AN historic year has begun for Years 6 and 7 students who returned to Brisbane Catholic Education’s community of schools.
For Year 6 students it will be their final year of primary schooling as the transition from Year 7 to secondary gathers pace.
Meanwhile, for Year 7 students, some of whom were also the first cohort of Prep students in Queensland, they will be the last ever Year 7 students to attend primary school.
BCE’s senior project officer for Year 7 to Secondary Ian Davis said preparations for the move of Year 7 to secondary in 2015 was well advanced and would gather further momentum during the year.
Mr Davis said this year was an historic year for education in Queensland, and Catholic schools were ready, with 2014 providing schools an opportunity to fine-tune plans for the transition.
“We have been fortunate to have had three years to prepare for this change, and parents, staff and students have had a chance to reflect on how this change will impact the learning and teaching in our schools,” he said.
Mr Davis said every BCE school had taken the opportunity to reflect on the four P’s – people, pedagogy, policies and procedures.
He said it was an exciting, once-in-a lifetime opportunity to further enhance the quality of education in every one of BCE’s primary, secondary and P-12 schools.
“Buildings will be finished on time, Year 7 enrolments for many of our colleges will begin this term and at the end of the term, our secondary and P-12 colleges will begin employing staff for 2015,” he said.
At St Ita’s School, Dutton Park, principal Maureen Thomas said 2014 was going to be a big year for the school, especially the Years 6 and 7 students, but they were well prepared.
“We have designed our leadership program a little bit differently to include the two year groups,” Ms Thomas said.
“Both groups will be able to nominate for leadership, will go on camp together and will learn about leadership together.
“We are hoping that they will see themselves as seniors in our school rather than Year 6 and Year 7 students.”
Year 7 student Joseph Rangiah said it felt really special to be part of the last Year 7 cohort in primary school while Year 6 student Georgia Papgiannis said she was looking forward to working with the Year 7 students, sharing leadership roles and learning new things.
Georgia said while it would be sad to not return to St Ita’s for Year 7, she was looking forward to starting high school next year and meeting many new friends.
2014 will be a busy year for BCE’s community of schools with about 11,000 teachers and staff welcoming students, old and new, at 137 Catholic schools from Childers, south to the Gold Coast and west to Kingaroy.
They will witness expanded kindergarten services and new year levels added to Good Shepherd Primary School, Springfield Lakes; Mother Teresa Primary School, Ormeau; and St Benedict’s College, Mango Hill.
Two further kindergarten services will open on Catholic school sites at Gatton and Mango Hill this year.
Reviews of the Australian curriculum and the Queensland OP score, senior assessment and tertiary entrance processes will be conducted this year.
