2016 Annual Report
Work your way through the report highlights in the illustrations, or download the full PDF from the menu at the top of your screen.
Work your way through the report highlights in the illustrations, or download the full PDF from the menu at the top of your screen.
Catholic Education Melbourne aims to support and lead Catholic education in the Archdiocese of Melbourne. The organisation is divided into five key units: Catholic Education Services, Enterprise Services, Business Advisory Services, Digital Strategy and Planning and Infrastructure.
Read about Catholic Education Melbourne's Vision, Mission and Values at www.cem.edu.au/about-catholic-education/vision-mission-and-values and download the Strategic Plan at www.cem.edu.au/about-catholic-education/2015–2019-directions.
In each section below, some of the highlights from 2016 have been identified. For the full 2016 annual report, please download the PDF.
Catholic Education Week was held throughout the Archdiocese in March 2016. The year's theme was Be the face of mercy. The Mass of St Patrick for Schools began with a procession of school banners into St Patrick's Cathedral. The procession was led by Holy Rosary School, Kensington, celebrating its centenary, followed by St Bernard's School, Coburg East, and St Benedict's School, Burwood, celebrating their 75th anniversaries, and St Damian's School, Bundoora, celebrating 50 years. It was a joyful celebration with about 3,000 students from over 300 schools in the Archdiocese.
On Tuesday 19 April 2016, approximately 200 people, including graduate teachers, principals, principal association representatives and staff from Catholic Education Melbourne, gathered for the 2016 Graduate Teacher Welcome. This significant event is designed to welcome newly appointed graduate teachers from both primary and secondary schools in the Archdiocese of Melbourne and affirm their educational ministry. Archbishop Denis Hart DD celebrated Mass at St John the Evangelist Catholic Church in East Melbourne. Archbishop Hart personally welcomed each graduate teacher at the end of the Mass. Afterwards, graduates and other guests enjoyed each other's company during a high tea in the Catholic Leadership Centre dining hall. Catholic Education Melbourne Executive Director, Stephen Elder, formally welcomed the graduates to Catholic education.
World Teachers Day was celebrated around Australia on 31 October 2016. Teachers at Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Melbourne received a special message from students, highlighting the wonderful qualities of their teachers. Thank you to all of our teachers for the work you do in our schools, and a special thank you to the students from Galilee Regional Primary School (South Melbourne), Presentation College Windsor (Windsor) and Salesian College (Chadstone) for their help in the making of the film.
Bishop Vincent Long OFM Conv was farewelled from the Archdiocese of Melbourne, as he prepared to take over as the fourth Bishop of Parramatta in June. In addition to serving as Auxiliary Bishop to the Western Region, Bishop Vincent's contribution to our schools as Chair of the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria Ltd since 2012 has been critical to our success as a sector.
Retiring after 32 years as principal, Trish Taylor, Principal of St Joseph's School in Collingwood, was asked to give the Leaving Principal's Address at the 2016 Archdiocesan Celebration of Principalship on Wednesday 30 November.
I consider it a great honour to be asked to speak to you this evening. I have decided to retire after 32 years of principalship in inner-city Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Melbourne, in North Richmond and more recently in Collingwood. (Read full story.)
Many schools, teachers and students received awards throughout 2016. Here is a small selection of those.
St Peter's School, Epping, was certified a 5Star ResourceSmart environmental school in 2016. St Peter's is one of only five Catholic schools in Victoria to have current 5Star Leadership Schools status, and one of only 26 schools across all sectors. About 230 Catholic schools have registered as ResourceSmart Schools in Victoria. In 2015 St Peter's School received the ResourceSmart Schools Award for Community Leadership Primary School of the Year and Emma Canning, St Peter's Environment and Sustainability Leader, was a finalist in the ResourceSmart Primary Teacher of the Year Award.
St Louis de Montfort's School, Aspendale, received the Environmental School Award in the United Nations Association of Australia (UNAA) World Environment Day Awards. St Louis de Montfort's won the award for their whole-school program, From Little Things, Big Things Grow. The school was also a finalist in the Environmental Education Award for their community program, Reaching Out. The UNAA recognises innovative and outstanding environmental programs and initiatives from across Australia and the important work of Australian environmental leaders through its pre-eminent national awards.
Sacred Heart College, Geelong, received the VCAL Partner Achievement Award for VCAL Promotion with their partner, Samaritan House, Geelong. Senior VCAL students supported Samaritan House through a number of fundraising and practical activities, going well beyond what was required to achieve all their Personal Development Skills outcomes. A lasting bond has developed between the VCAL students, staff and Samaritan house. Current Intermediate students are keen to continue and strengthen the partnership.
For the third year in a row Antonine College, Pascoe Vale South, was the Victorian state winner of the Read More In May Challenge conducted by Scholastic, Inc. The school retained the perpetual shield for another year and received $500 of books for the library. In addition, 16 students were among the state's most well read, each receiving $100 book vouchers from Scholastic and the Year 6B class had the highest number of reading minutes for Victoria.
St Joseph's College Geelong, Newtown, and Clonard College, Herne Hill, were awarded the national prize for the Anzac Day Schools' Awards. The awards are designed to encourage initiative and creativity in the way that schools commemorate Anzac Day, with an emphasis on inventiveness balanced with tradition.
Christian Williams, a teacher at St Michael's School, Ashburton, made it onto the shortlist for the prestigious $1 million Global Teacher Prize. Christian was ranked in the top 40 out of 8000 entrants from 148 countries. Christian teaches mathematics through experience and activities. His students came up with an idea for a classroom coffee shop and created '56 shots' named after the number of parents who came in to learn about money with their children. The children have learned through trick-shot videos and Skyped with university physics professors about time machines.
Ria Greene was selected to represent the Asia-Pacific region on an international committee planning for the 300th anniversary of the death of St John Baptiste de La Salle in 2019. The committee will meet in Rome in September. Ria has been a leader at two La Salle schools: St John's Regional College, Dandenong, and St Bede's College, Mentone, where she is currently Deputy Principal.
Julie Wynne, Health, Wellbeing and Sustainability teacher at St Louis de Montfort's School in Aspendale, was named joint Victorian Environmental Educator of the Year by Environment Education Victoria (EEV). Julie's initiatives included coordinating a 'Kitchen to Gardens' program teaching students and the community about everything from water treatment ponds and permaculture to solar pumps and cooking.
Ruby Cowan from Star of the Sea College, Brighton, and Christian Santoro from St Bernard's College, Essendon, were state winners of the Premier's Spirit of Anzac Prize for 2016 and participated in a study tour to significant sites in Australia's service history: Lemnos (Greece), Gallipoli and the Western Front.
Forty-six VCE students from 22 Catholic secondary colleges in the Archdiocese of Melbourne had work from 2015 selected for exhibition in the 2016 Victorian Season of Excellence. Three students from Melbourne Catholic colleges exhibited in Top Screen, seven students in Top Class – Dance, one student in Top Class – Music, seven students in Top Class – Drama, five students in Top Class – Theatre Studies, four students in Top Arts and 19 students in Top Designs.
Thomas Dillon of Whitefriars College, Donvale, was the national winner in the 13-17 Years category of the Gifted Awareness Week 2016 Poetry Competition. Entrants were asked to explore the theme, 'What Giftedness Means to Me'. Thomas's poem was titled Amiss.
Year 6 student at Holy Name School, Reservoir, Areeba, received a Prime Minister's medal for the short story she entered in the NAIDOC week 2016 Short Story Competition. Only 25 medals were awarded in this category across Australia. Entrants had to write a fictional story with illustrations and photographs, entitled The Day I Met My Indigenous Role Model. Areeba's role model was Cathy Freeman.
School captain of St Louis de Montfort's School, Aspendale, Mason Dwyer, was named Junior Lord Mayor of Melbourne for 2016 with a long list of official duties including raiding the flag on Melbourne Day, cutting the official birthday cake, skippering the Enterprize for a day with his class and other mayoral duties throughout the year. The judges said of Mason that he was, 'the outstanding candidate from six excellent finalists'.
The Student Wellbeing Unit is committed to supporting Catholic school communities to create safe, inclusive and welcoming learning environments where all young people are supported to flourish.
In 2016, the work of the Student Wellbeing Unit expanded to encompass the area of Child Safety, a significant development in Victorian legislation which required schools to be compliant by 1 August 2016. Initiatives were focused on cultural change and strategies to build awareness and the capacity of Catholic school communities to meet the specific requirements of Ministerial Order No. 870, gazetted on 7 January 2016, within a framework of student care and wellbeing.
Work throughout the year began with the establishment of the Child Safety Working Party in late 2015 to provide advice and direction on initiatives, policies and practices to enable Catholic school communities to lead the way in the care, wellbeing and protection of children and young people. In August 2016, a significant cross-sectoral project was realised with the development and release of a new protocol PROTECT: Identifying & Responding to All Forms of Abuse in Schools. This protocol reflects a unified commitment between the CECV, DET and ISV to protect the wellbeing and safety of all children and young people.
To complement this work, Catholic Education Melbourne and ACU launched the Graduate Certificate in Education: Safeguarding Children & Young People on 9 August 2016, a unique course, the first of its kind in Australia. It is a key professional learning initiative designed to further equip Catholic school leaders and senior staff with knowledge, skills and understanding of contemporary issues and responses to safeguarding children and young people within Catholic educational settings.
Student Wellbeing initiatives in 2016 included four-day professional learning program Enable, Connect, Grow, Flourish: Four-part series delivered in partnership with Berry Street Childhood Institute; a continued partnership with the Victorian Student Representative Council (VicSRC) to strengthen student voice, statewide networks and opportunities for student leadership and learning; a commitment of almost $650,000 over 2016–2017 to extend funding to support Family–School Partnerships (FSP) clusters to continue leading local action, joint practice and governance to build stronger family and community partnerships to improve student wellbeing and learning outcomes; and the sponsoring of 50 leaders and teachers in the Archdiocese of Melbourne to complete a new, two-year Master of Education (Student Wellbeing) at Australian Catholic University (ACU).
In 2016, Catholic Education Melbourne published the Horizons of Hope – An Education Framework for the Archdiocese of Melbourne. Horizons of Hope is the outcome of more than eighteen months of developmental work involving many teachers, leaders and educators across the Archdiocese, and is a resource that will guide the direction of education in Catholic schools.
The Literacy Team worked to bring about continuous improvement in the literacy outcomes of all students by providing differentiated professional learning programs focused on building the capacity of leaders and teachers. These included:
The Mathematics Team offered an expert teaching program aiming to deepen understanding of how children learn mathematics and how to implement effective programs. It supported collaborative partnerships between schools in the Purposeful Teaching of Mathematics (secondary schools) and Strategic Support Mathematics – Primary programs. A Number Intervention F–4 program continued, recognising the importance of the early years of schooling and the need to provide a solid foundation in arithmetical learning for future success in school. In 2016, Catholic Education Melbourne also supported 22 teachers to study for a Master of Education at Australian Catholic University.
The Languages Team worked on a number of programs for the year, including an ongoing credentialled study in partnership with the University of Melbourne in the Graduate Certificate in Language Education – Content Language Integrated Learning (CLIL); the Leading Languages Professional Learning Program, which involved 60 primary school language teachers working to develop strategies for reading, writing, listening and speaking skills in their students; the Developing Autonomous Language Learners program, which aims to assist students to acquire functional classroom competency in the target language within the first semester of study; and the 2016 CECV Languages Film Awards, held on Tuesday 12 July at the Catholic Leadership Centre, where students were invited to create a two-minute long film in a language other than English based around the theme of Imagine and Re-imagine.
The Pathways and Transition Team supported Catholic schools in their commitment to maximising every student's ability to complete Year 12 or its equivalent. This included work to provide funding assistance for access to Vocational Education and Training (VET) programs as part of students' senior secondary certificate [the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) or the Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL)], and the management of VET Band Funding and VCAL Coordination Funding distribution to Victorian Catholic secondary schools; providing relevant information and updates to support key personnel responsible for the coordination of Pathways and Transition, including the distribution of Supporting Pathways and Transition in Catholic Schools 2016 in booklet and electronic form to all secondary schools, and the production of the CECV Pathways and Transition eBulletin twice a term. The team also advocated for Victorian Catholic secondary schools on matters related to Pathways and Transition, and assisted with the coordination of input into sector, state and federal policies and initiatives.
In 2016, the Science Team developed 34 science partnerships for archdiocesan schools, with students and teachers collaborating with scientists in universities, zoos, and marine research vessels. These partnerships enabled students to learn about science in the 'real world'. It partnered with CADET @ Deakin University to support six Catholic primary schools to undertake a year-long science and engineering challenge to design and race fast cars. The project targeted the development of STEM skills and capabilities of ethical thinking, critical & creative thinking, and collaboration for learning, as well as the technologies for learning and Literacy, Social & Emotional Learning underpinned the inquiry.
The Learning Diversity Unit works to provide quality teaching for learners of every background and ability, through a number of programs. The Students with Disability program aims to improve the learning outcomes of educationally disadvantaged students, particularly in literacy and numeracy, by contributing funding to support the student's teaching and learning program. In 2016, there were a total of 7,017 students eligible to receive funding in the Archdiocese of Melbourne. Of the 7,017 eligible students, 57.6% were primary and 42.4% were secondary students. Based on the total student population in the Archdiocese of Melbourne, 4.3% of students received funding.
In 2016, 68 students were provided with equipment that was considered integral to their access and participation at school, funded under the categories of physical disability, chronic health impairment, hearing impairment and vision impairment.
The Gifted Think Tank, a group of principals, middle leaders, teachers and Catholic Education Melbourne staff that meet together to plan and coordinate gifted education provision, continued to be a vital source of inspiration and were instrumental in developing a range of initiatives in the gifted area.
The Visible Learning Collaborative Impact Project was expanded in 2016 with the addition of another 20 primary and five secondary schools in the Archdiocese of Melbourne. This evidence-based program supports schools to embed practices that are known to have a significant impact on student outcomes. There is a strong focus on building assessment capable learners and to increase the visibility of the learning that is taking place through clear learning intentions, success criteria and the four levels of effective feedback.
A number of events and professional learning activities were held throughout the year for Indigenous Education, including the More Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Teachers Initiative', also known as MATSITI, which was a project established in 2011 to increase the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people working as teachers in Australian schools. In 2016 the final stage of the MATSITI program saw participants joining with the Koorie Education Workers at a two-day conference where participants had an opportunity to work together on a number of areas.
The annual Watta Watnanda Education & Cultural Day for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Secondary Students was held on Friday 22 July 2016 at the Korin Gamadji Institute at the Richmond Football Club, Punt Road, Richmond. One hundred and sixteen secondary students from the Archdiocese of Melbourne along with staff, parents, Koorie Education Workers and Aboriginal community members were given an opportunity to gather together and live the National NAIDOC theme of Songlines: The living narrative of our nation. The 2016 Year 12 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Students Graduation dinner was held on Wednesday 16 September at the Catholic Leadership Centre, East Melbourne, in which 105 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students graduated.
In the area of English as an Additional Language (EAL) and New Arrivals (Refugees), several programs were implemented or continued to support teacher capability in ensuring sustainable improvement in the learning outcomes of newly arrived students with EAL. These included Refugee Support Strategies, professional learning for teachers, the Tools to Enhance Assessment Literacy for Teachers of EAL project, and direct support to schools by learning consultants.
The School Accounting Unit provides assistance to parish priests, school principals, business managers and school administrative personnel with regards to financial and administrative accounting procedures, and government accountability and reporting requirements. A framework of supporting schools to ensure financial viability and promoting best practice is central to the services of the Unit.
School accounting services are provided by:
In 2016, Regional Finance Officers (RFOs) continued to meet on a one-on-one basis with principals with a view to enhancing principals' financial management skills and understanding of key financial information. A new principal induction program was introduced during the year for newly appointed school principals. Attendance at these principal induction sessions was very high. A new School Financial Dashboard report was also rolled out to schools in 2016.
The biennial School Administrative Officers Conference for 2016 was held at the Catholic Leadership Centre (CLC) on 6 and 7 September 2016. There were approximately 235 registrants at the conference from primary schools. Three representatives from Catholic Education Western Australia also attended to gain ideas about the conference and also network with the Melbourne staff. During 2016, seven Melbourne Catholic primary schools transitioned from their previous school finance software packages to the Integrated Catholic Online Network (ICON). At the same time these schools adopted accrual accounting and will report their Annual Financial Statement (AFS) for 2016 on this basis.
Foreword 
Who we are 
Celebrations 
Awards 
Student Achievement and Fast Facts 
