President's Message

CaSPA remembers and gives thanks to all the Australian Defence Force personnel who have served overseas and at home. Our thoughts and prayers are also with families who have lost loved ones in their national duty.

President’s Message

Dear Colleagues

I hope you all had wonderful Easter celebrations with your community and your family. I also trust that in recent times you have enjoyed a two week break from the demands of your time that abound during the term.

As we all know from the extensive research, looking after your well-being is so important. In that spirit, CaSPA has signed a partnership with the Deakin University and Australian Catholic University for 2021. This partnership will support the research of Philip Riley and his team. The CaSPA Board will be meeting with one of the key researchers at the May Board meeting in Sydney. Importantly, a key part of CaSPA’s partnership is to obtain the specific data related to the Catholic sector Principals. I encourage all our Principals to participate in the survey this year as it will provide a significant and specific analysis of the experiences of our work in Catholic Education.

This year CaSPA has engaged a Branding Partner (Athas Concepts) to evaluate and improve CaSPA’s communications and online presence. This is an exciting initiative which will be evolving during the next 12 months. As you can see from this current newsletter, there is a new logo and newsletter style being developed. In the future, work will also be focussed on the redesigning of the CaSPA website, emails, Twitter and LinkedIn. I hope you will enjoy the new look. It is CaSPA’s intention that this strategy will help to raise the profile, status and professional appearance of our national association.

We are looking forward to our face to face Board meeting in Sydney on 24 & 25 May, which also means we can arrange other consultations with key partners, officials, policy makers and stakeholders. Amidst this, we will be fortunate to join in celebrations of 200 years of Catholic Education.

Consultation is a key driver of our purpose and strategy – this was enhanced by our opportunity through my representation, to be a part of the “State of Social Sciences” stakeholder meeting last week. This is a 12 month project led by the Academy of the Social Sciences to take stock of social science disciplines and plan for the future. This will hopefully lead to a foundation for Australia to have policy settings, funding and infrastructure to enable world class education and research in the social sciences. Moreover, this links so strongly to our diverse society and the need for greater equity, tolerance, understanding and empathy.

AITSL has been active in a range of areas including developing research around strategies to address abuse of staff in schools, online formative assessment, and a major development for CaSPA has been to gain representation on the AITSL’s School Leadership and Teaching Expert Standing Committee (SLTESC) through my appointment to the committee. The primary objective of the SLTESC is to advise AITSL on its work to promote excellence in teaching and school leadership to maximise impact on student learning in all Australian schools. This committee is chaired by Professor John Hattie and is directly responsible and accountable to the AITSL Board of Directors. It provides quality feedback and guidance on the development of policies, resources, and other AITSL-led initiatives that support teachers and school leaders, benefitting the education sector for years to come. In addition, our EO Phil Lewis will represent us at the AITSL’s “Indigenous cultural competency in the Australian teaching workforce: National Dialogue” on the 18 &19 May in Canberra also enabling liaison with CAP (Coalition of Australian Principals) at that time.

I would also bring your attention to the ACARA curriculum review and commend CEO David de Carvalho for his efforts in consultation with associations.

On behalf of the CaSPA Board, I wish Mothers and those who fulfill the role of Mother a very Happy Mothers’ Day on 9 May. I also hope that you and your community have a very productive and rewarding Term 2.

Blessings to all

Ann Rebgetz

CaSPA President

“All-loving God, we give you thanks for mothers of every kind… those who have loved us and helped to shape us with motherly care and compassion.”