Professional Development: Making It Happen

April 26, 2023

This week, support staff participated in a follow-up session from their previous Professional Development Day, Fire Up The Future, with high-performance coach and psychological transformation expert Vanessa Vershaw.

Support staff continued from concepts discussed in the previous workshop, such as inclusion, leadership and innovation, and also explored new topics.

The session facilitated discussions between staff about how they currently perceive support staff as a group and how they wish to be seen in the future. Later, in small groups, staff members came up with ways to describe the support staff’s purpose and brainstormed ways to carry out this purpose in line with the College’s Strategic Plan.

We spoke to some members of support staff about the session, here is what they had to say:

“Vanessa was very quick to build a rapport, encouraged participation with the group and created a relaxed atmosphere. Vanessa was an excellent facilitator and it was a great training day. I particularly enjoyed getting to know my fellow work colleagues better.” Sally Nettleton, Laboratory Technician

“It was wonderful to have an opportunity to meet as a team to work collaboratively on our vision for support staff.” Carolyn Sharp, Admission Manager

“To come together as support staff to discuss our purpose at the College was extremely helpful, as it encouraged us to come together as a team.” Alexandra Zivanovic, Community Relations Assistant

“This session with Vanessa was a great follow up to the previous PD Day, as it gave us an opportunity to reflect on ways we can reach our team goals, not only in our specific areas, but more generally as support staff.” Mia Sorci, Community Relations Intern

Thank you to Tim Stewart, Director of Corporate Services, and Vanessa for facilitating such an informative and rewarding session.

Collaboration, CriticalThinking, Featured, staff

Author: Santa Maria College
Santa Maria College is a vibrant girls school with a growing local presence and reputation. Our Mission is to educate young Mercy women who act with courage and compassion to enrich our world. Santa Maria College is located in Attadale in Western Australia, 16 km from the Perth CBD. We offer a Catholic education for girls in Years 5 – 12 and have 1300 students, including 152 boarders.