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Queensland’s 309 Catholic schools are remembering the past and looking to the future as we celebrate Catholic Education Week (CEW) this week with the theme A Spirited Tomorrow.
This year the state-wide launch was hosted by Brisbane Catholic Education and featured a moving liturgy in St Stephen’s Cathedral, followed by the presentation of the Spirit of Catholic Education Awards.
The liturgy is available for viewing here and the awards ceremony can be viewed through the Brisbane Catholic Education Facebook page here.
Congratulations to all of our award recipients and thanks to all those who made the launch such a success.
Of course, the main focus of Catholic Education Week is the wonderful and unique celebrations that take place in our schools throughout this week.
These events provide a great opportunity for students, staff, families, and the wider community to celebrate the many achievements that are made in Catholic schools every day.
I wish all our school communities all the very best for the remainder of Catholic Education Week.
View our QCEC Catholic Education Week video here.
Last week was a busy one with blessing and opening ceremonies for three Queensland Catholic colleges operated by Brisbane Catholic Education.
Archbishop Coleridge joined us for the Blessing of the Soil at the construction site of Holy Spirit College in the Brisbane suburb of Fitzgibbon. The secondary college is due to open in 2022.
The Archbishop was also present for the official opening of Sophia College at Plainland in the Lockyer Valley west of Brisbane. The college opened to Year 7 this year and will continue to add year levels through to 2026.
I also attended the official opening of new facilities at Southern Cross Catholic College, Scarborough. The college’s new facilities include a Secondary Student Wellbeing Centre, Staffroom, Sports Centre and Tuckshop.
As many of you will know by now, Executive Director of Brisbane Catholic Education (BCE), Pam Betts, has recently announced that she will retire from her current role at the end of this year.
Pam has spent nine years with BCE but has also served Catholic education in a variety of other roles, including as a member of the Queensland Commission, over many years.
I wish to acknowledge Pam’s long and outstanding contribution to Catholic education and her ongoing strong support for the work of the Queensland Catholic Education Commission.
We wish Pam all the best in her retirement.
Executive Director of Brisbane Catholic Education, Pam BettsIn the past two weeks, the Queensland College of Teachers provided training to 12 teachers and school leaders from 11 different schools in Brisbane and 19 in Cairns, to develop their skills in supervising university pre-service teachers.
This course allowed colleagues from all over Queensland to access this valuable opportunity across the two locations.
Participant attendance was funded by the Australian Government’s Non-Government Reform Support Fund and was particularly beneficial to some participants who travelled large distances from rural and remote schools and can now provide this valuable learning to their colleagues in their own schools.
Historically this course has been delivered to state school supervising teachers and QCEC was pleased to secure its delivery for the Catholic sector.
The Brisbane and Cairns workshops are pictured below.
Face-to-face workshops took place for school leaders in Brisbane this week as part of the QELi Leading for Inclusive Education course.
The nine-month program was designed for school leaders (both school leadership teams and leaders within Inclusive Education) to develop their ability to support and lead inclusive education practices in RI/PJP schools.
The course is co-facilitated by QELi and Meg Ryan, who is the RI/PJP Inclusive Education Consultant.
I was pleased to lead a session and other sessions were led by QCEC staff including Director Education Yvonne Ries and Financial Analyst Adam Blair to support the course with data and information on the Catholic approach to inclusive education, and specific data and information on students and funding specific to RI/PJP schools.
There are 41 participants in this course from 19 schools across Queensland and this event is funded by the Australian Government’s Non-Government Reform Support Fund.
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I would like to congratulate Peter Surawski on his new appointment as Principal of St Dympna’s Parish School, Aspley commencing Term 1, 2022.
Peter is currently the Principal at St Peter’s Catholic Primary School, Caboolture. Peter’s leadership experience includes Principal at St Pius Primary School, Banyo; Assistant Principal Administration at St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School, Bracken Ridge and acting Principal roles within the Brisbane Diocese.
I would also like to thank the current Principal of St Dympna’s Parish School, Janet Smith, who retires at the end of 2021 after a long career in Catholic education.
Caption: Peter Surawski (photo source St Peter’s Catholic Primary School, Caboolture website)