Community & Business
14 August, 2025
St Patrick’s School Teaching Excellence
The staff of St Patrick’s School Allora endeavour to adopt a mindset of continual improvement in the delivery of authentic and innovative learning experiences for their students.
With an early years focus, Mrs Kathryn Lucas has been pivotal in this space, as her discernment and reflection on the school’s reading data since 2022 has identified a necessity to shift the paradigm in what constitutes best practice in the teaching of reading.
In order to keep our students at the centre of the school’s vision, which is to be an inclusive community committed to high levels of learning for all, under the direction of Kathryn Lucas, staff have been engaged in implementing the evidence-based approach known as the Science of Reading within all classrooms.
Kathryn’s observations during small group reading intervention, coupled with the Science of Reading theory, have highlighted some possible areas for targeted improvement. “We need to teach a systematic sound-based reading program based on decoding and phonological awareness which limits the overuse of context clues and sight words as students’ go to reading strategies.”
Prior to the launch of TCSO’s Diocesan Approach to Reading in 2024, Kathryn Lucas identified a reading program from the University of Florida Literacy Institute (UFLI).
At its core is explicit teaching involving the manipulation of words, decoding of texts, flexibility with sounds and limiting the overuse of predictions or picture clues.
Kathryn’s expertise has not only benefited the early years staff at St Patrick’s School Allora but also other schools across the diocese where she has provided advice and modelled best practice to a range of stake holders.
In her role as the school’s learning enrichment teacher, Kathryn has also worked with both staff and students from Prep to Year 6 in order to ensure classroom practice targets effective differentiation based on formative and diagnostic assessment.
Kathryn’s guidance in the area of reading has enabled St Patrick’s School to take a major step forward in setting students and staff up for success with the embedding of reading skills becoming regimented from an early age.
Kathryn Lucas is fully deserving of being nominated for the 2025 Catholic Education Week Excellence Award in the primary expert category.
