Our Federated Schools doing SO WELL

In times of crisis and during election time education becomes a ‘football’ where everyone has an opinion and pressure is applied by governments. This COVID 19 crisis has seen the Federal Government and State Government at loggerheads about schools opening. Catholic Primary Schools in Victoria receive almost 80% of our funding from the Federal Government, while State Schools are funded fully by the State Government. That was why the Federal Education Minister said last week if Catholic and Independent Schools open then funding will be bought forward. (it was no extra funding).

St Catherine’s, St Paul’s and St Peter’s (and all Catholic Primary Schools in Victoria) will be directed by the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria (CECV) about when we return and what that looks like. We cannot make that decision alone. In a statement last week, the CECV said: “The CECV is following the advice of the Chief Health Officer and working with the Victorian Department of Education and Training on developing a state-wide process for all schools to transition back to in-person teaching, and will provide an update once an approach has been agreed.”

We will know more on May 11^th when the State of Emergency in Victoria ends and the State Government will make announcements about Stage 3 restrictions and whether Remote Learning will continue or whether we will transition back to school before the end of term.

It amazes me how much our world has changed in the last few months, it amazes me even more how adaptable human beings can be. The way in which schools have responded to this situation is an indication of staff's commitment to the children, their willingness to take risks and to learn new things. This is just what we expect of our students.

I am just in awe of the work our teachers are doing currently to minimise the disruption to the students’ learning but to also support their wellbeing. I thank them sincerely for the way in which they have gone above and beyond and for the countless additional hours they are committing to our schools currently.  To our Office Staff and Learning Support Officers we say thank you for being there to answer phone calls to support families and assist the students that have to attend school.

To the parents, l know it is an extremely difficult task to work from home and support your children with remote learning, but I want to say congratulations on the wonderful job you are doing.

It is in times of uncertainty that you see what sort of leader someone is. I want to acknowledge the absolute outstanding leadership of Michael Hanney (St Peter’s), Catherine Tammesild (St Paul’s) and Lynda O’Donnell (St Catherine’s) during this time. They have not stopped since the news broke that we would be having remote learning for Term 2. Keeping on top of updates from CECV, preparing information that needed to be distributed to parents, responding to emails, supporting staff and planning with their teams around what Term 2 would look like. The time commitment they have put in behind the scenes needs to be acknowledged and for families to be aware of. Be confident in the great leadership each school has - it will get us through this situation.

We will come out of this and we will have learnt a great deal about ourselves and some of the learnings we take from it will make us better people and better educators.

The latest version of ‘Catholic Education Today’ can be found on the Catholic Education Melbourne website.

Stay Safe

Michael Juliff

Co-Ordinating Principal