Jessica Colleu Terradas

As the Senior Officer Teaching and Learning Literacy specialist & instructional coach at Canberra and Goulburn Catholic Education, I contribute to the implementation of Catalyst, a system-wide education approach to teaching and learning. This work, informed by the Science of Learning and Science of Reading, has involved designing and implementing professional learning, resources and support across all 56 schools focusing on evidence-based teaching practices with a heavy investment on building early foundational literacy skills in young children.

I am also enrolled as a PhD student at the Australian Catholic University, under the main supervision of Professor Anne Castles, Professor Rauno Parrila, and Dr Danielle Colenbrander. I am eager to see what we can contribute to the topic of adolescent literacy as part of the Australian Centre for the Advancement of Literacy with the ambition to translating knowledge into effective teaching practices. 

Prior to this, I worked in the Literacy Guarantee Unit for the South Australian Education Department, supporting teachers and advising leaders in implementing high-quality evidence-based reading instruction across rural, regional and metropolitan schools (both primary and secondary). In my early teaching career, I spent seven years supporting students at educational risk through high-impact instruction at Como Secondary College (Western Australia), using explicit Direct Instruction teaching methods. I holds two Masters: a Master of Education, specialised in special education from the University of Edith Cowan (Western Australia), and a Master of Anthropology from the French School of Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences in Paris (France).

My entire teaching career has been spent supporting the most challenging and vulnerable students identified at risk for reading failures and my work was nationally recognised in 2019 with a Commonwealth Bank Teaching Award. In 2020, I was awarded a Churchill Fellowship and, in 2022, I was able to travel to England, France, Belgium and the United States where I met with leading experts to investigate effective language and literacy screening and instructional practices to support older struggling readers.

Upon return, I applied my knowledge with schools and continued to lead the change I want to see, ensuring every child can read when they leave school, by promoting the use of evidence-based teaching practices to prevent low literacy across ACT, NSW and beyond. As part of this work, I led opportunities for networking, collaboration and support for educators to align to the science of reading in Australian schools across multiple states. I have also been actively involved in the grass-root-organisation Sharing Best Practice, across Australia, particularly in South Australia and Canberra as an organiser and speaker. 

I like to share what I learn. And most importantly, no matter what I do, I work to make a difference.

Jessica was selected as an Impact Funding recipient in 2023 round 2. Her project aim is to develop high-quality online training modules for secondary teachers about how to support struggling readers. This on-demand professional learning will provide an overview of adolescent literacy and why some students have difficulty with reading so teachers can enhance their ability to address the diverse needs of older struggling readers. Access the modules : JCT Consultant (jct-consultant.com)