Mapping Catholic education for the next 50 years

The new Board of Directors of Catholic Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn Education Limited marked its first meeting in February with a ‘meet and greet’ event with key partners and collaborators including political and civil leaders, Catholic school principals and senior Catholic Education Office staff.

Chair of the Board, Patrick McArdle,  introduced the Board Directors.  Dr McArdle said that at on one level nothing has changed in the operation of Catholic Education Canberra Goulburn.

“Children have come back to school. They are all being taught effectively and they are being shown the care and inspiration that will lead them to flourish,” he said.

“What the Board is doing is setting priorities to map out what the future looks like for the next 50 years. There’s a distinct difference between governance and management,” he explained. “Governance is about vision and strategy. Management is about making sure it all works.

Dr McArdle thanked the local MPs for their interest in Catholic education.

“There is a partnership that is almost unique to the Catholic sector. We embrace church and state,” he said.

“We want our students to be active participants in civil society. We want to prepare them as best as we can for that. At the heart of that is building positive relationships with principals, within families and in the communities that we serve.

“We will never be in any doubt that we will be told the truth by those who are in classrooms and schools about what the priorities should be.  Our challenge as a Board is to authentically hear what we are told and carefully respond in the interests of the whole system.”

Dr McArdle thanked Pam Betts for stepping in as Executive Director until David De Carvalho is available to start in the role, and he thanked Catholic Education Office staff for the huge amount of work to make the transition to incorporation a success. He noted that, “structures are important but it is the people and relationships that we build that make profound differences in the lives of students and their families.”