The highly anticipated initial All System Day for 2025 took place on 4 February, bringing together over 1,700 educators across three different locations for an exceptional day of professional learning.
Catholic Education Tasmania was fortunate to engage Tom Bennett; a world-renowned educator and academic from the UK and the founder and director of researchED as the first keynote speaker. Tom has extensively studied behaviour in over 1,500 schools of varying socio-economic status across the globe.
In his presentation titled The Culture that Nurtures, Tom challenged the audience to define good behaviour in all common classroom situations, setting clear parameters from the outset. He encouraged a pedagogical approach to behaviour, with expectations proactively taught and insisted upon, so that they become habitual. He also stressed the importance of teaching students why it matters, so that they value the behaviour.
Tom explained that behavioural outcomes are achieved through establishing norms and routines. These are reinforced by clear and consistent sanctions for unwelcome behaviours and sincere, proportionate and targeted praise for positive behaviour. Through clear and consistent application at the whole school level, the right culture is created to enable students to flourish.
Following Tom’s insights, established linguist, author, and CEO of Lifelong Literacy, Lyn Stone, showcased her mastery of language in her presentation on The Writing-Learning Loop. Lyn explained how writing enhances all areas of learning, and how structure, content and process is essential to establish writing fluency.
Lyn’s use of practical examples and Explicit Direct Instruction created a highly engaging session as our educators were presented with a number of techniques to generate genuine interest in writing in the classroom.
“It was an honour to be able to share my learnings with Catholic Education Tasmania’s network of educators. I hope attendees left feeling empowered with the tools to encourage writing fluency in their schools,” says Lyn.
Dr Gerard Gaskin, Executive Director of Catholic Education Tasmania, was “absolutely thrilled to commence the year by coming together as a system to share best practice.”
“It was a pleasure to be able to kick-start proceedings by presenting our new Insight into Learning program, The Teach First Initiative, a means of upskilling our own educators to mentor our teachers and support our students in sustaining lasting change.”
The Teach First Initiative enhances teacher practice through collaboration, learning and growth. Each term, teachers work in small teams to explore a Rosenshine principle, coming together at the end to share insights.
In an exciting first for All System Day, educators from within Catholic Education Tasmania’s system were given the opportunity to share their Insight into Learning journey with other schools. Educators from six different schools presented across the three regions and offered helpful advice to those at an earlier stage.
Jennifer White, System Lead: Curriculum & Pedagogy said “As we welcome more schools into the Insight into Learning program, the willingness of our Educators to share lived experience has been delightful to witness and we are grateful for their valued contribution to our All System Day.”
The Insight into Learning team would like to thank the following schools and their educators for exchanging their knowledge on the following topics:
- Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic School – joining Insight into Learning and their continuous improvement model
- Mount Carmel College – strategies to help boost students’ confidence in learning
- St Finn Barr’s Primary School – facilitating classroom norms and how this helps establish a culture of success
- St Patrick’s College – teacher practice and why setting routines and expectations can help students thrive
- Marist Regional College – how to implement evidence-informed practices in everyday teaching
- St Patrick’s Catholic School – how to build a culture of success through professional learning, embedded norms and student feedback
Feedback from the day was overwhelmingly positive, with many educators referencing the school presentations as useful insight for their own journeys.
Thank you to everyone who came together to attend and contribute to this extraordinary day of learning. The next All System Day on Monday 21 July 2025 will be facilitated within schools.
