Nicole+Van+Ingen+-+St+Joseph's+Nth+Ward

__ Situational Analysis of St Joseph’s School, The Strand __ ** Nicole Van Ingen ** __ Who are the Founders of Our School? __ St Joseph’s on the Strand is the oldest Catholic School in Townsville, established by Blessed Mary MacKillop and her Josephite Sisters in 1873. After five years the Josephite Sisters returned south, and St Joseph’s School was reopened by the Sisters of Mercy the following year. __ What is the Charism of St Joseph’s The Strand? __ Although widely understood that the Josephite Sisters established St Joseph’s School, the fact that the Sisters of Mercy ran the school from 1879, until the first lay principal began in 1975. Means most people associate St Joseph’s with the Mercy tradition. __ Situational Analysis __ For the purposes of this assignment, I will explore the internal and external influences which impact on the existing presence of charism at St Joseph’s School. __ Internal Influences __ I began my work at St Joseph’s in 2005. During my five years at St Joseph’s we have had four principals and four APREs, understandably this has caused a great deal of disruption to students and staff. Each Principal and Assistant Principal has had his/her own unique strengths and talents they brought to the community. However in the short time they were with us, each of them had their own leanings towards good works and the ethos they wanted for St Joseph’s School. It is natural that a change in leadership would lead to a change in the flavour of a school’s environment, however if a school remains grounded in the charism of its founder, a change in the leadership team, while unsettling, should not rock a school to its very foundations. Marachel (2000) [1] suggests that charism provides a school community with a: · Story to enter; · Language to speak; · Group to which to belong; · Work to undertake; · Face of God to see. Although each of these Principals had excellent ideas and a Catholic vision for the school, tragically none of them tapped into the rich heritage, the unique duality of the Sisters of Mercy and the Sisters of St Joseph. In these times of leadership change at St Joseph’s School, if we are able to reinvent ourselves in the virtues and values of the Sisters of Mercy we will always know the way forward, our Principal and leadership team will have “a conceptual framework as a means to live the gospel on a day to day basis” Brien & Hack [2] (2005)

[1] Marachel (2000) Brien and Hack [2] Brien & Hack 2005