Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools executive director Edward Simons outlined a vision for the largest non-government schooling system in Australia at a Melbourne Catholic Professionals gathering last week. Source: Melbourne Catholic.
Dr Simons discussed the values, challenges and opportunities that are shaping MACS’ mission and the life-changing difference that Catholic schools make every day to the lives of children, young people and their families.
Dr Simons was appointed to the role of Executive Director of MACS in March but has had a long and rich career in Australian education, having migrated here from England almost 15 years ago with his Australian-born wife, Jessica.
Leading MACS, he said, is both an “enormous privilege” and a “huge responsibility”.
To get a sense of the “bold and ambitious goal” that has been set for the organisation, Dr Simons pointed his audience to MACS’ recently released strategic plan, MACS 2030: Forming Lives to Enrich the World, a document organised around the four pillars of faith, learning, leadership and community.
A number of opportunities inform this strategy and will shape the work of MACS in the years ahead, he said. One is the creation of “new and imaginative ways for our recently formed system of schools to be empowered centrally”, ensuring they perform more strongly than when they previously operated as stand-alone school entities.
Another is the need to be “increasingly clear about what it means to be Catholic educators, and to embrace this as the core tenet of our work”. And recognising that MACS’ work is just one part of the broader work of the Church, Catholic schools must also “find new ways to work more effectively with parishes” and other Catholic agencies.
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‘Shining a light’: Dr Edward Simons on the life-changing power of Catholic education (Melbourne Catholic)
