School Showcase

Aranmore wins national Dare to Lead award
(14 March 2008)

Last Friday was a great day of celebration for Aranmore Catholic College. Margaret Papertalk, Denise Conway and I were invited to Parliament House in Canberra to attend the Dare To Lead Excellence in Indigenous Education Awards.

Aranmore Catholic College was one of four schools and one cluster of schools from all over Australia to be presented with a High Achievement Award for Leadership in Indigenous Education.

The Honourable Julia Gillard, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Education, presented us with a plaque, a certificate and a cash prize of $6,000. The Award recognises the work of Margaret and Denise particularly but also the work of the College in improving educational outcomes for Aboriginal students. We are very proud of the successes our Aboriginal students have achieved over the past eight years and hope to see more successful graduations in the future.

The pastoral care afforded all students at the College has been particularly relevant to our Indigenous students who have travelled from the North West to continue their schooling.

Being so far away from home is always a challenge for these students. It is great to see them take up the challenge and settle into schooling in the city and ultimately achieve success.

Congratulations to Margaret who began our program in 2000, and to Denise who has been working with us since January 2005. We are all very proud of our achievements, the recognition we have received and the staff who have made it possible.

Jim Elliott
Principal

Teacher Designed School Project

Aranmore Catholic College has been invited, along with two other Primary Schools and a Secondary School, by the Director of Catholic Education, Mr Ron Dullard, to be a part of a School Improvement Project titled: Teacher Designed Schools.

This pilot project will be an opportunity for us to examine what kind of a school we would envision for the future and what steps Aranmore needs to take to bring that vision to fruition. We were delighted to accept the invitation and the financial support of the Catholic Education Office to embark on this project.

In early Term Two, the two Deputy Principals and I attended two days of workshops in Sydney which enabled us to gain an insight into the project as well as to talk to some members of schools who are in the network of schools in the project. The Teacher Designed Schools Network now covers five countries – Australia, New Zealand, the USA, the UK and Norway. Our experience of working with the facilitators, John Edwards and Bill Martin has excited us with the prospects this project offers. This is a long term project with three phases implemented over the next three years. We are sure that we can make a good school even better by examining our Vision for the future and the structures we need to put into place in the years ahead.

Jim Elliott
Principal