Reminder: Copies of this newsletter should be accessible to Business Managers, Board Members and Staff.

Farewell

At the start of this edition of Tidings, I want to express my warm appreciation to my secretary, Sue Doran, who is moving on to another position at the end of this week. Sue has been with AACS for a little over 18 months and in that time has got her head around the enormous complexities of Government operations and has been a great asset to the organization and, particularly, to me.

Sue is a quiet, steady operator with an incredible capacity to churn things out when the pressure is on. She has been reliable and helpful in her facilitating role between AACS and member schools; a great support in taking minutes about complex issues; a great researcher; an ever-present help in IT problem-solving; and a highly efficient editor of Tidings.

Personally, I will miss her greatly as she has been such an obliging person to work with. However, we warmly farewell her to the new position that she will be taking up with her old boss who has just started a new business and wants her back!

Plans for 2010

Most of you will know that plans have been in place for several months to bring AACS under the same roof as Christian Education National and the National Institute of Christian Education. Those plans are taking place at quite a pace and it is our hope that approvals, construction works and fit-out will take place between now and early February next year.

All being well, AACS will be able to purchase a number of its support services from CEN/NICE thereby saving us considerably and keeping our levies as low as possible. Your prayers would be appreciated as we stitch together the final few approvals and get started.

Some Raw Statistics for Your Interest

Did you know that:
• For the last two years
* the growth in independent schools has been 3.8% and 3.5% respectively.
* The growth in catholic schools has been 1.8% and 0.8%
* The growth in government schools has been 0.9% and -0.2%
• The 2008 total enrolment share was 60.8% government, 21.6% Catholic and 17.5%
• The 2006 secondary enrolment share in capital cities is as follows:
* Canberra 55% government 45% non-government
* Darwin 31% government 69% non-government
* Hobart 57% government 43% non-government
* Adelaide 54% government 46% non-government
* Perth 53% government 47% non-government
* Brisbane 56% government 44% non-government
* Melbourne 55% government 45% non-government
* Sydney 56% government 44% non-government
• Nationwide, in 2008 parents in the independent sector were paying about 59% of school costs in fees and charges. In Christian schools, parents pay between 40% and 45% on average

CRICOS Update

Please note that, following the recent scandals around a number of course providers to overseas students, the Government has announced that they will re-register all institutions currently registered to offer courses to overseas students. This is clearly an attempt to rebuild the confidence of people in overseas markets for what has been Australia’s third largest export. It is also about setting a new benchmark for accountabilities and standards not only in the schools/colleges themselves, but between the schools and their overseas agents.

More details will be flowing from Canberra direct to those schools that are currently registered as providers.

Request for Feedback From ACARA

In a recent letter from ACARA, a position paper titled Senior Secondary Years Curriculum put forward some guidelines for English, Maths, History and Science for the senior years and invited responses from schools and practitioners in these KLAs.

It is important that our schools are seen to be interested and engaged in this discussion and I would warmly encourage Principals to ask leading teachers in these subjects to visit the ACARA website and offer their comments.

The Position Paper can be found at http://www.acara.edu.au/position_papers.html.
Responses via the webpage must be completed by 30 September, 2009.

Compass Program Nominations Open for 2010

Do you know any university students (or year 12 students about to go to uni) between the ages of 17-25 years who have a strong commitment to their faith and are keen to intelligently engage the world for Christ? Demonstrate a high potential to be influential and strategic in their future profession? Are performing well in their studies?

Then the ACL-Compass Program may be of benefit to them. This program is ACL’s strategic training initiative for the next generation. Now in its third year, the program aims to train 2000 leaders by 2028 who will strategically shape the nation for Christian values by engaging intelligently and sensitively for Christ in an increasingly secularised and postmodern world.
The 2010 ACL Compass program starts with a conference from 17-24 January 2010 at the University of Queensland. Students are then attached to mentors (or linked into vocationally based networks) and take part in high performance life coaching for 6 months after the completion of the conference.
Invitation to Compass is by nomination only, by Christians in positions of authority. This includes (but not limited to) school principals, pastors, chaplains, university Christian group staff workers and business leaders. Nominations are now open online at www.compass.org.au/nominations. The intake for 2010 is limited to 100 students so please nominate students early as nominations have always exceeded placements.

Evolutionary Palaeobiology Lectures

The issue of the science of origins continues to be of great significance and interest to Christians teaching in the fields of Senior Biology and Geology. For those living in Geelong, Melbourne, Hobart and Sydney, an opportunity exists for your science staff and any members of your community to hear a committed Christian speaking on the subject of evolution as one who supports a theory of evolution.

Professor Simon Conway Morris, FRS, is the Professor of Evolutionary Palaeobiology in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Cambridge. He is an accomplished scientist, a committed Christian and a gifted communicator. First applauded for his works on the Burgess shale fossils, he is renowned for his insights into early life on earth. He has made significant contributions to discussions on the philosophical and metaphysical implications of evolution, and he is a strong critic of materialism and reductionism, arguing that the Creation is open-ended and endlessly fertile.

He is the author of a number of books including: The Crucible of Creation: The Burgess Shale and the Rise of Animals (1988) Oxford University Press, and Life’s Solution: Inevitable humans in a Lonely Universe.(2003), Cambridge University Press. He is also the keynote speaker at the coming COSAC 2009, Conference on Science and Christianity, from Sep 18-20 in Geelong.

He will argue that evolution, apparently driven by random mutations and adaptation, is not as uncertain as it might seem. Constrained by a limited number of possible outcomes it is in fact, predictable like any other science. What are the implications of this?

It is worth hearing such people and to be aware of how they reconcile the science and their faith.

Professor Simon Conway Morris is presenting at:
COSAC (The Conference on Science and Christianity)
Dates: 18-20 September
Venue: Geelong Conference Centre.
Theme: “Christianity and the Origin of Species”.

Lecture Series:
Tasmania Lecture
Date: Wednesday 16 September 2009 at 7.30pm
Venue: Stanley Burbury Theatre at the University of Tasmania
Topic: Darwin’s Compass: How Evolution Discovers the Song of Creation.

Victorian ISCAST Annual Lecture
Date: 17 September at 8pm
Venue: Glen Waverly Anglican Church. Cost $15/$12
Topic: Darwin’s Compass: How Evolution Discovers the Song of Creation.

NSW Lecture
Date: Monday 21 September 2009 at 7.30 pm
Venue: Wesley Centre, 220 Pitt St, Sydney Cost (on entry): $20 (or $15 concession for pensioners or students).
Topic: Darwin’s Compass: How Evolution Discovers the Song of Creation.

If you are unable to attend, but would like a video/audio message of the lectures, please visit the website for more information at www.iscast.org or phone 03 9535 7045

The Learning Federation

TLF is constantly acquiring and publishing new content and so each quarter, TLF publishes Content release notes to help people keep up with what is being made available to schools.
These notes provide information about new digital content that is published such as a new series of learning objects or new learning objects released in existing series, and gives an overview of new digital resources.
TLF has developed a website repository which will provide access to TLF content online. The website repository, called SCOOTLE (SChOOls Teaching and Learning Environment), will allow teachers and students to have direct online access to the latest resources available. As new resources are published, they will be available for teachers to access immediately rather that waiting for the next round of DVDs to be produced and distributed.
For information on the necessary technical and software requirements to use TLF digital content, go to the TLF website at www.thelearningfederation.edu.au, and to view some of the latest online content

Choicez Media

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