Lighting The Way was developed after an extensive co-creation process involving nearly 3,000 students, staff, clergy, school families, and external partners. In its five focus areas, the plan describes where we're focusing our efforts to drive improvement for students and school communities. To achieve our aspirations, we've embraced a strategy inspired by connected autonomy.
Each of our Catholic schools is committed to improving faith, learning, and wellbeing outcomes for the students in their care. Together, we're guided by our strategic plan, Lighting The Way.
Our focus areas
Formation in the Catholic Tradition
Student learning and wellbeing
Belonging in a connected community
System support for the core work of teaching
Ensuring Catholic schools continue to thrive
Formation in the Catholic Tradition
The aim of this focus area is to further engage students and staff in the beauty and depth of the Catholic faith through effective methods of formation, both old and new, that speak to the contemporary experience of believers and those searching for faith and meaning.
Student learning and wellbeing
The aim of this focus area is to ensure the holistic growth of students is optimised by taking an integrated approach to learning and wellbeing. This includes proactively supporting students to build resilience, confidence, and self-efficacy.
Belonging in a connected community
The aim of this focus area is to improve accessibility, communication and the experience at key transition points so all students and families—especially those who have experienced disadvantage, vulnerability or marginalisation—have the opportunity to feel a sense of belonging in their school community.
System support for the core work of teaching
The aim of this focus area is to define the scope of contemporary teaching, and coordinate system efforts to ensure teachers are supported to focus on the work that directly drives student outcomes.
Ensuring Catholic schools continue to thrive
The aim of this focus area is to develop plans and take proactive action to position our system of Catholic schools to respond effectively to contemporary challenges and shape the future in the interests of our students.
Connected autonomy
Inspired by the work of Fullan and Spillane, connected autonomy empowers school leaders to choose improvement goals based on their local context, while benefiting from system-supported resources and collaboration opportunities.
In our five strategic focus areas we have articulated what we want to improve. Connected autonomy provides the how:
- School-led improvement: Leaders and teachers engage in inquiry and planning aligned to our shared mission and focus areas, but tailored to their school context.
- Responsive support: Catholic Education Office (CEO) services respond to school needs and improvement agendas, while prioritising and protecting the core work of teaching.
- Shared visibility: Open communication and a common digital platform ensures that while schools have autonomy over their priorities, we remain visible to one another, fostering collaboration and connection to achieve our shared focus areas.
Most importantly, connected autonomy brings our schools together. United by our shared mission, and a commitment to improvement in our focus areas, connected autonomy amplifies the insights, experience, and ideas of our people for the good of students across the entire system, not just individual schools.
Always up to date
Our Catholic schools operate in an ever-changing world. Rather than limit our improvement intentions to a set time period, Lighting The Way is designed to flex and evolve as circumstances change.
Working together as bearers of Christ's love—united in our mission and responsive to emerging opportunities and challenges—we'll support more students to reach their learning potential, develop their full self, and build a deep and personal relationship with God and the Church.
Achieving our aspirations
Lighting the Way is supported by a robust ecosystem to ensure improvement initiatives make it through the classroom door:
- Local school context: Guided by Lighting The Way and school-led inquiry, school leaders develop four-year School Strategic Improvement Plans, tailored to their unique local needs and delivered through targeted Annual Improvement Plans.
- System-level conditions: The CEO publishes an annual plan outlining prioritised strategic goals and system-wide initiatives to create the conditions for schools to thrive.
- A coordinated approach: We use a shared digital platform to ensure improvement initiatives—from the CEO to the classroom—are visible, aligned and connected.
- Continuous improvement: We monitor progress regularly, allowing us to remain proactive and responsive to the evolving needs of our students and communities.
Our ecosystem is built on a series of connected changes designed to ensure every school can focus on what matters most: improving faith, learning and wellbeing outcomes for our students.
Distributed Leadership
Collaborative Service Delivery
Balanced System Flexibility
Distributed Leadership
Distributed leadership and accountability.
- We now work within a consistent K-12 school improvement framework, underpinned by the ACER School Improvement Tool and our Catholic identity, and centred on regular cycles of school-led inquiry to set sharp and relevant goals and strategies.
- School leaders at all levels are being empowered to focus on student growth and achievement locally, while remaining deeply connected to the broader system.
- We’re ensuring school and system goals stay on track by regularly measuring ourselves against our Lighting The Way improvement indicators.
Collaborative Service Delivery
Refocusing our service delivery to promote contextual literacy and leadership with, rather than over, others.
- Our schools are now organised into three networks, each with a Head of Continuous Catholic School Improvement whose role is to support principals to focus on instructional leadership and school improvement.
- Our CEO teams across faith, learning, wellbeing, and corporate services are more aligned, so they can work together more effectively to support schools.
- We’ve introduced greater oversight of professional learning programs and the provision of differentiated support, to make sure system support is flexible, responsive, and based on each school’s specific needs.
Balanced System Flexibility
Combining the strength of a system with school-level flexibility.
- We’re using a shared digital platform to manage both school improvement plans and CEO initiatives. This makes our work more visible and transparent, and makes it easier for teams to collaborate and support one another.
- Schools are engaging in "communities of practice" where they can connect over common goals or challenges, and support each other by sharing ideas, resources, and successes.
- We’re continuing to standardise system policies, procedures, and tools to achieve economies of scale, while maintaining as much flexibility as possible for schools.
Monitoring
our impact
A plan is only as good as its impact. Stay up to date with our latest progress as we continue to implement Lighting The Way.
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