Values Education Cluster Initiative
Seven schools are taking part in a cluster initiative which was launched recently by Stephen Elder, Director of Catholic Education in the Archdiocese of Melbourne. The project is a partnership with Australian Catholic University and Prof Judith Chapman is the critical friend to the school communities as they work on their project over the next six months. The schools involved are:
- St Anne’s School - Kew East
- Holy Trinity School - Eltham North
- St Dominic’s School - Camberwell East
- Holy Spirit School - Ringwood North
- Emmaus College - Altona
- St Michael’s School - Ashburton
- St Damian’s School - Bundoora
Many of the schools are looking at Student Leadership and developing experiences for students to be involved in the community through service learning. Others are using the recently released curriculum material in values education from the Curriculum Corporation website to introduce and explicitly teach values education in the classroom. Copies of this material will be issued to all schools in April 2009.
This is a funded project from the Commonwealth Government and based on the National Framework for Values Education in Australian Schools. Core teams are also referring to the At the Heart of What We Do – Values Education at the Centre of Schooling final report of the Good Practice Schools Project stage 2 and the newly released Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians.
The schools will come together in June to give a mid-term report according to the criteria and then showcase their achievements in August to a wider audience. An evaluative report will be written by Professor Chapman on the findings, especially focussing on quality teaching and evidence based outcomes of student learning.
(l-r) Philippa Lovell (CEOM), Maria Kirkwood (Assistant Director Religious Education and Pastoral Care, CEOM), Professor Gabrielle McMullen (Pro-Vice-Chancellor, ACU), Stephen Elder (Director of Catholic Education, Archdiocese of Melbourne) and Mary Tobin (Manager Student Wellbeing Unit, CEOM) at the launch of the Values Education Cluster Initiative.
Professor Judith Chapman working with staff from Holy Trinity School (Eltham North)
