School Improvement Plan & Strategic Directions

School Improvement Plan

St Mary’s seeks to maintain and build on its reputation as a leading co-educational college of the Diocese. Every three years the College community enters a renewal period of approximately six months where it explores its purpose, mission and needs. Such an exploration takes the form of quality surveys, interviews, focus groups, which gather relevant data about all aspects of the College.

The goals which address the needs of the College are constructed from the accumulated data or are existing practices and projects that need to be enlivened in the college. These goals form the new three to five year Strategic Directions.

The Strategic Directions inform the formation of the School Annual Improvement Plan (SAIP), which is subsequently reviewed and reported to the community at the end of the year. This SAIP report may necessitate changes to the Strategic Directions, which is an ever-changing instrument that is continuously moulded to the growth of the College.

The College Board plays an integral role in the yearly renewal process, ensuring the Strategic Directions is relevant. A focus for the College and Board is to engage in continuous renewal processes where issues are addressed as they arise.

The requirements of the NSSAB Compliance Audit should be integral to the school renewal process. The Catholic Education Service’s Strategic Directions will also influence the three year and annual plans of the College.

Strategic Directions

St Mary's seeks to maintain and build on its reputation as a leading coeducational College of the Diocese. 

Every three years the College enters a renewal process where it explores its purpose, mission and needs. The attached Strategic Directions document outlines our priorities and directions for 2021-2023.

Education is a dynamic and ever evolving environment. Schools therefore are by extension please where reflection, review and growth are vital threads in the fabric of our learning community. At St Mary’s, we continue to see ourselves as a ‘moving school’ that is reflective and committed to continued improvement. At the same time, we are acutely aware of the challenge of harmonising faith, culture and life through our style education, which is authentic, socially and culturally relevant.

Our previous Strategic Directions involved a raft of changes designed to improve what we do and how we do things at St Mary’s. We enjoyed overwhelming support for these changes from students, staff, families and the wider community. This illustrates not only our acceptance and understanding of this dynamic and evolving environment, but importantly, that we can flourish by working co-operatively.

As a result, St Mary’s has experienced transformational development.  Our enrolments are at capacity. Our students demonstrate increasing confidence and pride in their achievements and potential. Staff feedback expresses professional and personal fulfilment and excitement about working at St Mary’s. Our graduates are thriving in their post-school life. Our facilities continue to improve and in the coming years, we will be renowned for our capacity to cater to a wide range of learning experiences.   

St Mary’s is a vibrant, optimistic and courageous College with an exciting journey ahead. I look forward to working with all members of our community to turn vision into reality. 

School Annual Report

Catholic schools in the Diocese of Cairns meet their annual reporting requirements under the Education (General Provisions) Act 2006 (the Act) Section 423 (1) by updating their information on this section of the Cairns Catholic Education website. Information contained in each section of the report relates to the previous calendar year. The required information is published by 30 June each year, excepting post-school destinations data for Year 12 completers which is published by 30 September.

St Mary's Annual Report