Dear Parents/Carers,                                                                        

Welcome back for term 2. I trust your children are well rested and keen to return to school life, where learning is infused with reconnecting with old friendships, making new friends and the many social activities of school that are needed to create well rounded young people.

This term will be a very important one for St Paul’s. Since 2009, Catholic Schools of the Diocese of Wollongong have engaged in a school review process, as part of school review and improvement. In 2021/22, following extensive consultation with principals and senior CEO staff, the process has evolved with greater school ownership.

As far as St Paul’s is concerned, people bring their own stories to the school community. These stories need to be shared and celebrated. The many diverse elements of this renewal process need to be connected to the inner wholeness of the school. It is not helpful to work on specific issues of change without linking these issues to the almost mysterious inner core of our school’s story and culture. It is important to situate the movement for school improvement in the wider context of social, religious and educational improvements.

This Cyclic Review Process has been renamed School Cyclic Inquiry (SCI), emphasising that the Cyclic Inquiry Process is one of professional inquiry and discernment. The Inquiry Process is informed and enriched by local stakeholder data, objective survey data (Tell Them For Me surveys completed by parents, students and teachers in term 1), system data and an external panel.

SCI is not a one off “inspection” but a unique opportunity for the school community and its leadership to stop, reflect (inquire) and celebrate its improvement and growth journey and to identify a limited number of strategic priorities that will further enhance student improvement in the future. The School Cyclic Inquiry Process is outlined in the diagram below, which is implemented over a four year cycle.

Each year the school sets goals based on data collected (including recommendations from the Listening Assembly held in 2023) and current context; plans and implements strategies to work towards a limited number of goals and monitors and reflects on their impact. In the fourth year there is a year of renewal where SCI enables the school to stop and reflect  on the previous three years and plan for the future. This process will occur over two days (Tue 13 June and Wed 19 June, Week 7 and 8). More detail will be provided as we get closer to this date.

In conclusion, Cyclic Inquiry is not a one off enterprise but another step in the unfolding journey at St Paul’s where we seek to be an authentic wisdom learning community. A positive culture of change, acknowledges that change is inevitable and desirable. This process will enable St Paul’s to be proactive in focusing its energy rather than spending time reacting to the buffeting winds of change frequently felt during the COVID pandemic. The process of Cyclic Inquiry is not an event but a movement towards wisdom. People like to sail in peaceful waters but the world of contemporary education is a turbulent sea of heavy waters. This Cyclic Inquiry Process will allow the St Paul’s School community to be like intrepid explorers who will push ahead through forests of change with maps that have to be regularly redrawn. The staff at St Paul’s are currently updating those maps to reflect our current context, ready for Cyclic Inquiry.

Go Gently,