Welcome to 2023! This year is an exciting one as we welcome many rich learning opportunities not only for the students but for our Staff. As the community was enjoying the last week of their holidays, our dedicated staff here at St Clare of Assisi were busy participating in a week of Professional Learning.

SCA Staff Spirituality Day
We were blessed to have Lee Herden and Bernadette Scott from the Catholic Identity Team, to facilitate our Professional Learning Day.   A perfect setting at the Yarramundi Cultural Centre on Lake Burley Griffin, we unpacked the concept of synodality and the importance as Catholic Educators to ‘walk together’ as people of hope and action. We look to consolidate the work already being undertaken with the SCA RE Curriculum and Mission and to continue to embed High Impact Teaching Practices into Religious Education lessons.

“We were able to connect and share with others our understanding of Walking Together, and continue to build understanding of the RE Curriculum, Learning in Faith and Faith in Learning. We really liked the 7 minute walk where we were able to connect with country and then connected with another staff – it gave us opportunities to get to know my new colleagues better.”  Crystal Wilkes 4B and Rachel Kennedy 5Y

Sarah Richards, a Ngiyampaa woman living on Ngunnawal/Ngambri country was commissioned to design a piece of art that would represent the theme for 2023 of Walking Together. This piece was unveiled to the Staff at our PL day. It has taken pride of place in our foyer. Rachel Kennedy, our REC, will share more about this in our next Newsletter.

Compliance Training
As with most organisations, each year, all CE Staff need to undertake training in all areas of compliance. This helps us better serve our community especially the students we teach and care for. In the next couple of weeks, we will be renewing our CPR and First Aid qualifications with ACTWELL. Stay tuned for the photos on Facebook and in the Newsletter.

Catalyst
Informed by the Science of Learning and The Science of Reading, SCA along with every school in the Archdiocese has been on a journey. The teaching staff are implementing a high-quality curriculum for students. The delivery of the Australian curriculum is through lessons that reflect High Impact Teaching Practices. This includes daily review, sequencing of concepts, modelling, questioning and reviewing previously taught concepts. Our teachers will focus on the use of Explicit Direct Instruction (EDI) in their strategically planned lessons, to teach new concepts to mastery.

In grade teams, the staff prepared lessons and programs that explicitly focussed on EDI. During EDI lessons, teachers utilise ‘Engagement Norms’ to motivate students and hold them accountable for their learning. Engagement Norms ensure students are doing something every minute, whether it be discussion with a partner, reading text aloud, showing responses on a whiteboard or gesturing. These norms are designed to keep students actively engaged in their learning. Teachers are able to instantly check for understanding, provide immediate feedback, correct student responses at point of need and re-teach concepts if 80% mastery has not been achieved.

On Monday, the SCA Staff attended the ‘Faith in Learning’ Systems day. This event invited staff from across Catholic Education Canberra Goulburn to engage in insightful presentations from leaders in Education and Faith. Keynote speakers included Archbishop Christopher Prowse, Ross Fox, the Director for Catholic Education, Dr Lorrainne Hammond, (who has worked closely with SCA Staff for a number of years), Ollie Lovell, Professor Pamela Snow, Noel Pearson and many other well-known key-personal in the fields of Science of Learning and the Science of Reading.

              “ It was a great day, we were able to build knowledge in the Science of Learning and Reading and implications for the Classroom. We particularly  enjoyed the presentation from Noel Pearson as he reinforced the benefits of Catalyst.” Cheyenne, Susan and Holly (Kindergarten Teachers)

There is a wonderful sense of calm around the school as the students have enthusiastically returned to school and the well organised and relevant Professional learning has given our staff a great springboard for the year of Walking Together.