Newsies 

The annual tri-schools production this year hosted by St Joseph’s College was a spectacular success with our students showcasing their passion for music and performing arts. The audience was transported by the talents of the cast and orchestra to the streets of New York where the musical was based on the true story of the 1899 New York newsboys’ strike, Newsies follows a group of courageous young newspaper sellers who unite to challenge powerful publishers and demand fair treatment. With energetic music, dynamic choreography and a message of solidarity, the musical celebrated the power of young people to find their voice and create change. It was fabulous to see some first time performers hit the stage. We are grateful to the team from St Joseph’s and the Clonard staff who supported the students through the preparation and rehearsals. It is testament to the wonderful collaboration between the Geelong Catholic secondary schools’ network. Congratulations to all! 

Improving Teacher Practice 

As part of our recent pupil free day, School Improvement Leader Kristi Cromer, led a ‘Celebrate. Connect. Challenge’ session for staff in relation to their teacher practice. Staff began with a reflection and celebration of current practice in relation to our instructional model for learning. This highlighted consistency across the staff in building learning, engagement and responsibility in the learning process. Staff then reconnected with goals from our Annual Action Plan connected to teacher practice including: circle pedagogy, the TELL cross discipline literacy model, spaced recall strategies for numeracy, executive functioning skills and trauma-informed practices. After presentations on each of these elements, staff selected one as an ongoing focus to challenge their professional learning for the remainder of the year. This learning will be supported by learning walks, observation and coaching. 

Sports Uniform Updates 

Our student led sport uniform review group met with our suppliers last week. Two types of track pants have been agreed upon which we hope will be available from the start of Term 4. We were shown the all purpose warm jacket that would meet the feedback indicating this was a gap in our current sports uniform. A sample will arrive shortly and we will seek feedback on colour – charcoal or green. At the next Clonard Community meeting during wellbeing next Thursday we will invite students to submit designs for our new rugby jumper which we will then present back to the community for feedback along with the suppliers suggestions. The T shirt will remain the same. The suppliers are still awaiting a new design in shorts to present to us. Stay tuned! 

Compass updates 

Staff have now been trained in using Compass for the assessment tasks that will appear on the end of year reports. These will also be visible as part of our dynamic reporting throughout the term. 

Parents will be able to see assessment tasks including their due date very soon.

The College Calendar is available to parents and includes student schedules. We recommend that parents display both the Whole School and Student Schedule layer on the calendar.

Staff Professional Learning Day 

Our first session last Wednesday provided time for staff to grapple with some of the challenges and opportunities facing education in an age of artificial intelligence by exploring the teaching of the Church and Pope Leo in particular and then the most recent research by Prof Yong Zhao. Both Pope Leo and Yong Zhao contend that many aspects of schooling must be rethought to ensure the integral development of young people.  

At Clonard College, our commitment to learning is grounded in a deep belief that education must form young people who are fully human, fully alive and ready to contribute with courage, compassion and purpose. 

In light of Yong Zhao’s challenge that schools must move beyond routine, standardised performance towards the distinctly human capabilities of judgement, creativity, ethical reasoning, problem finding and contribution to others, our work with New Metrics continues to help us value what matters most in learning. This aligns strongly with our Clonard graduate attributes, inspired by the Kildare Ministries Living Justice Living Peace Charter, as we seek to nurture students who are people of hope, justice, courage and service; young women who can think deeply, act ethically, work collaboratively and bring their gifts to the transformation of the world. 

Our New Metrics fans for Years 7-10 that provide an assessment point for key capabilities have been sent home to families this week.  We strongly encourage you to discuss the capabilities descriptors with your daughters and how they demonstrate that in their learning and life beyond school as a celebration of their strengths.  

NCCD Information for Families 

At Clonard, we are deeply committed to ensuring every student is known, valued and supported to participate fully in learning and College life. We are blessed with dedicated staff who work thoughtfully and collaboratively to provide adjustments, build confidence and respond to the diverse learning needs of our students. Central to this work is our partnership with families, whose knowledge and insights help us understand each young person’s strengths, needs and aspirations.Please find the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD) parent fact sheet, which explains how schools across Australia collect information about the adjustments provided for students with disability and how this helps strengthen support for students. I encourage families to read this information and to continue working with us in partnership so that every student can flourish. This data is due to be submitted in August. I would like to thank the team at Clonard including our LSOs and Learning Diversity Leader Therese Bourke for their work in this space. 

Reminiscing with past principals  

With only a month until our 70th Anniversary Dinner, we have started to collect some videos memories to share on the night. It was wonderful to catch up with past Principals John Shannon and Damian McKew along with past staff Linda Kiernan and Carmel Brown who came along to share what it had meant to them to be a part of this community. Don’t forget to purchase your tickets before the closing date. 

Blessings 
Luci