Hi! I'm Cat
I'm a mum, science and maths teacher, and Learning Strategies Coordinator with Autism and ADHD.
I am driving change to encourage middle and high schools to be more inclusive to students, teachers and their communities through her teaching, research, and public speaking.
After over a decade of frustration as a high school teacher watching students struggle to feel included in the school environment and free to choose subjects without prejudice, Catherine commenced a PhD at the University of Adelaide to learn more about cognitive load and its relationship with self-efficacy for students struggling to feel included in the school environment.
Her drive for inclusive practices began in early childhood when she questioned why she had different toys to her brothers and why she needed to shave her legs but not them. Attending an all-girls school led to challenges around uniforms and the subjects available compared to all-boys and co-educational schools.
Catherine has developed programs such as SWIFT (Strong Women in Future Technologies), which equips middle school girls with the tools to pursue a career in STEM and helps teachers promote careers for girls in technology, presentations for teachers to educate about neurodiverse students, and developed a curriculum for year 7-10 students to quantify their executive functioning skills and how to improve where needed./span>