Building Good Schools

1. The culture of Catholic Schools

1.1. Culture is the way of life of a people or social group. They share values and behaviours which bond a community together in its search of its meaning.

1.2. The culture of catholic schools expresses the structure of a school. They are expressed through core beliefs & values, symbols, traditions and rituals.

1.3. Education is about the whole person: body, mind, heart and spirit.

2. What makes a good school?

2.1. All students have the opportunity to learn.

2.2. Teachers need to be enthusaitic about the content they are teahcing and encourage their studets as teaching is a vocation.

2.3. There needs to be a partnership between teachers, parents, students and the curriculum.

2.4. Teachers understanding the theoretical pedagogies.

3. Schools & choices in Australia

3.1. Early Setttlement

3.2. Education was taken for granted. Schools never survived because students never attended. The attitude towards school was that it wasn't important. this view mirrored the British view of education.

3.2.1. Earliest successful school was by the Sisters of the Catholic Church.

3.2.2. An education department was created by the new state of W.A followed by a teacher training college in 1902. Before this anyone could be a teacher.

3.2.3. From the earliest struggles W.A faced in education the state now offers comprehensive education to over 350,000 students.

3.3. Three types of schooling in Australia. Government, non-government and independent.

3.3.1. Parents perceptions of the different types of schools influence their decision making in which school to send their children.

4. Are schools effective?

4.1. Flynn (1985) defines the term effective as "a school achieving what it sets out to do".

4.2. The purpose of Catholic schools is to integrate general/secular education and religion. A catholic education is aimed at the whole person with respect to tgeir ultinate goal.

4.2.1. This connects to the education being transformational.

4.2.2. Commits to the whole person which embraces all dimensions of a person.