System Literacy Leaders Jeni McCarthy (St Bernard’s, Batemans Bay) and Julian Laffan (St Bede’s, Braidwood) have captivated a national audience with their professional presentations at the 2018 Australian Literacy Educators' Association (ALEA) Conference in Perth that explored ‘The Art of English’.

Jeni and Julian represented and promoted Catholic Education Canberra-Goulburn’s system priorities and evident growth in teaching capabilities and student achievement, aligning with keynote speakers who shared similar challenges and beliefs.

Jeni’s presentation titled ‘A student centred pedagogical approach to teaching English within a two-hour literacy block’, outlined the system and school journey in a primary school setting that has resulted in increased pedagogical content knowledge of staff and improved outcomes for students.

In her presentation Jeni explored the ways in which each student's willingness to become creative writers and enthused readers at St Bernard’s has increased thanks to a K-6 pedagogical shift and balanced English program that has resulted in an agreed whole school approach.

“It was amazing to present our Diocese and school journey, knowing that already we are inspiring other educational professionals to stand up and notice that we are putting forward a pedagogy that supports our students,” said Jeni.

Julian presented a workshop on ‘The art of Illustration: relating narrative to the hand print image’ that reinforced the system position related to daily reading and access to quality literature in our schools and at home.

Julian is not only the Assistant Principal and Literacy Coordinator at St Bede's Primary School in Braidwood but he is also an artist, educator, a curator and illustrator who specialises in woodcut and drawing who has exhibited internationally as an independent artist.  

In his presentation, Julian explored examples of his ongoing collaborative work with two literary authors and the ways in which narrative can be expressed by images. He recently illustrated ‘Leaving the Lyrebird Forest’, written by Gary Crew, that will be published in October this year.

The global research and literature shared throughout the conference from ALEA presenters, workshops and keynote presentations reinforced Catholic Education Canberra-Goulburn’s literacy direction as we continue to strive to increase student outcomes and engagement for literacy.