Goal: To increase opportunities to support a culture of teaching and learning which is rooted in the Gospel values and reflects and nurtures the Ontario Catholic School Graduate Expectations across all curricula |
Actions to be Taken
- Engage a writing team in advance of the school year to gather and develop resources to support the identified 2022-2023 spiritual theme: Listening With the Ear of the Heart.
- Build awareness and understanding of the spiritual theme at the beginning of the school year:
- August 24 - Presentation to Principals, Vice Principals and Sr Managers
- August 25-26 - Presentation to School Administrative Assistants
- September 1 - Academic Services staff
- September 9 - Presentation to CEC/OMAC staff
- September 15 - Presentation to DCPIC
- September 26 - Presentation to Trustees
- Utilize Teams sites to provide access to spiritual theme resources for school administrators and Academic Services staff.
- Support administrators and school teams to reflect upon and diversify the religious icons, symbols and visible expressions of Catholic identity in the schools (e.g., diverse representations of the Holy Family; saints from cultures that reflect the diversity of students and the community).
- Collaboration among Academic Services staff to identify cross-curricular connections to the Board theme.
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Goal: To increase opportunities to support faith formation for all members of the community that are inviting, engaging, and purposeful |
Actions to be Taken
- Re-engage Faith Ambassadors in each school and provide inservice that focuses on liturgical support and building capacity to foster adult faith formation for staff. October to December - series of after school drop-in virtual sessions. February - full-day learning session and retreat.
- Explore programs that can be adopted to support system adult faith formation (e.g., Walking Each Other Home series).
- Support the faith formation of Principals, and System Leaders through retreat opportunities that will enable administrators to reflect on their role as spiritual leaders of their faith community.
- Provide all staff opportunity to engage in Advent and Lenten Twilight Retreats.
- Offer learning opportunities to non-Catholic CEC staff prior to communal faith celebrations to increase their understanding of Catholic rituals so that staff may feel more at ease and welcomed during these celebrations.
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Goal: To foster a relationship between home, school, and parish through pastoral planning at both the school and system level |
Actions to be Taken
- Review the Pastoral Plan template and revise, as needed, so that the plans are purposeful and meaningful for school communities.
Note: Implementation in-progress. The pastoral plan template has been revised and has been shared with administrators and pastors for feedback. The new template and accompanying resource will be implemented in Fall of 2023.
- Share school Pastoral Plans with home and parish (e.g., school newsletters, Catholic School Council, parish bulletin).
Note: The pastoral plan template was under revision this year. Schools shared faith initiatives and school/parish partnerships via social media, school newsletter, Edsby, etc.
- Assist educators and administrators to support the parish and families with sacramental preparation (e.g., school and class visits by Elementary Religious Education consultant; resources provided by Faith Ambassador).
Note: Academic Services has shared with our local pastors the Growing in Faith, Growing in Christ parish resource portal to develop a shared understanding of the sacramental instruction students receive in the classroom and and the way in which this instruction can complement the sacramental preparation in parishes.
- Enhance the annual retreat opportunities for Grade 9-12 students through monthly meetings and a sharing of best practices with Secondary Chaplains.
- Enhance elementary retreat opportunities by providing opportunities for Secondary Chaplains to attend Elementary Faith Ambassadors meeting to co-plan retreats.
Note: Secondary School Chaplains attended the elementary Adult Faith Ambassador training days to establish a connection and offer support. The re-establishment of the Adult Faith Ambassador's post-COVID has focused on providing resource supports and clarifying the role. Elementary retreats were not a focus in the 2022-2023 school year.
- Provide training to student mentors to serve as retreat leaders (i.e., development sessions to occur through Chaplaincy at each Secondary School).
Note: The use of student retreat leaders has been implemented in some Catholic secondary schools and is under continued development in the remaining secondary schools.
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