On Thursday St Mary's teaching staff participated in 'Catalyst', a professional learning day with all of the staff from the fifty-six schools in our Archdiocese. The day, hosted by Genevieve Jacobs from the ABC - Canberra, consisted of addresses from the Director of Education Ross Fox, Archbishop Christopher Prowse, and keynote addresses from educational experts, Ollie Lovell, Toni-Ann Zroom, Tom Sherrington and Micahel Roberts.  

'Catalyst' a system-wide initiative focuses on two bold goals; 

1 - Every child will be a competent reader

2 - High impact teaching practices will be visible in every classroom

These goals will be achieved through our K-2 literacy initiative (InitiaLit and Explicit Instruction) and through professional learning modules on High Impact Teaching Practices, based on principles outlined by Barak Rosenshines.

The professional learning this year based on the research around the Science of Reading fit very nicely with our school's improvement plan. Our three goals are:

1 - Focus on teaching and learning

2 - Strengthen engagement

3 - Focus on health and wellbeing

The following will give you a snap-shot of how our key improvement goals and strategies.