From the Principal
Dear Parents, Carer and Students
Celebrating NAIDOC Week
NAIDOC week celebrates the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. It is celebrated by all Australians and is a great opportunity to recognise and learn more about the history and culture of indigenous communities.
NAIDOC stands for National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee. Its origins can be traced back to the Aboriginal rights movement, when on Australia Day 1938, protestors marched through the streets of Sydney to highlight the status and treatment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. Today, it is a week-long celebration held in July that consists of range of traditional and contemporary activities.
NAIDOC Week is an important event that helps build positive relationships between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people. It enables a deeper understanding of our differences and similarities. NAIDOC week is an opportunity for all Australians to eliminate bias and discrimination by reflecting and reconciling the wrongs of the past to facilitate hope and build a fairer future. Families are encouraged to join in and support young people in learning the significance of NAIDOC Week.
This week we began our NAIDOC Week celebrations with our assembly and performance by the Ngarrumban Arts and Cultural Experience and then follow up activities in our Joey’s Way time. I thank Kerri Turner for her organisation of the assembly and Natasha Digweed for the organisation of the activities for Joey’s Way. Upon our return after the holidays, we will take the opportunity to have a liturgical celebration for NAIDOC Week.
This Special Report offers suggestions on how families can celebrate NAIDOC Week together. We hope you take a moment to reflect on the information offered, and as always, we welcome your feedback. If this raises any concerns for you, a loved one or the wellbeing of your child, please seek medical or professional help.
Here is the link to your special report
NAIDOC Celebrations
Assessment, Report Cards and Parent Teacher Interviews
Over the last few weeks of Term 2 the students busily completed assessment for the semester and were provided with feedback on their performance by the teachers on their assessment pieces. During this time the teachers were also finalising the compiling of report cards, which were then printed and finally checked. As I have stated previously, having this opportunity to read the student’s reports and view their progress over the semester is something that I enjoy doing. I am continually encouraged by the effort and application that our students are exhibiting. As a college we hope that each of our families take the time to reflect on the positives noted on the report cards and to discuss any areas for improvement that are identified.
A reminder for parents also that we have parent – teacher - student interviews coming up on Wednesday July 13. We would love for our parents and students to come and discuss their child’s progress with their teachers.
On behalf of our students this week we offer a prayer of thanks for the gift of education.
Lord,
Thank you for the opportunity to learn new skills and stretch my understanding.
Thank you for guiding me through this time of study and assessment.
I lay before you all the hopes and fears I have about the outcome.
May you provide me with a feeling of peace in the knowledge that I have tried my best.
I am grateful that I am always safely held in your love
and I know that I will forever live in your goodness and walk with you always.
Amen
Staffing Term 3
At the end of Semester One we say farewell to Mr Andrew Keighran, Mrs Pamela Pedernal and Miss Kate Barron. Mr Keighran is moving to Canberra to take on a new career, Mrs Pedernal is completing helping us with a contract position and Miss Barron is moving to Charleville to start her teaching career.
During their time at our College, Andrew, Pamela and Kate, have undertaken a wide range of teaching and support positions as well as involving themselves in a number of extra-curricular activities with great enthusiasm, energy and wisdom. We wish these staff the best for their future endeavours.
At the start of Term 3 we welcome Miss Sally Gibson and Mrs Samantha Meager. Sally joins us having been educated at Catholic Schools in Toowoomba and completing four years teaching Legal Studies and Humanities at Toowoomba State High. Samantha is joining us from St Ursula’s College Yeppoon where she is currently the Curriculum Leader for Science. We are very much looking forward to these two wonderful educators joining our staff in Semester Two.
Thank you SJC Staff
Just recently this article was brought to my attention by a colleague, and I thought that I would share it with our community. The purpose of my sharing is not to discourage our community from raising concerns that they may have, but rather to highlight and acknowledge the amazing diversity in the roles that our staff undertake. Our teaching and non-teaching staff’s commitment to teaching and care for their students is evident every day and, on your behalf, I thank them so very much.
Fed-up school principal says critics ‘have no idea’
The head of an elite private school has railed against baseless attacks and misinformed opinions about teachers by politicians “who actually have no idea what they are talking about” while calling out their remedies for complex issues, such as falling educational standards, as simplistic.
Briony Scott, the principal of Wenona School in North Sydney, said teachers were trivialised, their profession bastardised and their contribution overlooked by a generation of political decision makers who see the world in black and white and have no comprehension as to the complexity of the school “ecosystem”.
In an impassioned speech at a conference about female educational leaders, Dr Scott said everyone, having attended a school at some stage, considered themselves an expert with their opinions often misinformed and too-rarely imbued with facts or evidence.
“Every couple of years an education minister or prime minister will say something along the lines of ‘we should focus on the basics of how to read and write’. And I’m like, oh, I hadn’t thought of that one,” Dr Scott said.
“They say schools must focus on character and values and in my head I’m thinking ‘have you heard of Aristotle? What do you think we have been doing for the last 2000 years’?
“And then I think, they have no training, but they [think they] know more about my profession, what I do with my three degrees and where I have worked on the ground for decades. Tell me again, how to do my job.”
Dr Scott elaborated on the complexity of the teaching profession by detailing what is not, in theory, part of her job, but is nevertheless intrinsic to it.
“I’m not a family counsellor, but I have sat with children and held their wrists as they were bleeding, patched countless self-harm injuries, told a child that their mother has died and they just found her body,” Dr Scott said.
“I’ve ridden in far too many ambulances to count, counselled warring parents, dealt on the front line with medical issues, accidents, alcoholism, mental health, breakdowns, suicide, domestic violence, murder, bankruptcy, unemployment, homelessness, and couch-surfing primary school students. Tell me again, how to do my job.”
She went on. “I’m not a medical doctor. But I have students who are walking around with defibrillators in case their heart stops, epi pens in case their body stops, nebulisers in case their lungs stop. And yes, I confess to the crime of talking about sexuality. I have talked to my students about sex and consent, long before it became a political football or an openly discussed subject,” she said.
“I’m not a police officer, but I give students advice about where to go when they’ve been assaulted or raped. What to do if someone stalks them online or at the bus stop. I explained over and over that child pornography laws apply to them if they send a naked photo of themselves online, even if their boyfriends ask them to, or how to get out of a car when the person who wants to drive has drunk too much. Tell me again how to do my job.”
Dr Scott said she is not an extrovert, but has dressed in too many ridiculous costumes to count to raise money and awareness for various issues. Neither is she an expert in cybersecurity but has found herself helping a 14-year-old take down a porn site she created so people would like her more.
She is not a lawyer, but has spent days in courtrooms as an expert witness, prepared subpoenas, “interpreted and misinterpreted court orders, parent restraining orders, and been threatened with legal action too many times to list”.
She said she had been imperiled, trolled and “silenced by those who think I should know better”.
“Education is my profession. And despite popular but lazy stereotypes, I don’t expel students for vaping or for being obnoxious or for having dodgy parents. I don’t turn my back on the quirky, the illiterate and the children who aren’t gifted.”
“The whole purpose of education is that it is given to every child so that they have the opportunities to make informed choices about who they want to be, what they want to do and where they want to go. I appreciate that it doesn’t always work this way and that we have huge inequalities that need addressing.”
Dr Scott said politicians had in recent months accused teachers of being extremists, of indoctrinating students on gender fluidity and climate change “because of this belief that we can’t be trusted”.
She said teachers were judged by school performance in various tests, such as NAPLAN, PISA, higher school certificate and ATAR – “all interesting measures but frankly, the equivalent of a butter knife in an operating theatre”.
Julie Hare – Education editor – Financial Review
Best of Luck QISSN and QISSRL Participants
Best of luck to our Open Netball and Rugby League teams who head off tonight to participate in the annual QISSRL and QISSN carnivals in Mackay. As we did last year, we have three teams participating, Open Netball, Open Girls Rugby League and Open Boys Rugby League. We look forward to hearing of your successes and challenges that come with participating in a weeklong carnival. Please ensure you are always striving to demonstrate our Joey’s Way values of Respect, Compassion, Dignity and Endeavour and their associated imperatives. Thank you to our very generous staff who have worked with the teams to prepare for this carnival and will accompany them to Mackay.
Best wishes to our community for the break. Please be safe and take appropriate breaks when travelling. We look forward to students returning on Tuesday 12 July refreshed and ready to participate fully and give their best in semester two.
Best wishes
Kort Goodman - Principal - KGoodman@sjc.qld.edu.au