Member Update 25 July 2024 | Term 3, Week 2

Acknowledgement of Country

The VACPSP acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the many lands that encompass our Catholic primary schools across Victoria – Dioceses of Ballarat, Sale, Sandhurst and the Archdiocese of Melbourne. The VACPSP recognises the Traditional Custodians' culture and the continuing spiritual connection to land, sea and waters.

The VACPSP pays our respect to their Elders past, present and emerging and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who live, work, teach and learn within Catholic education in Victoria.

We commit to working together to create culturally safe schools for all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students to learn and thrive. We commit to working together for reconciliation, justice and treaty.

From the President

Welcome back to term 3! A bit belated on my end as I returned this week after a wonderful leave period! You may recall in my final newsletter of Term 2, I shared that I would be visiting Spain and Portugal to meet our youngest son, and meet his partner's family, over the break. This trip has been a long time in the making, and after some personal challenges, my wife was insistent that now is the time to take the leap and travel to this beautiful part of the world. 

Learning keeps us young in outlook, and travel is one of the most outstanding teachers. It gives you energy, expands your horizons, inspires a sense of wonder and curiosity and fosters a spirit of discovery. There is an entire world of things to do and people to meet. So much more to learn. So many thoughts still to think. My recent trips to Spain and Portugal filled my imagination and encouraged learning and a sense of discovery. The Catholic tradition, culture, and churches of this region of Europe were also inspirational and something I was really looking forward to when preparing for the trip. Spanish and Portuguese people are exceptional explorers who love life and their countries. Barcellona is vibrant, fun, fashion-forward, and home of the remarkable Gaudi. Madrid is the historical centre of the country, the traditional Spanish seat of government and the royal family. Seville is a cultural and historical hub connected to the sea via the beautiful Guadalquivir River. I could go on for the longest time recounting the many life changing moments we encountered but my wife Sue challenged me to share only one story at a time! So, this is the one I will share today that stands out in my mind. We were fortunate to attend a lightshow in Porto. Picture an historic, intricate, beautiful church building brimming with people from all over the world, busting with classical music and with lights illuminating key icons of the building. This building was the spectacular Clérigos Church. The classical, traditional music together with the modern technology of lights made the Catholic faith feel alive, contemporary and connected to us. I was amazed to see the amount of young people who were drawn into the wonder of this modern event that was a celebration of faith, commitment and community. 

I also remind you that the nominations for our Presidents Ball (which will be celebrated on 21 March 2025) nominations are closing this week! We will then have an ample opportunity to contact the winners, visit their schools and start preparations for a wonderful, collegial event at the stunning Melbourne Town Hall. If you haven't nominated someone yet, I ask you to take 5 minutes to do so. The nomination form is a simple one on Google Forms and asks you in your own words to share why this Principal is worthy of the Award. The Executive Team will then undertake further information gathering on each nominee before voting on three winners. The nomination may be on your own behalf, or on behalf of your zone. I believe each and every achievement should be celebrated so please nominate a colleague for any outstanding service you have witnessed. 

You can learn more about the categories here, including the deciding criteria, or see below for a summary: 

EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP

This award recognises the outstanding educational leadership in learning, leadership or school initiative implemented in a VACPSP member school. The winner of this award will have demonstrated innovation and excellence in leadership and implementation of a program, support individual and staff professional learning, engaged professional and successfully with all members of the program and have contributed to improved student learning outcomes. 

AWARD: FAITH LEADERSHIP
This award recognises outstanding faith leadership across the school community through an educational or professional development program or initiative implemented in a VACPSP member school. The winner of this award will have demonstrated innovation and excellence in faith leadership, supporting community and school wide faith engagement and contributing to the faith development of students.

AWARD: COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP
This award recognises outstanding leadership within the school community. The winner of this award will have demonstrated innovation and excellence in leadership of a community-based program, developed meaningful whole- school community relationships and have contributed to improved community engagement and whole-school harmony.

Final Conference Presentation Reflection: Deborah Patterson

In my final Conference reflection, I revisit the learnings from Deborah Patterson. Deb was a former Principal and now provides coaching and mentoring across Victoria. My takeaways from her presentation were to take control of your vocation; draw appropriate boundaries and back yourself in your pursuits with confidence and conviction! If you are interested, Deb has provided some further information about her offerings in the full newsletter. 

Regards Michael Gray

President

Also in this newsletter:

• VACPSP President's Ball 2025: Nominations Open for the 2025 event at the Melbourne Town Hall. Nominate your colleague now! CLOSING THIS WEEK.

• Thrive with Five: A series of six articles to share fortnightly with your communities, thanks to APPA.

• 2024 Australian Primary Principals Day: Get ready for Friday 2 August!

• ACPPA Principal Leadership Fund: Nominations now open.

• The Victorian Curriculum F–10: Version 2.0 is now live.

• Rural Education: Survey Request.

• ACU: New teacher professional development micro-credentials in Maths iSTEM, Science iSTEM and Phonics, commencing in Semester 2, 2024. 

• Deborah Patterson: Professional Development for Principals and School Leaders.
  

The information contained in and/or the views and opinions expressed in content made by third party service providers and shared with VACPSP Members represents the views and opinions of the original creators of that content only and does not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the VACPSP. The sharing of material or content from third party service providers is done for educational purposes only and to provide information and resources that may provide benefit to some or all VACPSP Members. The sharing of this content does not constitute an endorsement by the VACPSP of such content.

The VACPSP disclaims any and all liability to any party for any direct, indirect, implied or other consequential damage or hurt caused by or arising from third party material and content, which is provided as is and without any warranties.

VACPSP President's Ball 2025: Nominations Open

Nominations are now open for the 2025 Principal Awards for Excellence! After the success of the 2023 event, the 2025 event will again be held at the Melbourne Town Hall for a formal black-tie dinner and celebration.

Bring family, friends and staff along to Celebrate The Principal.

Save the date for this stellar, sell-out event on Friday 21 March 2025.

Thrive with Five: A series of six articles to share fortnightly with your communities, thanks to APPA

As discussed at the NAC meeting, APPA’s Strategic Plan has a goal of Influencing Primary Education and includes attention to making the first 1000 days of life the best possible.

The attached images and text form six articles for sharing with school communities over the next term or so (I’m imagining once per fortnight).

Why is this important?  

AEDC data, NAC member anecdotal & quantitative data, community trends and health data tell us that while the first 1000 days of a child's life, (from conception to two years of age), is an important foundational period which shapes their development and wellbeing, not all children have supportive environments in these early years.

By sharing messages about this importance period in life via existing networks, APPA can build on its 2019 ‘Thrive with Five’ paper developed with Prof Frank Oberklaid and assist in building community and family capability.

We are asking primary school leaders to share these messages through school newsletters.

2024 Australian Primary Principals Day

ACPPA: Principal Leadership Fund - Nominations now open

The Victorian Curriculum F–10 Version 2.0 is now live!

We are pleased to announce the Victorian Curriculum F–10 Version 2.0 is now live!
This is a modern, knowledge rich curriculum that empowers Victorian students to meet the challenges and opportunities present in our constantly changing world.

Designed to be easier to manage and teach, this curriculum is housed on our new and interactive website. The release includes the Arts, Technologies, Humanities, Health and Physical Education, Languages (Phase 1), Science, the capabilities, cross-curriculum priorities and the foundational skills. This follows the curriculum release of English 2.0 and Mathematics 2.0 in 2023.

A big thank you to the more than 300 primary and secondary teachers who provided feedback and were involved in the extensive consultation process. Your contributions ensure the revised curriculum is leading standard.

Introductory resources and videos

To support this release, we have created introductory resources and videos which can be found on the resources page of the new website. These resources and videos outline key revisions, important aspects of the curriculum and describe the learning impact for students.

Interactive webinars (Term 3)

In addition, a series of interactive webinars are scheduled from July to September, which will give teachers and school leaders the opportunity to have questions answered by VCAA curriculum managers.

We encourage teachers to attend these webinars and look at relevant curriculum support resources and professional learning videos. 

New and improved website 

Access information on the learning areas, capabilities, foundational skills and cross-curriculum priorities on our new Victorian Curriculum F–10 website. Designed with usability in mind, this is a central and easy to navigate space for teachers to utilise. 

Rural Education Survey Request

The survey is part of a project that aims to ascertain perspectives on rurality and schooling provision. This will update our exiting perspectives and add new perspectives on how rurality is understood in order to enable the development of further research to improve rural education polices.

I know everyone is super busy, but I hope my teams track record of rural research reinforces that we aim to make this meaningful. The project is also being undertaken in Aotearoa New Zealand and Canada to enable the development of comparative perspectives.

If you would be ok to share, people can click on the survey link or copy and paste the following into their browser https://uoc.syd1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0jRRRTw5A6EXbjU

This survey is conducted under University of Canberra Ethics Approval #4580. The survey will ask you for a series of text responses and responses on various scales. Participation is voluntary and no identifying information is sought. 

Regards

Philip Roberts, PhD
Professor of Curriculum Inquiry / Rural Education

Leader, Rural Education & Communities Research Group. 

Faculty of Education | University of Canberra | Ngunnawal Country

ACT 2601 Australia | RM.6D05

Research Profile

ACU: New teacher professional development micro-credentials in Maths iSTEM, Science iSTEM and Phonics, commencing in Semester 2, 2024

The Faculty of Education and Arts at Australian Catholic University has launched new teacher professional development micro-credentials in Maths iSTEM, Science iSTEM and Phonics, commencing in Semester 2, 2024.

Each course is comprised of two units (150 hours of learning each, for a total of 300 hours), undertaken over 12 months. Course delivery is 100% on-line, self-paced, and asynchronous with a significant volume of this learning undertaken in classroom-based activities. On completion, teachers will be granted 20 credit points towards our Graduate Certificate of Education or the Master of Education.

Standard course cost is $1000, with FEE-HELP available.

Further information is included in the attached brochures, you can also visit our website or view a demonstration video of the learning experience here.

Deborah Patterson: Professional Development for Principals and School Leaders

If you are interested in Deborah Patterson's professional development opportunities, please review the below powerpoint of offerings. 

Prayer

Loving and generous God, awaken us to your presence as we continue to discern what is life-giving, empowering and sustainable for the good of all Catholic primary Principals, the school communities we support and the students we serve.

May our inspiration and commitment deepen as we reflect on and respond to the needs of Principals according to the vision of the Gospel and the voice of the Spirit.

Pour out your abundant blessings upon all involved in Principalship, a ministry of witness and leadership in Catholic education.

Our Lady of the Southern Cross, Help of Christians, pray for us.

St Mary of the Cross MacKillop, Patron of Catholic Education in Australia, pray for us.

We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed this newsletter update and a snapshot of the actions, connections and programs that the Association supports, leads or engages with on your behalf.

I am proud to represent the Victorian Catholic Primary Principal voice statewide and nationally and lead this professional, influential and trusted collegial body. By being a Member, your perspective, experience and knowledge of the school context joins the wealth of knowledge we take to key stakeholders to inform discussions.

As always, I not only welcome but encourage active communication between myself and members and look forward to engaging with you in person, phone or by email. Please share your insight with me at any time, be it through your Principal Council Representative or directly by emailing president@vacpsp.org.au or booking a call with me here. 

Thank you to our Business Partners