Tenison Woods and MacKillop Centre News: December 2014

Be happy at all times; pray constantly; and for all things give thanks to God, because this is what God expects you to do in Christ Jesus.

Never try to suppress the Spirit or treat the gift of prophecy with contempt; think before you do anything – hold on to what is good and avoid every form of evil.

May the God of peace make you perfect and holy; and may you all be kept safe and blameless, spirit, soul and body, for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. God has called you and he will not fail you.

1 Thessalonians 5:16 - 24

We celebrated my father-in-law Jim’s 86^th birthday at Sunday lunch today. We were joined, as usual, by my son and his young family, an almost-three year old grandson and eight month old granddaughter. It dawned on me naturally enough that our granddaughter will turn 86 in 2100, a new century.

I wondered what Jim had seen in his 86 years. Born and bred in Branxholm and Ringarooma in far northeast Tasmania, a descendant of free German settlers who arrived as transportation ended. His life was pretty typical of a country kid at that time. He later moved to Launceston where he took up an apprenticeship in motor mechanics, married, had a family, spent time in Hobart before finally settling in Ulverstone and retiring. Though he enjoys good health, he awaits the inevitable without anxiety and rancour, longing to be reunited with his loved wife, Marjory. When the time comes, he will be buried alongside her at Somerset.

Jim doesn’t share the faith that was given to his wife and children, though he has, over the years, given it some serious thought.

Yet, he too awaits the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He doesn’t have the religious and theological language that helps communicate this sense of anticipation, though he follows established religious and customary practice in celebrating Easter and Christmas. Above all, Jim is a grateful man, for the blessings and gifts, and the ordinary and extraordinary events of his long life.

Has Jim been happy? Yes. Check. Does he give thanks for all he has? Yes. Check. Does he suppress the life of the Spirit? No. Check. Does he think before acting? Yes. Check. If this is so, I have every confidence that the God who loves us and brings us into life will, by Jim’s last breath, make him perfect and holy. For God has promised him this, he has called him and will not fail him.

As we begin our third week of Advent, try Paul’s checklist. And be confident.

Peter Douglas

HEAD OF SCHOOL SERVICES: NORTH

Head of School Services, North: Peter Douglas

Challenging. That word perfectly describes the last six months since beginning in this role. It is far from the role of principalship, as distant as the classroom teacher is from the principal! The process of learning the job is, however, much the same. It certainly requires a huge breadth of knowledge – curriculum, classroom practice, behaviour management, educational leadership theory, school improvement, industrial relations, a smattering of legal knowledge, and a great deal of patience and ingenuity, a passing understanding of the operations of the TCEO and a willingness to keep on learning through all the mistakes! And then, like many of my colleagues who populate our northern offices, there is the travel and time away from home.

An additional challenge is ‘managing’ two offices 120 km apart and being a useful presence at both centres. Working with staff to complete their PDRs was a logistical experience to remember!

The highlights of the last six months would be my visits to schools and in particular time spent with principals and where possible with our students.

More than challenging is my struggle with the corporateness that I find quite out of sync with Paul’s ideal of unity and diversity (1 Corinthians 12). It seems I have much to understand and this has become more than evident in these last six months and have set me a personal, professional and religious challenge that I must meet if I am to be an authentic disciple of Jesus and a worthy servant of Catholic education.

There is great good being achieved by many and I honestly admire the commitment, professonalism and drive that I see as I travel the state. Thank you for what you do to make a difference for our students.

ICT Technician: Mark Schleich

Mark services our schools from Burnie to the far NW and West Coast.

This year has been a busy and challenging year with the launch of the online student reports using Filemaker Pro v13 at selected schools along the North West and West Coast and the changeover to the new network model at St Joseph’s Queenstown and St Joseph’s Rosebery.

St Brigid’s Wynyard and St Joseph’s Queenstown were two schools that took on the challenge of doing student reports online.

The positives of having student reports online:

• Cut down on double handing by being able to read and edit active reports during the report writing period for Principals and teachers.

• Specialist teachers being able to access active reports at their convenience.

• Being able to access and compare previous reports while writing current reports.

• Have the auto correct Australian dictionary.

• Reducing the likelihood of data loss, duplication or corruption while using USB devices.

• The online server (The Mother Ship) backs up every five minutes which is one less process teachers need not concern themselves with.

• Once reports are imported back into the local school server ready for printing the reports become readable only by teachers.

Quotes from Principals “It was such an easy process compared to previous year’s reports”.

“The process was easy to follow and we had no glitches - technical reliability is a big positive factor”.

“We were also able to change the font size and modify printing options, so some versatility was useful too”.

New network model rollout:

St Joseph’s Queenstown and Rosebery agreed to be the first schools along the North and North West to change over to the new network model. It was a four day process with many challenges. During this process all network switches had their firmware upgraded.

The positives of the new network model:

• Standardised network model across the whole system.

• Access to a dedicated guest network.

• A phone Vlan installed in the likelihood that schools may install an IP phone system similar to the TCEO system.

• A DMZ -Vlan is available for when schools are connected to the NBN so that schools are able to run their own instance of Owncloud from within the school which then gives students access to their own data from home using their iPads or MacBooks.

• Transparent proxies, which is useful for Apps that do not allow entering proxy settings.

Social Worker: Amy Sullivan

Amy is based in Ulverstone and services the North West Coast.

As we start winding down for another year, I am able to reflect on my time in 2014 working in our NW Primary schools as a School Counsellor/Social Worker.

This role is very special and significant as I am being entrusted by parents, schools and children themselves to work alongside a student or family when they are feeling their most vulnerable. I am assigned the responsibility of ensuring a child feels safe to share, to feel and to change. It is important to do this without judgement, taking over or having a student 'need' me to feel better within themselves.

A Social Worker's main aim is to aid positive change/s in a client’s life. When I work with children this is what I strive to do. During the year I have been privileged to watch many children grow. I have seen students make a stance in toxic friendship environments, learn to curb their 'short fuse' with internal counting, grieve for a lost parent, learn to read social cues and facial expressions when it does not come naturally to them, to stop blaming themselves for things that are out of their control and to learn that anger is a secondary emotion. These are just naming a few. However, something I always encounter is for children to learn their personal strengths and using them to their advantage.

I am very proud of what my students have achieved, especially as the nature of their milestones mean that they may go unnoticed by others.

I am looking forward to continuing support and creating new relationships in 2015, more so when I have had a lovely summer break. Some potential worries for children in the new schools year could be: Seating arrangements in class (will they have to choose? Will anybody choose them?). Upcoming school camps/overnight excursions (for some this could be a first sleep-over experience. I have already counselled children this month about trips that are happening next year): school buses, separation anxiety, new routines and teachers.

Have a safe and happy Christmas,

Amy

Learning Support EO: Richard Wassom

Richard is based in Launceston and services schools from Deloraine to George Town.

This year has mostly been a year of consolidation for me. As a region we have continued to focus on the IEP process and I have continued to support the teachers in writing the draft versions of the IEP. It is fair to say that there has been a tremendous improvement in the quality of the IEPs and the number of non-funded students who have IEPs written for them. I congratulate all of the principals, SLN’s and teachers for their hard work in this process.

This year staff members from several schools completed online learning modules in dyslexia and we will continue to offer similar units in 2015. I provided some school based PLs this year but did not offer much in the way of disability specific PLs; something I hope to rectify in 2015. I have attended numerous professional learning opportunities this year and am currently working on ways to help pass on this information to teachers and TAs next year.

WHS Coordinator: Andrew Goelst

Andrew services school communities and TCEO offices across the state.

The biggest joy for myself at work this year as been seeing the Risk and Adventure in Outdoor Learning Policy starting to bring about new opportunities for students and school communities. Some of my favourite words this year have been "Hi Andrew, because of the Risk/Adventure Policy we are now doing..." The "now" has included fire pits, tree climbing, driving ride on lawn mowers, mountain bike tracks, cardboard sleds down steep grass hills, sticks, tires, and mud! Among many other things, plus a tangible change in use of the bush block at Sacred Heart Geeveston that now includes city-based schools making the trip to use the bush block.

The photo of the bush liturgy is an example of the "we are doing now" conversation from Geeveston, and with a photo worth a thousand words also an image of my kind of church. I want to thank the collaboration of Principals, willing teachers, teacher assistants, utility officers, cleaners, Facilities Staff and the front line WHS staff that follow up with the matching paperwork. So hopefully in 2015 we will see more schools with Risk Benefit Analysis documents in place to support the outworking of opportunities that are a key part of educating the "whole child".

Learning Support EO: Judy Pakinga

Judy is based in Ulverstone and services schools from Queenstown to Latrobe.

In the area of Student Support, there have been 4 new SLN teachers in the 8 schools making up the north west region. They have done wonderful things at their schools, and, along with the existing SLNs, continue to show their dedication and willingness to support the growing numbers of students with needs in their school.

Focus for this year has been upon the development of a new IEP document, which targets the needs of funded students to access the curriculum. Similarly, a a growing number of non-funded students also have an IEP or Adjusted Learning Plan. My involvement has been with teachers to develop these plans and also to assist with parent meetings as needed.

The data pertaining to all funded students (Disability Count), which is a commonwealth-funded initiative, has been entered by all schools into our systemic data base for the first time in 2014. In order for the data count to take place, many SLNs and administrative staff had to re-organise student files – which took considerable time and energy.

A number of schools took advantage of the Online Training opportunities offered in Speech, Communication and Language Needs and Dyslexia. It’s been really encouraging to note the numbers of Teacher Assistants who have taken on this training to support the students with whom they work.

WHS Officer: Simon Natoli

Simon is based in Launceston and services schools from across northern Tasmania.

While you don’t see me often at your school, you can call me on 0400 105 76 to ask WHS queries or to try saving you time. Often similar queries have come up at another school, so we can share our work and learnings with you.

Digital Technologies EO: Gretchen McCoy

Gretchen is based in Ulverstone and services all schools in the whole Northern Region.

With the restructuring of Digital Technology Education Officer positions, my role has involved being able to provide more focused and intensive support to the Northern Region. This has been achieved through implementation of 1:1 devices in many schools and continued ongoing support of established 1:1 programs. Another key focus has been the integration of the ICT Capability across the curriculum with a specific focus during Regional Network Meetings on Geography and Formative Assessment.

Peter Lelong and myself were fortunate enough to attend the "ULearn" Conference in Rotorua with over 1700 teachers in attendance. Workshops included; Google apps and the classroom, Digital Portfolios, The Need for New Pedagogy and 3D Printing and Robotics.

This resulted in CEO providing the Northern Region with a 3D Printer for schools to use. Two schools have welcomed this innovative technology, with both looking to purchase a 3D printer next year.

ICT Coordinator Days have covered:

ICT Tools to support Formative Assessment,
Dr Tim Bell from Canterbury University with his "Computer Science Unplugged" activities; and,
Exploration of the Digital Technology curriculum with resources to support this.

I look forward to seeing you all at the Regional Network Days at the start of the new year (when I will have a new surname!) and working within your schools throughout 2015.

Peter's whereabouts for the next week:

Meetings coming up:

Please forward any agenda items for meetings (with some indication of time required and context) to Carole at carole.goodwin@catholic.tas.edu.au or Tracie at tracie.clyne@catholic.tas.edu.au