Administrative assistants are a vital part of the Catholic Schools Office, taking care of the details of the day-to-day running of a large and busy office and its people in their diverse roles.
Fiona Schubert has been the Administrative Assistant to the Assistant Director of School Improvement since 2011 and it is a role that offers her plenty of variety and challenge.
Her work centres on the Leading Learning program which is an ongoing and multi-facetted program that aligns professional leadership and professional learning to school improvement. Fiona organises meetings, calendars, and all the professional learning days and events for the program. As a full staff development day can have around three-hundred people in attendance, it is a role that requires Fiona to keep a broad sweep of details in view. She admits that it can be daunting at times but she enjoys the challenges that the job brings. “I really like organising the big events,” she says. “I get great satisfaction when all the hard work comes together and the day runs smoothly and is a success. At the end of an event, it’s good to know that I’ve played a part in putting together a helpful and meaningful day for those attending.”
Fiona’s role also sees her categorising and archiving the large range of resources that are prepared and presented for principals, teachers and support staff for their professional learning and responding to inquiries for access to those resources. She admits that, at times, this has been a sharp learning curve but she enjoys the opportunity to learn more about the education sector, especially as she has two school-aged boys.
“There’s always something interesting happening here at the CSO,” Fiona says. “Often, I have to think on my feet, and make decisions about competing demands but that’s all part of the job. And there’s lots of support and encouragement here; I always feel part of the team.”