President's Message
Dear Colleagues,Since our last Newsletter it has very much been final exam season for our senior students and time to finalise Timetables for 2026. I know we are all in the process of trying to lock in staffing despite the shortages that still plague us.
Later this week we have a Catholic Education Stakeholders Meeting (CESF) where we will further speak to the challenges inherent in the role of Principal and the many successes we achieve in our communities. We are lobbying for the facilitation from the NCEC for a national stakeholder group to tackle the issues of Principal and senior leader wellbeing. CaSPA and ACPPA also made a joint representation to the NCEC Workplace Relations Forum regarding Principal and senior leader wellbeing and outlined the psycho social hazards we are faced with on a regular basis according to the ACU Health and Wellbeing Data and the inherent risk that governing bodies face as a result.
Recently I had the opportunity to discuss Disability provisioning across the country with AERO Senior Researcher Lucy Sutherland. We discussed the need to increase the threshold for funding access as well as the challenges in ensuring that the funding gets to the source of need, the students.
I wish to take the opportunity to thank outgoing director for Queensland Dan McMahon for his service to CaSPA. Dan has had over thirty years in the role of Principal and has been an exceptional advocate and voice for the role of the Principal as a Director of CaSPA and in his senior role in the Catholic Secondary Principals Association Queensland (CaSPAQ). We wish him all the very best as he takes on the role of Head of College for St Leo's College in the University of Queensland. You will be missed in our ranks.
If you have not yet seen it I include a link to the Apostolic Exhortation, DILEXI TE of The Holy Father Leo XIV to All Christians on LOVE FOR THE POOR. Pope Leo’s first such document, it is very much a continuation of the teachings of his predecessor Pope Francis. Key chapters include: GOD CHOOSES THE POOR and A CHURCH FOR THE POOR. The final passage speaks to catholic educators:
Through your work, your efforts to change unjust social structures or your simple, heartfelt gesture of closeness and support, the poor will come to realize that Jesus’ words are addressed personally to each of them: “I have loved you” (Rev 3:9).
Given in Rome, at Saint Peter’s, on 4 October, the Memorial of Saint Francis of Assisi, in the year 2025, the first of my Pontificate.Dr Stephen Kennaugh GAICD
CaSPA President
