Catholic school rolls - like those of other Christian schools - are bursting in Christchurch. They're seen as "desirable" schools.

Under pressure

The Catholic Diocese across Christchurch has over 7000 students. Besides these, non-Catholic Christian schools account for about 3500.

The difficulty is, the Catholic diocese's 35 primary and secondary schools are at 91 percent of their maximum roll capacity.

Hundreds of potential students apply to attend these schools but miss out.

Several Christian schools across Canterbury are also near capacity; four have applied to the Ministry of Education to increase their student rolls.

Fixed allocations remain

Catholic school manager Mike Nolan said Christchurch diocese schools would not be increasing places available for non-Catholic students.

Parents who are non-practising Catholics were welcome to apply, but would be restricted to the five percent "non-religious" allocation.

"All people are always welcome to join us, wherever people find themselves in their faith journey" Nolan said.

Faith wins a place

In many cases, families have to provide evidence of their faith practice if they are to secure a place for their children at their Christian school of choice.

Depending on the school, applicants may need to produce statements of faith, preference certificates (effectively an endorsement from the church), letters from priests confirming church attendance and testifying that they will uphold the Christian character of the school.

Some anonymous Facebook posts from parents confess that they baptised their children to increase the chances of being offered a place at a desirable Catholic primary school.

Others offer tips about which primary schools feed into the best Catholic high schools.

University of Canterbury sociology professor Mike Grimshaw said it was "well known" that non-practising Catholic parents were rediscovering the value of their dormant faith, if that could open the door to certain schools.

"Most of these parents are not necessarily interested in a religious education, but are buying a non-state education."

He said Christian schools offer a cheaper version of a private education while the state school system is not providing the required ethos, teaching, standards, student cohort and outcomes.

Choose the closest school

Families should attend the closest Catholic school to their homes, Nolan said.

The Ministry of Education supports this view, with recent changes to legislation saying siblings of current students no longer have the right to enrol at a school if they don't live in the local area.

Changes to the so-called "grandparenting" clause were to provide a fair and transparent process for enrolment where there is more demand than there are places, the Ministry says.

Catholic diocese and Christian schools applied an "area of reasonable convenience" which should encourage families to choose the closest religious school.

"In our Catholic school context, parish boundaries and the Catholic primary schools within those parish boundaries provide a mechanism for ensuring this principle is met" Nolan said.

Source

• The Press

Yeast, he wrote, is an agent of infusion, of integration and penetration that transforms the flour into which it is introduced. He compared this with the integrating quality of faith.

Father Ong had good authority for the metaphor. Jesus spoke of the kingdom of God as being like leaven.

I would like to contrast this metaphor of yeast with a metaphor of "frosting," as applied to Catholic education.

Rather than infusing a cake the way yeast does, frosting does not permeate the cake, but only layers itself upon it.

These two metaphors capture in a simple, but I believe accurate way, two competing visions of Catholic education, from preschool to university.

Yeast

Father Ong explained that the function of yeast has parallels in the etymology of the word "catholic," which comes from the Greek katholikos, from kath or kata ("throughout") and holos ("whole"): "throughout-the-whole."

Like yeast in a loaf, faith, in a genuinely Catholic education, interacts with all other disciplines, such as the humanities, sciences, social sciences and the professions.

Faith does not replace disciplines or transform them into itself; rather, when faith encounters reason, it reveals and orders reason's deeper realities of truth and goodness.

Like yeast, faith expands throughout the whole educational enterprise because there are no limits to its borders.

Faith, not a mere emotion but a divine illumination, is the theological virtue that expands the mind and soul, enabling us to see more deeply and more broadly.

When faith views a human being, it sees everything the natural eye sees, but it pierces more deeply into the depths of human reality.

It does not fall prey to the reductive sight that sees only a biological organism whose value can be measured in strictly economic terms.

Instead, the eyes of faith perceive a unique and unrepeatable immortal soul, made in the image of God and intended for the kingdom.

Faith sees the invisible in the visible, the spirit in matter, the immeasurable in the measurable. Faith is a habit of mind whereby eternal life begins in us, where we see the end in our beginnings.

Closer to home, it is with vision leavened by faith that I can see the image of God in that student in the back row with the baseball cap, whose bored look signals that I cannot teach him a thing.

Faith and other disciplines

Examples of bringing faith into contact with other disciplines abound in the Catholic educational tradition.

A few examples among many include the early church fathers, who built upon the Greco-Roman philosophical tradition, bringing out the intrinsic complementarity of faith and reason.

Another classic example is that of the scholar/saints like Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas, who performed a similar yeast-like operation when a flood of ancient writings (often filtered through Muslim thinkers), especially of Plato and Aristotle, swept through European societies and were integrated into the work of universities.

More recently, Catholic social teaching has engaged with business theory and practice, exploring the relationship between the social nature of property and capital, applying a Christian view of justice and its implications for wages and prices and wealth distribution, as well as contributing to an understanding of the nobility of the vocation and the work of business leaders.

Another recent example might be found in the current dialogue among scientists, theologians and philosophers on some of the most momentous scientific questions facing us, such as the theory of the Big Bang, the origin of the universe and evolutionary thought.

These conversations and insights of integration enrich both the various disciplines and faith itself.

The disciplines become more nourishing and less reductionist, and faith is purified by seeing more concretely what the legal scholar Helen Alvaré calls the "inbreaking of the Kingdom."

Tension and debate will no doubt arise in the interaction of faith and reason, but this is nothing new in the Catholic educational tradition.

The medieval university's pedagogical approach was structured on such questions and debates. Its pedagogy was dialectical, including both lecture and disputation.

The lecture was not given to evoke mere assent, but as a prologue to disputation.

The Socratic method—the art of the question—was incorporated into Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologiae, proposing questions and articulating both sides of an argument in search of a deeper synthesis.

Yet students are increasingly afraid to disagree with others, often out of fear of being labeled or of simply being wrong. This is a debilitating condition for education.

A Catholic education should hone the art of the question that is "questing" not for slogans or political correctness (whether left or right), but what the Rev. Luigi Giussani called the "religious sense," an ultimate meaning that is discoverable but never exhaustible.

The metaphor of yeast and the meaning of the word catholic point us to two key integrating principles of Catholic education: the unity of knowledge and the complementarity of faith and reason.

The ability to integrate knowledge is the highest activity of the human mind, and it is these two leavening principles that move the mind to wisdom.

If Catholic schools cease engaging such principles, they will no longer operate as yeast. Instead, they are likely to merit the second metaphor mentioned above: Catholic education as frosting. Read more

• Michael J. Naughton is the director of the Center for Catholic Studies at the University of St. Thomas, in Minnesota.

Parents of students at Cardinal McKeefry Catholic Primary School in Wilton have been told the Wellington Catholic Archdiocese had spoken to the Ministry of Education to consider the school's future.

Kelly Ross, vicar for education and the director of the Catholic Schools Education Services, said the decision was made because of stagnant population growth, reflected in enrolment trends across the education sector. Read more

Times have since changed, and those past realities are, for the most part, just that. Hartmayer maintains that Catholic schools are "essential," and he has now taken the helm of an association that supports and develops Catholic educators, who are now predominantly lay people.

"When I was growing up there were only Catholics in Catholic schools because there were so many of us, and there were so many religious, and it was almost as if every parish had a school," Hartmayer told Crux. "But things have changed, and have evolved as there are fewer and fewer religious."

Read More

Hamish Prince, who graduated from college in 2014, recently spoke to students about his journey from Dunedin to NASA.

Prince, a graduate research assistant in atmospheric science, shared how his love for fieldwork and the outdoors led him to a career at NASA.

"I didn't really know what I wanted to do ... I knew I liked field work and being outside" he told the students.

After completing a geography degree at the University of Otago and a master's degree, Prince received a Fulbright scholarship to pursue his PhD at the University of Wisconsin. This opportunity paved the way for his involvement with NASA.

Working on the Prefire Mission

For the past three years, Prince has been part of the science team working on NASA's Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-Infrared Experiment (Prefire) Mission.

This project involves launching two small satellites to study Earth's radiant energy, crucial for understanding sea ice loss and polar warming.

"There are big changes happening in our world, and we want to be measuring them so we know how they are changing and what we can do to stop these changes" Prince explained.

Inspiring the Next Generation

Prince emphasised that he never planned to work for NASA but simply followed his interests.

"I never had the goal of becoming a scientist on a NASA project. I just followed my nose and did what I enjoyed. If you do something that you enjoy, then it won't feel like work and it'll just come naturally."

Prince is set to complete his PhD next year and plans to return to Dunedin to continue exploring where his passion will lead him next.

Source

• ODT

Leonard worked for 25 years in forming teachers and spoke recently to the South Australian Catholic school leaders in Adelaide, Australia.

For many children, Catholic schools are the only Christian community they may ever belong to, and they must find people who are passionate about Christ and the Church's best proclamations.

Currently parish priest of the combined parishes of North Sydney, Lavendar Bay and Kirribilli, Leonard quipped it also meant he was the parish priest of Luna Park.

Applying the teaching of loving God and your neighbour is key, he told Catholic school leaders.

"Our core business is applying the teaching of Jesus to all aspects of our schools - 'Love God and love your neighbour as yourself. On this hangs all the law and prophets'" Leonard stated.

Increasing demand for Catholic education

Leonard outlined key statistics showing declining religious practice in Australia, with only 9.1% of Catholics attending Mass weekly. However, he observed that the demand for Catholic education continues to grow.

"Demand for Catholic education is ever increasing. Our schools are going up (in enrolments), but participation in local parishes is going down, dramatically so" he said.

"Schools are not a business.

"They are a series of relationships - relationship with God, the church community and stakeholders.

"So how do we animate our vision for a faith-filled community that's neither pious nor fundamentalist?

"Unashamedly, we are following Jesus. It's Jesus' way, truth and light and we're on the same mission. Sometimes the parish and the school can feel increasingly like we're on two missions. It's the one mission with two expressions."

Leonard encouraged educators to create welcoming, hospitable liturgical communities with good music and preaching at their schools.

Evangelical moments

The Jesuit priest said that the perceived dilution of faith means some clergy want to close down Catholic education.

"I want to own right up front - there are some priests because I've heard them, who want to close Catholic education down. There have at least been a couple of bishops, the way they've spoken at Catholic education conferences that I've been at, the way they spoke to principals, the way they have berated them, they've chastised them, that people aren't going to Mass any more…that we've diluted the faith, it's just terrible."

On the contrary, Leonard wants to make the schools modern mission territories.

Leonard said nobody baptised or celebrated weddings and funerals better than Catholics "when we get it right".

"They are our greatest evangelical moments, people who go to a cathedral for a big funeral are probably not believers, but they're on our turf and we need to welcome them, take that group very seriously because they have an impact on who we are" he said.

"But the first thing we tell people is that they can't go to communion.

"Similarly, Catholic schools should be embraced" he said.

Sources

The Southern Cross

Non-government schools save taxpayers at least $4.59 billion annually in recurrent funding costs.

The research from Catholic Schools NSW, published March 14, reveals that if all schools received their full government funding entitlement, the yearly recurrent savings provided by non-government institutions would skyrocket to $6.31 billion.

Dallas McInerney, CEO of Catholic Schools NSW says that while offering affordable, values-based education and amid soaring enrolments the Catholic system alone in NSW saves over $500 million per year

Further benefiting taxpayers, the study found non-government schools cover over 90% of their capital expenditure privately, amounting to $4.48 billion in savings during 2022.

Source: Catholic Schools NSW

Schools have become a more diverse workforce. This has led many learning communities to introduce formation opportunities. These enable all teachers to participate in enhancing the Catholic school's mission.

Buchanan (pictured) said a growing number of schools across the globe support staff's formation through spiritual direction.

He also said spiritual direction could be an effective, non-threatening option for all staff members. That includes staff who don't identify as Catholic but are committed to working in Catholic schools.

"Thirty per cent of the people in Catholic schools across Australia don't identify as Catholic," Buchanan said.

They have a right to be formed, he said.

"If we are truly a Catholic school or a Catholic institution or a Catholic faith-based community, we have a responsibility to support all members of the school community in their formation," he said.

He added that these teachers' contributions to the school also shape the school's Catholic identity.

Drawing on the spiritual direction skills would have positive benefits, he suggested.

It would allow an approach to formation that "enables a teacher to make sense of who they are as a person dedicated to a vocation and the practice of being a teacher in a Catholic school," he said.

A vocational profession

Buchanan said most teachers at a Catholic school consider their profession to be a vocation.

"Their vocation is education, the education of the next generation of people, the formation of young people through education of what it means to be human.

"When you're involved in a ministry or a vocation or a profession as challenging as teaching, you are constantly giving of yourself to others, and you need to be nourished and supported."

Buchanan said formation opportunities in schools tended to be one-off annual days or week-long retreat experiences.

Employing professionals with skills in spiritual direction would provide more consistent ongoing support, he said. It would help teachers whose educational endeavours are the cornerstone of a Catholic school's ability to achieve its mission.

"A spiritual director is not there to evangelise, though that's not to say that evangelisation may not happen," he said.

"But their primary role is to journey with each individual teacher, to help them reflect upon and connect their professional commitment and experiences with their own sense of vocation and humility."

Source

• Catholic Leader

Wanting to help, in mid-September, the Trust emailed the invitations to 160 parishes throughout the country, but a month later, two weeks before applications closed on November 1, no applications had been received.

On learning of the blank result, CathNews contacted ten parishes throughout New Zealand.

It stopped phoning after no one reported receiving the Hibernian's email.

The email informed parishes the Hibernians in Hastings want to support the educational needs of students at Catholic primary and secondary schools in New Zealand.

Mike Martin, president of the St Joseph's branch of the Hibernian Catholic Benefit Society, is wondering what's gone wrong.

"Surely, all our emails can't have ended up in ‘the round file?" Martin wondered.

Martin said the Trust currently has $5000 available to distribute to support students' education.

For various reasons, including legal work on the trust deed, administration updating and a temporary lack of sufficient funds, this was the first distribution the Trust has been able to make since 2016.

The money comes from interest earned on a fund set up in the 1980s that the trust administers.

As of October 4, 2022, Martin said the fund stood at approximately $62,000.

The application form sent to parishes outlines the Trust's objectives.

These "are to generally provide support for the educational needs of children who practise the Catholic religion, provided they reside in New Zealand and are nominated either by a branch of the Hibernian Society in New Zealand or by their parish priest".

According to the application form, assistance from the Trust may supplement the costs of fees, books, travel and/or accommodation overheads.

Those applying are asked to supply a brief history of scholastic record, as well as any present or previous scholarships. Future career objectives should also be stated.

Martin said notices about the financial support and applications had always been sent to parish priests in the past.

He said that consideration could be given to sending the forms to school principals in the future.

Source

• NZ Catholic
• Contact the Hibernians

The latest comes from David Palmieri of Outreach, a US LGBTQ Catholic resource.

"Aroha and Diversity in Catholic Schools, manifests the love of Jesus Christ in its courage to seek "respect, compassion, and sensitivity" for LGBTQ children in Catholic schools and colleges" he says.

For this unique effort among Catholic leaders, "Aroha" deserves global recognition and accolades, he says.

The National Centre for Religious Studies (NCRS), a branch of the official teaching arm of the NZ Catholic bishops' Te Kupenga-Catholic Leadership Institute, talked to Palmieri about their role in helping draft the new document.

The NCRS is responsible for Religious Education curricula and resources at primary and secondary school levels, and provides an early childhood curriculum.

The NCRS "is led by Colin MacLeod, and is blessed by the wisdom and experience of full-time or part-time curriculum and resource developers: Laurel Lanner, Sam Steele, Kate McHeyzer, Stephen Woodnutt (seconded for 2022) and Lyn Smith".

"The bishops genuinely care for the young people in their schools and want to support them," the NCRS told Palmieri.

"Throughout the process, the New Zealand bishops have been compassionately aware of the need to support vulnerable young people."

In September 2020, the New Zealand Ministry of Education released new guidelines for education on relationships and sexuality.

They included gender considerations for all grade levels.

The bishops' new document acknowledges that in the culture, there are some "ideological stances which run counter to Catholic teaching on human sexuality."

As an example, the NCRS says 2018 census data shows 48.2 percent of the New Zealand population is religiously unaffiliated.

Additionally, the Catholic Church is navigating cultural divergences among its members from official doctrines. These include prostitution, same-sex marriage, abortion and euthanasia.

The NCRS says the bishops are also concerned about the over-sexualisation of society, which targets young people and influences their principles and choices.

The bishops' process for drafting the document "highlights the reality that being followers of Jesus today is just as complex as it was in Jesus' time, and the Church needs to be just as creative, compassionate and strong in its message of love and faith as modelled by Jesus."

According to the NCRS, the document's preparation was an exercise in synodality and co-responsibility.

The bishops listened to school principals, guidance counsellors, directors of religious studies and diocesan religious education advisors. Principals involved in the drafting process were very clear that this document was needed urgently in schools.

They also "spoke to some groups of high school seniors and school leavers to see what they had to say about positive and negative experiences in New Zealand Catholic schools, and what advice they had to offer."

Another positive aspect is the bishops' choice to use "LGBTQ language".

"We used LGBTQIA+ because we wanted to show inclusivity. This is also the terminology used in the Ministry of Education documentation on relationship and sexuality education, and it is the language used by young people in general," NCRS says.

"Aroha" takes a far different approach from the US with LGBTQI+ issues. It advises "each situation must be judged on its merits.

The document is unique in at least three ways, NCRS told Outreach.

As it's a pastoral guide, it shows a preferential option for the principles of Catholic social teaching.

It features a pastoral approach to catechesis on human sexuality.

The NZCBC prioritise the affirming and buffering of young people.

Source

• NCRS
• Outreach

Primarily targeting Catholic educators, "Aroha and Diversity in Catholic Schools" is the opposite of so many policies which have harmed students and upset school communities in recent years, Shine comments.

The document clearly shows the bishops' core concern is young people's safety and well-being, not with defending church teaching, he says.

He sees the guideline as exciting "as it provides Catholics worldwide with an opportunity to grow in understanding and to improve pastoral practice."

First, most importantly, the bishops address LGBTQ+ issues primarily through the lens of social justice, Shine says.

"The text stresses repeatedly values like respecting human dignity, advancing solidarity, and promoting the common good.

"At the document's heart is the clear statement, 'How we as a Church treat those members of the LGBTQIA+ community should reflect Catholic social teaching.'"

Shine notes the bishops recognise this commitment to social justice is central for young people.

"Such a social justice-focused approach is different from nearly every other diocesan or national gender policy, which sadly focus instead on upholding orthodoxy and imposing LGBTQ-negative prohibitions."

Second, and linked to the first point, there is a repeated emphasis on the need to end discrimination and curtail bullying, Shine notes.

He says he likes the guideline's practical advice, which includes general principles like:

• "Ensure that school is a safe place - many young people may not feel accepted anywhere else ... school may be their only ... sanctuary."
• "Acceptance of others sets a very ‘low bar' - Catholic schools need to be centres of welcome from all the community. . ."
• "Ensure ... procedures and guidelines on how homophobia, sexism, racism, and other forms of violence are unacceptable and how they are to be addressed ...".

The third point is the role an informed conscience has in handling personal, complex issues like gender and sexuality.

"Catholic schools are called to help form the consciences of the young people in their care, while recognising that parents, caregivers and whanau have a role to play in this area. . ."

Practical suggestions include encouraging staff to educate themselves about LGBTQIA+ people, to develop relevant resources and revise gender-related dress codes. It also provides practical guidelines for young people themselves.

The final section - "Tools for Decision Making" - includes questions on how to hold events or promote resources.

On the minus side, Shine says the document reiterates... a conservative interpretation of church teaching!

"Yet, the document does so in a way that is far more limited than other policy documents on this subject."

Catholic education worldwide can now study the guidelines, he says. By being so focused on localised decision-making, the bishops end up offering universal principles and tools for reflection.

New Ways Ministry has locked horns with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the US bishops for its dissent from Catholic teaching on homosexuality.

Pope Francis, however, has praised its founder in a handwritten letter.

Source

• New Ways Ministry

When done with respect, "education offers a meaning, a narrative to every element of human life," and it "helps to bring out the best in each person, to polish the diamond that the Lord has placed in each one," Pope Francis said on 30 September in a written message to members of the Fraternity of St Thomas Aquinas Groups.

Founded in the 1960s in Argentina, the groups are committed to strengthening Christian values in society and in different cultures, mainly through the educational work of their members and, more recently, through the schools and universities they sponsor or staff.

Read More

Organised by Catholic Education Auckland in partnership with the Diocese of Hamilton and Te Kupenga Catholic Theological College, the Spiritus Aotearoa NZ 2022 summit responded to the educational challenge for a Catholic learning community.

Brendan Bergin, who teaches at Auckland's Te Kupenga Catholic Theological College, says the agenda presented ways for religious education leaders - bishops, school principals and directors of religious education (DRS) - to adapt their teaching practice and methods for evangelisation in a post-Covid context.

"Pope Francis urges educators to embrace a new type of education and not close themselves off to ‘new perspectives or bold educational proposals' but ‘integrate the language of the head with the language of the heart and the language of the hands'.

"These new perspectives are part of the Spiritus Aotearoa NZ 2022 vision."

Presentations, seminars and small group discussions were mixed with practical workshops on key skills. Topics included the evangelising mission, team discernment leadership, student retreats and weaving Special Character and Religious Education across the curriculum.

All the workshops responded to the new RE curriculum.

Participants also examined Church documents such as the Directory of Catechesis, papal encyclicals and bishops' documents, along with new expressions and methods of evangelisation that can support school leaders in their evangelising role.

The Spiritus initiative is important, Bergin says.

"In contemporary theologies and Church teachings on evangelisation, schools are considered to be ‘centres of evangelisation' in a similar way to parishes.

"This is significant when we look at the opportunities provided by schools to support young people to build a relationship with Jesus and to ‘encounter' Christ.

"It's also significant in the context of secularisation, the post-Covid reality of young people with pronounced mental health issues in our schools and the call to synodality…or evangelisation in the context of a synodal Church."

While everyone who witnesses to the message of the Gospels or models the actions and teachings of Jesus should evangelise others, the responsibility is different in schools, says Bergin.

"In an educational sense it is parish ministers (lay and ordained), youth ministers, school chaplains, principals, DRS, Catholic teachers ... all teachers in a Catholic school who are responsible for its Catholic character."

Spiritus participants were positive about the initiative.

"May we not be afraid of leading and engaging in evangelisation, but also not be afraid to 'turn the pyramid upside down' and learn from others, accepting and respecting the diversity of gifts, while searching for the unity of all," said one.

"It refocuses me and the school to re-look at our role as we continue the mission of Jesus - now is the right time for evangelisation.'" said another.

Bergin says those who couldn't attend may have missed an important opportunity to reflect on a new vision and methods for evangelisation in contemporary Catholic educational settings.

Source

• Supplied

The instruction comes in a new document about Catholic schools from the Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education.

"The Identity of the Catholic School for a Culture of Dialogue" focuses on the schools' obligations to students and the wider community.

Catholic schools are obliged to protect and promote the Catholic identity. They are also expected to reach out to a broader community of students and teachers. This requires a commitment to dialogue, the document says.

Cardinal Giuseppe Versaldi, the prefect for the Congregation for Catholic Education, says the congregation was asked to write the document.

He says the request followed conflicts and appeals resulting from different interpretations of the traditional concept of Catholic identity by educational institutions.

Many of these concerned rapid social change including globalisation and growing interreligious and intercultural dialogue.

The document offers an in-depth, up-to-date reflection and guidelines on the value of the Catholic identity of educational institutions in the Church, Versaldi says. It provides criteria responding to today's challenges in continuity with the criteria that always apply.

Recruitment and school culture

Job applicants must be informed of the school's Catholic identity, its implications and their responsibility to promote that identity.

Schools should "formulate clear criteria for discernment" when considering candidates for positions in Catholic schools.

Schools are responsible for recruits who don't comply with its Catholic and church community requirements.

"A narrow Catholic school model" is not acceptable - it conflicts with the model of a ‘church which goes forth' in dialogue with everyone.

Everyone involved in conflicts over "disciplinary and/or doctrinal" matters must be told how "these situations can bring discredit to the Catholic institution and scandal in the community."

Catholic identity and mission

Catholic education is an essential part of the church's identity and mission. It is not strictly catechetical. Nor is it a "mere philanthropic work aimed at responding to a social need."

Catholic schools are open. They do not limit enrolment or employment to Catholics alone. Part of their mission is to promote "the complete perfection of the human person, the good of earthly society and the building of a world that is more human." (Second Vatican Council.)

To be open, Catholic schools must "practise the ‘grammar of dialogue". This is a profound way of relating to others. "Dialogue combines attention to one's own identity with the understanding of others and respect for diversity."

Everyone — administrators, teachers, parents and students — has "the obligation to recognise, respect and bear witness to the Catholic identity of the school," the Vatican's new Catholic schools' document says.

This identity should be clearly stated in each school's mission statement and presented to prospective employees and parents of prospective students.

"In the formation of the younger generation, teachers must be outstanding in correct doctrine and integrity of life," it says.

The entire school community is responsible for the school's Catholic identity. It cannot be "attributed only to certain spheres or to certain persons" like liturgical, spiritual or social occasions, or the school chaplain, religion teachers or principal.

Source

• CN
• Crux
• Image: The Journal

The proposal seeks to ban any discussion of gender diversity in the state's classrooms.

The state's main Catholic education body supports One Nation leader Mark Latham's the bill.

The large Parramatta diocese, however, is lodging a strong objection.

Latham's bill proposes to prohibit the promotion of gender fluidity in schools, including the classroom and teachers' professional development courses.

He says this is about "re-establishing the primacy of parents in shaping their children's development and sense of identity".

The Catholic Education Diocese of Parramatta put forward a submission to a parliamentary inquiry into the anti-trans education bill.

The Diocese described the proposal as "counter to promoting and respecting the human dignity of all".

It is "an unacceptable incursion into the professional judgement of Catholic schools and school systems," the submission continued.

If passed, the bill would probably cause discrimination and harassment to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI) students," the submission said.

It warned "prohibitions on what can be discussed within the learning process can stigmatise these matters and people whose life experiences are connected to them".

LGBTQI rights group Equality Australia says there is "nothing in this bill which merits further consideration by NSW Parliament,".

They say it denies the existence of trans and gender diverse people, allows parents to withhold important lessons about the world from their children and makes teachers fear dismissal if they acknowledge that trans people exist.

In contrast, Catholic Schools NSW, representing the state's 600 Catholic schools, 30,000 staff and 257,000 students, said parental primacy was paramount.

It supports the anti-trans education bill, with the caveat it must not prevent schools providing pastoral care to LGBTQI students.

The Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney, led by Archbishop Anthony Fisher, also supported the bill.

But the Parramatta diocese - which controls 80 schools with 43,000 students in western Sydney and the Blue Mountains - submitted that if parental "rights" clashed with the best interests of children, the latter must prevail.

"The bill not only fails in this regard but conspicuously and deliberately ignores these rights and actively detracts from them," it said.

Greg Whitby, the head of Catholic Education Diocese of Parramatta, said his schools had a duty of care to their students, informed by a Catholic world view and with parents "deeply involved".

"It's not for a school or a central office or dare I say even politicians to make those decisions," he said.

"If you seek to codify those things, you are putting a personal perspective on what's right and what's wrong."

Catholic Schools NSW chief executive Dallas McInerney doesn't think the bill denies the existence of trans and gender diverse people.

"[It] is more focused on learning and curriculum and less on the culture wars or individuals. It is around what belongs in scholarship and school instruction and what doesn't.

"Our support for the bill is contingent upon our schools being able to extend all support - pastoral, physical, counselling - [to] these kids in our schools."

Source

• Brisbane Times
• Image: Star Observer

"I put a challenge out there to our students that if they reached 100,000 minutes reading as a combined total for our whole school, that I would spend the day working from the roof," she said.

"They met that challenge and actually read a total of 146,879 minutes. Read more

"The ability to upgrade our facilities is timely.

Our preference would be to put it into pastoral care, because [students] spend 17 hours in the living environment and only seven hours in the school."

The school had not had any major upgrades in the past 15 years and the living quarters for the boys had not been upgraded since the 1990s, Matthews said.

"It's good to see the Government is considering Maori boarding schools because it does sit on the margins for policy decisions."

"It's a sign of the times that people are starting to see how valuable these schools are."

As well as Hato Paora, three Hawke's Bay schools, Hukarere Girls' College, St Joseph's Maori Girls' College and Te Aute College, would be eligible for money from the fund.

Matthews was concerned about how the fund would be distributed but was hopeful each school would get an equal share.

"For me, I would like to think they get $5m of it each. I would hate to think it would be divisive and for us to compete."

Te Tai Hauauru Labour MP Adrian Rurawhe​ says it's not yet been decided how the money would be allocated between the four schools; however, it would be "fairly open-ended."

"Schools will be able to invest money from the fund into pastoral care, property, education, or anything they view as needing a boost."

Te Aute College principal Shane Hiha says the school appreciates any political party that supports the "special character" of Maori boarding schools.

The money would help Hukarere College, St Joseph's Maori Girls' College and Te Aute College, Hiha said.

Source

• stuff.co.cz
• nzherald.co.nz
• Image: twitter.com

Sponsored by friends and family, the students raised $2400 to go towards backpack bedrolls and sleeping bags and washing facilities for the homeless, and also for foodbanks in Taupo and Turangi. Read more

He is the first man appointed to the role in the 170-year history of the Catholic girls' secondary school.

Murray, pictured above with his wife Benita and their daughter Charlotte, will start his new role at St Mary's at the beginning of 2021.

The St Mary's Board of Trustees had been seeking a new principal since the retirement last January of Catherine Ryan, principal since 2013.

It will be Murray's second time at St Mary's, which teaches girls from Year 9 to Year 13.

He was a dean and assistant director of religious studies at St Mary's from 2006 to 2011.

Murray has been deputy principal of Sacred Heart Girls' College, New Plymouth, since 2011 and is currently acting principal there.

He has also taught at St Bede's College in Christchurch, Francis Douglas Memorial College in New Plymouth and several Catholic colleges in Victoria and New South Wales.

The wellington-born new principal has a BA in English and History from Victoria University of Wellington and Masters' degrees from Australian Catholic University and the University of New South Wales.

In 2013, he was seconded to develop digital resources for New Zealand's Catholic secondary schools in a project for the National Centre for Religious Studies, now part of Te Kupenga-Catholic Leadership Institute.

He has also led projects for the NZ Qualifications Authority and the Ministry of Education around the NCEA changes.

Board of Trustees chair Juli Clausen says Murray is ambitious for St Mary's.

"He is enthusiastic and passionate about leading a school that develops outstanding students," she said.

"His vision is for St Mary's to be an excellent school with great tradition but not a traditional girl's school.

He is a man of prayer, and his Catholic faith is at the core of who he is."

Source

Supplied: David McLoughlin
Communications Adviser, NZ Catholic Bishops
Te Huinga o ngâ Pîhopa Katorika o Aotearoa

This the conclusion policy analyst Joel Hernandez comes to in a report he prepared for The New Zealand Initiative.

Many parents want their kids to go to private schools.

But this report claims that New Zealand's state-integrated schools are doing much better than previously thought.

It claims that new data Hernandez crunched shows state-integrated schools may be a better choice.

A state-integrated school generally has a special character—for instance, a religious belief (e.g. Catholic) or a specialist teaching method such as Montessori.

State-integrated schools also charge much lower annual fees for students than private schools.

Often, the annual fee might be $1500, compared with a private school average of $20,000.

Since State-integrated schools were incorporated into the state education system under the Private Schools Conditional Integration Act, 1975 private schools have generally been viewed as better academic performers.

However, this report shows for the first time that students on average have a higher chance of attaining UE at a state-integrated school than at a private school (after separating the contribution of family socioeconomic background).

"Of course, education isn't just about gaining UE. Yet, giving kids opportunities is a key part of a school's role.

If educators don't believe every kid can gain UE, then we must lift our expectations."

Hernandez will answer why state-integrated schools are doing so well in an upcoming report.

"In an ideal world, students should be getting a world-class education at any school," Hernandez said.

"Yet state schools are much worse off."

The report The State of Schooling: State, state-integrated and private school performance in New Zealand can be read on The New Zealand Initiative website here.

Source

• scoop.co.nz
• nzinitiative.org.nz
• Image: nzcatholic.org.nz