STUDENTS and adults covered new schoolbooks, sharpened pencils and prepared lunches to welcome in the new school year last Tuesday.
It may have been a “teary farewell” for some of the 138,000 students across 292 Catholic primary, secondary and P-12 schools in Queensland, but 17,000 staff were ready to greet them.
This number of enrolments is an increase of approximately three per cent on last year and 35 per cent for the last decade.
Brisbane Catholic Education (BCE) cares for approximately 68,000 of those students and 10,000 staff.
BCE executive director David Hutton said the year promised to be challenging and rewarding following the release of the Gonski Review into school funding and an imminent state election.
“These events could significantly change the education landscape in Queensland,” Mr Hutton said, promising the BCE community is “ready to meet the challenges”.
2012 will see the roll out of the new Prep – Year 10 Australian Curriculum.
“We understand the value families place upon a high quality Catholic education for their children,” Mr Hutton said.
“Parents are attracted to the faith-based ethos of our schools and the feeling of being a part of this experiencea is a major motivator in parental selection of education for their sons and daughters.”
Mr Hutton said there has been increased interest in Catholic education especially in the “growing areas of the archdiocese”.
Mango Hill, near the Redcliffe Peninsula, where St Benedict’s College has opened, and Springfield Lakes, future home to Good Shepherd Catholic Primary School were examples of such growth.
Other areas of Catholic education in Queensland are changing and expanding.
Queensland Catholic Education Commission executive director Mike Byrne said two Flexible Learning Centres for Gympie and Ipswich, operated by Edmund Rice Education Australia, would cater for students “disengaged from mainstream schooling”.
They will open as centres in their own right this year after previously operating as campuses.
Mr Byrne said 2012 was an historic time for Queensland education as schools prepared to implement Australia’s first nationally consistent curriculum beginning with science, maths and English in Years P-10.
“A great deal of hard work has been undertaken by teachers and administrators in the Catholic sector to ensure that this first phase of the transition to the Australian curriculum proceeds as smoothly as possible,” he said.
“Catholic schools have typically provided a range of preparation and planning opportunities for teachers including attendance at workshops and seminars, auditing of the current curriculum, small group unit planning time and participation in reference groups and forums, among others.”
He said the QCEC would continue to engage with a number of government policy issues on behalf of the Catholic sector including the Gonski Review of funding for schools anticipated to be delivered in February or early March.
“I thank our families for their ongoing support for Catholic schools and offer best wishes to all Queensland school communities – Catholic, state and independent – for a happy, safe and productive year ahead,” Mr Byrne said.
