Teachers at many schools across our Archdiocese commenced Term 3 by participating in Catalyst professional learning. 

HITP In Action Day 3 with Dr Lorraine Hammond 

The largest professional learning event was HITP In Action Day 3 with Dr Lorraine Hammond, which gathered together the following schools to further explore how High Impact Teaching Practice looks in the classroom. The schools involved were – 

• St Anthony’s, Wanniassa 
• Holy Family, Gowrie 
• St Clare of Assisi, Conder 
• St Mary’s, Moruya 
• St Bede’s, Braidwood
• Mother Teresa, Harrison
• St Francis of Assisi, Calwell 

Feedback from the day found that teachers were keen to continue to implement high impact practice in their class, showing a keen interest in accessing Daily Review resources to assist. 

St Francis of Assisi Principal, Sean Rutledge said “as educators, the knowledge and insight imparted on us by Dr Lorraine Hammond, supported by the research of Cognitive Load Theory and the work of other key academics is critical in understanding the way our students learn best. If we invest in our educators, our students will thrive.” 

HITP In Action for Secondary Schools 

Some of our secondary schools including St Mary Mackillop College also participated in HITP in Action with Catalyst presenter Teach Well, with a strong focus on teaching practice in the context of secondary classes. 

Teachers learned about the importance of daily review in their specialised areas of teaching and how they could utilise technology to simplify their lesson delivery, including using M365 tools such as PowerPoint.

Online Unit Collaboration & Learning 

Many other schools chose to select from the online learning materials available in the Catalyst Resource Hub. Rosary Primary school completed the newly released HITP Theory & Practice 4 – Lesson Design and Delivery and one of the 8 available Catalyst Online Units. 

“We have been integrating Daily Review into our teaching practice and Theory & Practice 4 was a great way to move forward from this to start looking at explicit lesson design,” said John O’Brien, Assistant Principal. 

St Jospeh’s Primary School, Grenfell also completed HITP Theory & Practice 4, with Principal Melissa Hotham noting that the session was highly beneficial to consolidate the learning that had already undertaken through Catalyst. 

“It was also helpful to lay the foundation for the focus of our HITP In Action day this term. It provided teachers the knowledge and skills of how to plan and deliver explicit lessons, in a highly practical manner,” she said. 

Leading HITP In Action 

Meanwhile, schools including Batlow, Adelong, Gundagai, West Wyalong and Lake Cargelligo, were visited by Catalyst presenter Michael Roberts from CogLearn, to deep-dive into leading High Impact Teaching Practice in their context. 

The bespoke sessions focused on planning and implementing Explicit Instruction lessons in Mathematics, and included demonstrations, practice and coaching. 

To learn about the various professional learning sessions that your school will be involved in, speak with your Principal. 

To learn more about our teaching approaches, visit High Impact Teaching Practice and Literacy tabs within the Catalyst website.