THE WAY (Term 3 Week 5 - 15 August 2022)
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Fostering a Connected Faith Community at St Patrick’s Primary School, Macksville
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FOR ACTION
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Major Works Showcase - Student Work Submission Form
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Have your say: NSW Syllabus English and Mathematics 3–10 and Auslan K–10
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FOR INFORMATION
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Announcements
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RENEW 2022 Term 3 Update
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Prime Minister's Spelling Bee
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Learning with Google - Choose Your Own Adventure?
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Evidenced Informed Literacy Assessment Approach in the Diocese of Lismore
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Formation of the Minister’s Teachers’ Advisory Group
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HSC Showcase 2021
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CSNSW Online PL module - Developing Social Skills for Children with Diverse Learning Needs: The Early Years (0-7 years old)
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Compass Events Master Class
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Reminders
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Positions Vacant
The St Patrick’s Primary School, Macksville, community came together for night fun and games at their first Family, Faith & Fun night. (2 August 2022)
A wonderful community celebration of faith and fun was held at St Patrick’s Primary School, Macksville, for their first Family, Faith & Fun night organised by the Catholic Schools Office Family Partnership team. The night was filled with anticipation as the school community had missed the opportunity to come together and connect socially.
The night was a huge success. The room was filled with chatter and laughter as the students, families, and staff enjoyed the evening. Families and staff relished this opportunity with the pandemic and natural disasters, having prevented the school community from coming together.
‘It was lovely to interact and build those relationships within our school community in such a fun and informal way. It was refreshing to gather together and build our relationship with others and praise God too!’ said Monique Soutter, Assistant Principal - Mission.
The feedback from parents reflected how much they appreciated this fantastic opportunity.
‘It was great to spend time with my family and see other families enjoying themselves too.’
‘We enjoyed all parts of the evening. I really enjoyed the faith component, and how the story was told with the visual aids, my kids told me that they remember the stories more when they are told this way.’
‘It was a very casual and relaxed evening, and the opportunity to talk to teachers and staff in an informal setting was lovely!’
The evening started with staff, students and parents praying together, followed by a shared meal and three rounds of fun activities that focused on getting to know each other and Jesus. The games were a big hit with the students.
‘It was cool going to school at night with Dad and playing with my friends. I liked the pizza and making the sheep the best,’ said Kindergarten student Matilda.
This will be the first of many evenings the school plans on hosting to foster the school and family partnership.
The HSC Showcase is designed to celebrate and capture the works of our HSC students and to also inspire our younger students. The website presents a range of expressive forms that highlight the technical skills and conceptual development of the student and their work. The site has generated significant traffic, and we have good feedback that teachers are using it to inspire current Preliminary and HSC students concerning the development of their own major works.
In 2023 we will showcase works from 2022 HSC students in Dance, Design and Technology, Industrial Technology, Textiles Technology and Visual Arts.
We are asking current HSC Teachers for these five courses to select appropriate student(s) work and to submit the work and permission form by Friday 21st October. Submission information and permission forms are below.
We are excited to be able to exhibit the excellent work of our HSC students through this online showcase, and we thank the teachers for their support of this initiative.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact Kurt Challinor.
Draft syllabuses are open for the second round of public consultation in the next major milestone of the NSW Curriculum Reform.
Have your say on:
The surveys close on 22 August 2022.
Tanya Daley has been appointed to the position of Principal at St Joseph’s Regional College, Port Macquarie, commencing 15 August 2022. Tanya commenced her teaching career in 1993. Her leadership experience in the Lismore Diocese includes Leader of Pastoral Care, Acting Assistant Principal Pastoral Care and Support and Assistant Principal Mission. Tanya has led St Joseph’s Regional College as Acting Principal since July 2021.
We congratulate Tanya and look forward to her continued contribution to Catholic education in the Lismore Diocese.
Catholic Schools Office - Retirement
Mary Walsh has indicated her intention to retire at the end of the year after 55 continuous years in Catholic Education. Mary has held leadership roles as Literacy Coordinator, Religious Education Coordinator and Acting Principal. Since moving to the Lismore Diocese in 2000, Mary has been Assistant Principal and Acting Principal at both St Francis Xavier Primary School, Woolgoolga, and Mary Help of Christians Primary School, Sawtell. In 2014 Mary joined the CSO staff, where she is currently Education Officer (K-2 Literacy and Numeracy).
We congratulate Mary on her career in Catholic Education and wish her all the best for her retirement.
Cohort 2 - North
The third and final workshop for Cohort 2 North schools, postponed due to flooding in Term 1, will take place on 5-6 September. This workshop is aimed at those teachers who were part of Workshops 1 and 2 in 2021 and continue to implement inquiry-based learning in Stages 3 and 4. Dr Michael McDowell will facilitate this workshop in person. Registration is now open via MyLearning.
Cohort 3 - North and South
For Cohort 3 schools, the next round of workshops will be face-to-face with Dr Michael McDowell and will take place as follows:
- North 7- 8 September
- South 12-13 September
Registration is open via MyLearning.
There will also be opportunities for some Cohort 1 and 2 schools to engage with Michael through coaching sessions during weeks 8-9 this term. Leaders will be emailed details.
For further information, please contact your Religious Education and Catechetical Services Education Officer.
Please see the information attached and below regarding the Prime Minister's Spelling Bee, which opened last week for promotion across your channels.
The Bee is administered by Kids News. They have had over 10,000 students registered by their teachers since last Monday.
Registrations close on 19 August.
Congratulations to Phil Crosby, Acting Assistant Principal - Mission at St Joseph's Primary School, Alstonville, on his recent presentation at the Catholic Learning Online Summit. This year's theme was 'Focus on Writing.'
Phil's presentation, Choose Your Own Adventure using Google Slides, offers deep student engagement and diverse learning opportunities over a variety of KLAs. It also includes the computer programming concept of branching, where students create pathways based on particular decisions and choices.
If you want to be inspired and/or learn something new, click here and see an example slide deck here.
If you would like to share your expertise in digital technologies, think of applying to become a Google Trainer or have something to share that would benefit learning in the classroom, please contact the Digital Technologies Team: JJ Purton Jones, Tracey Catling or Mary McEvilly Butler.
The system has developed an evidence-informed Literacy Assessment Approach for schools in the Diocese of Lismore. The approach is informed by recommendations from a review by Melbourne University in consultation with focus groups across the diocese. The range and purpose of assessment practices in place across diocesan schools were reviewed and recommendations were made to align practices to evidence-based research about assessment efficacy.
This approach refers to system-level data collection to inform and monitor the progress of students across our schools. At a school level, the system Literacy Assessment Approach will inform decisions about Tier 1 instruction and help to identify students requiring strategic support, alongside assessments and measures implemented at the school level. At a system level, the data collection supports decision-making regarding strategic resourcing, professional learning and evaluation of system processes.
A key strategy in response to the Melbourne University review is the development of a Diocesan Assessment and Intervention Framework which is currently being finalised along with support around professional learning for school leaders and teachers. A workshop was held for Principals to unpack the evidence-informed Literacy Assessment Approach and discuss the outcomes, implications and next steps. Principals have access to a recording of the workshop; PowerPoint slides; and, the Diocese of Lismore Report.
The NSW Education Minister has announced the formation of the Minister’s Teachers’ Advisory Group, a new cross-sectoral advisory group comprising classroom teachers from primary and secondary teachers from public, Catholic and Independent Schools. The Minister’s Teachers’ Advisory Group formation follows the teacher’s advisory roundtable held at NSW Parliament House on 12 May 2022, which involved a cross-section of teachers from across NSW.
The call for Applications for high-performing teachers, including HALT or equivalent, is now open, with applications closing on 21 August.
The Lismore Diocese HSC Showcase celebrates and captures the talents of our students, reflecting their creativity, innovation, technical skills and conceptual development. These projects represent the culmination of months of diligence and commitment by students, planning and designing, developing their skills and applying them to the task of creating inspirational and engaging works.
Spotlight On …
McAuley Catholic College, Grafton (Visual Arts)
Student: Harmony Swain-Davies
Title: Transcending our humanity
My Body of Work reflects humanity's shift towards automation and technological advancements. An appropriation of the ‘Creation of Adam’, makes a comment on the creation of technology and the merging of the two worlds. This ambitious Body of Work includes a life size figure drawing of an 'electrified' woman.
CSNSW is providing an exciting professional learning opportunity for all school staff. Sue Larkey, a highly qualified special needs teacher in special needs and mainstream schools, previously presented a three-part (one hour each) webinar about developing social skills for children with diverse learning needs.
This webinar series has been packaged as one complete three-hour presentation available on the CSNSW Professional Learning platform.
The presentation is available here.
Completing the video module ‘Developing Social Skills for Children with Diverse Learning Needs – the Early Years’ will contribute 3 hours of NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) Accredited PD in the priority area of Students/children with Disability addressing standard descriptor, ‘Develop teaching activities that incorporate differentiated strategies to meet the specific learning needs of students across the full range of abilities,’ (1.5.2) from the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers towards maintaining Proficient Teacher Accreditation in NSW.
If you have not visited CSNSW PL before you may need to visit the dashboard first by clicking here.
For further information contact Sean Maloney.
The Compass Events workflow has had a significant update regarding the session times for events. The update includes important information about Events with Intelligent Rolls to ensure that accurate attendance information is collected and maintained by Compass.
The Events module in Compass provides significant capability in relation to the organisation, management and administration of events. Events is an integral component of the Compass Platform.
This Master Class will provide attendees with an update on the most appropriate methods of creating, managing and administering events and payments. It will explore common issues and supplement the initial training provided when your school is onboarded.
Attendance is optional, and there is no need to rsvp. Simply copy the link below into your own Google calendar event. Or follow the link below on the day of the Master Class session. No release is available, and the Master Class will be recorded.
It is intended for SRT team leaders, event managers, school administration and finance staff and anyone who is keen to learn more about the Events module.
Date: Thursday 18 August
Time: 3.30pm – 4.30pm
The Zoom link for the Master Class is here (Meeting ID: 674 3542 2950 Password: 691131).
School Administration Days - 25 to 31 August 2022
Available to Principals, Assistant Principals and key Administration Staff
Information will be provided on the new Empower Payroll System. Items for discussion are :
- Payroll system why it's changing and key concepts to understand with the new system
- What are the changes for me as an individual?
- What are the changes as an administrator?
- What are the changes as a manager?
- What to do leading up to the change over?
- What is important to communicate to payroll?
- Resources and training available for Employee Self Service
- Payroll Reports
- Future state of Employee Self Service
Port Macquarie - 25 August
Coffs Harbour - 26 August
Tweed Heads - 30 August
Lismore - 31 August
'Why Lest We Forget' ANZAC Competition 2023
Please note that the closing date for this competition is 16 September 2022.
See The Way Term 3 Week 1 for more information.Information on employment opportunities within the Diocese of Lismore is available via Positions Vacant.
Existing staff should apply through the Internal Positions Vacant page on the intranet; select People & Saftey > Recruitment > Positions vacant – internal site.
CATHOLIC SCHOOLS OFFICE
- Chief Executive Officer / Director of the Catholic Schools
SCHOOL
- Leader of Student Services - St John Paul College, Coffs Harbour
- Assistant Principal: Mission - St Brigid's Primary School, Kyogle
- Assistant Principal: Learning & Teaching - St Brigid's Primary School, Kyogle
- Assistant Principal: Mission - St Ambrose Catholic Primary School, Pottsville
- Principal - St Peter’s Primary School, Port Macquarie
- Principal - St Joseph’s Primary School, Tweed Heads
- Principal - St Francis Xavier Primary School, Woolgoolga