FROM THE PRINCIPAL Ministerial and Catholic Director’s Visit FROM THE PRINCIPAL

In an exciting time for education in Central Australia, the Federal Minister for Education, Jason Clare, visited Alice Springs and OLSH, with the Director of Catholic Education in Australia, Jacinta Collins, and the Director of Catholic Education in the Northern Territory, Paul Greaves.

The Federal Minister has allocated $40.4 million to education in Central Australia in 2024. This is his second visit, to sit with the 44 principals in this area and discuss how the money could best be utilised for indigenous education.

This allocation of funding, above the normal annual allocation, puts Central Australia schools at the highest level in all Australia. For those familiar with the Gonski Report, a review into equitable outcomes in school funding across all schools in Australia, our allocation of funding would now put OLSH Catholic School at 97% of the Gonski’s recommendation. Presently, we are sitting at approximately 79%. Originally, Central Australia had planned to achieve 100% the Gonski recommended level by 2050. This puts into perspective the incredible support from Minister Jason Clare and his progressive approach to educational funding.

Minister Jason Clare and Jacinta Collins were particularly interested in OLSH’s data on school attendance and the academic success in indigenous achievement in Year 12. At OLSH in 2023, indigenous attendance in on a par with non-indigenous attendance, sitting at approximately 91/92%. This takes us back to pre-Covid levels. In fact, in our first enrolment and validation report this year, indigenous students had a 92.3% attendance rate compared to 91.3% for non-indigenous students.

The next set of data our visitors were particularly interested was indigenous achievement. For the last 4 years, indigenous students in Year 12 have attained a 100% pass rate in the NTCET qualification (Northern Territory Certificate for Education and Training – Year 12 pass), including excellent achievements in VET courses. To hear our story, Jason Clare and Jacinta Collins met with 7 students at Sadadeen; to listen to their perspective of indigenous achievement, school support and more broadly, life in Alice Springs. Our students were articulate and explained their reasons for indigenous success at OLSH, how it is achieved, what school support is in place to support this and how important education is to their future lives. Many thanks to these students for being so natural and authentic.

There were two blessings from this special visit. It is so pleasing to be recognised for the outstanding results OLSH produces every year. Not only for high school attendance but also our academic and VET results; although attendance and success at school are intrinsicality linked. Secondly, behind all the support systems in place, nothing compares to the relationship between teachers and their students. This is where OLSH excels. Our positive student/teacher relationships were recognised by the Government’s External Validation in 2021 and placed in the highest category in the countryOutstanding. It is my belief that this is the real strength behind any of our achievements – attendance, VET results, SACE results, PAT and NAPLAN results and our senior NTCET results. Many thanks to all staff, teaching and administration, for the special care and support you give to all our students.

Marcellin Champagnat, over 200 years ago, urged his Marist Brothers and all associated with Marist schools, that “If you want to teach young people, first you must love them. You must love them all equally.”

Denise Simon, Assistant Principal Dear Members of the OLSH Community,

Welcome to our first newsletter for term 3. It has been a busy but rewarding start tto the term with multiple highlights for sure!

The Colloquium was held on the 20th & 21st of July, led by Adam Burns from Marist Youth Ministry based in Brisbane. He works with the 20 Marist schools located in Queensland, Northern NSW and Northern Territory. The focus for the two days was on leadership, using our founder Marcellin Champagnat, Jules Chavalier and Jesus as role model. The students were extremely engaged during the course of the said time frame and interacted well with their peers and staff present. A most rewarding day for sure!