As we commenced the 2021 school year, it has been wonderful to see classrooms filled with students, teachers back to face-to-face teaching and families welcomed back into the school community.

The challenges of 2020 linger for many and our prayers are with the communities and families effected by Covid-19. We understand the reach of the effects are wide-spread and may take months, even years to see the full impact. The time of remote learning for our students, and the increased responsibility of families in the support of education reinforced the importance of a strong family-school partnership, as we are all working together to support the learning of our students.

CatholicCare Victoria launched family week this month and no doubt many schools participated in activities to raise much needed funds for CatholicCare Victoria. Family Week was, “A perfect time to come together to celebrate the power of family relationships in all their diversities, and the importance they play in our lives and community.” We hope you continue to support the great work of this organisation as they support many families in need in our communities across Victoria.

In the words of Archbishop Comensoli in his Patrick Oration earlier this year, “when you read through the four gospels, it’s striking how much time Jesus spent in family homes. They were the familiar and life-giving households along the pilgrim way of his mission. There, he ate and slept; rested and played; taught and healed; laughed, cried, sang, and prayed. From them Jesus set out on the road ahead.”

Throughout the beginning of this year CSPV have been busy collating the results of the remote learning survey that nearly 400 families completed last year. As we know, many families sacrificed their time and energy, alongside teachers, to support their children's learning at home in 2020. Thank you to the many families who took part in this survey and provided honest feedback. The results will provide greater insight into the ways in which we can provide support for parents of Catholic school students and the areas of concerns for families. We will share the insights from this survey in the coming weeks.

It was identified by families, they have many concerns relating to anxiety in their children, with many indicating they noticed an increase of anxious behaviours during and post school lockdowns. In April, CSPV worked with Dr Jodi Richardson to present a webinar for families as part of our CSPV Connect Webinar Series.

690 people registered for this webinar indicating this is extremely challenging for families. This webinar provided practical information and tools for families to support their children with anxiety and the feedback we've received since the webinar has been very positive. It also provided a place for families to hear from Dr Richardson’s personal experience and understand that we are not alone in facing challenges with our children.

Dr Richardson has provided a great article for this edition of the newsletter and is a wonderful resource for families. We encourage families to register for upcoming webinars we will host throughout the year. The events page on our website features the three webinars we conducted last year which are available free for you to watch to learn more about parent engagement and the important role you play to actively participate in your children's learning journey.

CSPV have been meeting with Directors, Catholic Education representatives and Bishops from each diocese in Victoria to discuss our four areas of advocacy and present our Parent Leadership in Catholic Learning Communities Project Scope. A copy of the scope is included in this newsletter. The feedback so far has been positive.

We also met recently with Archbishop Comensoli and Jim Miles, Executive Director of MACS, who were also very supportive of our continued work as they understand the important role parents have in strengthening students, schools and local parish communities.

The development of our Parent Representatives Register has been a major focus this year as we continue to connect with parents of children in Catholic schools. We encourage all Catholic schools to nominate a parent rep from their school to be a point of contact for CSPV.

Having now increased parent representatives, we are now able to provide opportunities for more parents to discuss issues and provide feedback so we can develop a deeper understanding of the concerns relevant for parents across Catholic schools and improve our representation of you. 

To enable CSPV to continue to represent parents in the best way possible, the more parent voice we have access to the more authentic our representation can be.

If you are interested in knowing more about CSPV and possibly joining as a member delegate, please reach out for an initial conversation. We understand parents are very busy but we would love to develop our CSPV team with more parents from across Victoria.

We encourage continued communication and remind you to reach out for more information or support. Contact Rachel Saliba, Executive Officer at executive@cspv.catholic.edu.au.

Take care,
Jodie McLeod
Chairperson, CSPV.