I would like to begin by thanking you for your support of our campaign for fair state funding. The CEB leadership has been actively engaging with candidates from the major political parties and I met with the VCEA for further discussion last week. The petition is an important part of our campaign, and every signature helps. If you are comfortable doing so, I encourage you to sign the paper petition at your school or office. The petition will close on Friday, 6 November, with schools and offices asked to return the completed petitions to the Catholic Education Ballarat office the following Monday ready to be shared with the Victorian Labor Party. If you haven’t yet had the opportunity to watch my video explaining the campaign, it’s now available as a podcast too. We want Catholic education to remain an affordable option for every Victorian family. 

Today, I spent time with leaders, teachers and students at Our Lady Help of Christians Primary School Warrnambool, St Joseph’s Primary School Warrnambool and St Patrick’s Primary Koroit. It is always a delight to spend time in our schools and to see firsthand the leadership of students and teachers in driving improvement. I will also be meeting with principals from across our diocese at our termly DLG meeting in Horsham on Thursday. Our focus will be on sharing best practices and innovative approaches across our schools, harnessing the breadth and diversity of our network to learn from one another as we strive to become a leading educational system, the DOBCEL way. 

I leave you with a thought-provoking think piece from Professor Pasi Sahlberg and William Doyle. I recommend taking the time to read it. In it, the authors advocate for the use of a child-focused, rights-based approach to addressing both the benefits and challenges of digital technology in childhood. The article appears in a report jointly developed by UNICEF and EdTech Hub, referenced below.  

With best wishes,

Tom Sexton
Executive Director

Reference: United Nations Children’s Fund and EdTech Hub, Shaping the Future of Digital Education: A global conversation on how to move beyond digital as usual, UNICEF, New York, 2026.