Shining a light on MACS

As I grow and learn in my new leadership role, I aim to shine a light on the truly remarkable and inspiring work carried out by passionate and dedicated MACS staff who, together with the schools, leaders and communities that they serve, ensure all learners "reach their potential and be the best version of themselves" (MACS manifesto). 

The light of the new MACS logo and the accompanying manifesto "lighting their path" (see below) could not be more apt. 

MACS logo - I acknowledge the source of the image located at this link

MACS Staff Seminar October 2022

The dining room at the Catholic Leadership Centre was full to capacity with almost 600 staff from all Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools (MACS) offices (Northern, Southern, Eastern, Western offices and James Gould House headquarters).

This was the first in - person gathering of its kind post Covid; a golden opportunity for me to be immersed into a system undergoing deep change since the transformation from CEM (Catholic Education Melbourne) to MACS 24 months ago.

The purpose of the staff seminar was to provide a platform for staff voice in relation to the recently launched MACS Strategy 2030.

MACS 2030 Forming Lives to Enrich the World 

Purpose “why we exist” Forming lives of faith, hope and love in the light of Jesus Christ

Vision - “the impact we want to have” Every student is inspired and enabled to flourish and enrich the world.

You can access full details about the strategy at this link 

The energy in the room was tangible as colleagues from across Melbourne reconnected in person. Faces glowed with beaming smiles no longer hidden behind Covid masks.

Being invited along with 100 other newcomers (staff who joined MACS in the past few months) to stand up and be warmly welcomed to our first staff seminar was indeed a privilege. This was my first experience of interacting with all staff who contribute to Catholic education at the system level. Together MACS staff serve nearly 300 schools and 100,000 students from across Melbourne.

Three months into my new role as Regional Leadership Consultant (RLC) has meant a shift in mind set and culture for me. I have moved from leading one school to being responsible for supporting, coaching and mentoring principals & leadership teams across 15 schools. Together with my 4 RLC colleagues, our Regional General Manager and all 40 of the staff based in the Southern Regional Office (SRO), we support almost 80 schools.

Although I can draw from a toolkit of 25 years of leadership experience across 4 countries, I am still a novice in this exciting, new role. I am passionate about learning and keen to understand how I can adapt, develop and nuance my skills to best suit the diverse contexts of the schools and the MACS system. I am constantly asking questions as I continue to develop and grow in my role. I am fortunate to work alongside 40 talented staff where no questions is too difficult to answer.

During the seminar, we formed mini groups of staff from a wide variety of roles and were given the chance to discuss the questions below. Here is a summary of the responses from our mini group. All groups were invited to share with the wider group and were very appreciative of the chance to provide feedback and staff voice.

What do you find most exciting about MACS 2030 ? The strategy is fresh and broad enough for our diverse personnel to relate to. The timing of the strategy works well with the restructuring and change to the MACS governance model. The strategy connects and aligns the work for all of our groups through a shared vision and it encompasses all elements though such themes as flourishing learners, building capabilities, building relationships and a sense of community. The strong faith focus underpins our mission. Being given time today to focus on the strategy and understand it further, helps all of us to connect with it.

What changes do you want to see by 2030? We would particularly like to see equity for all learners so that they can all flourish. We want to retain high quality learning environments for every student and close the gap between privileged and underprivileged students. We want all students to become critical thinkers to prepare them to be active participants in the world beyond the classrooms.

How do we need to change by 2030 ? We want to see greater clarity for schools as a whole entity about the role that all MACS staff play for the greater good of our system. We want to ensure that we will work collaboratively across our offices and share consistent messages to all schools.

To help us achieve our Purpose and Vision, what suggestions or next steps do you have ?  The value in having more opportunities to collaborate like today where all MACS staff across regions & central offices can learn together and align their work would be beneficial. In summary, we conclude with the C's: role Clarity, Communication, Collaboration, Connection, Consistency and Courage for all of us going forward.

Following on from this activity, we were invited to celebrate mass together with Father Mark Reynolds. Fr Mark is the Episcopal Vicar to Catholic Schools. You can learn more about Father Mark's role at this link. Fr Mark reminded each of us to be God's flavour in the world. 

In November, after the annual thanksgiving mass for principals led by Archbishop Peter A Comensoli at St Patrick's Cathedral, Fr Mark presented the recognition awards to to new and retiring principals. 

At the Principal Celebration evening, Fr Mark Reynolds 
presented me with my certificate of recognition for principalship

I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute to the MACS system and be able to shine a light on the positive impact that passionate and dedicated MACS staff, together with the schools, leaders and communities that they serve, ensure all learners "reach their potential and be the best version of themselves"(MACS manifesto) so that we can all flourish.

The manifesto

Light is a powerful thing.

It can lift you up. Guide the way. Help the world flourish.

That’s why we shine a light on each and every one of our students.

One that fills them with knowledge, skills, care, respect and experience.

Our guiding principles helping them reach their potential and be the best versions of themselves.

Because when we do, it leads to brighter futures.

Those in which our students can become a guiding light themselves.

Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools. Lighting their path.

Acknowledgements

MACS system leaders and staff for their contribution to the staff seminar

MACS Manifesto and Strategy 2030 sites for the links

SRO staff for their leadership, guidance and constant support for the leaders and schools across the region and for myself as a new team member

Schools That Deliver 4 years on; a day to share and celebrate progress & successes

In a 'school that delivers', the principal carries the vision, sensitivities, and skill sets of cultural change and creates the conditions in which teachers become the leaders of instruction and students become the leaders of the future (Edwards, J. and Martin, B., 2016, p.xiii). You can read more about a school that delivers where students become the leaders of the future in a blogpost from 2017 at this link.

On a Monday in May, our staff came together for a professional learning day with the Schools That Deliver facilitators Mary and Lab Wilson. The day was about learning, sharing and celebrating our achievements. 

As I prepare to finish at St Patrick's and take up a new role supporting and growing the leadership capability at several schools, I feel a genuine sense of pride in the self motivated actions of the staff at St Patrick's. The staff are all leaders in their own right and with the support of their colleagues in the three faith teams: Faith and Community; Faith and Curriculum; Faith, Wellbeing and Diversity; teachers are engaging and motivating their students to become the leaders of the future.

Here is a reflection from the facilitators...

The team at St Patricks have been on a journey since 2018 to realise a shared vision that was created with listening respectfully to every voice. Through the last four years the team has stayed focused and developed aligned actions to deliver on their vision ensuring they stop regularly, review actions and their impact. From this point new actions have been developed and the journey continued. This has required strong focused leadership and time to deepen community trust and involvement. Alongside these actions has been the building of leadership capacity and capability school wide focusing on how to use their faith in all they do. This was achieved by all staff belonging to one of three teams ( Faith & Community, Faith & Curriculum, Faith, Diversity & Wellbeing). Last week the three teams presented their achievements to date, the data that has informed these actions and suggested next steps. We were blown away with the passion, depth and enthusiasm. The excitement, ownership and pride of what they have achieved was clearly evident. This showed how much each of them was invested in the process. Their ability to articulate what they had done, why they are doing it and the impact it had was outstanding. There was clear evidence of growth in them all.

 Mary & Lab Wilson May 2022

Here is some feedback from the staff...

• As I was a staff member when the Schools That Deliver initiative was started at St Patrick’s it was so great to see all our progress over the years and celebrate our achievements. Notably how the core values which we came up with as a staff are so ingrained with all members of our school community. It was a really valuable day that allowed us to look back at how much we have done to move our school forward in a positive manner. The development of our school vision was such a wonderful process and I feel like all our voices were heard.“The knowledge is in the room” is a quote that I have taken away from the professional learning days as we all have so much to offer and a certain expertise that we can delve into it.“Less is more” We need to take our time and do things well. 

• The day gave us an opportunity to share all of our hard work, and celebrate all the teams’ efforts. It's interesting to see where we started from and all the positive things we have achieved. I like the development of our vision and how we using our vision as our guide. Our vision is a working document that can be changed to suit our school.

• Presenting to the staff helped me reflect on what we have achieved. Sometimes I feel like we haven’t achieved much as a team because it’s not always visible, but the process of collating everything and sharing it with the staff, as well as the feedback received, helped to reinforce what we have done this semester and where we are headed.

• It was good to be able to present our team’s work. It was a great opportunity to reflect on all the hard work put in by every team... It was positive to come together as a staff and own the shared vision.

Below is a synopsis of the work of our 3 teams and a summary of their presentations to colleagues. 

The Faith and Community Team share their presentation

The Faith and Curriculum Team share their presentation

The Faith, Wellbeing and Diversity Team share their presentation

Here is a reflection from an impartial observer who visited St Patrick's on the day.

Dear Jenny,

It was an honour and privilege to be an observer at St. Patrick's, as you and the staff participated in a day of Professional Learning on Schools That Deliver - an internationally renowned initiative that St.Patrick's commenced four years ago.

From the moment I arrived I felt very welcome at St. Patrick's. Sincere thanks to all staff of St. Patrick's.

Listening and seeing the presentations of the three teams, Faith and Community, Faith and Curriculum, Faith, Diversity and Wellbeing, sent such powerful messages. The passion and commitment of each team was clearly evident as they shared what they have done and are doing; their goals, achievements, actions, community involvement, the ongoing growth of the pedagogical expertise of staff, building relationships, developing a safe and positive learning environment and so much more. 

The whole time I was at St. Patrick's I also saw and felt what I had read on the school's website, that "Catholic identity underpins all we do."

Throughout the day I was so aware of the active engagement and participation of each person in the room. The enthusiasm, the trust shown in sharing their experiences and ideas and the alignment evident in what they are doing; their goals and openness in moving forward and building on their learning as they continue to transform the research and practice based ideas and strategies of Schools That Deliver into action so constructively as they move closer to their shared vision.

Congratulations on all that St. Patrick's is doing.

Sincerely,
Karin Morrison May 2022

In a 'school that delivers', the principal carries the vision, sensitivities, and skill sets of cultural change and creates the conditions in which teachers become the leaders of instruction and students become the leaders of the future (Edwards, J. and Martin, B., 2016, p.xiii). 

I leave St Patrick's assured that the teachers are the leaders of instruction. The staff are self motivated and they are creating the conditions for the students to become the leaders of the future.

The new principal of St Patrick's will receive the vision as a gift from the staff and together with the staff will ensure that all learners will continue to be engaged and motivated learners always faithful to a loving God and ....Learners will leave St Patrick's ready to make a positive impact on their world.

Acknowledgements:
Mary & Lab Wilson from BATS Your vision your future

Karen Morrison Observer & colleague of John Edwards

The passionate and enthusiastic leaders and staff of St Patrick's for permission to share their photos, presentations and stories and be part of their incredible journey for the last 6 years.

...Learners leave St Patrick’s self motivated and ready to make a positive impact on their world

When I commenced as principal of St Patrick's school in 2016, I worked with the staff, students and the parent community to create a succinct vision statement. The outcome of that work is our "why" ...We are engaged and motivated learners always faithful to our loving God. How did we get to this statement? You can read the back story at this link. 

Ongoing professional learning enabled our staff to develop a detailed, shared vision narrative and core values that encapsulate "how" to bring the vision to life. As I prepare to leave St Pat's, I feel assured that the shared vision and the accompanying core values are truly embedded throughout the actions of the community. 

In particular, the last sentence of the shared vision is is especially significant. It states "what" we want for our Year 6 graduates.....Learners leave St Patrick’s self motivated and ready to make a positive impact on their world..... 

Our St Pat's students start to demonstrate self motivation in Year 5. I recently went to talk to one of our Year 5 classes about the school's shared vision. They asked me if the vision narrative is a piece of persuasive writing from the staff. This is indeed an impressive observation from Year 5 students who certainly know the power of persuasive writing.

The following story clearly links the vision, the core values, the impact of purposeful teaching, the learning that followed and the outcome of the heartfelt, self motivated actions of one Year 5 learner. 

This is the story of how Elisha and her classmates show that they are already self motivated to make a positive impact on their world.....

Below is a letter from Elisha

A few weeks earlier, I received some letters from Elisha and her Year 5 classmates.. 

Elisha set the scene expressing the far-reaching effects of the pandemic.....

Darby supports her case by making reference to relevant research...

And Lily... her pom poms!

Eliza strengthens her case by referring to the school's core values....

And Tate also emphasises our core values....

Persuasive letters from the whole class proved too much for me ! How could I resist these requests written with such passion and purpose ? The Year 5C class definitely succeeded in persuading me that they should go to the swimming carnival. 

All of the efforts to support their peers at the swimming carnival planted a seed in the mind of one reflective Year 5 learner and the actions that followed definitely made an impact on her world.

With the support of Elisha's classmates and the whole school community, Elisha's persuasive letter about raising funds to Fight Parkinson's through a school bake sale became a reality. 

Elisha later told me that her Poppa cried with joy at the outcome of her actions.

Below is the response from Fight Parkinson's

Hi Elisha and classmates of 5C,

I am writing to you today to thank you for raising funds for Fight Parkinson’s at your school bake sale. I heard that your baked goods were delicious and sold out very quickly!

We appreciate the phenomenal effort you have made in helping to raise awareness and funds of $1,065.00 to help people who have Parkinson’s disease. Well done!

We would also like to thank all of your supporters and the St. Patrick’s Primary School community who helped you to achieve your goal.

Please see the attached Certificate of Appreciation; we thank you once again for your generosity and support of our organisation.

Kind regards,

Melanie Worthington Donor and Supporter Services

When we can share heartfelt stories that demonstrate the authentic and purposeful actions of our young learners, then we are gifted with the evidence of ... learners being self motivated and ready to make a positive impact on their world.....

I received a number of beautiful messages of congratulations when I announced my new position to the community early this term.

The message below from one family reiterates the difference that we can make when we listen with our hearts and believe in the immense capability of our young learners.. to make a positive impact on their world.....

.".....I just want to say thank you for everything you have done, in particular the way you have empowered little people to feel they can approach you with suggestions and ideas. I still remember my three girls wanting to do something to help Michelle Barclay when she was diagnosed. Their little idea of getting our beautiful school involved in Daffodil Day was received so well by both you and the staff. You then continued to empower the girls to speak about it and to help run the day. This day is now a day the school and our entire community acknowledges yearly. What a beautiful Legacy to be a part of....."

We are all learners no matter who we are; be it students, staff, parents or community members. We continually learn and grow, we change 2 flourish in our professional and personal lives.

Like our St Pat's graduates, I too feel self motivated and ready to make a positive impact  in my new role as Leadership Consultant for the Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools (MACS). Many rich and rewarding learning experiences at St Pat's have contributed to who I am and have prepared me to be able to support, advise and and grow the leadership capability across several MACS schools.

I am truly blessed to have led the St Patrick's school community for 6 years with the support of such inspiring leaders and staff. 

Each and every staff member is open to learning to be the best that they can be and will continue to remain committed to the school's vision and values. Our staff will ensure that the young learners that they teach will have the very best opportunity to grow and flourish so that when our learners graduate in Year 6, they too will...

....leave St Patrick’s self motivated and ready to make a positive impact on their world.....

Acknowledgements:
Miss Currenti and the Year 5C students for sharing their persuasive letters and giving me permission to publish extracts from some of the letters

Elisha for wanting to make a difference for her Poppa

All of the inspiring students, staff and families at St Patrick's school

William Martin, John Edwards, Mary & Lab Wilson for the Schools That Deliver professional learning

4 key survival tips for a school community forced into Covid quarantine ; survive or thrive ?

Believe in yourself, your team and your networks of support. Know that others will look to you for clarity and guidance. Be decisive and stay focused on a clear pathway forward. Then you will ensure that you will not only survive but support you community to thrive during the toughest of challenges.

During 2020, Melbournians more than any other Australians became experts at living, adapting and working through lockdowns. 

Little did we know that those lockdown experiences would pale into insignificance when our school community was unexpectedly forced into 14 days of quarantine.

On the 15 July 2021, four days into a new 10 week school term, a call from the Department of Health informed us that a trip to the MCG to watch a football game, caused one innocent St Pat's student to test positive to the highly contagious Delta variant.

We were advised to close the school immediately.

At 10:40am, we sent an urgent notification to parents and carers to collect all children. The school was classified as a Tier 1 exposure site and all children and staff were instructed to be tested for Covid 19 and to isolate in their homes for 14 days.

That was 9 weeks ago. 

Fourteen days of quarantine was an extremely challenging time for every one of our families and staff members. Some families were forced into longer quarantine periods as further positive cases emerged.

Fortunately, we all survived and we are currently teaching, learning and living in lockdown.

As we approach the final week of an exceedingly long term, our leadership team have resorted to transforming into Star Wars and Toy Story characters, hoping to lift the spirits of children, parents and colleagues.

This poem by one of our Year 3 students, sums up how all children currently in lockdown are feeling.

What are 4 tips from our experience that would help others survive a similar situation ?

1. Support each other. Offer support to others and be willing to take support yourself. 

Our wider community were outstanding. Support included :

• Deliveries of food parcels (many from ex St Pat's families) to our families
• Offers to walk pet dogs as families were housebound
• Local cafe & supermarket offered free deliveries
• Glen Eira Council set up a special St Patrick's TV guide with interactive links to online activities  in the afternoons eg. magic shows, endangered animals, play groups for younger siblings
• Carnegie Library couriered books to our families
• Local gym set up online exercise classes for families
• An uplifting video from Australian singer and songwriter, ex St Pat's student Vance Joy.

Some of our staff separated from their families and went to live on their own so that their families didn't have to quarantine. Support for colleagues and their wellbeing was vital. Half way through the quarantine period, our social committee organised a staff team building evening to give everyone a much needed boost.

2. Daily open and honest communication. 

Be available and willing to listen to everyone and follow up answers for every question (we were able to forward many questions directly to DH contacts). My wonderful Deputy Principal and I encouraged our whole community to email or ring us at any time with their questions, worries or concerns.

I sent out a total of twenty Covid Update Comms to the school families during the 14 days.  Most of these comms are blog posts and are accessible via our school newsblog.  Maximum views for regular posts across the year average 300 views. One of the Covid Update posts had 886 views ( You can access Covid Update #6 on the Parent as Partners Tab of this blog). Community engagement was strong. Families felt connected and informed during isolation. They focussed on every word in every message. Clear, succinct and timely comms were vital.

I sent separate staff comms before the community comms and held online briefings with staff to keep them informed and connected too.  During our first staff briefing, I clarified the dedicated roles that we all held and our responsibilities during  isolation. This was a timely reminder to put our energy into the areas that we could control (teaching and learning, connecting with the kids and families, checking on each other) instead of worrying about everything else beyond our control (covid, quarantine, limited resources, no opportunities to leave our homes ). 

I reminded our staff that we are all leaders at every level across the school and that we will help our community and each other to get through together.

The Regional General Manager and Leadership Consultant from (Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic schools MACS ) were in touch with us from the very beginning and provided media advice, sample comms and contacts for the school's deep clean. We were advised to ensure important comms were cleared through MACS.

3. Be guided by the professionals

Expert communication from the Department of Health (DH), provided step by step daily advice and guidance for the community. 

Recommendations for community testing were advised; four Covid tests for each member of the community across the 14 days. Contact tracers were thorough and professional and reported to me that our community were positive and respectful despite the challenges that many families faced.

The Monash Health Team offered to run two online parent forums which were well received by our community. Every question was answered. We found that a separate google doc for parent's questions worked better than a live chat box during the forum. We averaged 300 participants per forum.

During the quarantine period, some families required exemptions for a number of reasons. Every one of their requests was legitimate. The Monash health team encouraged us to forward all requests and that every query would be dealt with.

The DH advised us around the safest way for the children to return onsite ( See the post on Parent as Partners Tab  Covid Update #13 of this blog). Naturally, parents were anxious and needed reassurance that everybody was cleared to return to school following their final Covid test.

4. Stay positive

Despite the challenging circumstances, the thank you messages from the community came through incessantly.
The positive messages of support helped all of us to get through and gave us the energy as leaders and teachers to forge on.

Hi Jenny

We wanted to say a big thank you for the coffee today! What a lovely surprise to order a coffee and it was paid for.
It’s such a difficult time for many including yourself and we appreciate the constant communication, support and updates
It was so wonderful to see the teachers ready to do remote learning today with their students with a smile and ready to take on the next couple of weeks with enthusiasm.
The out pouring of support from the local community has been heart warming also. What a great community to be part of.
Take care and if there is anything we can do to help under these circumstances don’t hesitate to ask.
Thank you and take care.
(School parents)

Local Heroes
As a local resident I just wish to thank the school community, staff, parents and children of St Patricks.

Thanks to you all for the sacrifices made to keep everyone safe. I am sure it was not easy. Your efforts are appreciated. And we are happy to hear so many have emerged from isolation and are now back at school and work, and children are once again out and about in our neighbourhood.

I heard high praise from parents for the support offered by the school (“They were wonderful”).

I also heard IGA provided free deliveries to families and friends of St Patrick’s did coffee runs. What a terrific community!

Best wishes for a speedy recovery for those who are still ill and again, gratitude for and thanks to our local heroes!

You can read further messages of community support on the Parent as Partners Tab of this blog ( Community Update # 3.3 Local Heroes)

I am proud to be part of a caring and supportive community at St Pat's.

Part of our school vision says:

 ..A healthy mindset, coupled with resilience and well-developed social skills ensures all learners are equipped to deal with life’s challenges...

Staying positive and supporting each other, helps to hold us in good stead as we - leaders, parents and teachers, model resilience for our children.

Acknowledgements:

• To our staff, students and parents who all went the extra mile to get though quarantine
  
• To all members of our wider community who reached out and supported us 
• To the Monash Health Team: I have a deep admiration for the contact tracing teams, leadership and staff from the South East Public Health Unit at Monash. Their advice and guidance for our school was swift and clear and they continue to support our community
• To the MACS staff for their support
• To Charlotte from 3L for her poem
• To our own family members for their love and support

Believe in yourself, your team and your networks of support. Know that others will look to you for clarity and guidance. Be decisive and stay focused on a clear pathway forward. Then you will ensure that you will not only survive but support you community to thrive during the toughest of challenges.

Addendum:

Little did we believe that we would end up with another positive student case onsite only 10 weeks later. Fortunately, everyone is safe and well after 42 of our families including 15 staff members isolated for a 2nd time during the school holidays. This was a huge challenge for everyone involved and we thank the families and staff who suffered a 2nd quarantine period during their holidays. We continue to hope and pray that as vaccination rates increase, we will all experience and appreciate the joy of reuniting and reconnecting with each other, our families and friends in the coming months.

Vision & Core Values 3 Years After Inception

How do you respond when a school parent sends you an email and states This is not reflective of the St Patrick’s vision statement or policies ?

Towards the end of 2020, during the unprecedented challenges of COVID and when the students were back onsite, I received such an email.

Clearly there was a concern, however, direct reference to and a quote taken from our school vision statement were a joy to behold. We received "open and honest" feedback (one of our core values) aligned to our school wide vision. A member of the community was indicating that they related to our vision and were holding fast to it come what may.

Where did our vision narrative, core values and mental model originate from ? In preparation for a day of reflection with the staff, let me put our vision and core values into context ; three years on from commencing the Schools That Deliver professional learning process.

THE WHY

 Students become the leaders of the future through internally driven change 21 Nov 2017

PHASE 1

THE HOW

Empowerment, passion and unified purpose  (staff feedback about the process) 16 April 2018

Staff Generate Future Focussed Vision & Core Values for ALL Learners (27 April 2018) Summary of shared vision and values.

Disruption, Creativity: Innovate 2 flourish 22 July 2018 

Active participation and deep reflection stimulated by the Edward's and Martin Delivering Innovation Conference (June, 2018) led to the creation of a video. The personal challenge was to succinctly capture two full days of powerful learning in a three minute animated video to share with others.
This sums up the approach we are taking as part of the Schools That Deliver Process.

PAUSE & REFLECT

2020 Covid ?   Disruption? Comfort zones ? Creativity ? Innovation ?

Conference to reality ; shift happens together  17 Aug 2018 4 Research teams and practice fields

Practice Fields Lead to Quick Wins for Learners 11 Nov 2018. Shared outcomes of Practice Fields

PHASE 2

Storming to Norming; Multiple Voices Co Design Quality Actions to Propel Our School Forward 20 April 2019

Reflection of Phase 1 - Outcomes of staff research and recommendations during the first year lead to draft long term plan going forward.

Specific Focus Review Through a Core Values Lens  2 May 2019

Using the core values as a focus for the School Review. How will we gather evidence for our review ?
We will use the core values as the lens through which we gather data for the review. The values were chosen by staff in 2018 as the five key ways to treat each other at our school. The values link to the CEM (now Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools MACS) Horizons of Hope curriculum with a clear focus on honouring the sacred dignity of the human person. If we concentrate on the human element, we will build a sense of belonging and increase student wellbeing data whilst contributing to a natural lift in academic standards.

Archaeological Dig Unearths Invaluable Treasures. 7 Sep 2019

TEAMS

Recommendations from the review led to our staff and leaders developing a new leadership model at St Patrick's school that encourages everyone to take ownership and contribute collectively. It is a team based approach to growing leadership capacity and capability across our staff and was implemented at the start of 2020. 

The team based approach is a shift from silos of learning led by independent leaders to collaborative learning teams. Every staff member is part of an equitable team and together take responsibility within three areas developed and agreed on by staff: Faith and Community; Faith, Wellbeing and Diversity; Faith and Curriculum.
Just as all schools include Child Safety on every meeting agenda, we agreed to include the word "faith" in all of our teams. We want to ensure that the Catholicity of our school is kept at the forefront of all that we do. We are ALL responsible for the Catholic faith at St Patrick's. 
The first sentence of our shared school vision states: St Patrick's is a school where our Catholic identity underpins all we do. Our new School Improvement Plan reflects this innovative approach. Once a week after school, two POL leaders from within each team work alongside staff to achieve the annual actions developed by teams from the School Improvement Plan.

POST REVIEW FEEDBACK 

Twelve months on from the review and during the first week back onsite for our staff and children following on from the 100 day COVID lockdown, the leadership team met with Maree Homes (Regional Leadership Consultant), Brittany Ford (Religious Education Consultant) and Donna Anderson (Learning Consultant School Effectiveness). We had a forty five minute conversation in which all leaders contributed. Here is 3 minute excerpt of the feedback given to us by the MACS ( Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools) leaders from the Southern Regional Office.

All of the COVID posts during 2020 focused on our core values. "Throughout the challenges of the pandemic, holding tight to our core values with faith filled hearts enables our community to thrive".

Our core values are now aligned to the House Awards (daily) and Assembly Awards (weekly) and we continue to embed them in all that we do. 

Our values are a way of living and working together and our agreed mental models remind us of what is important to us in our work as we realise the vision for our community.

Our Mental Models

• Source evidence based research.

• Work in practice fields and trial innovations and interventions.

• Action authentic cycles of deep inquiry. 

• The knowledge is in us all.

• Slower is faster and less is more.

• Move forward and deeply through powerful questions. 

• Listen, listen and listen.

• Be outward facing through active participation in the following networks and collectives: RE Network, RE Collective, STEM Network, SWIF (School wide Improvement)

Strengthened and enriched as a committed staff team, we will continue to propel our school forward with renewed energy, quality, passion and purpose to ensure "learners leave St Patrick's self motivated ready to make a positive impact on their world".

Action without vision is only passing time, vision without action is merely daydreaming, but vision with action can change the world (Mandela & Barker, 2013)

                                        

COVID -19 (Part 5) Surfing the Second Wave during the Longest Lockdown in the World

Coronavirus Update

As the rest of Australia began to recover from the impact of the pandemic, community transmission in Victoria increased dramatically and on August 2 we moved to Stage 4 lockdown. On August 5 we reached our peak of over 700 new cases. Fortunately, after months of extreme lockdown which included an 8pm curfew, compulsory face mask wearing and an inability to travel further than 5 kilometers from home, on October 3 there were only 8 new cases. Melbournians wait in anticipation for October 19 when the debilitating Stage 4 restrictions should be eased to enable people to return to work and inject much needed hope and life into the economy. Importantly, the delicate emotional wellbeing of those with elevated levels of stress and anxiety caused by physical distancing, isolation and job loss during lockdown will receive a much needed boost. Sadly, there have also been 805 deaths in Victoria, with many families losing loved ones, especially the elderly. We continue to keep all families in our thoughts and prayers.

Australians are recognised for their resilience and optimism and adhere with determination to the core value of supporting each other to get through the most challenging of times. Just as a surfer repeatedly gets back onto their board, we refuse to be wiped out by the second wave.

Flexible Learning and the Second Wave

In the previous two posts, I shared the proposed changes we made to remote learning based on feedback from all stakeholders and the Flexible Learning guidelines and expectations going forward. That was early in July, when we we were reeling from the shock of 288 coronavirus cases. Little did we know at the time that due to the dramatic increase of coronavirus cases, our renewed Flexible Learning practices would continue for the full 10 weeks of Term 3 and the first week of Term 4. We eagerly await the return to onsite learning for all primary school children on October 12.
I described my experiences with remote learning during the first lockdown as running on the Covid Treadmill. This is definitely not the case as we come to the end of the current lockdown.
We finished Term 3 with passion, energy and profound belief in the quality of the Flexible Learning programme offered across the school. Our Term 3 second wave experience more closely aligns with surfing ; catching a pipeline, skilfully guiding the nose of the surfboard through the barrel of the gigantic wave whilst balancing with ease and confidence as the wave carries you safely to land on the shore.

Amidst the many challenges of the Stage 4 lockdown restrictions, we are extremely satisfied that the combined efforts of students, staff and parents enabled all learners to achieve to the best of their ability. Student interaction weekly reports from staff developed during the course of the term to include a record of parent communications and online social opportunities for different year levels. We received numerous emails of thanks from the parents and are grateful for the overwhelmingly positive feedback shared with us all. Feedback included:

" ...We appreciate the teachers have gone above and beyond to support us and the kids.." Prep and Yr 2 parent
"..A big thank you to the wonderful staff at St Patrick's...they keep the kids busy whilst providing regular positive feedback..." Year 3 parent

" ....is so energised and happy to log on each morning..the home schooling has been a great experience because of how well prepared and energising you were each day." Yr 6 parent
"..Thank you for your commitment, support and care..I am certainly seeing growth, resilience and maturity...thank you for the key role you are playing..." Yr 6 parent
"..we are loving your work in the school assemblies absolutely fantastic to watch. Shows so much passion for what you do thank you.." Yr 1 parent
'' .. thank you for all your great work....is flourishing under your direction and support..." Yr 5 parents
".. we really appreciate the time you take to review each piece of work, the feedback and messages you write back... feel connected, stay accountable and be motivated..." Yr 4 parent
"..can I once again thank you and your team for the selfless and supportive way in which you have helped us. .. we appreciate everything you are doing to support our children..."

Our student SRC leaders represent their classes and they met with me via Zoom on a weekly basis during term 3. We created some wellbeing videos to share with the community. The focus on wellbeing with tips to encourage us to express our gratitude and remain positive were ideas that came directly from the students. The video below is a reflection of the highlights of Flexible Learning for the students from Year 1 - 6.
You can access further videos by the Semester 2 SRC leaders at these links -

 Wellbeing Tips #1 - Gratitude

 Wellbeing Tips #2 Stay Positive

 Wellbeing Tips #3 After Lockdown

   

Virtual Assemblies continued to evolve and feedback from families in relation to the "transformations" seemed to give everyone a much needed lift. At this point in time we have uploaded and shared 15 virtual assembly videos. Below is one of the videos that included a senior leadership sing along and bloopers too!

Throughout the challenges of the pandemic, holding tight to our core values with faith filled hearts is enabling our community to thrive.

As we continue to ride the second wave with passion and purpose, the emphasis on faith and wellbeing is regenerating the hearts and minds of the community.

Family engagement is strengthening, staff capacity is surging and student agency is flourishing; further deepening the culture of inquiry, "the archaeological dig" that was part of our school wide review in 2019.

Underpinning all of this is the realisation that we are actioning our long term goals as articulated in the School Improvement Plan 2020-2023. We are living out our vision to ensure learners leave our school self - motivated to make a positive impact on their world.

Seven months of lockdown hasn't deterred us..... imagine what we will all achieve together post lockdown.

Acknowledgements:

• To our SRC students and young leaders for their contribution to the SRC and virtual assembly videos
• To our hard working staff who responded to the challenge to "raise the bar" and make Flexible Learning truly count for every learner
• To our students and parents who continue to work together, give and receive feedback and keep learning despite the unique challenges that we are all experiencing in these "unprecedented" times.