The Australian Catholic Education Conference has kicked off today, Wednesday 20th August 2025, with more than 1,450 delegates from across Australia and overseas. The conference is taking place in the beautiful location of Tropical Cairns FNQ.
The conference theme is Hope, Anchored in Faith
Day One – Wednesday 20th August
8:40 – Understanding Faith is located in prime position just inside the entry way, ready to answer your questions about the resource. If you are in attendance, don’t forget to come and say hi!
The delegates streamed in this morning and the foyer to the Cairns convention centre was jam packed! Thanks to BFX furniture, delegates were treated to a free coffee from the coffee cart to start their day. The opening plenary is now underway. We are excited to talk to delegates at morning tea and tell them all about our product.
10:00 – The first part of the day saw delegates attend a plenary and keynote. MC Phillippa McDonald opened the 2025 ACEC conference, followed by the Welcome to Country by Henrietta Marrie AM. Nicholas Moore, the NCEC chair, discussed NCEC’s mission to ensure that schools are relating to their parishes by surveying students.
2:30 – Today’s keynote was Sr Nathalie Becquart XMCJ. Sr Nathalie expressed her excitement at being back in Australia. This keynote drew on the insights of the Synod on Synodality (2021-2024) and how synodal conversion can breathe new life into Catholic educational communities.
The conference Mass was attended by almost 3000 people and was celebrated by Most Rev Joe Caddy AM, Most Rev Marl Coleridge BA DSS and Most Rev Anthony Fisher OP. One of the highlights of the Mass was the amazing musicians and school choirs who elevated the sense of celebration and worship.
4:30 – This afternoon’s conversation panel included Sr Nathalie Becquart XMCJ, Most Rev Mark Edwards OMI, Fr Friedrich Bechina, and Professor Renee Kohler-Ryan. The panel was so insightful and informative and spoke about the role of Catholic Education in transformation.
‘As we are forming minds, we should also be forming hearts.’ -Professor Renee Kohler-Ryan.
The first session attended by Understanding Faith was ‘Growing Faith Leaders for Tomorrow’ presented by Alison Gore and Alison Tanti-Clark. The presenters spoke about this program which is used to form faith leaders in South Australia. CESA states that, “System and school leadership that reflects an authentic engagement with growing deep identity and formation for mission is critical for broadening, widening and deepening spiritual capital and mission integrity.”
5:30 – Afternoon sessions attended by Understanding Faith included ‘The Challenges and Opportunities of AI in Catholic Education’ where is was revealed that only 30% of Australians believe that the benefits of AI outweigh the potential risks.
In the session, ‘Cultivating Faith Leaders and Living “Life to the Full” – The Mission and Purpose of Catholic Schools,’ attendees were invited to discuss and question Fr Friedrich Bechina and Kate Rayment about matters such as, ‘What does witness look like for a leader in a Catholic school?’ and ‘What opportunities exist for staff, students, and parents to engage with leaders of faith?’
The final session of the day included ‘Sustaining a Vision for Learning – Sharing Experiences from Three Catholic School, Communities’ which focused on developing and implementing a vision for learning which meets the needs of students while utilising the talents if the community. This process involves stages such as initiating, discovering, envisioning, actioning and sustaining. Lastly, ‘Developing and Implementing a Quality Assurance Framework for Instructional Materials: Insights and Applications for Catholic Education,’ presented by Jarrod Carter and Dr Kevin Trimble highlighted that ‘system-level quality assurance of instructional materials is under developed in Australia.’
Day 2 – Thursday 21st August
9:30 – Thursday morning’s session started with musicians welcoming the attendees as they entered the auditorium. It was fantastic to watch a video summarising yesterday’s event (this video has been shared in our Facebook page). The attendees were led in prayer and listened to a Gospel reading which was followed by a video reflection of Jesus’ life.
Today’s conversation panel included Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP, and Federal Minister for Education, Jason Clare. The discussion focused on how Catholic education benefits all Australians and is valuable across all sectors. The discussion moved to how faith-based education impacts young people and contributes to society.
“Education can’t fix everything… but I do know that good teachers are well formed and supported and can make a huge difference in the life of kids.” –Archbishop Anthony Fisher
12:30 – Following morning tea, Understanding Faith attended two sessions: a panel discussion featuring Dr Neil McGoran (moderator), Professor Dylan Wiliam, Dr Jordana Hunter and Professor Donna King and keynote speaker, Dr Steve Constantino. The conversation panel discussed how Catholic education unlocks a high-quality teaching approach across diverse school contexts. The conversation took place in reference to the five teaching goals identified in 2025 OECD report: cognitive engagement, content quality, social-emotional support, classroom interaction and formative assessment.
“I think Catholic schools are ahead as they have this holistic, whole person development.” -Professor Dylan Wiliam
Today’s keynote speaker was Dr Steve Constantino. Dr Constantino focused on the importance of family engagement in student’s education. Dr Constantino expressed a compelling argument that families are the first and most influential teachers to their children.
The benefits of family engagement include:
- Improved homework completion rates
- Motivated learners
- Improved school attendance
- Improved grades
- Improved graduation rates
- Improved social skills, self-esteem and behaviours in school
- Increased rates of post high school education
“If we as educators could successfully teach all children by ourselves, then, it seems to me we would have already done so. The fact that we haven’t should be all the motivation or evidence we need that engaging every family in the educational life of their child is essential to desired school outcomes.” Engage Every Family – Dr Steve Constantino
5:00 – The masterclass with Dr Steve Constantino was overflowing! Through an engaging and informative presentation, Dr Constantino showed the role that culture plays in cultivating authentic family engagement and explored the link between culture and student success.
The Catholic Aboriginal Leadership Team (CALT) works to integrate Aboriginal culture and Catholic faith. Presenters, Tasha Rose and Cynthia Page emphasised the importance of strengthening the journey of reconciliation as faith is recontextualised in remote communities.
John Burland and Cheryl Fernandez demonstrated practical and engaging ways for teachers to use music in the primary religious education classroom to accompany students in their faith journey.
Br Michael Callinen showed how prayer, liturgy and music can be an evangelisaiton gateway for Catholic Schools by exploring the purpose of prayer and liturgy.
Day Three – Friday 22nd August
10:30 – The last day of the conference started with a session exploring how using storytelling in the RE classroom can positively impact on Catholic education. Storytelling integrates faith-based narrative with learner’s developmental needs.
A panel discussion featuring Brian Lawrence, Tania Melki, Anthony Munro, and Andrew Mellas explored ways in which Catholic students embody societal principles of citizenship through faith in action. The panel also discussed how worldviews influence principles of citizenship today. Interestingly, the panel revealed that research shows those who have experienced a Catholic education are likely to see long term benefits in the areas of employment, health and general life satisfaction.
Professor Renée Kohler-Ryan, Professor Robyn Horner and Dr Nigel Zimmerman conducted a forum focused on theological visions and contemporary approaches to identity and mission in Catholic education. They shared their hope that this conversation continues beyond this conference to become a regular dialogue.
12:00 – During morning tea, Sr Nathalie Becquart was being interviewed in the ‘Conversation Corner’ and in the chapel, student led attendees in prayer and reflection to the song, ‘What a Beautiful Name.’
Today’s panel discussion included students who captivated the audience as they shared their knowledge and feelings about their Catholic education with honesty. The students stressed the importance of a multimodal approach to learning and shared stories of how being treated as individual humans, rather than ‘just a group of students’ made them feel valued and respected by their teachers. The honesty and vulnerability displayed by these students was applauded and appreciated by the audience.
As the conference (sadly) comes to a close, Philippa McDonald, Jacinta Collins and Diarmuid O’Riordan summarised the last two and a half days and thanked the participating schools, sponsors and partners.
The final keynote speaker, Dr Simon Breakspear, wrapped up the conference exploring how educational improvement begins with small daily changes.
