Information for Parents
Our schools have a practical and evidence-based approach to teaching and learning, providing the education our students and families deserve
Catalyst has been developed to provide your child with the very best opportunity to learn and thrive in a positive, safe, and supportive environment.
Supporting every student with high quality literacy programs to enable them to reach their learning potential
Driving student outcomes through highly impactful lessons combining evidence-based teaching practice and learning materials.
All schools will implement an evidence-based literacy program known as Systematic Synthetics Phonics which will evolve the way we teach our youngest learners to read and grow into great readers.
This learning program is designed to teach children to read based on the sounds letters and letter combinations make, later bringing in learned vocabulary (words they know) and comprehension (words they understand the meaning of). These programs are designed to be taught sequentially and step-by-step.
All schools are implementing evidence-based teaching practice, meaning every student in every classroom across the system is provided with highly impactful lessons that improve learning outcomes. This teaching practice is relevant to all year groups and subjects, and are contextualised with relevant learning materials and complexity.
Catalyst also places a strong focus on literacy, providing intervention programs and shared literacy curriculum resources for all year levels.
Parents are encouraged to discuss how they can best support their child’s learning at home with their teacher. This will change depending on each child’s age and teaching approach, but will typically include –
Encourage daily reading and help them explain what they learnt or enjoyed in the book. For younger children, ask them to read aloud at least four times per week
Encourage your child to talk about a topic, idea, or skill they have learnt at school and ask detailed questions
Help your child learn new words by using tricky and complex words, explaining what they mean and how they can use them
Your child’s teacher can provide specific support and advice for learning at home.
To ensure our teachers are kept up to date with the latest in high quality teaching and learning practice, schools across the Archdiocese will hold professional learning days throughout the year including on the first day of Terms 1, 2 and 3, without students.
These days enable our leaders and teachers to engage in system-wide professional learning to determine how they will use the collective knowledge and provided resources of the Catalyst program effectively in the classroom.
To find out how Catalyst is being implemented at your school, please contact your school Principal directly.
Alternatively, check out our FAQs
Frequently Asked Questions