Dear Friends and Families of St Paul’s,
As Term 3 ends we once again reflect on the myriad of activities and learning opportunities that the College has undertaken to assist students over the last few months. The education world is constantly evolving, and like the world of information technology we need to constantly keep up with the latest initiatives that present themselves to us. One such example is the evolving world of artificial intelligence (A.I.) While it all seems scary, it is, and can be, a technology that assists students with their learning if used correctly. Like all aspects of the modern educational world our staff will engage with it and use its capabilities when and where we should.
While our education world is constantly changing, some things about life here at St Paul’s must never change. Who we are as a Catholic school in the Edmund Rice tradition with our core values of Faith, Relationships, Excellence and Diversity will always remain. We will continue to build our beautiful community on the strength of our quality relationships, across all dimensions of college life. This was reinforced recently when the college, once again, employed the services of Greg Mitchell, an expert in human behaviour, to address our students and staff about all things working together and understanding each other, regardless of diversity or difference.
Subject Selection and Staffing for 2024
Term 3 is hectic as we both continue our normal educational activities while we also plan and develop all the necessary infrastructure for 2024. A major part of this is to review all of our subject offerings, develop new curriculum areas, and work with students and families through an extensive counselling process. This enables students to select and study the subjects they really would like to and what they need for future study and employment.
This then requires us to make sure we have the right staffing structures and physical resources to deliver on this, and the right timetable to fit everything in. Our Learning Teams and Leadership Teams work extremely hard to make sure this all falls into place and Mr Michael White does an enormous amount of work preparing out timetable for next year.
We have yet to complete all of our necessary staffing for 2024, with some areas of expertise becoming harder to fill, for the first time in my experience. There is no doubt that teaching is becoming more difficult, and many teachers are leaving the profession. We are fortunate here at St Paul’s that high quality staff are still applying to work in our community. This is not the case everywhere, so we are grateful for that. We will inform the community of all the staffing changes during the course of Term 4.
New Primary Building
The new primary precinct is coming along quite well. Our builders Sarah Constructions are working very diligently to make sure it is complete and available for us to move to prior to the end of the academic year. This has been and continues to be a significant challenge, but with better weather now we all hope that things can speed up a little to allow the completion date to be achieved. It is an extremely exciting development, and we look forward to showing this off to the community early in the new year.
2024 College Prefects
Another extremely important part of our preparation for 2024 is the process of selecting our College Captain, Vice-Captain, and Prefect Team. It is particularly pleasing to again have many students apply for these positions, knowing full well they can and will make a significant contribution to our college life next year. We are currently interviewing these students, and also allowing staff and students to have a vote. We will then take the successful team away on a camp for a few days for some intensive leadership training.
On behalf of all the staff I would like to express our thanks to all our families for their continued support throughout the term and, for those who can, we hope you have a great break.
Take Care
God Bless
Paul Belton
Dear Friends and Families of St Paul’s,
As Term 3 ends we once again reflect on the myriad of activities and learning opportunities that the College has undertaken to assist students over the last few months. The education world is constantly evolving, and like the world of information technology we need to constantly keep up with the latest initiatives that present themselves to us. One such example is the evolving world of artificial intelligence (A.I.) While it all seems scary, it is, and can be, a technology that assists students with their learning if used correctly. Like all aspects of the modern educational world our staff will engage with it and use its capabilities when and where we should.
While our education world is constantly changing, some things about life here at St Paul’s must never change. Who we are as a Catholic school in the Edmund Rice tradition with our core values of Faith, Relationships, Excellence and Diversity will always remain. We will continue to build our beautiful community on the strength of our quality relationships, across all dimensions of college life. This was reinforced recently when the college, once again, employed the services of Greg Mitchell, an expert in human behaviour, to address our students and staff about all things working together and understanding each other, regardless of diversity or difference.
Subject Selection and Staffing for 2024
Term 3 is hectic as we both continue our normal educational activities while we also plan and develop all the necessary infrastructure for 2024. A major part of this is to review all of our subject offerings, develop new curriculum areas, and work with students and families through an extensive counselling process. This enables students to select and study the subjects they really would like to and what they need for future study and employment.
This then requires us to make sure we have the right staffing structures and physical resources to deliver on this, and the right timetable to fit everything in. Our Learning Teams and Leadership Teams work extremely hard to make sure this all falls into place and Mr Michael White does an enormous amount of work preparing out timetable for next year.
We have yet to complete all of our necessary staffing for 2024, with some areas of expertise becoming harder to fill, for the first time in my experience. There is no doubt that teaching is becoming more difficult, and many teachers are leaving the profession. We are fortunate here at St Paul’s that high quality staff are still applying to work in our community. This is not the case everywhere, so we are grateful for that. We will inform the community of all the staffing changes during the course of Term 4.
New Primary Building
The new primary precinct is coming along quite well. Our builders Sarah Constructions are working very diligently to make sure it is complete and available for us to move to prior to the end of the academic year. This has been and continues to be a significant challenge, but with better weather now we all hope that things can speed up a little to allow the completion date to be achieved. It is an extremely exciting development, and we look forward to showing this off to the community early in the new year.
2024 College Prefects
Another extremely important part of our preparation for 2024 is the process of selecting our College Captain, Vice-Captain, and Prefect Team. It is particularly pleasing to again have many students apply for these positions, knowing full well they can and will make a significant contribution to our college life next year. We are currently interviewing these students, and also allowing staff and students to have a vote. We will then take the successful team away on a camp for a few days for some intensive leadership training.
On behalf of all the staff I would like to express our thanks to all our families for their continued support throughout the term and, for those who can, we hope you have a great break.
Take Care
God Bless
Paul Belton
