02 November 2020

News items from around Catholic schools including support for graduate teachers; young people and discernment; a virtual symposium 'Faith in the future'; and supporting people affected by COVID-19.

The learning curve for graduate teachers

Catholic Education Rockhampton is working to ensure that graduate teachers get the support they need to stay engaged in the profession.

Studies have shown that up to half of all graduate teachers end up leaving the profession in the first five years.

Lauren Roach has been appointed as a project officer for teacher support in Rockhampton. She told The Catholic Leader that beginning teachers face a steep learning curve, but with better support they can thrive in their career. This support includes help with planning, modelling lessons, and around positive behavioural approaches in the classroom.

‘The most important thing is that teachers, in the first few years of their career, feel really supported and that they have the opportunity to ask someone for that support, someone who can also work with them very much in their classrooms as well’, she said. (Source: The Catholic Leader)

Image: Rockhampton Catholic Education Office

Young people can teach everyone about discernment: Pope Francis

In an introduction to a new Italian book on youth ministry, the Pope said young Catholics are giving the Church a valuable lesson in the meaning of ‘synodality’.

‘They have asked us in a thousand ways to walk alongside them – not behind or ahead of them, but at their side. Not over them or under them, but on their level’, he said.

The Pope said listening and dialogue were the first steps in walking with young people. ‘It is more necessary than ever today to enter into an honest listening to the joys and struggles of every member of the people of God, and especially of every young person’, said Pope Francis.

The digital revolution, the climate crisis, migration and the ‘plague of abuse’ signify that things need to change, he said. The Church has a lot of work to do.

‘Too often, instead of being “experts in humanity”, we end up being considered rigid and incapable of listening’, he said.

Virtual symposium: Faith in the future

With the 2020 National Catholic Education Office rescheduled for 2022, the National Catholic Education Commission will host a virtual symposium on 30 October in the lead-up to the celebration of 200 years of Catholic Education.

The symposium will explore school improvement in a post-COVID world, faith and mission, leadership and community engagement.

> For more, visit ncec.catholic.edu.au.

Supporting people affected by COVID-19

Three Catholic schools in Perth are assembling food and hygiene packs to support asylum seekers and international students who are struggling without other means of support during the COVID-19 crisis.

West Australian Catholic Migrant and Refugee Office (WACMRO) Director Deacon Gregory Lowe told The Record that many asylum seekers and international students had been surviving on temporary and part-time employment, and had lost those jobs when the coronavirus hit. They were also unable to access government support.

Innaloo Karrinyup Catholic Parish is working alongside its local schools – Our Lady of Good Counsel, St Dominic’s, Newman College – as well as St Vincent de Paul and the WACMRO.

‘Such a model reminds us that relationship, community and commitment are the cornerstone of intentional discipleship to Jesus, meaning the school and parish are a single entity: adults, families, children’, said Deacon Lowe. (Source: The Record)

Pictured: Students from OLGC, St Dominic’s and Newman College put together food packs.

 

 

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