Teaching and Learning
This week, I am going to share about Catalyst. Catalyst is a System-wide approach to professional learning for all of the teachers in our Archdiocese that will have a positive impact on student achievement and growth.
Catalyst
Catalyst is the vehicle in which Catholic Education will realise its two bold goals. These are:
1. Every Student is a competent reader
2. High Impact Teaching Practice is visible in every classroom
We will work towards these goals through four key initiative which are:
St John's will be implementing the above initiatives in the following ways:
Curriculum
Curriculum is focussed on K-6 Mathematics and more specifically quality resources being used in the classroom to support teachers teaching and students learning. At St John's this year we have implemented Maths Daily 3 at part of the Catalyst Curriculum Initiative. We have also created Maths Kits for each class to support student learning. Through the use of these kits, students will learn many number concepts using dice, cards, dominoes and counters as well all of the ways these can be used to solve mathematical problems.
K-2 Literacy
K-2 Literacy is centred around improving literacy outcomes in our youngest learners, helping us to achieve the goal of "every student is a competent reader". The first stage of this initiative is the implementation of a systematic synthetic phonics program. Fortunately, we are already in our fourth year of teaching Sounds~Write, which is such a program. Teachers will continue to develop their knowledge of Sounds~Write, to ensure fidelity of the program.
Instructional Leadership
The Instructional Leadership Initiative will support our leadership team to guide St John's in implementing and embedding an effective literacy program, High Impact Teaching Practice and developing our teachers' instructional capacity and curriculum knowledge.
High Impact Teaching Practice
The High Impact Teaching Practice Initiative is based on the implementation of highly researched and effective teaching practices in all classrooms. Some of these practices include, high expectations, explicit teaching, quality assessment, feedback, daily review and student engagement. Fortunately, many of the structures we already have at St John's such as, Daily 5, Maths Daily 3 and Integrated Inquiry are founded in these High Impact Teaching Practices.
Rebekah Brown
Assistant Principal and Inclusion Coordinator
