Representatives from nine of our schools in the north western suburbs have been working together to develop new and innovative ways to deliver an ever improving quality of service to all of their students and families. On Tuesday 19 May, a history-making inaugural gathering held at Mount Carmel College for 190 teaching staff from these nine schools: Dominican School Semaphore, Mount Carmel College Rosewater, Our Lady of Mount Carmel College Parish School Pennington, Our Lady Queen of Peace School Albert Park, Our Lady of the Visitation School Taperoo, St Margaret Mary’s School Croydon Park, St Joseph’s School Ottoway, St Patrick’s School Mansfield Park and Whitefriars School Woodville Park.
At this meeting, the newly formed Catholic North Western Community (CNWC) of schools was officially launched with teachers and a similar session of information sharing and ideas will be held with the Education Support Officers.
Several of these schools have been working collaboratively for several years, including:
• Senior primary students attending Mount Carmel College for lessons in learning areas not available in their primary schools.
• Primary schools of the Croydon Park Parish operating a shared School Board and Parents & Friends Association.
• Students from our Catholic primary schools attending performances of the College Musical and this year for the first time participating as members of the cast.
• Combined sports day between Mount Carmel College and Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
• Primary school student and family participation in the College Pedal Prix event at Murray Bridge.
• Mount Carmel students’ involvement in primary school retreats, Literacy and Numeracy and Science Week activities and sports days.
A spirit of cooperation and shared resources already exists between these schools and they are now looking to expand this to deliver even greater opportunities for all of our students. Recently this cooperation has seen sports teams participating in the local region under the CNWC name, offering opportunities for students involvement in school based team sport, where otherwise they would be unable to because of the size of their own primary school. The regional community has also developed an Identity Statement that recognises their common priorities and commitment to work together in new and innovative partnerships. This is evident in the joint employment of a coordinator for what will create great opportunities for students, through all nine schools forming a cluster to introduce Children’s University, an exciting new learning initiative in association with the University of Adelaide.
The combined staff meeting saw teachers raising ideas for further discussion and exploration including:
• shared community celebration,
• consistency of enrolment policies and procedures,
• development of teacher networks across school sites of specialist year level and learning area teachers,
• sharing of learning resources, curriculum development and staff professional learning between schools,
• sharing of physical resources,
• possibilities of teacher exchanges between schools,
• improved information flow,
• collaborative work on environmental sustainability.
These are a few of the many ideas raised that will require the attention and consideration of the school leaders in order to ensure the CNWC continues to deliver better outcomes for all students and families.
Four Catholic schools across South Australia have been awarded $6.34 million in grants for capital works to improve learning spaces, increase opportunities for disadvantaged students and cater for more diverse learning needs.
The State Government grants — $6.34 million for Catholic schools and $6.38 million for independent schools — are for building projects to commence over the next year.
Introduced in 2018 to ensure all students have access to a first-class education, the latest funding under the scheme has been approved for four projects at Catholic schools and 103 smaller projects at independent schools.
