Updates

CatholicCare Counsellors Staff Development Day – 24 September 2025

A message from CatholicCare

CatholicCare will be hosting our annual Staff Development Day on Wednesday 24 September 2025. All school counsellors rostered to work on this day will be attending the event, and therefore, there will be no counsellor coverage in schools on that date. We appreciate your understanding and support, and we apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Tina Acevska, Manager, School, Student & Family Program (SSFP), mobile: 0419 462 621.

Positive Behaviours for Learning

Victorian Education has produced a series of Positive Classroom Management Strategies in ‘placemat’ format.

Each of the eight placemats presents evidence-informed practices that create safer, more purposeful learning environments supporting student learning, wellbeing and behaviour.

Classroom Behaviour Expectations and Rules

Help your students thrive! When students know exactly what is expected of them, they are more likely to demonstrate those behaviours. This placemat provides a simple, effective framework for creating and teaching classroom rules that are observable, measurable, positively stated, understandable, and always applicable (OMPUA). Give students the structure they need to succeed academically and behaviourally.

Classroom Procedures and Routines

Free up your students' working memory and reduce their cognitive load! Well-established routines help create predictability and structure, which is critical for the success of all students, especially those with diverse learning profiles. By clearly defining and teaching procedures, you can increase instructional time and create a positive, collaborative classroom culture.

Encouraging Expected Behaviour

Build stronger teacher-student relationships and promote student motivation. The placemat on encouraging expected behaviour provides a menu of techniques to acknowledge and reinforce positive behaviour. Learn how to use specific, positive feedback frequently and immediately, with a goal of a 4:1 ratio of positive to corrective feedback.

Discouraging Inappropriate Behaviour

Turn behaviour errors into teaching opportunities. This placemat provides a continuum of instructional responses to address inappropriate behaviour, just as you would with academic errors. The educative approach focuses on using brief, calm, and respectful corrective feedback to re-teach expectations and guide students toward the desired behaviour.

Active Supervision

Be present and purposeful in your classroom. Active supervision involves moving, scanning, and interacting with students to create opportunities for teaching, prompting, encouraging, and correcting behaviours. This simple yet powerful strategy reduces inappropriate behaviour, increases student engagement, and helps pre-empt escalations.

Opportunities to Respond (OTR)

Boost student engagement and academic outcomes! Opportunities to Respond (OTR) are instructional questions or cues designed to elicit a student response. By presenting varied OTRs at a brisk pace, you can increase on-task behaviour, make learning visible, and provide immediate feedback to students.

Activity Sequence and Choice

Empower your students and increase task completion. For students who can do a task but are reluctant to start, offering choices and strategically sequencing activities can be a game-changer. This placemat provides guidance on how to offer choices in tasks, materials, or even the order of work to build independence and create more equitable learning environments.

Task Difficulty

Ensure your work tasks are a perfect match for student skill levels. When work is too difficult, it can lead to disengagement and problem behaviour. Learn how to adjust task length, time, or response mode to ensure more students experience success and promote on-task behaviour and task completion.

World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation and Season of Creation 2025

Audience: Religious Education Coordinators

Resources are available to assist schools in celebrating the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation (1 September 2025) and the Season of Creation (1 September–4 October 2025).

This year’s theme is Peace With Creation.

Liturgy World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation 2025

Season of Creation Resources 2025

Pope Leo XIV’s Message

For K-2 teachers, there is also the Creation Corner episode WDOP for the Care of Creation from Pray School that can be utilised with students.

Gotcha4Life Mentally Fit Primary School Program

Audience: Primary School Leadership

Gotcha4Life is offering limited fully funded places for eligible primary schools in their 2026 Mentally Fit Primary Schools Program.

What is Mental Fitness?

Mental fitness is our capacity to navigate life’s ups and downs, foster a sense of connection and belonging, and seek help when needed. Like physical fitness, it’s something we can build over time with regular practice, and the earlier we start, the better prepared we are for whatever life throws our way.

Gotcha4Life’s approach is built on strengthening three evidence-based mental health protective factors: emotional adaptability, social connectedness, and help-seeking behaviour.

The Program adopts a prevention-first, whole-of-school approach to enhance mental fitness and wellbeing. It aims to empower staff, students, parents, and caregivers to proactively build their mental fitness both in and out of the classroom. They partner with the school to create a lasting, mentally fit school climate.

It is grounded in an evidence-based Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) framework and developed with input from educators, psychologists, and wellbeing experts. It provides the tools, language, and supports the school to take practical, whole-community action. It offers:

• A three-year partnership with a dedicated Educator providing coaching, support, and guidance tailored to your school.
  
  
• Personalised Mental Fitness Action Plan aligned to your school’s needs, complementing existing wellbeing programs.
  
  
• Workshops, presentations, and training for staff, students, and families to build shared language, knowledge, and skills.
  
  
• Curriculum-aligned resources and evidence-based practical tools for classrooms and at-home use.

What’s the time commitment for staff?

The program is designed to integrate seamlessly into school life - not add to the workload, with professional learning and classroom resources that support everyday practice. Staff sessions are delivered during existing professional learning time, and student activities align with your calendar. Each year looks different and includes a mix of workshops, planning sessions, and optional extras, such as webinars and Mental Health First Aid, depending on your school’s goals.

The program aligns with the 2023 Australian Curriculum Content Connections for Mental Health and Wellbeing. It is suitable for inclusion in NESA professional development logs, contributing to teacher maintenance of professional development hours.

How can you get started?

To explore your school's eligibility for one of the fully funded places in the 2026 program, please apply before the end of Term 3 by clicking the 'Apply for 2026' link below. The team at Gotcha4Life will then set up a meeting to discuss your school's specific needs, review the program details, your school’s suitability to participate in the program, and outline next steps.

This program is a joint initiative from the Workplace Safety and Wellbeing
(WSaW) and Wellbeing and Student Support (WSS) teams. For more information about the program, please visit Gotcha4Life Mentally Fit Schools, view Gotcha4Life Mentally Fit Schools Program FAQ’s, or contact Joanne Matuschka (WSaW) on 0447 481 213 or Katie Carroll (WSS) on 0418 620 219.

For CEDoW’s full range of workplace, safety, and wellbeing resources, please visit the Workplace Safety and Wellbeing Hub on Gateway.