Our Lady of the Southern Cross Day Celebrations on Monday

I eagerly look forward to catching up with many of you and enjoying the celebration of the feast day of Our Lady of the Southern Cross, Mary – Mother of Jesus.  As the patron saint of our Diocese, and the namesake of our College, this marks an important day for our community.  Please join with us  on Monday commencing with Prayer Celebration at 12:30pm, followed by activities on the Oval!

Beyond the religious significance of the day, as outlined later in the newsletter, it is important that we also take this opportunity to be grateful for what God has graced us with at our wonderful College. I have been struck with pride recently when recognising the College learning environments, teachers, timetables, facilities and fee structures that we have in place.  We have the luxury of a remarkably stable teaching team at our College, meaning that our students are fortunate enough to have the same teacher throughout an entire year in most subjects. This isn’t only great for academic outcomes, its also wonderful for quality learning relationships to be built between students and teachers. In Michael Fullan’s new book The Principal 2.0, he speaks of the “new purposes for education: well-being and learning with respect to individual, community, and societal development. Individual academic development occurs within this framework but does not dominate as it has for the past two deacades.  Belongingness is a key factor.” This is the true value of a College like ours. We are big enough to provide significant opportunities for students, yet small enough for every child to be known and valued for the important role they play in the College community.  They belong. 

I am also remarkably proud of the ongoing work of teachers in classrooms, and the staff that support them.  This week, Mrs Bennie, Mrs Pevy and Education Officer, Mrs Cath Kimmorley, walked through the whole College identifying teacher practice that is in alignment with the Diocesan Approach to Reading, and Visible Learning. The quality of our teacher practice assures the standard of teaching and learning that happens in the classrooms at OLSCC is high, and also provides us insight into our next steps to ensure our teachers are always providing an excellent education to the students here. This includes a technology platform that is used remarkably well, not because of the product, rather, due to the input and expertise of teachers using the software to maximise impact for students.  The teaching and learning in classrooms, and the technology that supports this, are still at the cutting edge at OLSCC.

Everyone who doesn’t teach a class at OLSCC, including me, has one core job to do and that is to allow teachers to do their best work in the classroom. Our support staff, including grounds, cleaners, admin, classroom school officers, careers team and leadership team are all here to ensure that teachers can do their best work in and out of the classroom. What’s great about our support staff is they do their work through our Catholic lens – serving others selflessly.  We are blessed with an amazing support staff at OLSCC, in fact, if you ask some kids who their favourite staff member is, you may be surprised by the answer. I definitely know that Sonny Carmichael and Mr Chiverton have a lot to talk about every time they catch up!

Most importantly, we know and value who we are as a community. We consistently perform very well academically, socially, in sport, and in the standard of the great humans that we turn out into the world. We do so at a price point that enables families, who value what we provide, to access an education here.  We also have a vast amount of space for our students to run and play, some great facilities like the Ag Paddock, our Library, INTAD, our great ovals, a couple of extra grassed areas about to be planted/turfed, and a beautiful community that supports everything we do. I am very proud of the wonderful College we have here at OLSCC, the amazing staff that commit themselves to growing great people, the students who turn up and do their best whenever they can, and the community of love and support that surrounds us all. Have a wonderful weekend and I hope to see many of you on Monday afternoon.

Dalby Speech and Drama Eisteddfod Results

There were some wonderful performances and achievements at the Speech and Drama Eisteddfod earlier this month. On assembly last week, 3W were presented with their trophy for ‘Best Verse Speaking Choir’, a great result for the class.  Of special note, Nadine Garside won the Senior Secondary Speech and Drama Championship which was in addition to the Vocal Championship earlier in the year and was the first quinella of these trophies for any Dalby competitor in quite some time. There were plenty of other champions as well. Please check out Ms Creeley’s newsletter item for more details.

At OLSCC, we strive to grow great people, great people that become learners of influence and impact. I encourage students of all ages to engage in the aforementioned areas of our College to develop the skills they need to have influence and impact in the world in which they live!

Peter Cuskelly

Principal