21ST CENTURY AUSTRALIA TEACHING FOR DICIPLESHIP IN

Part of the commitment to being a Catechist is to take part in regular ongoing training in the areas of Safeguarding, Classroom Management and Curriculum. We here at CCD Broken Bay have been truly heartened by the positive approach to this ongoing training. Whereas once there may have been grumbles from experienced Catechists coming back to training, these days the majority of people look forward to the opportunity to refresh and learn something new.

We are equally as committed to keeping our ongoing training fresh and up-to-date which is why every three years, each of our ongoing training units gets a makeover and is updated to reflect current ideas and keeps us in step with what is happening in our Diocese and wider Catholic education community

In the first week of the term 2 school holidays, we launched our revamped Curriculum training unit that focuses on our discipleship model of learning in 21st century context We held 5 training sessions, 1 in each of the regions in our Diocese and 2 Zoom sessions to capture 107 participants

The Catechists who attended were treated to a practical session with individual and group work and plenty of opportunities to learn from the experience of others through the sharing of knowledge and ideas.

The group get together and the training was excellent. Well planned and timed.

The group practical exercises were a valuable part of the session, as were the group summary presentations. -

Bryan Freer

The sessions were very helpful. It’s always good to discuss and share ideas about ways of working through the lesson plans with others before presenting them to the children. -

Deidre McGreal

We all agreed that the Ongoing Curriculum Training “Teaching for Discipleship in the 21st Century Australia” was one of the best training sessions that we have been to. It challenged us in a very non-threatening way to think about how we teach and how we consider the students’ needs, particularly when it comes to teaching concepts/liturgical language that may be new to them.

John spoke about the fact that most Catechists actively practice their faith and, because of this, we bring something special into the classroom by being witnesses to the faith He also mentioned that, just by turning up to our classes each week, we are showing our students how important our faith is to us and that God wants the same for them It felt great to be praised in such a way This course was full of new information that will help us in the classroom and was a lovely experience where we felt affirmed that we were on the right track with what we are currently doing

Many thanks from Jeanette, Rodney, Josephine and Ursula from North Harbour Parish.