For many of us in Catholic Schools the focus for June was the triennial Catholic Convention. The convention catered for over 800 people from across all aspects of Catholic Education. We have received very positive feedback from attendees about its high points. We had an excellent venue, great food, well thought layout for sponsors and attendees, superb speakers and great liturgy. More importantly we had the attendees who came with  generous spirits and open hearts.

We are looking at how we can repeat that success in 2021 and we value all the feedback received. Along with the Convention organisers we will work to repeat your positive experience. Thank you again for your support.

The success of this convention will be the way you take the inspiration of the Spirit back to your schools and focus on evangelisation and teacher recruitment for Catholic Schools in the future.

Ngā mihi nui,

Paul Ferris, CEO

NZCEO UPDATES

Our audited Annual Report for 2017 is now available online, click here.

The Attendence Dues rates for 2018 are now updated on our website, click here.

The 2018 Catholic Education Convention was a resounding success and we thank all of those who participated as delegates, presenters, exhibitors, sponsors and organising committee members. Photos, recordings of keynotes etc. are being uploaded to our website over the next few weeks and can be accessed here.

Do you have photos you would like to share? Email to nzceooffice@nzceo.org.nz.

Complete a five-minute Convention evaluation survey to go into the draw for a gift card (link here). Exhibitors can complete their survey here.

EDUCATION CONVERSATION | KŌRERO MĀTAURANGA

The Ministerial review of Tomorrow's Schools continues. A new online hub has been launched at conversation.education.govt.nz. It has number of resources to help people in communities, schools and workplaces hold their own conversations about the future of education and learning. The website also has progress updates on the Government's Education Work Programme. This programme includes the NCEA Review, the Review of Tomorrow's Schools and two items for consultation have been added - the Progress and Achievement across the National Curriculum and Early Learning Strategic Plan.

REUSING IMAGES FROM THE INTERNET

CoreEd has written a useful post about legally reusing images from the internet, including guidelines for using images from Unsplash, Pixabay and Flickr. Read more here.

LINGUISTICAL AND CULTURAL LEARNING RESOURCES

The Ministry of Education provides a range of supports to enable teachers to build their capability to support linguistically and culturally diverse learners, including:

• Inclusive education online resources to support teachers and providers to create and develop a culture that recognises and meets the needs of all students.
• Dual language resources in five Pasifica languages, as well as professional development in how to use them effectively. The resources are based on the second language acquisition principle that building on the child’s language/s, helps to strengthen English language and literacy.
• If you’d like help with ESOL programmes for culturally and linguistically diverse students, please email Maree Jeurissen Manager ESOL, Migrant, Refugee and International Education at: maree.jeurissen@education.govt.nz

EDUCATION COUNCIL BRINGING SERVICES ONLINE

The Education Council has a major project under way to bring services online. A Teacher Advisory Group has been established to assist in testing and improving the new online services. Design, build and testing is underway, and is expected to be completed by the end of 2018. Rollout/implementation of the new platform timing is to be confirmed.  You can provide input at www.educationcouncil.org.nz/joinTAG. Email feedback and questions to online.services@educationcouncil.org.nz. 

NCRS/TCI and NZCEO have prepare a number of short (3-4 min) videos about elements of Catholicism. Topics range from the Sacraments and Scripture to Creative Prayer and Liturgy.

The videos feature a number of interviews with Catholics from around New Zealand and relate directly to the RE curriculum. Click here to access the videos or visit the Aoetearoa Catholic YouTube site.

Inspector Ross Lienert,  Manager: Youth at Police’s National Prevention Centre, spoke recently to the Police and Education Partnership about the new Youth Action Plan his team are developing.

Ross told the meeting that Police have a Prevention First model, which expects that all staff will take every opportunity to prevent harm. 

“Prevention First identifies Youth as one our main areas of focus,” Ross said. “Whilst youth offending as a whole has dropped over the last few years, serious offences have fallen less substantially. The reduction has also been less for Māori and Pasifika youth.”

Police are therefore developing a Youth Action Plan to change the way their staff think about young people who offend, and to understand the wider context around their offending. 

“Less than 1% of the total under-16 population become offenders,” said Ross. “We know there are four dynamic underlying risk factors that can influence whether or not these young people offend: whanau, peers, alcohol and other drugs, and education. For the last, getting or keeping young people in some form of education usually results in that individual forming friendships with pro-social peers, resulting in significant reductions in re-offending.”  

The focus of Police’s new Youth Action Plan is on two key cohorts of youth, namely ‘high-risk, high-needs’ (the here and now) and ‘early intervention’. 

Intervening early to prevent children and young people entering the youth justice system improves their outcomes and reduces harm and victimisation in the community.

“For example, 80% of children and young people who offend have evidence of family violence occurring in their homes,” said Ross. “So identifying child witnesses when Police attend family violence incidents will provide an early opportunity to intervene to prevent them offending later.” 

A key way of dealing with the higher risk youth offenders is through Family Group Conferences.  Out of a total youth offending population of 10,000 (14,000 once the youth justice age rises from 16 to 17 next year), only 1,800 go to Youth Court for more serious offences.

“Considerable work is going into alternatives to remanding these young people in Youth Justice residences, but to still ensure public safety,” said Ross.  “This will involve more community options, with shared responsibility through effective partnerships to change the trajectory of their young lives and prevent them from entering the adult justice system.”

To address the over-representation of Māori in youth offending, the plan will encourage a kaupapa Māori approach to youth offenders, supporting upcoming legislation changes where the Treaty of Waitangi will become a principle of the Oranga Tamariki Act.”

“We’ll work in partnership with iwi, the community, government and non-government agencies to effect positive change. For example, recent evaluations of Iwi Community Panels show that they have a positive impact on reducing re-offending, particularly for Māori aged 17 to 24 years, so the plan will look at developing similar panels for youth under 17.”

Ross finished by saying that Police look forward to working with members of the Partnership (which includes the New Zealand School Trustees Association). “Together we can meet the challenge of reducing youth offending, thus contributing to making New Zealand the safest country.”

The Former CEO of the APIS / NZCEO Office, Sir Patrick Lynch KNZM, QSO, has recently published his memoirs via Random House – Penguin. The memoirs traverse the forty years (1976 – 2016) of the Integrated schools story from an operational view point and are of interest to all of those in the integrated schools sector.

To purchase or for further information, please contact:

Rowena Keeman, Executive Secretary
0210 862 5832
pjlmemoirs@gmail.com

The Catholic Enquiry Centre (CEC) has unveiled new Catholic Discovery branding, as it seeks increased engagement with different audiences, including those with and those without Christian Faith, those active in the Church and those who have left, inviting them all to discover more about our community and the Church today.

For those parents, students and staff enquiring about the Church, their online platforms are great resources for schools: 

Facebook: www.facebook.com/catholicdiscoverynz

Twitter: twitter.com/CathDiscovery

Think of classroom materials and optics as ‘mirrors’, ‘windows’ and ‘bridges’.  Mirrors reflect students’ backgrounds; windows expose students to other cultures, and bridges provide opportunities for students to connect their own cultures and experiences to those of others. Do not focus on superficial items such as food and dress, but focus on understanding ‘deep culture’, e.g. how kinship is defined, ideas about fairness. Selecting appropriate ‘mirrors’ becomes possible when teachers know their students and what resonates with them.  (from Kappan, February 2017)

St Peter’s College, Palmerston North: students Anna Skiffington and Charlie Mollard recently constructed a champion robot to win at the WorldSkills Australia VEX IQ robotics competition.

St John’s College, Hastings: in partnership with Hawkes Bay Regional Prison was awarded an Arts Access Whai Tikanga Award 2018.

Two Catholic schools were Prime Minister’s Education Excellence Awards Finalists, De La Salle College, Auckland (Excellence in Teaching and Learning) and John Paul College, Rotorua (2018 Education Focus Prize).

Hato Pāora College, Feilding, Head Boy Caleb Matthews was featured in a Manawatu Standard article about his natural leadership abilities. Caleb was the winner of the impromptu speech category at the O'Shea Shield earlier this year.

For more of the amazing work of Catholic school students and staff, click here.