Principal Santa Clara School, St James

Commencing  January 2025

School Profile

Established in 1954 by the Dominican Sisters, Santa Clara School, St James, is a single stream co-educational Catholic primary school with a current enrolment of 227 students from Kindergarten to Year Six.  Our cultural diversity is unique to our school and creates a sense of unity and belonging.

The staff are committed to developing the next generation of global citizens and in support of this, Santa Clara has created a unique Core Values program. The values of resiliency, creativity, caring, courage and truth are embedded into life at Santa Clara School, and this complements the Religious Education program. Specialist classes of Music, Health and Physical Education, Italian and STEM are available to all students and the MiniLit and MacqLit Program operates to support accelerated intervention for students from Years One to Six.  In supporting the needs of our diverse students, the staff plan and implement EAL/D Learning Plans to assist them in their acquisition of Australian Standard English. The school’s Vision for Learning is embedded in all aspects of school life and deepens our teachers’ understanding of pedagogical practices that enhance the learning for our students. 

Santa Clara has a 1:1 iPad program from Years 4-6, with all other year levels utilising their own bank of class iPads. Digital technology is embedded into the teaching and learning of all learning areas. The school operates a Makerspace which contains equipment such as virtual reality headsets, a green screen and devices to teach coding and robotics.  As well as this, the Santa Clara School’s SCiTEAM extension program has seen success in a number of competitions including the Best Entry Overall in the 2022 Game Changer Awards and state champions in the 2023 Kids in Space competition.

An Out of School Hours Care facility operates before and after school and throughout the school holidays. The School Advisory Council and Parent & Friends Association have a strong sense of commitment to develop and provide facilities and resources to meet the needs of all students.

In addition to the Duties and Responsibilities of Principals, the community is seeking a principal who:

• gives witness to a strong personal faith and demonstrates commitment to the personal growth in catechesis of themselves and all members of the school community
• actively promotes the Catholic identity of the school by aligning its vision, mission and educational objectives with the evangelising mission of the Catholic Church
• leads, inspires, develops and empowers a committed team to ensure high quality learning and teaching, pastoral care and faith development that enhances student achievement and accommodates the diverse learning needs of all students
• establishes a culture of inclusivity through collaboratively engaging relevant educational data to inform and improve current practice, promote student growth and build teacher capacity
• demonstrates a commitment to delivering a high standard of pastoral care and displays an understanding of well-being that empowers both students and staff to realise their full potential
• engages highly developed interpersonal skills to establish open communication and positive relationships with school, parish and community stakeholders
• collaborates to plan, provide and maintain the school’s finances and facilities best suited to its present and future needs

To be considered for the role of Principal you must meet the following minimum requirements:

• Be a practising Catholic and experienced educator who is committed to the objectives and ethos of Catholic Education.
• Hold Accreditation for Leadership of a Catholic School Community or its equivalent.
• A minimum four-year tertiary qualification although it would be advantageous to demonstrate significant progress towards a masters degree or higher.

• Current Teachers Registration for Western Australia (TRBWA)
• A current WA Working With Children Check (WA WWCC)

To apply for the role:

Applicant’s will need to produce an application which includes a cover letter, a curriculum vitae, professional references and a leadership SAO. All applications are received through the website which will require you to create or log-in to your personal profile.

Curriculum Vitae

• Employment history including specific dates for leadership positions
• Professional qualifications
• Accreditation status, attainment date and number
• TRBWA and WA WWCC numbers and expiry dates

References

• Contact information for three(3) professional referees:
  - a person with whom you are currently working
  - a person with whom you have worked in the past two to five years - a current employer or superior
  Send a copy of the Referee Report Template (below) to each of your 3 professional referees and ask them to return the report to ***************@cewa.edu.au by the closing date.

• Contact information (preferably mobile phone number) of your parish priest for the purpose of him being contacted for a verbal reference.

Cover Letter

• Write a Cover Letter succinctly addressing the school context as advised through the School Criteria listed in the advertisement. This should be a maximum of three (3) pages.
• All letters should be addressed to Mr Wayne Bull, Executive Director.

Leadership SAO

• Situation: What circumstances prompted the need for you to initiate or implement an improvement strategy?

Action: What specific actions did you take and/or lead?

Outcome: What were the outcomes of your actions? What did you learn?

• Using the SAO model please articulate your philosophy and provide examples of two initiatives you have been involved in at leadership level in each of the pillars: - Catholic Identity - Education - Community - Stewardship

• Applicants are asked to limit their SAO responses to two (2) pages per pillar.

Links to the documents for your application:

Duties and Responsibilities of the Principal

Referees Report

Santa Clara Provision for Principal

Santa Clara Timeline

To Apply please click on the APPLY NOW button.

All applications should reach The Executive Director of Catholic Education, Catholic Education Office of WA via the Apply now button no later than 2pm on 28 June 2024. For any queries please contact:

Catholic Education Western Australia encourages applications from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, people with a disability, people of all ages and people from culturally diverse backgrounds. To be eligible to apply for this role you must be legally permitted to work in Australia.

Applicants must be fully supportive of the objectives and ethos of Catholic education.