Page 1838 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 2 May 2012
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National partnerships agreed between the ACT and Australian governments have also provided fantastic opportunities for collaboration across sectors to improve outcomes for our young people. The ACT is in the unique position of being able to develop and implement reform in collaboration with all three education sectors. There is a broad stakeholder engagement and commitment to improving educational outcomes in all schools in the ACT.
The ACT Teacher Quality Institute commenced operations last year. The institute brings the teaching community together under one umbrella. The ACT Teacher Quality Institute will ensure that all our teachers—public, Catholic and independent—meet the national teacher professional standards so we can continue to have confidence in the quality of teachers in all ACT schools. Under the literacy and numeracy national partnership a significant range of activity has been implemented in schools progressively based on whole school intervention and leadership training. These activities have been undertaken with the aim of improving evidence-based teaching, whole school engagement with literacy and numeracy and performance monitoring.
Key examples of innovative initiatives under this national partnership developed in local Catholic schools include the introduction of maths bags at St Thomas the Apostle at Kambah to lift the profile and attitude of mathematics within both the student and parent body, the success of the home reading program at St Michael’s primary in Kaleen and the success of St Clare of Assisi in Conder’s numeracy intervention program. Collaboration across sectors continues to be vital in the implementation of the Australian curriculum. The implementation of the Australian curriculum in the ACT, which commenced last year, is being led by the cross-sectoral Australian Curriculum Implementation Committee.
The ACT community is rightly proud of the quality of our public, Catholic and independent schools in the ACT. Anyone looking for evidence of this quality need look no further than our NAPLAN results. The results are excellent, and a testament to the quality teachers working in ACT schools and the continued focus on school improvement and teacher development across all school sectors. It is very clear that all school sectors in the ACT are strong performers—strong in student numbers, in student success and in working collaboratively to improve outcomes. This government will continue to be a strong supporter of all education sectors.
MS HUNTER (Ginninderra—Parliamentary Leader, ACT Greens) (3.38): I would like to start by adding my support to Catholic Schools Week in the ACT and New South Wales. I very much enjoyed visiting St Michael’s primary school in Kaleen this morning. It was a lovely community breakfast with members of the school community and also with a number of fellow MLAs.
As the motion before the Assembly notes, schools in the Catholic education system are very much a part of the neighbourhoods and communities where they are located, with 30 schools and a significant number of students enrolled in them. Many Canberra parents choose to send their children to a variety of different education providers across the ACT at different times of their schooling and for different reasons.
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