parent with the usual contact made with Student Services to notify of absence.

As a Catholic community, we pray for Bradley's family as they suffer his loss, and ask for God’s healing grace to be upon them. We also pray to God our Loving father, that He grant eternal rest to Brad.

Best wishes and God Bless.

Mrs Caroline Payne
Principal

NB: Some characters such as apostrophe's and ampersands are not displaying correctly. This is something we are working to correct for 2016.