Catholic Education, Diocese of Cairns

Queensland, Australia

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Catholic Education Week

Celebrating and promoting our distinctive mission

Celebrated annually in Week 3 of Term 3, Catholic Education Week is an opportunity for all Catholic schools in Queensland 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 Website at https://catholiceducationweek.com.au/

SOCE Awards

The SOCE Awards are state-wide and conducted by the Queensland Catholic Education Commission (QCEC).  They recognise individuals or teams (staff members, parents/carers or volunteers) who are making an outstanding contribution to the life of the school community in one or more of the following areas:

  • Showing outstanding integrity in leading a school community or program
  • Implementing change that improves teaching and learning and supports greater equity in education
  • Building Catholic education identity and ethos in ways that support exceptionally life-giving relationships and build hope in school communities or Catholic education agencies
  • Demonstrating excellence in team work that supports and builds Catholic education
  • Demonstrating outstanding service to others in the school education community and beyond.

Aunty Joan Hendriks Reconciliation Award

  • Creating positive change for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and staff and/or developing an improved understanding of First Nations cultural heritage in Catholic school communities.

For further information on the SOCE Awards visit https://catholiceducationweek.com.au/catholic-education-week-awards/

Docemus Awards

The Docemus Awards are Cairns Catholic Education’s awards, founded in 2002 in recognition of the outstanding contribution to Catholic Education by Tom Doolan, a former Deputy Director.

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.

Award recipients receive a $2,200 professional development grant, courtesy of category sponsors. The Docemus Award categories are:

  • Primary Teacher
  • Secondary Teacher
  • Early Career Teacher
  • School Officer
  • Leadership
  • Volunteer
  • Lifelong contribution

The Docemus Awards are presented at a special Cairns function on the Friday of Catholic Education Week, with post-event drinks and nibbles kindly sponsored by NGS Super.

Docemus Sponsors

  • Aboriginal Flag
  • Torres Strait flag
  • We acknowledge the First Nations peoples of Australia, the traditional custodians of the land, seas, skies and waterways on which we reside, work, travel and meet. We pay our respect to First Nations elders past, present, and emerging, and support the Uluru Statement From The Heart. We acknowledge that the land, seas, skies and waterways of Australia were, are and always will be, that of the First Nations peoples.