Leadership Charter: It takes a community to LEAD a Catholic school
16 March 2017
Re-imagining leadership at Catholic Education Western Australia is motivated by the increasingly complex landscape in which Catholic schooling is occurring. The urgency of the need for change brings pressures and opportunities that require all of us to assume personal and co-responsibility for the learning of students and each other.
As a result of this changing landscape, the Leadership Charter has been created. It provides a platform around Learning – Engagement – Accountability – Discipleship (LEAD) which enables the flourishing of every one of us so that lives are transformed by inspiring a ‘passion for learning and discovery, through a closer relationship with Jesus Christ’.
The aspirations and processes of the Charter will enable all of us across CEWA – students, families, staff, principals and leadership teams, Catholic education office personnel – to be actively engaged in leading to give life to Jesus’ mission in the world, and develop our leadership capacity through a focus on identified attributes.
It is grounded in the understandings that:
- Everyone is a leader, and everyone is leading all the time, well or poorly.
- Leadership springs from within. It is about who I am as much as what I do.
- Leadership is not an act; it is a life – a way of living.
- Becoming a leader is an ongoing process.
The intention is that the Charter will be a living document animated by ever deepening understandings of the mission imperatives of LEAD, and given meaning through Discipleship.
The consultation phase of the draft Leadership Charter has begun. System leaders were introduced to the Charter at the recent Leaders’ Forum on the 20th of February, by two Catholic school principals who were on the Reference Group overseeing its development: Mrs Robyn Miller, principal of Kolbe Catholic College and Mr Laurie Bechelli, principal of St Michael’s School.
The invitations and conversations in the consultation process for the Charter are vital to how it is received and animated in each community across CEWA.
To view the Charter as well as supporting documents, visit this page. Schools, associations and network groupings are strongly encouraged to spend time with the document and provide feedback using the survey.
Please contact Dr Tony Curry, Director of School Improvement at curry.tony@cathednet.wa.edu.au or Dr Debra Sayce, Director Religious Education at sayce.debra@cathednet.wa.edu.au to discuss the Leadership Charter further.
