The Catholic Weekly 7 June 2020

catholicweekly.com.au 4 NEWS 7, June, 2020 Stay safe and happy at home with holistic home care packages Discover our range of in-home services 1300 216 675 Helping build a brighter future for children and families in crisis. Dunlea Centre 35A Waratah Road Engadine NSW 2233 Phone 02 8508 3900 AUSTRALIA'S ORIGINAL BOYS' TOWN A place for change... www.dunleacentre.org.au Find the career you deserve catholicjobsonline.com.au CATHOLIC JOBS ONLINE For all the latest Catholic Jobs call Katie on (02) 9390 5402 A NEW learning program allowing Year 5 and 6 girls to have their own “tween precint” on the secondary school grounds of Santa Sa- bina College will be opened in 2021. Latest research shows that girls tend to lose their con- fidence from about the age of nine so the new program is aimed at giving students support to empower them ready for high school. The new precint will give them access to facilities in- cluding science labs, dra- ma, dance and performance spaces not typically available to primary school students. Called Gioia House, for the joy Catherine of Siena was known to exude as a young girl, it will bring to- gether the Year 5 and 6 stu- dents within their own cam- pus rather than being split between the primary and secondary campuses, either Santa girls get own space side of The Boulevarde at Strathfield. Santa Sabina College Principal Paulina Skerman said the program will see them “cocooned in their own space with curriculum and pastoral programs de- livered by an expert team”. “Gioia House will create an environment that gives every girl the opportunity to fall in love with learning, where they discover and develop their strengths and talents, whether that be in the classroom, in the arts in cultural pursuits, through service to others or on the sports field,” she said. “From next year, our Year 5 girls will take the first step in their all-girls’ educational journey and join the San- ta Sabina campus, where they will enter a whole new world, a world where girls are front and centre and where we deliver an educa- tion designed especially for girls. “We want to empower them so that when they step into secondary schooling in Year 7, they are intelligent, creative, confident and ac- tive, full of courage and compassion.” According to Ms Skerman, research indicates that girls thrive when they are in a nurturing environment that gives voice to their opinions and choices, allows them to challenge themselves with- out fear of failure and pur- sue a life of purpose, fulfil- ment and meaning. “There is evidence that some girls start to lose their confidence from about the age of nine. Our program will include strategies to use mental strength related to inner strength. As the girls become empowered our tailored program will allow them to become aware of their emotions and learn to regulate them while increas- ing their self-confidence as they prepare to make the transition to their senior years.” Gioia House will be lo- cated within the Martin de Porres Building which sits geographically between both the Primary and Sec- ondary campuses and the enrolment in Year 5 and Year 6 will be 75 students in each year group (divided into three classes). Santa Sabina College Principal Paulina Skerman with SSC students. New plan continues the legacy of orders IT SOUNDS like an obscure body in the Church but the As- sociation of Ministerial Pub- lic Juridic Persons covers the governance of some of the ma- jor works of the Church in Aus- tralia. And it has set its strategic direction for 2020-2023 focus- ing on excellence in govern- ance of its health, education and welfare organisations as well as their communion with the wider Catholic Church. There are 74 canonical stew- ards looking after 11 Public Juridic Persons (recognised in both civil law and the Church’s canon law) across the country. They include Edmund Rice Education Australia which ad- ¾ ¾ Marilyn Rodrigues ministers the Christian Broth- ers schools, Catholic Health Care and CalvaryMinistries. These are organisations originally established by re- ligious orders which are now governed by lay people who have responsibility for many of the Church’s education, health, aged care and other ministries. Council chair of the AMPJP Eva Skira said that while excel- lence in Ministerial PJP gov- ernance has always been one of the association’s previous strategies, “it will now have a sharper focus”. In the four years since the association was established, members “have grown in ap- preciation of their different approaches and have a posi- tive basis for working together and with others in the Church to bring Christ’s love to our world”, she said. Executive officer Lawrie Hallinan said that in its new strategic direction the associa- tion is “focussing on the things we can most contribute to the Church”. “The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse highlight- ed that the Church’s education, health and welfare services are very well run,” he said. “It’s a difficult environment we’re living in where even within the Church there is di- vision, so having a priority on building communion within the wider Church is some- thing that we know we need to have.” ¾ ¾ Debbie Cramsie