Catholic ed office marks 50 years

THE Sandhurst Catholic Education Office is turning fifty.

The occasion will be marked with a mass at St Kilian’s followed by lunch at its headquarters in Hargreaves Street on Sunday 18 August.

The Office oversees the administration of 56 Catholic schools and four kindergartens or early learning centres right across the Sandhurst diocese.

Executive director Kate Fogarty said the office’s origins stemmed from the need to support parish priests across the region, who acted as the owners and the governors of their local school.

“They didn’t have expertise in education, so this was set up to support the schools and the principals to ensure they were running under the appropriate government regulations, they were funded appropriately and meeting the expectations of the local community,” she said.

“We accept the regulatory responsibilities, the legal responsibilities and the funding responsibilities.

“We support the principals to do their very best and use the resources that we have in common to ensure that the littlest schools and the biggest schools can all operate in the best way possible.”

Ms Fogarty said a good way to look at how the organisation operates is much the same way as how the Department of Education assists schools in the public system.

“Everything from supporting how they’re teaching the curriculum to how they’re supporting students with additional needs, building programs that offer the best opportunities for their young people and support their parents,” she said.

“All those great things schools do, we’re helping the principals to do that in increasingly better ways, making sure our schools are places where there’s growth and improvement in the way everything is done.”

The lunch after the mass will be a gathering of people from across the diocese, and the Catholic and broader education systems.

“As part of that, we’ve undertaken to have each of the (past) directors interviewed and filmed to hear some of the great stories of each of the different eras of the past 50 years,” Ms Fogarty said.

Luncheon RSVPs can be made via Eventbrite.