It is now generally accepted that school education is one component – albeit a fundamental one – of a person's lifelong education.

This idea is very much in keeping with our Catholic understanding of the whole person who is, ideally, ever developing, ever learning.

This has great implications for schooling. Education can never be seen merely as fixed content to be assimilated during the years of schooling.

School education sets the foundation for lifelong learning when it develops flexible skills, wide interests, confidence and a valuing of oneself as a learner.

An effective school helps lifelong learners to construct personal meaning, to express themselves, to make choices, to build on previous learning, to find connections – in short to learn how to learn .

Delivering on this rhetoric requires a mindset which breaks down barriers of time (‘education is not limited to school time') and space (‘education is not limited to school buildings').

In educating towards lifelong learning, schools prepare their students to become active members of a learning society and citizens of a global community.

What are some of the generic skills and values taught in our school which are helping our students prepare for lifelong learning?