T reasuring Our Presentation Past: Fashioning A Presentation - PDF document

T reasuring Our Presentation Past: Fashioning A Presentation Future CONFERENCE BROCHURE PRESENTATION SCHOOLS STAFF CONFERENCE 31 JULY - 02 AUGUST 2013 - HOTEL GRAND CHANCELLOR, HOBART

Sponsors Sincere thanks to the companies who are supporting this Conference. KEYNOTE SPEAKER SPONSOR SILVER SPONSORS LANYARD SPONSORS 2

T reasuring Our Presentation Past: Fashioning A Presentation Future PRESENTATION SCHOOLS STAFF CONFERENCE 31 JULY – 2 AUGUST 2013 - HOTEL GRAND CHANCELLOR, HOBART 20 Invitation from the 13 Conference Chair Following strong Expressions of Interest received A unique and pivotal element of this Conference will in the last months of 2012, I now invite you to be the Plenary Session facilitated by Susan Pascoe, complete the Registration Form to secure your place designed to provide a forum for delegates to share at the Presentation Schools Staff Conference to be practical ideas, needs, resources and organisational held at the Grand Chancellor Hotel, Hobart, from suggestions to help the fashioning of a contemporary 31 July to 2 August 2013. Please note the discounts Presentation Charism in and between our schools into available for Early Bird Registration as well as that the future. for two or more delegates from the one school. The Conference Committee looks forward to The theme of the Conference – Treasuring Our welcoming you to Hobart in late July for this important Presentation Past: Fashioning A Presentation milestone in the story of our schools founded by the Future – has certainly captured the imagination Presentation Sisters and for the opportunity to enjoy and interest of staff in schools, colleges and collegiality in beautiful Hobart and its surrounds. education offi ces across Australia. Discerning what a Presentation future ought to look like for the 115 We look forward to warmly welcoming you in Hobart. primary schools and 25 colleges that can trace their origins to the Presentation Sisters is a key challenge in 2013 going forward. The topic areas of the Keynote Speakers and the Workshops listed in this brochure seek to provide a strong stimulus for Tom Dorey the conversations, collaborations and imaginings Chair, Conference Organising Committee Principal, of delegates as they gather together to discern and St Mary’s College, Hobart fashion a contemporary Presentation Charism. Delegates will have the opportunity to visit the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) or historic Richmond. In line with the theme of the Conference, MONA juxtaposes the past and present in the visual arts, while Richmond will allow delegates to soak up features of the colonial town so important in tracing and appreciating the history of the Presentation Sisters in Australia. 3

Presenters Engaging in Expansive Partnership Ecology and Learning: If You Keep a Green Branch in Sr Fatima Rodrigo PVBM, NGO Representative, Your Heart, The Singing Bird Will Come United Nations, International Presentation Association Dr. Trish Hindmarsh, Director, Catholic Education Tasmania Born in a Christian coastal village in the Southern tip of Dr. Trish Hindmarsh is Director of Catholic Education India, I have been part of the Presentation way of life Tasmania and works with the Sustainability Initiative of the for the past 45 years. During these years, I have had Archdiocese of Hobart. Joining Friends of the Earth and the privilege and opportunity of ministering as a nurse; reading Rachael Carson’s The Silent Spring , as well as building basic Christian and interfaith communities working and studying with the Columban Fathers helped as a community organiser; engaging in the ministry politicise Trish and provide a basis in ecotheology. She of Catholic Health Association of India as one of its co- ordinated an adult education program, “Mission, co-ordinating team members; organising Presentation Justice, Peace and Ecology” for fi ve years based in Sydney people in the Indian Unit as one of the Justice Contacts and was invited to be part of the development of Catholic and representing International Presentation Association Earthcare Australia in 2001. Her Doctoral thesis is titled, at the United Nations. “Towards an Ecologically Sustainable Catholic School”. Abstract: The experiences of the recently held Sixth Abstract: An ecology of learning links all knowledge and Assembly of the International Presentation Association understanding, empowering learners to make choices that ‘moved us to a shift in consciousness and to the respect and cherish creation. Through an understanding emergence of the direction statement’ , that invites all of the eco-systems that make up our planet, learners can Presentation People, impelled by the radical gospel of understand how to relate positively to both the earth‘s Jesus and on fi re with the spirit of Nano, to consciously systems and to human systems. The Catholic school is choose to be drawn more deeply into the mystery founded upon a particular faithbased world view that can of God, the mystery of Oneness and the reality of inform and shape every aspect of the life of the school, people and earth made poor; energised by this evolving building an ecologically responsive and responsible consciousness to engage in expansive partnerships that learning community. Such a school shines a “lamp for the move us to personal and systemic transformation. feet” and a “light for the eyes” in the best Nano Nagle educational tradition. 4

T reasuring Our Presentation Past: Fashioning A Presentation Future PRESENTATION SCHOOLS STAFF CONFERENCE 31 JULY – 2 AUGUST 2013 - HOTEL GRAND CHANCELLOR, HOBART 20 13 Charism: Founding Imperative – Ongoing Challenge The Exciting New Research Confi rming the Most Sr Majella Kelly, Congregation Leader, Tasmanian Ancient of Messages: Giving to Others Makes for Presentation Sisters Meaningful Living and Improved Wellbeing Dr Thomas Nielsen, Associate Professor, Faculty of Sister Majella Kelly’s Presentation connections began Education, University of Canberra, ACT when, aged 12, she was enrolled at St Mary’s College Hobart as a boarder for her secondary education. They Dr Thomas William Nielsen is an Associate Professor continued since as teacher, Deputy Principal, REC and at the University of Canberra, Australia. He was a Principal in Presentation schools, as Society President, IPA member of the 2009-10 National Values Education delegate and now as Congregation Leader in Tasmania. Project Advisory Committee; he has also served on several of the Australian Government values and Abstract: We drop the word ‘charism’ into our wellbeing education projects. Dr Nielsen has authored conversations very easily – what do we really mean by it? a high number of high quality books, book chapters, What is the Presentation Charism? Is it merely an engaging articles and commissioned reports that have been story, a ‘warm fuzzy’, an interesting historical artefact or a refereed and acknowledged by his peers, and he has lodestone and why do we keep talking about it? also received several teaching awards, including the 2008 Australian Learning and Teaching Council Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning. Dr Nielsen advocates a OECurriculum of Giving, his research showing that giving and service to others increase wellbeing and resilience in students something much needed in a western world with high depression and suicide rates (see www.thomaswnielsen.net) Abstract: By engaging with the latest research evidence Management of Cultural Change available and the perennial wisdom of spiritual traditions, Susan Pascoe AM: Commissioner, Australian Charities Dr Nielsen will in this talk, investigate why giving to and Not-for-profi ts Commission (ACNC) others seems to be the most healthy thing that we can do as humans, making us healthier, happier and even live Susan Pascoe AM is Commissioner of the Australian longer. It is an investigation that yields surprising results Charities and Not for Profi ts Commission (ACNC). in terms of how we may best live our lives as individuals Prior to this she was a Commissioner at the State – and which in turn has profound implications for how Services Authority in Victoria (2006-201 1) focusing we raise and teach children and adolescents. Giving on regulatory reform. She served as one of three to others, it turns out, is one of the best predictors of Commissioners on the 2009 Victorian Bushfi res increasing not only communal and individual wellbeing in Royal Commission. Ms Pascoe’s earlier professional the classroom, but also academic diligence and success. background was in education where she served as President of the Australian College of Educators, CEO of the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority and Chief Executive of the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria. She chaired the Australian National Commission for UNESCO, was a Patron for the Melbourne Parliament for the World’s Religions and served on the Board of Cabrini Health and the Senate of the Australian Catholic University. 5