Welcome to the final edition of our Catholic School Parents Victoria newsletter for this year. CSPV have been very busy liaising with our key stakeholders and representing our families across the three pillars of our organisation - Partnerships, Advocacy and Communication. 

I have been nominated in the role of Chair to once again represent parents of children in Catholic schools in 2020. I am looking forward to the continued growth of CSPV and in meeting and leading new parents who join our team.

Under the pillar of partnerships, CSPV recently accepted an exciting opportunity to co-opt a parent representative to sit on a Governance Steering Committee for the Archdiocese of Melbourne schools as they prepare to move to a company structure. Mrs Tracy Connors, a former parent member delegate and Deputy Chair of CSPV will be the parent representative for Melbourne Catholic schools.

This follows the recent establishment of diocesan companies in both the Sale and Ballarat Diocese. This invitation recognises our expanding influence and network of key stakeholders and provides an opportunity for Catholic school parent leadership in providing parent perspective in the planning of Governance of Catholic schools.      

In our ongoing commitment to parent engagement in child safety, Our Executive Officer Rachel Saliba met with the newly formed VIT Community Expectations Advisory Committee to discuss working with children check changes, parent engagement in child safety and the VIT Teacher Code of Conduct.   

Our September Council meeting was held in the Diocese of Sale at St Francis Xavier College Beaconsfield. Our ongoing commitment to connect with our main key stakeholders, parents of children in Catholic schools, resulted in an invitation to parents of the Sale diocese to join us for a community conversation following our meeting.

We invited parents of Catholic school children to provide feedback on our various advocacy themes (parent engagement in curriculum, child safety, wellbeing and Catholic community) and to explore their thoughts on parent leadership in Catholic education. Forums like these are critical for CSPV to gain a parents' perspective so we can provide an evidence-based approach to advocacy campaigns. CSPV hope to hold more of these forums throughout Victoria in2020 as we rotate our Council meetings throughout each Diocese in the future.  

For more information and a summary of CSPV advocacy campaigns, click on the link below:

CSPV are continuing to conduct an operational and governance review of internal systems. Earlier this year we established a Governance and Finance Sub-Committee to explore explore areas of our Constitution including governance practices and the financial structure of CSPV. These regular reviews are valuable in order to have the best possible systems in place for CSPV and provide both sustainable and modernised Governance and Finance plans for the future.  

CSPV continue to work in partnership with education leaders and are very excited to announce the recent appointment of the first co-opted Principal representative from the Victorian Association of Catholic Primary Principals. Michael Bourne has volunteered to sit in this role and attended his first meeting with us on 16th November.

CSPV recently also appointed a new Administration/Marketing Officer, Julia McCarthy who is also a Catholic school parent in the Southern region of Melbourne. 

Both bring vibrant energy and fresh perspectives to our organisation, welcome Michael and Julia! 

At CSPV we believe in and are committed to the gospel values of respect, honesty, justice, compassion, mercy, hospitality and community. These underpin our operations, relationships and communication strategies.

We are currently seeking parent member delegates who are passionate about education in the following areas:

If you feel you could contribute to CSPV and represent parent perspective in Catholic Education across a broad range of advocacy areas, please visit our website at http://cspv.catholic.edu.au/join-us/ or call 03 9267 0458 for further information

CSPV would value your contribution to the development of the organisation in providing parent perspective in Catholic education at a system and state level.