NEW PRIMARY SCHOOL COMMENCES
Commencing a new CatholicPrimary School must be the greatest privilege a teacher couldexperience in her or his career and with the commencement of Emmaus; the newest Catholicprimary school has come an enormous pride and genuine satisfaction. We areaway!
The pathway to opening our school has been both exciting and rocky! There have beenmany hurdles to be overcome, most of which have arisen at a ‘bureaucratic’ level, and yet throughout the challenges, and at times obstacles placed before us, a dedicated team of parents have hung inthere and never lost faith that Emmaus was always going to open.Not only have they been vindicated, but through their actions they have already established that they are going to be wonderful ambassadors for Emmaus in the broader Ballarat community.
On January 30th twenty one delightful children started school at Emmaus on our temporary site in Jones Ave Mt. Clear. Our school building looks and feels very much like vibrant place of learning and the relationships that our delightful young teacher, JacquiVanderkley and engaging Administration Officer, Doris Milesevic have already developed with our students gives clear indication that Emmaus will become a school that will become known in the Mt. Clear, Mt.Helen, and Buninyong communities as a dynamic, welcoming and caring place of learning.
The support that we have been blessed with has been a ‘Godsend’! From the time of the announcement of the establishment of Emmaus back in April 2006 Bishop Peter Connors, our Diocesan Bishop has taken a keen interest in the story of the establishment of Emmaus and this always been welcomed by all of us involved in the establishment of the school. The Director of Catholic Education in the Diocese, Larry Burn has never lost faith! There have I’m sure been times when Larry must have felt a little ‘shaky’ and yet publicly he always conveyed total belief that Emmaus was an important cornerstone for the future of Catholic education in the Ballarat region and indeed Diocese. With the undying support of the Diocesan Planning Officer in John Solomon, our Zone Educational Consultant, Jim Delaney, the financial guidance of Julie Duynhoven, Diocesan Financial Advisor and the technical advise and support of David Bourke it was truly reassuring to know that the administration of the Catholic Education Office was right behind us!
I must also say that all CEO staff have been incredibly supportive of our establishment. I must have nearly driven Debbie Stabek, Jill Eales, Sue O’Keefe, Cathy Dunbar, DonnaMason and Karen Watson mad at times with the enormous number of phone calls and requests I made of them! However never once were they anything but entirely supportive and friendly. Thank you one and all!
Similarly, we have had great support from Mark Bromley and staff from the Ballarat Diocesan Offices itself. The arrangements we have arrived at re. the purchase of the land on which we plan to build our main building have ensured that whilst we will carry significant debt for many years, it will not be overly restrictive and thus our core business of educating the children in our care will never be compromised.
Our school will function under an alternative “Governance” structure as we are not a ParishPrimary School. Thus, after an extensive process of discussion with The Director of Catholic Education , Larry Burn, Father Adrian McInerney, Sr. Veronica Lawson and myself, we have been able to appoint two people of rich and diverse educational backgrounds to act as “Co-Governors” of Emmaus Catholic Primary School.
Father Adrian who already has an enormous amount on his plate will work alongside a similarly very busy and committed educator in Sr. Mary Nuttall to assist in the development of EmmausCatholicPrimary School. It is always with a degree of apprehension that you ask two already very, very busy people to take on more! We are blessed to have Adrian and Mary working alongside us as we establish our school community together!
The final ‘thank you’ I would like to offer is to a truly wonderful man in Leo Hayes who has
walked every step of the journey of EmmausCatholicPrimary School to date. Leo is devoted family man and truly has a deep and passionate commitment to our Church and the young people who are the future of it. He is also a builder and a property developer so when I as ready to ‘explode’ on a couple of occasions as we endured bureaucratic interference in our efforts to establish Emmaus, Leo was the calming voice of sanity. His words, “We’ll be right!” were always greatly appreciated and indeed accurate! We are right and it must be said largely due to the efforts of you Leo! Thank you so much!
At a learning and teaching level one of stated goals is to push the boundaries on the manner we have traditionally engaged the children in our care. Given that of the twenty-one students we have in our school twelve are Preps, five are ‘grade twos, three are grade threes and one is a grade five we have a genuine chance to educate our children in highly personalised manner. Rather than focussing on the ‘grade level’ of the student we have the chance to create a culture of learning and teaching that focuses on the learning needs of the individual child. This is significant mindset change and whilst there are no doubt many schools adopting similar approach to learning and teaching we at Emmaus are determined to continue to push the boundaries in this area into the future.
Given that we are on the cusp of a new era of education in the Ballarat South region we have adopted the theme, “We can all be the Authors of our own Futures” for our 2008 “Inquiry Learning”. We have deliberately chosen to adopt an “Apple-Mac” computer platform for our students and already we have seen some amazing and exciting possibilities for our Information and Communication Technologies Program that we look forward to sharing with the broader Diocesan community.
As the newest school in the Diocese we are determined to do things differently! Whilst we retain a non-negotiable commitment to the teachings of Jesus and the sharing of the gospels we are also of the mind that says, “What is the point in starting a new school and merely replicating whatever is already in existence?”
The story of Jesus on the “Road to Emmaus” is one that beautifully captures the essence of so much that makes us human. The disciples were led from fear to strength of
character; from uncertainty to confidence; from indecisiveness to willingness to proclaim Jesus’ message to all. After a great deal of deliberation we adopted the name EmmausCatholicPrimary School because those same emotions were experienced by all of us associated with the establishment of our school, often several times a day!
We all need to find new challenges, new pathways and new opportunities. For the community of EmmausCatholicPrimary School our time is now and we can’t wait for the next step, whatever that might be!
Brendan Maher
Principal – EmmausPrimary School.