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Catholic School Parents Australia (CSPA) hit the ground running in 2023 with the first council meeting held in Brisbane (February). In her role as Acting Chair, Siobhan Allen welcomed everyone to the meeting and spoke of the significance of 2023 being the tenth year for CSPA. Planning is underway for some celebration of this milestone in August. Siobhan and Carmel Nash were founding members of CSPA. Siobhan also noted that Madonna King had resigned from the position of chair and that a process would soon commence for her replacement. Special welcome was also extended to Wayne Crase who was recommencing as a CSPA representative from Catholic School Parents Queensland.
Jacinta Collins (National Catholic Education Commission, Executive Director) was a guest presenter at the meeting and her sharing with CSPA focused on the proposed reforms to discrimination legislation and the possible impacts on Catholic schools. She gave an outline of the evolution of discrimination legislation and religious freedom and noted that with a review every 5 years we were always having to defend how our Catholic schools operate and what might constitute discrimination – the individual versus the community of faith of the Catholic school. A key premise to the discussion was that Australia has a strong and vibrant Catholic education sector, so we need to be able to maintain this.
Later in the day, Fr Michael Twigg OMI celebrated Mass and joined councillors for dinner at the Pullman Brisbane Airport Hotel. Fr Michael’s presence is always much welcomed, not only for his thought-provoking Mass celebrations, but his many stories on current education matters.
A key theme running through a busy agenda at the February meeting was CSPA’s representation and advocacy for Catholic school parents. Over the past twelve months, CSPA has reached out to parents through national surveys and forums to obtain their views in relation to the wellbeing and learning of their children. CSPA appreciates that much of this work has been assisted by funding from the Federal Government.
A 2023 – 2024 Service Contract was signed in April 2023 with the Australian Government. This work will include: collecting and reporting on evidence from teachers and parents on communication between home and school; a deeper dive into parent views on communication from the CSPA 2022 Parent Views survey and the 2023 parent views in relation to disruption in the classroom; identifying and publishing communication “success stories”; identifying examples of pre-service teacher education programs which have significant input on communication with parents; collecting 2024 parent views on student wellbeing and learning for comparison with 2022 evidence; and collecting 2024 parent views on other topics of interest.
During May, CSPA will appoint a Project Manager who will play a key role with much of this work.
CSPA has undertaken a process to identify a new CSPA Chair and an announcement will soon be made following the formal appointment during the May AGM.
- CSPA keenly supports and promotes the work of the eSafety Commissioner. Parents/ carers are encouraged to visit the Parent section in the eSafety website and see what resources are available.
- Andrew Fuller (2023) notes that while the pandemic years have challenged us all, the effects have been especially severe for girls and young women. Read more of Andrew’s reflection on this topic in Helping girls to regain their confidence and motivation which is available at https://theparentswebsite.com.au/helping-girls-regain-their-confidence-and-motivation-from-andrew-fuller/
