News Blog

Director of Schools End of Term Message

July 5, 2024

 Dear Colleagues and friends of CSBB, 

These few lines are to update you on our progress with the Towards 2025 strategy. 

Earlier today Bishop Anthony and I joined with all our staff across CSBB for our annual Staff Strategy day. Staff joined with their colleagues at one of ten sites which provided an opportunity for all to reflect on the great progress with our Towards 2025 Strategy and to share ideas and network as we shape priorities for the next phase of our journey. 

Following a truly inspirational address from Bishop Anthony about the mission of Catholic education in our Diocese, all staff were provided an update on the progress against each of the 5 Goals of Towards 2025. 

According to the Strategy Performance Tool we introduced last year to monitor our progress, we are delighted to report that we are making great progress towards our vision with innovation and improvements being highlighted across all five Goals. This progress was reflective of recent feedback from CSBB’s most recent Culture survey where, among other things, 3 out of every 4 respondents gave the highest possible rankings when asked how well their school and workplace welcomes new ideas and fosters a culture of ongoing improvement. 

Staff were also briefed on the key themes from the various staff voice initiatives over the last twelve months. It was pleasing to report that overall, levels of job satisfaction at CSBB are high and that staff consider standout areas of strength are our deep commitment to our faith; outstanding commitment to students; embedding a safeguarding culture and strong alignment with our Strategy, Vision and Values in all we do. 

The feedback also recognised that more focus is needed to prioritise and support staff wellbeing and ensure balanced workloads for all CSBB staff. Our approach to supporting staff in responding to students with diverse and complex learning needs, as well as challenging behaviours was also highlighted and there was a strong interest in strengthening professional learning and ideas to further enhance continuous improvement, particularly in the areas of pedagogy, curriculum reform, receiving individual feedback and recognition, and enhancing our use of data to maximise student outcomes. 

Following discussion on this feedback we launched two new key initiatives, The new CSBB Pedagogical Framework and an integrated set of new initiatives in a program entitled Fostering Staff Wellbeing and Ensuring a Balanced Workload for all CSBB Staff. 

The CSBB Pedagogical Framework is aligned with the Alice Springs Declaration and the Professional Teaching Standards. It provides all CSBB teachers with a guide to selecting teaching strategies based on what they know about how learners learn. It outlines the repertoire of teaching strategies required for learners at each phase of their learning. CSBB Teachers bring their professional knowledge to make deliberate decisions about teaching practices to meet the needs of individual students. 

Fostering Staff Wellbeing and Ensuring a Balanced Workload for all CSBB Staff is a set of commitments co constructed by our staff to address the highly relevant