We continue to meet with each of the Diocese Directors to provide updates on areas of our involvement with state-wide stakeholders. One of our responsibilities this year is in providing parent representation on the 2020 NCEC Organising Committee and subcommittees in preparation for the largest Catholic Education Conference in Australia. Parent representatives from our council as well as co-opted members are providing parent perspective across the key streams of Catholic Identity, Leadership and Governance, Communication and Community Involvement and School Improvement.

The tasks for each of these groups have been to source keynote speakers for each stream and so far the speaker list is looking fantastic. It is a great opportunity for Catholic school parents to be involved in these organizing committees for one of the alongside school leaders, system leaders and students, a positive partnership approach.

CSPV have also partnered with the Primary and Secondary Principals Associations and Catholic Schools Guide to develop a Catholic Secondary Schools STEAM Showcase Day on 11th August this year. We are very excited to be collaborating with each of these organisations to showcase and promote the wonderful work our secondary students are creating in Catholic secondary schools across Victoria. You will find further information in this newsletter.

Our Executive Officer, Rachel Saliba attended the Victorian Association of Catholic Primary School Principals conference in Lorne recently where there were valuable networking opportunities and speakers to learn from. We continue to explore the supportive themes such as Principal Wellbeing and encouraging family-school partnerships and positive parent advocacy that these leaders, in their valuable role in our education system, can benefit from.

Through our ongoing commitment to child safety we attended a morning breakfast held by Catholic Education Melbourne to learn from the Commissioner for Children and Young People, Ms Liana Buchanan and to explore the current child safety education themes in the Catholic schools curriculum. A summary of this breakfast forum can be found in this newsletter. CSVP hope to co-host a child safety forum to include parents later this year to explore resources for parents to ensure they are engaging in child safety conversations with their children.

CSPV recently had an opportunity to deliver 3 workshops to pre-service teachers at Australian Catholic University to provide assistance in understanding how to build a positive relationships and engage with parents and families. We hope to deliver more of these University based workshops to other education facilities, particularly in the regional setting to build confidence in pre-service teachers to adopt a partnership approach with families in their future careers as educators.       

We are currently conducting an operational review of our internal systems where I am Chair of a Governance and Finance Sub-Committee. This sub-committee is tasked with overseeing the governance structures and ensuring the Constitutional requirements are followed as well as other items of importance to the running of the CSPV. Our team will meet several times year to explore areas of our Constitution including Canon Law, governance practices and the financial structure of our organisation. These regular reviews are valuable in order to improve best practice and systems to continue to strengthen the organisation.    

The CSPV parent council 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.

If you feel you could contribute to the council advocacy areas and represent parent perspective in Catholic Education, please click here or call 03 9267 0458 for further information. Parent/carer contribution is valuable to the continued development of the organisation and in representing the perspective of parents in Catholic education across Victoria.

Until next time,
Rod Lewis
Chairperson, CSPV.