Principal Profile: Lea Martin, St Gerard Majella, Woree
15/10/2019
The latest Principal Profile stars Lea Martin, principal of St Gerard Majella, a co-educational Catholic primary school in the Cairns southern suburb of Woree. Lea is a former teacher, a mother and a qualified paramedic with three master’s degrees and a career in education spanning more than three decades. We spent five minutes chatting to Lea about her past, what makes her most proud of being the leader of her school community and what she ...
Read moreSharon O’Keeffe represented in Plenary Council 2020 Discernment and Writing Group
26/09/2019
Cairns Catholic Education’s Director Identity & Outreach, Sharon O’Keeffe, has been appointed the chair of one of six National Discernment and Writing Groups as part of Plenary Council 2020. Cairns Catholic Education’s Director Identity & Outreach, Sharon O’Keeffe Seventy people from across the country – including a dozen bishops – will serve on the six Discernment and Writing Groups that will help the Plenary Council build towards its first session in October 2020. As part of ...
Read moreGloria does Letters and Numbers
18/09/2019
#PeopleofCathEdCairns Gloria West is a Literacy and Numeracy Coach at Catholic Education Services (CES) – Cairns. She works with eleven primary schools in the southern region of the diocese to support teachers to use best practice in the classroom, and often to work with students directly. Gloria has worked in the Cairns diocese as a primary teacher at St Therese’s Bentley Park for 20 years. From 2013 to 2016 Gloria was the school-based Literacy and Numeracy ...
Read moreNew Catholic College on Track to Open in 2022
10/09/2019
The proposed new Catholic college on the James Cook University Campus at Smithfield is on track to open in 2022, with the first milestone in the process achieved. Catholic Education’s Director School Effectiveness (Secondary), Dora Luxton said Catholic Education was advised last Thursday by the Non-State Schools Accreditation Board that the school is now accredited to open in 2022. “This means we have passed our first regulatory hurdle in getting the school ...
Read moreNew Phone Numbers
04/09/2019
Many of our school phone numbers are changing! Click image to enlarge Schools New Phone Numbers Sept 2019
Read moreSpeech Pathology Week: Communicating with Confidence
03/09/2019
There are 1.2 million Australians with communication disability. Cairns Catholic Education Speech Pathologists Amanda Carlone, Kate Giulieri, Davita Oraya, Chanelle Chate, Steph Fox and Tenille Bellamy work with these Australians in Catholic Education to provide them with the confidence to communicate. Communication Disability “In Australia today, communication disability is largely invisible. Unseen and out-of-sight,” Davita said. “Australians with communication disability cannot maximise future educational, health and social outcomes, without the intervention of a speech pathologist. “Communicating ...
Read moreSupporting Students with Dyslexia and Significant Reading Difficulties
20/08/2019
Cairns is the only diocese in the state offering Catholic school teachers an evidence-based, tutor-led learning course: Dyslexia and Difficulties in Reading. The Dyslexia and Significant Difficulties in Reading course, which includes online and face-to-face elements, aims to assist teachers and schools to identify and respond to the personalised learning and support needs of students with dyslexia and reading difficulties. The engaging course is the first of its kind for the diocese and has been ...
Read more2019 Docemus Awards
05/08/2019
The 2019 Docemus Award recipients were presented at a special function to culminate the end of Catholic Education Week. The Docemus Awards were founded by former Cairns Catholic Education Director Tom Doolan in 2002. 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. L-R: Cairns Catholic Education Executive Deputy Director Ian Davis with this year’s Docemus Award recipients Breye Buckland, Christine Edwards, Rita Peterson, ...
Read more2019 SOCE Awards
31/07/2019
Catholic Education Week is an opportunity for all Catholic education communities around Queensland to celebrate and promote the distinctive mission of Catholic schooling: to make a difference in the lives of students and in the wider community by challenging young people to reach their full potential as compassionate, contributing, life-giving members of society. It’s also an opportunity to celebrate the unsung heroes through The Spirit of Catholic Education Awards (SOCE Awards). The SOCE Awards are ...
Read moreStudents Celebrate Creativity and Sense of Sacred this CEW
29/07/2019
Cairns Catholic Education is celebrating Catholic Education Week’s 2019 theme ‘Many Voices. One Spirit’ with the launch of The Creative Arts Collective. Catholic Education Week: ‘Many Voices. One Spirit’ The theme for 2019 is ‘Many Voices. One Spirit’ with the ‘Many Voices’ representing students, teachers, families and communities from all backgrounds and walks of life, while the ‘One Spirit’ can be interpreted as faith, the Holy Spirit, charisms, school spirit, team spirit, parish spirit or family spirit. The theme brings feelings of ...
Read moreMother of Good Counsel Students Making Grounds Greener
26/07/2019
Students from Mother of Good Counsel Primary School, North Cairns (MoGC) rolled up their sleeves to make the school grounds greener on National Tree Day. MoGC students Shreya, Lachlan and Oscar planting trees with Ben Vallely from Russgo’s Wholesale Plants. National Tree Day Students from the MoGC Environment Committee planted 14 new native trees to make the school grounds greener. “Our school is very lucky to have such wonderful huge green trees lining our school oval and ...
Read moreRAISE: We Are More Engaged Than We Think
22/07/2019The P&F meetings, the fete days, the cake stalls, the calls for volunteers for school excursions, discos and athletic carnivals. Some weeks, it seems the extra pressures on parents never end. But if you can’t make it to every call out (or don’t really feel up to baking cupcakes at midnight for the cake stall), is it negatively impacting your children? According to the experts, definitely not! Cairns Catholic Education Manager – Governance and Engagement, ...
Read moreRAISE: How to Raise Resilient Children in a Chaotic World
08/07/2019
How often have you watched your child give up on something? Or mutter the phrase, “I can’t do it!”? Or break down in tears due to frustration and fear of failure? It’s a hard thing to experience when you’re a parent. But it’s also a completely normal reaction for a child. We find out more in the latest issue of Raise. All children feel vulnerable from time to time. They feel as though they are not good enough, ...
Read moreStudents’ assessments bring joy
25/06/2019
It’s rare for students to smile so much and enjoy their assessments, but earlier this month, Mount St Bernard College’s (MSB) Art and Music students did just that. The twenty Year 10 to 12 students shared their artistic talents and stories with residents at the Carinya Home for the Aged in Atherton, where they explained the meaning and techniques behind their art pieces and performed some songs to a packed room. Full marks Assessments are rolling out ...
Read moreJCU and Cairns Catholic Education announce plans for new Catholic College at Smithfield
07/06/2019
James Cook University and Catholic Education in Cairns have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to plan a new secondary college, to be located at the University’s Cairns Campus at Smithfield. The college would function as an autonomous and separate school, located on JCU land under a long-term lease. “This collaboration offers valuable opportunities for staff and students at both institutions, and would complement the ongoing growth of the campus, where construction has just begun on ...
Read more#Better Together for Brighter Futures
28/05/2019
Education sectors and Child Safety came together for the first time with a focus on improving educational outcomes for students in care, and developing practices and relationships that support the child’s present and future. Cairns Catholic Education, Department of Education and the Department of Child Safety, Youth and Women will collaboratively present #Better Together for Brighter Futures – a conference held May 24 at Brothers Leagues Club.The 130 attendees comprised of team leaders and managers from ...
Read moreNational Reconciliation Week 2019
27/05/2019
Yarning Circles at CES Cairns Our staff have respectfully kicked off their shoes and opened their hearts and minds to participate in Yarning Circles as part of National Reconciliation Week. The Yarning Circles are a traditional cultural activity that has been carried out by the first Australians for 60,000 years. This week, staff at CES Cairns are having honest conversations through Yarning Circles to discuss issues in an inclusive and collaborative manner. Each ...
Read moreDevelyn’s Domestic Violence Voice
12/04/2019
Develyn Wong recently had success in the Lions Youth of the Year competition when she spoke about Domestic Violence with passion and commitment. Being a survivor herself, The Year 12 St Monica’s student is not ashamed of what happened to her. She said, “It is such a relevant topic in Australian society as the statistics are disgustingly high.” She recently spoke about the topic and a range of others at a debating competition in Mossman, progressing through ...
Read moreIt’s Virtually Year 11 Business
12/04/2019
Our young people are moving with the times where the presence of technology is ever so strong and continues to change. Classroom teachers are finding new and innovative ways to use technology to engage their students in a progressive way. Mr Breck Nielsen is the Trade Training Centre Director at St Mary’s Catholic College in Woree, and he has introduced the use of virtual reality to the school’s year 11 students studying the Diploma of Business. ...
Read moreSaints boys seeing smiles
09/04/2019
The junior and senior students at St Augustine’s gain perspective and a sense of joy by regularly giving food and friendship to people sleeping rough in Cairns. Every other week, Saints supports a team at Rosies – Friends on the Street (Cairns), alternating Saturday and Sunday nights. The Year 7 boarders make sandwiches and the Year 12 boys take the food out to Rosies, help the team pack the van, and go out to the streets to offer ...
Read more
