And the Word was God

In the beginning was the Word,

and the Word was with God,

and the Word was God.

He was in the beginning with God. 

All things came to be through him,

and without him nothing came to be.

What came to be through him was life,

and this life was the light of the human race;

the light shines in the darkness,

and the darkness has not overcome it.

And the Word became flesh
and made his dwelling among us,
and we saw his glory,
the glory as of the Father’s only Son,
full of grace and truth.

John 1:1 – 5, 14

My favourite Christmas story doesn’t mention donkeys, stables and choirs of angels. It comes from John’s Gospel and it is Gospel that is proclaimed at Masses on Christmas day. John cuts to the chase. This is not a tale, this is the moment in human history when God leaps into our story, taking on flesh and blood.

Imagine if you will, that the God who has brought all that is into being, himself is begotten and born. This self is the Son. One in being with the Creator.

The concept of incarnation is no stranger to eastern religion and is vehemently outside mainstream Islam and Judaism. However, deification and incarnation were well-known and wide-spread throughout the Persian, Greek and Roman empires. The Councils of Nicaea, Ephesus and Chalcedon finally gave definition to Jesus’ incarnation: he was fully human and fully divine, joined in a hypostatic union as one person.

John is under no illusion about who this Word is and what his role will be. There is no uncovering or unveiling, there is no need of a convoluted pilgrimage to Bethlehem nor the need for acknowledgement from wise men and shepherds. For him the incarnation is made real in the person of Jesus as he walked, preached, lived and breathed in 1^st Century Palestine.

While the nativity narratives reveal the richness of human storytelling, John directs us deep into the mystery. And this Christmas you too are invited to reflect on the great wealth of human history and God’s saving love and action, made flesh among us not once 2000 years ago, but made flesh each day in one another.

A warm and happy Christmas to you all. Click here to hear my children, Ally, Kamil and Casimir performing at the Devonport Carols by Candlelight this evening!

Peter Douglas

HEAD OF SCHOOL SERVICES, NORTH

Tracie Clyne is AO at the MacKillop Centre

How quickly time goes by.  This will be my second Christmas with the team at MacKillop Centre.  I’ve had a very full year with lots of learning, which means I ask lots of questions, and questions and more questions!  Poor Carole and the girls in Hobart who have had to answer them all!

I’ve totally enjoyed everything I’ve done from capturing images for the blog (one of my most important tasks each week), booking accommodation and meeting rooms, organising PL days and network days, authorizing payment of accounts, working for all of the Education Officers and including the Work Place Health & Safety men as well as greeting people at the front desk.

I put a lot of effort into my work and I am now reaping the rewards, recently being asked to take notes for a Northern Education Officer’s Meeting at Campbell Town.  I am being included at every level and loving every minute.  Looking forward to holidays and end of year functions and really looking forward to 2016.

Carole Goodwin is the AO at the Tenison Woods Centre

Well, Peter has asked me to say a few words in summation of my year.

I’m staring blankly at this document with the flashing cursor, which is taunting me to try write something funny, witty and uplifting – and yet I am at a total loss of what to say (I know many of you who know me find this very hard to believe).

So instead of me boring you all with the numerous Professional Learning Days I have assisted in organising and accommodation bookings I have made etc, let me talk about something very dear and close to my heart. My beautiful twin girls, Ebony and Brontie and the changes that are happening to us this year. 

2015 is the end of an era for my girls and I as tonight I take them to their Leavers Ceremony, where they will graduate from Sacred Heart Ulverstone and get ready to begin their journey to becoming young adults at St Brendan Shaw College.

It is with mixed emotions that I get ready to take them to this ceremony, sad they are no longer little girls, dependent on me like they once were. It’s been a gradual change really, little things you notice at first, Ebony being embarrassed to be seen driving in to the school grounds with me, neither giving me a kiss goodbye if there are too many kids around as Mum that’s just uncool.

But I am also very proud and happy to see the beautiful, confident young ladies they are becoming. They care for each other (mostly) and care about others around them. They are wanting to learn and try new things. This is a very big deal for my girls. They are truly starting to become very individual and starting to embrace those qualities.  I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the wonderful staff at Sacred Heart who have all at various stages of their lives helped develop their character and guide them when they struggled.

A massive shout out to Mark and Bec who have had a very big impact in their lives over the last 2 years.  We all love you.

So as this year ends and I get ready to begin a new chapter with my girls as young adults it is very definitely time for me to pray so please all pray this prayer with me …

I think we could all use this prayer often, I know it will become my mantra over the next 6 years. Haha!!!

Merry Christmas from my family to yours and I look forward to seeing you all again in the new year.

 

Fiona Labuschagne is EO: Wellbeing for the Northern Region

Every child deserves a champion – an adult who will never give up on them, who understands the power of connection and insists that they become the best that they can possibly be.

Rita Pierson

SWPBS is now a framework in nearly all of our North and North West schools. It has been a year of consolidation of practices and structures, revitalising systems that are already in place and in one case beginning the SWPBS journey. During our SWPBS network meeting it was pleasing to hear the success stories from all our schools and of particular importance was the use of data and how this informs PBS practice and decision making. Each school spent time looking at and editing their matrix and we were all amazed and how far our understanding of the purpose of the matrix had come and how succinctly we were able to word the explicit behaviours we wished to see.

A number of schools have successfully been implementing Tier 2 and 3 interventions and strategies. Examples of these were shared during the Network meeting and schools have been able to use the behaviour assessment and intervention tool that best suits their needs.  Tracking the effect of these strategies using their SWIS data provides valuable information across the school and one school has used this data to inform decisions when setting up classes for 2016.

The Tuning in to Kids and Teens programs that I have facilitated in some of our schools have been a great success and I have a number of sessions planned for next year. In addition to this I have recently attended training for a Dads Tuning in to Kids course that I am looking forward to running next year.

Have a well-earned break and enjoy some down time. Term 1 2016 will be here soon enough.

Richard Wassom is EO: Student Support for the Norrh

This year has been a year of consolidation and challenges for Student Support in the Northern region.  Our schools have continued to build their knowledge and understanding of the unique needs of students with additional learning needs through a number of local, state and national training sessions.  While Autism Spectrum Disorder continues to be a key learning area, we are also starting to explore the role of executive functioning on students with ASD, ADHD, APD and other learning difficulties made up of random letters.   We will continue this learning journey in 2016.

The year presented numerous challenges, particularly in developing the empathy, support and understanding among various school communities for students who are “different”.  While these were difficult times, I feel that we have made significant gains and will enter 2016 in a very good position.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

Gretchen Lane is EO: ICT & Digital Technologies for the Northern Region

Highlights for 2015:

·      Regional Professional Learning Days : Computational Thinking. Guest presenters Dr Katrina Faulkner and Rebecca Vivian (Adelaide University), Julie King (ACARA), Gary Brown and Josephine Scalone (Parramatta CEO) and Professor Tim Bell (Canterbury University NZ).

·      ICT & Digital Technologies Key Teacher Days: Supporting teachers to transform classroom practice through the use of ICT’s (SAMR Model)

Term 1: Implementation of the ICT Capability and familiarisation with Computational Thinking.

Term 3: STEAM Conference in Hobart.

·      Regional Teacher Network Meetings:

Term 1: RE and ICT Capability – Using ICT’s to elicit evidence in Religious Education

Term 3: Thinking Computationally across the curriculum

·      ICT Teacher Aide Network Meeting North and North West

·      North West Teacher Aide Professional Learning Day

Eliciting evidence for IEPs using ICT

Goals for 2016:

Improve Literacy Outcomes:

Support schools to use ICTs to elicit evidence of literacy and specifically oral language proficiency

Support schools to use ICTs to strengthen literacy and specifically oral language proficiency

Strengthen quality teaching:

Preparation for implementing Google Apps.

Support schools to up skill teachers in the use of ICTs as an instructional tool. 

Support schools to up skill teachers in the use of ICTs to elicit evidence of student learning.

Implement Curriculum:

Provide schools with advice and support in preparation for implementing the digital technologies curriculum in 2017. (Up skill key teachers)

Advise and support schools in the gathering of digital evidence of the Australian Curriculum Arts achievement standards

Deepen understanding of STEM and opportunities within the Australian Curriculum to enhance STEM learning.

Libby's Virtual Tour Visuals

PETER'S WHEREABOUTS FOR THE NEXT 2 WEEKS:

UPDATE: Tuesday 15 December, Peter is in Hobart

FROM ST JOSEPH'S - QUEENSTOWN:

 

FROM ST BRIGID'S:

FROM ST PATRICK'S - LATROBE:

 

FROM ST BRENDAN SHAW COLLEGE:

 
FROM LARMENIER:

FROM MARIST REGIONAL COLLEGE:

FROM OUR LADY OF MERCY:

FROM OUR LADY OF LOURDES:

FROM ST PETER CHANEL:

 

FROM ST FINN BARR'S:

  
 
FROM SACRED HEART - LAUNCESTON:

FROM STAR OF THE SEA:

FROM ST ANTHONY'S:

FROM SACRED HEART - ULVERSTONE:

FROM ST THOMAS MORE'S:

 
FROM STELLA MARIS:

 
FROM ST JOSEPH'S - ROSEBERY: