Catholic Education Conference 2019

GRACED BY
Archbishop William Goh

DATE
18 March 2019

VENUE
Catholic High School

Programme Booklet


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Programme

MORNING

07.45 Mass
08.15 Registration
08.45 Opening Prayer and Opening Remarks by Chairperson, Planning Team
09.15 Keynote Address by Brother Paul Rogers
09.15 Keynote Address by Fr Adrian
10.15 Tea Break
10.40 Concurrent Session A
11.30 Address by His Grace, Archbishop William Goh
12.00 Lunch
Students are dismissed after lunch

 

AFTERNOON

13.00 Concurrent Session B
13.50 School Team Discussion
15.15 Sharing by School Teams
16.00 Closing Address by Chairman, ACCS, and Closing Prayer
16.30 End

Living the Mission, Celebrating the Spirit

The biennial Catholic Education Conference provides a platform for all interested to meet and share ideas and views about Catholic education in Singapore.

The Catholic Education Conference 2019, themed ‘Living the Mission, Celebrating the Spirit’ serves as a rallying call to celebrate the ethos and spirit of a Catholic school through the sharing of good practices among schools on how to build a stronger Catholic school culture. It provides a platform for schools to share good practices and reflect on how to live out the mission of a Catholic school in everyday policies, processes, practices and mindsets. It brings together the head, heart and hands which contribute towards making the mission and spirit of Catholic schools come alive.

His Grace, Archbishop William Goh, will be gracing the conference and giving his response to the morning’s proceedings.

Attended by sponsoring authorities, school leaders, teachers, students, parents, alumni and school chaplaincy teams, the diverse composition adds to the richness of the views and discussions.

The conference programme in the morning features a keynote address by Brother Paul Rogers FSC and Father Adrian Danker SJ for adult participants and students respectively. Students will have the opportunity to reflect on their roles and mission and share their ideas with students from other Catholic schools through interactive activities. Adult participants will attend concurrent sessions featuring the sharing of good practices on living the mission and celebrating the spirit by various schools in the Catholic community and beyond.

The conference programme in the afternoon sets aside time for School Teams to come together to consolidate the learning from the morning and plan for the year and beyond. This facilitates the translations of reflections into actions for each school. Hence, schools are required to register as school teams to facilitate the coordination of this session.

Concurrent Sessions A (10.40am)

A01 – A Montfortian infusion for Secondary School – Assumption English / Assumption Pri / Montfort Sec / St Gabriel’s Sec
Montfortian education in our schools will often be compared with those of a similar nature managed by other agencies. But an authentic Montfortian educational initiative will stand out by the fact that we operate from the framework of our Charism derived from the core dimensions of our Montfortian Education Charter. In this presentation, the School Chaplaincy Team will share holistically on the best practices and various challenges of infusing the Montfortian Catholic ethos and values in the school community through tailored programmes and structures for our secondary schools.

A02 – Service Learning 101 – SJI International
What does a student-initiated community project look like? How can we create the conditions for fostering student empowerment? What are some tools and strategies we can use to empower students as agents of change? In this session, participants will share and discuss recent examples of service learning in their schools so that we can create a toolbox of strategies and approaches that will support our students in their community action.

A03 – Infusion of Catholic Mission/Ethos in School Curriculum – Canossian Schools Singapore
Anchored on Our Foundress’ belief that core to Canossian education is the Formation of the Heart, the sharing will be how the Canossian Schools in Singapore live out the mission as Catholic, catholic and Canossian. The sharing will also touch on how the schools build that community with our Canossian Sisters, teachers and the parent community as well as part of a whole village concept in faith formation.

A04 – Infusion of CST into CCE Curriculum – Catholic High
CHS will share on Spirituality Education – a programme crafted on the themes of Catholic Social Teachings – providing a space for the students across all levels to understand the compelling challenge for living responsibly and building a just society.

A05 – Journey of FAITH in St. Anthony’s Primary School – St Anthony’s Pri
This sharing is about how the Catholic Programme in St Anthony’s Primary School has progressed over the years. The sharing focuses on F.A.I.T.H: Founder as our model; Around the school; Interesting activities; Teachers’ involvement; Helping hands. The sharing focuses on how the values of FSC form the anchor of the school’s Catholic programme, the physical environment, the core programme and the support rendered by the school’s PSG and the Parish.

A06 – Growing In Faith Together (GIFT) – Holy Innocents’ Pri
The GIFT programme seeks to enrich the spiritual lives of our pupils and complements the Catholic curriculum in churches. Topics based on the church’s teachings are weaved with faith experiences and stories of real life giving pupils a multisensory experience through the use of media and songs.

A07 – Infusion of Catholic Ethos into School Life – CHIJ Sec
Catholic ethos and a culture of spirituality pervade school life at CHIJ Secondary on all levels – from programmes meant primarily for Catholic students, such as Religious Education lessons and weekly Masses, to level retreats and self-awareness camps for all students.

A08 – Building a Catholic School Culture – SJI Junior
Our school seeks to live its mission as a Catholic educational institution by integrating Faith into different aspects of our school: our Catholic programmes, school environment, prayer life, staff practices, school policies, involvement of parents and support of the wider community.

A09 – Action Guided By Truth – ACS Junior
The essence of education is about inspiring hearts and minds. As a mission school, is there a different calling? Upholding the Methodist ethos of a holistic education, character building and service to the community, we share how our beliefs and philosophy impact the school curriculum and are translated into action.

A10 – Promoting Inter-Religious Conversations at St Pat’s – St Patrick’s Sec
Since the time of Bro Joseph McNally in the 1980s, the school has been open to other religions. Without losing our Catholic identity, the promotion of inter-religious conversations serve to help our Catholic students to appreciate non-Catholic students and their beliefs as well as help the non-Catholic students feel that their beliefs are respected and valued.

Concurrent Sessions B (1pm)

B01 – A Montfortian Infusion for Primary School – Montfort Junior / St Gabriel’s Pri
Montfortian education in our schools will often be compared with those of a similar nature managed by other agencies. But an authentic Montfortian educational initiative will stand out by the fact that we operate from the framework of our Charism derived from the core dimensions of our Montfortian Education Charter. In this presentation, the School Chaplaincy Team will share holistically on the best practices and various challenges of infusing the Montfortian Catholic ethos and values in the school community through tailored programmes and structures for our primary schools.

B02 – Building a Christ-centred community through Integral Pedagogy Process – CHIJ St Theresa’s Convent
CHIJ St. Theresa’s Convent (STC) believes that a Catholic school should expose its students to what a Catholic way of life has to offer. To this end, teaching and learning in STC is guided by the Integral Pedagogy Process (IPP). IPP is a process which allows for the transformation of learners’ habits through the constant interplay of context, experience, reflection, action and evaluation. Our team will share how IPP guides teaching practices and impacts student learning with the objective of developing our Theresian girls to be ladies of competence, conscience and compassionate commitment, ladies who will have the courage to be leaders and learners for God and for others.

B03 – Doing small things with great love – bringing Catholic ethos to life each day – Hai Sing
Hai Sing Catholic School will share how it brings to life its core belief that “Every Haisian is a child of God, blessed with talents and a unique identity.” Championed by its Student Development Team, “doing small things with great love” is a school-wide endeavour that seeks to bring each child to a realisation of his/her talents and seeing each and every child as unique individuals. We will also include how we support and strengthen the faith formation and education of Catholic students through our Catholic programme.

B04 – Living out the Catholic school mission: Building Marist Gentlemen of Faith, Vision and Service – Maris Stella Pri / Maris Stella Sec
Through the school’s Lenten VIA programme, students are taught to be of service to others and reminded of our founder’s golden rule – All children must be loved equally. Through hosting children from MINDS and collecting supplies for the children of Abra, Philippines, Marists from both secondary and primary sections of the school collaborate to live this out.

B05 – Together for Christ (School Chaplaincy Team and Partnerships with Stakeholders) – CHIJ Pri (Katong)
The School Chaplaincy Team plays the main role in planning and organising the Catholic religious activities and events in the school. Each year, the team would look into the spiritual growth and faith formation of the students and staff. With our school’s motto, Simple in Virtue, Steadfast in Duty, as our guide, the school strive to work Together for Christ.

B06 – Deepening the Catholic Faith in Students through YCS Movement – Holy Innocents’ High
Since 1960s, HIHS offers YCS to Sec 1 Catholic students. Through weekly discussions of issues, YCS builds a sense of community within each cohort and has deepened the faith of our students, with many ex-students returning to serve as YCS facilitators, a testimony to the value of the YCS experience.

B07 – Bringing the Good Shepherd to All – Marymount Convent
The school will share how we strive to build an inclusive culture as we bring the Catholic ethos and the Good Shepherd values to life in various programmes and activities. While some of these target the Catholic pupils, many are meant for the entire school community, including the daily Sacred Time, weekly Adoration sessions and the Day of Togetherness.

B08 – Challenges in Religious Education in schools – Bro Paul
Bro Paul will facilitate a discussion on what are some of the biggest challenges in religious education in schools. Questions to ask: Is RE the problem or is it something else? How do you create an RE program that is relevant, challenging and engaging? How do I enliven what I do in RE?

B09 – ACTS in Action – Christ Church Sec
In this session Mr David Lau shares how Christ Church Secondary School leverages on the Anglican Character, Thinking & Service (ACTS) curriculum to help his students acquire the competence to be 21st century servant leaders with the following qualities: exemplary in character, skilled communicators, holistic thinkers and community builders. His sharing encompasses the following three areas – “Care to Think, Think to Care”; “Harness to Connect, Connect to Harness”; and “Grow to Serve, Serve to Grow”.

B10 – SJI Talent Development Programme – SJI
Adopting as its theoretical framework the Differentiating Model of Giftedness and Talent, SJI proposes a formal framework for talent development inspired by the principles and practices adopted in Lasallian education and the science of learning. The sharing aims to highlight how this framework is used to help students to learn how to learn and learn how to live.