Sydney Immersion: Secondary Focus
In the final week of August, 21 leaders from across all 3 regions flew into Sydney for the Free to Flourish Immersion. Across the three days we spent time in the Paramatta region, visiting schools that are part of the innovative Paramatta Catholic Diocese.
We spent Monday at St Luke’s Catholic College in Marsden Park learning about how their Life Design program that begins in year 7 leads to a comprehensive pathway program that has students identifying and exploring their strengths, interests and missions as they seek to create lives of personal fulfillment and civic purpose.
Tuesday was spent at St John’s XXIII Catholic College where the leaders inspired us with the many ways that they have created opportunity for true agency in their secondary program. We discussed how they onboard and upskill new staff into their learning culture and we heard from student leaders who spoke about their varied forms of leadership including instigating multi-faith forums across the community.
On Tuesday night we were joined for a twilight session with Greg Miller, founding principal of St Luke’s and current principal of Chevalier College in Bowral who spoke to us about leading change in traditional contexts.
The final day saw us return to St John XXIII to engage in a creative thinking workshop to focus on how to take the learning from the immersion back into our own context in meaningful ways.
Reflections from attendees:
