In October and November 2020, the Strategy Coordinator worked with the Leadership Team and delivered Strategy Planning workshops with the aim of reviewing the Corporate Plan, reviewing the outcomes associated with the 2020 Annual Plan and developing the 2021 Annual Plan.
This work aimed at achieving the:
The CESA Futures Infrastructure Strategy has been developed to achieve a coherent infrastructure strategy for CESA in the immediate, medium and long term (10 years plus). The purpose of the CESA Futures Infrastructure Strategy is to ensure Catholic education continues to meet the needs of its communities, provides the best pathways and options for students and maximises sustainable enrolment growth linked with sector based, competitive infrastructure requirements.
The CESA Futures Infrastructure Strategy Steering Committee consist of members of the CEO and school principals and is governed under the auspice of SACCS, reporting and making recommendations to SACCS through its Executive Officer. The purpose of the Steering Committee is to provide guidance, background, futures vision, financial viability, a level of prioritisation and an overview of the effectiveness of the required current and future footprint of Catholic education in South Australia. The Steering Committee will work closely with FISC and the Enhancing Schools Project.
The CESA Futures Infrastructure Strategy Briefing Document, Terms of Reference, and high level Strategic Mapping all gained the Commission’s approval. These guiding documents inform SACCS of the purpose of the Strategy guided by the work of the Steering committee, strategy methodology and formation matrix. Further to this the Steering committee developed the Priority Setting Structure for dealing with the multitude of infrastructure initiatives across CESA.
The Western Technical College is a response to The Department for Education’s (DfE) request for an application to develop a new technical college in the western suburbs. Through the expansion of the Rosewater Trade Training Centre, the business case for the Western Technical College (WTC) presented an innovative, cost-effective and results-oriented response to the Liberal Government’s commitments as outlined in Skilling South Australia which seeks to advance the quality and effectiveness of trade training.
Planning for opening in 2021, WTC presented the DfE with compelling solutions as a unique provider of Vocational Education and Training (VET).
In December 2019, The DfE informed CESA that its application was successful following a revised financial commitment. The DfE will present CESA with a deed regarding the WTC at which time, implementation will commence. The $3.4M grant was executed by the Minister for Education on 24 March 2020. This was paired with a joint commitment by SACCS of $1.3M for the $4.7M project.
November 2019 SACCS approved the specific initiatives and budget for the East Adelaide Strategy and requested an Implementation Plan to accompany the initiatives. The Commission has set the following outcome areas for the East Adelaide Strategy:
regional collaboration and networking
quality of learning outcomes
quality of student engagement and wellbeing
enrolments into each primary school and college
retention within each primary school and college
transition within Catholic education.
Evident within the school/colleges reports are the various approaches undertaken by schools in order to improve the quality of learning outcomes, student engagement and wellbeing, enrolments, student transition and retention and the overall initiatives in forming collaborative partnerships across the nine schools and colleges in East Adelaide.
The East Adelaide Steering Committee will provide SACCS with the second East Adelaide Strategy Progress Report in June 2021. At that time the report will include specific analysis of progress, with reference to KPIs in achieving the goals of the East Adelaide Strategy.
This initiative’s aim is to advance the work undertaken since 2018 in tracking student movement, identifying trends and patterns that span our schools in relation to:
The aim behind this new platform is to enable schools, regions and the sector to track both incoming and departing student movement, in real time, and provide both quantitative and qualitative data.
The Enhancing Schools Project works to identify opportunities, initiatives and strategies that could be employed by the CEO to enhance the financial viability of CESA schools.
The project has at its core, an emphasis on identifying schools experiencing financial, enrolment or educational pressures and applying the Catholic Education Office’s resources in a coordinated, multi-disciplinary effort designed to improve the outcomes.
In 2020 the Enhancing Schools Project (ESP) reviewed the successful implementation of the reduced school fee structure for the Mercy Cluster (St Thomas More School, St Mary Magdalene’s School and Catherine McAuley School). At its core, this has resulted in a significant increase in enrolments for these schools.
Through 2020 the ESP engaged in further review of schools within the system and supported the 2021 Tuitional Fee Reduction for diocesan primary schools. This project continues to evaluate, review, and remediate those diocesan schools that are identified as requiring improvement in their educational plan, operational plan and/or financial plan.
