Catholic Education Week is held in Week 3 of Term 3 each year. It is an opportunity for all Catholic schools to celebrate and promote their distinctive mission and ethos.
Catholic education strives to make a difference in the lives of those in our schools and in the wider community by challenging young people to live out the message of Jesus and to reach their full potential as compassionate, contributing, life-giving members of society.
Catholic education:
- Is a faith-based education which places the values of Jesus at its centre
- Is a high quality, holistic education for 1 in 5 young Queenslanders, educating them to be well-informed, highly skilled and constructive members of the community
- Values diversity and treats each student with dignity enabling them in turn to promote and respect the dignity of all
- Nurtures in students a commitment to social justice and a critical social consciousness
- Prepares students for global responsibilities through stewardship of the earth’s resources
- Is an integral part of the local and universal Church
- Occurs in welcoming, inclusive, and connected communities.
Visit the Catholic Education Week website.
SOCE and Docemus Awards
Our 7 Docemus Award winners pictured with Executive Director Bill Dixon. Early Career Teacher: Summer Toombs (OLHOC), Secondary Teacher: David Christopher (St Andrew’s Catholic College), Leadership: Lee MacMaster (St Andrew’s Catholic College), Lifelong Contribution: Tessa Condon (St Teresa’s Ravenshoe), School Officer: Joan Carbone (OLHOC), Primary Teacher: Paula Lohmann (St Andrew’s Catholic College), Volunteer Support: Nelia Handley (St Francis Xavier’s).
The Spirit of Catholic Education (SOCE) Awards and the Docemus Awards are run concurrently and are both presented during Catholic Education Week.
The SOCE Awards are state-wide and conducted by the Queensland Catholic Education Commission (QCEC). They recognise individuals in the community (staff member, parent, clergy or volunteer) who are making an outstanding contribution to the life of the community. They are presented at the official State Launch of Catholic Education Week.
The Cairns Catholic Education’s 2018 Spirit of Catholic Education Award recipient was Ann Barr, from Catholic Education Services.
The Docemus Awards are Cairns Diocese-based and conducted by Cairns Catholic Education (CCE). The Awards were founded in 2002 in recognition of the outstanding contribution to Catholic Education by Tom Doolan, a former Deputy Director of Catholic Education in the Cairns Diocese. Meaning ‘to teach’, the awards acknowledge and celebrate the exceptional commitment, achievement and contribution to Catholic Education by staff, volunteers and supporters of Catholic Education. They are presented at a special Cairns function to culminate the end of Catholic Education Week.
