Principal of the Year Award

Michael O'Dwyer from St Joseph's School in Waroona has been awarded Primary School Principal of the Year after being nominated by his peers for his dedicated leadership, approachable nature and progressive, forward thinking initiatives for the school. As you can read in the below article, featured in The Record Magazine, issue 37, Michael was nominated for implementing a range of initiatives over his three years at the school. These include:

• A hearty commitment to improve literacy by embedding evidence-based science of reading into the whole school community.
• The introduction of daily reviews and tracking of student achievement using Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS), and sharing the data with students and parents three times a year to show progress.
• Supporting Catholic Education WA’s Transforming Lives initiative. The school has seen a 600 per cent increase in the enrolment of Aboriginal students.
• The introduction of an Aboriginal scholarship and teaching children the Noongar language.
• The implementation of social programs including a food handling course for Year 6 students who contribute to the running of the canteen, a breakfast club two mornings a week; and the development of life skills through the generous donation of a washing machine and clothes dryer to help at-risk families.

To read the full article from The Record, please click here.

Catholic School Parents WA would like to sincerely congratulate Michael on this wonderful acknowledgement!