Weekly Newsletter #5 - 2 March 2022
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Reflection
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From the Executive Director
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Ash Wednesday and the Season of Lent
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Wellbeing Team Update
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Catholic Education Week Dinner and 30 Year Awards night
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People & Development Update
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Emmanuel College Open Day
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Catholic Education Update
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Business Services Update
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ResourceSmart Schools Grants & Awards
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Career Opportunities in the Diocesan Education Community
Reflection
Ash Wednesday
Today’s reflection comes from Michael McGirr’s new book 'This Cup We Bless - A tea or coffee break for every day during Lent'. Each day, during the Lenten, journey for 2022, he has written a thought provoking piece. This reflection is for Ash Wednesday.
Lent starts small. Over four days it will grow into a movement to change the world and us with it. But at the outset it asks us to remember that we are “dust”. To wear ashes on our foreheads as a reminder to keep what goes on behind our foreheads in perspective.
To use the colour purple in our worship, the colour of a bruise, a reminder that we are all hurt and need healing. To take a moment of honesty. To go into our private places and shut the door and to discover the God who finds us in our secret places and brings us into the light. To think about how we spend our time and energy and what really matters.
Loving God, help us to find you once again.
Our search for you asks us sometimes to be still,
For you are all tenderness and compassion, slow to anger,
rich in graciousness.
You call us “fellow workers.”
May Lent renew our energy to find what matters
And to serve your kingdom of justice and peace.
Amen
McGirr, M. (2021) This Cup we Bless - a tea or coffee break for every day during Lent:
Garratt Publishing Mulgrave
From the Executive Director
I am receiving feedback from across the Diocese regarding school readiness of our Foundation students, it would seem that in some schools, school readiness is substantially down on previous years. This doesn’t come as a big surprise when considering that we are now in the third year of the COVID pandemic. All communities have been affected by COVID, some more so than others. Many of our early years children have had restrictions in their opportunities to:
- play with others,
- share,
- have general social interactions,
- develop gross and fine motor skills,
- enjoy reading and early literacy activities,
- learn the norms of sitting and listening.
These children need time to develop their skills in these vital developmental areas. I know a number of schools have modified their Foundation year programs for 2022 and I encourage other schools encountering these issues to also modify their early years programs, as you see necessary, to include more of a play-based kinder style program.
Our experience and wisdom from world-wide research, CEB and across our schools tells us that the vast majority of these young children need time to develop and engage in school life and to allow teachers time to develop a comprehensive individual learning profile.
As you know I am a strong proponent of play based learning, there has probably never been a more important time for play based pedagogy in our early years than now.
While I have focussed on the particular needs of our Foundation students, I am also well aware of students from all year levels experiencing some challenges returning to school. CEB staff will continue to do our best to assist schools at this challenging time. Tony Perkins has provided more details about this assistance, please see below in the Wellbeing Team Update.
Congratulations to Gina Bernasconi, Bernadette Tolan and the staff of Lumen Christi Primary School, Delacombe, for their contribution to the action research paper: “System Leaders as Learners: Action Research into Leading Learning for a Recontextualising Approach in Religious Education”. It is great to see our schools and CEB staff making a contribution to action research.
This paper has been published in the British Journal of Religious Education.
Ash Wednesday and the Season of Lent
The Season of Lent provides a valuable time for school and religious leaders to engage with your community regarding the importance of the new life in Christ, which is given to us at Baptism and renewed at the great feast of Easter.
Baptism is not a mere ceremony that took place soon after birth. It is a first encounter with Christ, an encounter that continues to influence throughout life. Baptism calls for a continual transformation of heart and mind.
A time honoured way for us to live out our Baptism and respond as Catholic educational communities in the spirit of Lent is by making a generous response to Project Compassion. Our support of Caritas Australia makes it possible for us to reach out to the millions of people who have to live in a way that deprives them of their human dignity. Caritas supports projects that enable these people to take hold of their lives and develop ways and means to provide a better form of existence for them and their children.
With current global instability, the support of Caritas will be drawn on heavily. Information for teachers and school leaders can be found at https://www.caritas.org.au/
Wellbeing Team Update
The CEB Wellbeing Team (Learning Diversity, Psychology, Speech Pathology, Student Wellbeing) is heavily engaged in supporting schools as they develop and review plans to best address the learning requirements of each referred student. These engagements generally focus on the problem-solving methodology that each school employs to address these learning requirements. Schools are responding to Foundation students entering school with little or no pre-school experience as well as those at various other year levels whose learning requires the development of well constructed learning plans. This has resulted in a spike in school requests. While the capacity of our Learning Diversity Team to respond in a timely manner is currently impacted by staff shortages, we will endeavour to respond as promptly as possible.
The CEB Wrap Around the Learner (WATL) Guide informs school planning processes.
The Wrap Around the Learner (WATL) Guide provides:
- a procedure for schools to follow,
- processes and protocols that align with the culture of collaboration of PLC,
- aligns with the CECV Intervention Framework,
- provides for a whole school approach within a Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS).
The guide emphasizes the role of your school’s Student Learning Team which:
- is the critical agent of change,
- coordinates a plan to meet the needs of the learner,
- assures high levels of learning for all,
- has the capability to complete a Functional Needs Assessment and gather other relevant data.
The CEB Wellbeing Team:
- is committed to building school capacity,
- contributes to decision making regarding intervention pathways,
- supports schools in embedding WATL practices,
- works in partnership with the Learning Diversity Leader to support the school's Student Learning Team,
- engages the broader Catholic Education Team (inclusive of Learning and Teaching and Catholic Identity and Mission) to support this work where necessary.
Catholic Education Week Dinner and 30 Year Awards night
The 2022 Thirty Year Service Awards will be celebrated and acknowledged at the Diocesan Catholic Education Week dinner on Friday 27 May at the Damascus Events Centre (DEC).
To enable DOBCEL to plan for the awards, we need to identify staff members who have become eligible this year for their 30 Years of Service recognition. Please note that any staff member who has been recognised in previous years will not be included, and that any maternity leave or leave without pay taken by staff throughout their career is not included when calculating years of service.
Could you please take the time to identify your staff members who may qualify for recognition in 2022, then follow the link and complete the form by Friday 11 March.
People & Development Update
Our Compliance Learning Platform is changing.
Catholic Church Insurances (CCI) have announced the decommissioning of their Learning Manager platform in mid-March. This is the platform currently used for compliance training for schools in the Diocese of Ballarat.
In partnership with CCI we are working with GRC Solutions to migrate to a new Learning Manager platform called Salt. We will migrate all existing “users”, staff, across schools in the Diocese of Ballarat and CEB to this new platform later this month.
We will retain a central record of any training completed via the CCI Learning Manager in Term 1, 2022 (or earlier). If you are part way through a course in CCI we recommend you complete it prior to 15 March otherwise it will not register as a completed course, and you will need to complete it on the new platform.
Further advice on the change will be communicated via this newsletter and in individual emails. You do not need to do anything further until you receive a notification to login in for the first time. This will be a simple process with instructions and contacts for assistance provided.
We are working with GRC Solutions now to ensure that the relevant compliance courses will be available on the Salt platform.
Mandatory Reporting Module due for Completion Term One.
Congratulations and thank you to those staff who have already completed the Mandatory Reporting eLearn Module. All school and CEB staff employed in the Diocese of Ballarat are required to complete the Mandatory Reporting eLearn module by the end of Term One each year, including those who are mandated and those who are not mandated.
As advised in the recent CECV Circular to principals (25 February 2022) the Department of Education and Training (DET) eLearning module 'Protecting Children - Mandatory Reporting and Other Obligations' is available to non-government staff via the DET Information Sharing and MARAM Online Learning System. Staff who already have an account with the DET's online learning system should use their existing details to log in. Staff without an account can sign up by going to the online learning system homepage. (See Online Training Account Creation Guide) School staff submit their certificate of completion to their principal.
CEB staff submit their certificate of completion to Jacqui Righetti.
Please feel free to contact Jacqui Righetti (CEB) on;
0409 114 268, Ext 165, jrighetti@dobcel.catholic.edu.au for enquiries.
Emmanuel College Open Day
Catholic Education Update
Learning and Teaching.
Google Professional Learning for Chromebook users.
Google has offered to fund our Diocese for some training for school staff, based on our Chromebook purchases. This training will be facilitated by certified representatives from Google and Using Technology Better.
As each school has responsibility for purchasing their own Chromebooks, we need to know how many Chromebooks are purchased across the Diocese, and therefore what funding would be forthcoming.
In order to gain this information, we ask that one representative from each Primary and Secondary school please take less than one minute to fill in this simple, 3 question, multiple choice form by this Friday, March 4th. Thank you to those schools who have already completed this.
Registrations for the Professional Learning listed below are available via Eventbrite.
Please contact Kev Cummins for further information.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Resources.
The following Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander resources may supplement your local and Victorian-focussed ones. Schools are encouraged to contact your regional Aboriginal community organisation or Jeanette Morris for guidance on incorporating resources into the curriculum.
Deadly Arts Collection
This series has been designed specifically for primary school students and teachers and focusses on developing knowledge of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures through Music, Visual Arts, Media Arts, Drama and English.
The First Scientists
This resource encourages primary and lower secondary students to explore some of the innovations and inventions made by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. A preview of some of the topics covered in the book can be found in this article from the Common Ground website.
indigiTUBE
indigiTUBE is a “digital meeting place for First Nations song, dance, language and lore” that “gathers First Nations stories from the desert to the sea, connecting and sharing culture from our extremely remote to urban regions”. Please be aware that some items contain explicit language and that users have the capacity to filter these out.
Country Education Project.
The Country Education Partnership is a not-for-profit organisation supporting the provision of high quality education within rural and remote communities across Australia.
As members of CEP all our Ballarat Diocesan Schools will be supported to provide for our students through collaborative partnership to foster inclusiveness, participation, and sharing, through Leadership that is proactive, professional and consultative and focused on achievement that strives for constant development, and seeks challenge, excellence and celebration.
Please see the website / newsletter for more information and contact our representatives on the committee of management: Samantha Meerbach (CET) and Cathy Grace (OLHC, Murtoa).
ILSY Learning Area Leader Professional Learning Program (ILSY LAL PLP).
ILSY PLP 2022 will build on the 2021 Literacy Leaders program by enabling a deep understanding of the literacy needs of learners in Mathematics, Humanities and Science. Participants will also learn discipline specific literate practices and pedagogies and action learning in their own school context. The 2022 ILSY PLP is suited for Learning Area Leaders and Year 7 and 8 teachers from Humanities, Science and Mathematics. It is recommended that schools send multiple participants and each school can have up to 6 representatives.
The workshops will be facilitated by Associate Professor Larissa McLean Davies and Dr Pauline Thompson from the University of Melbourne. The Day 1 workshop will be held at the Red Lion in Ballarat on Thursday 17 March and coaching will commence in Term 2. Further dates and information can be found here. ILSY LAL PLP registrations are still open and close on 11 March.
It is not too late to register for these events (thank you to those already registered). If you require further information about ILSY, please contact Julia Petrov, Learning and Teaching Education Officer (Secondary) on jpetrov@dobcel.catholic.edu.au or 0432 499 683.
Business Services Update
REMINDER - Catholic Capital Grants: Call for grant funding applications for major capital works.
Principals and governing authorities are advised that applications for the 2022 round of the Australian Government Capital Grants Program (CGP) and round 4 of the Victorian Government Non-Government Schools Capital Fund 2019–2023 (VGNGSCF 2019–23) will close at midnight on Friday 11 March 2022.
Please see Circular for further information.
We encourage as many schools as possible to apply as there is not long now until applications are due.
If you require additional support with your application, please contact:
Ashley Wiseman
Manager: Planning and Infrastructure
0484 819 360
or Penelope Irish
Properties and Facilities Advisor
0429 473 351
ResourceSmart Schools Grants & Awards
ResourceSmart Schools would like you to be aware of the following grants which are currently open for applications:
- the Woolworths Junior Landcare grants are accepting applications and close on Friday March 18th.
- and most importantly the ResourceSmart School awards are open and close on Friday March 18th.
Career Opportunities in the Diocesan Education Community
Catholic Education Ballarat Vacancies
- Education Officer (Learning Diversity) – Horsham Office – fixed-term position at 1.0 FTE (closes 14 March)
- Psychologist – Mildura Office – ongoing position at 0.6 FTE (closes 14 March)
School Vacancies
- School Officer – Reception/Administration – St Columba’s School, Ballarat North – fixed-term position at 0.19 FTE (closes 7 March)
- Instrumental Music Teacher(s) – Monivae College, Hamilton - ongoing position and part-time (closes 7 March)
- Health and Physical Education Teacher – Trinity College, Colac – fixed-term position at 1.0 FTE (closes 7 March)
- Year 5/6 Classroom Teacher – All Saints Parish School, Portland – Terms 2, 3 and 4 at 1.0 FTE (closes 11 March)
- Classroom Teacher – St Mary’s School, Swan Hill – fixed-term, part-time position (closes 11 March)
- Classroom Teacher – St Mary’s School, Swan Hill – fixed-term, full-time position (closes 11 March)
- Casual Relief Teacher – Term 2 contract – St Mary MacKillop College, Swan Hill – 0.6 FTE (closes 15 March)
- Science and Sustainability Teacher – St Alipius’ Parish School, Ballarat East – Term 2 and 3 only at 0.4 FTE (closes 15 March)
- Classroom Teacher – St Mary’s School, Donald – fixed-term position at 0.6 FTE (closes 8 April)
- Casual Relief Teachers – St Alipius’ Parish School, Ballarat East (closes 30 June)
- Casual Relief Teachers – St Francis Xavier, Ballarat East (closes 9 December)