The last few days I have been attending the Catholic Technical and Vocational Colleges Network meeting in Melbourne. This has been a great opportunity to meet with principals from schools similar to St Patrick’s across Australia and discuss a range of issues that impact on us. It also helps to benchmark what we do with other technical colleges and get new ideas.
College Business Manager, Mr David Hurley, has also been involved in the discussions with colleagues from around Australia, which has been a useful exercise.
This is all part of the “re-visioning” and strategic thinking around the future of our college which is an important part of adapting to a changing political and education environment.
Preparations for our UK exchange program with The JCB Academy are proceeding very well. Business Development Manager, Mr Patrick Kelly, has recently returned from JCB and ensured that all arrangements are in place for the exchange in September.
Patrick also spent time at the academy meeting with staff and visiting industry partners. He has returned with a number of new developments in Vocational Education for us to consider as part of our strategic review.
The annual sports competition against Xavier is coming up in the next few weeks. This is a great day with contests in football, cricket, soccer and netball.
St Patrick’s is hosting the day with the football being played at Elizabeth Oval. Knock-out sport is continuing with recent matches so far being held in basketball and football. Soccer is being played next week.
These are all important opportunities for students to represent the college and mix more broadly across the trades.
As I trust you have read in the recently posted correspondence from Catholic Education SA, I will be on long service leave for the last four weeks of this term. As announced in the letter from CESA Director, Dr Paul Sharkey, Mr Mark Flaherty, Deputy Principal at Xavier College, will be acting principal during this time.