Cairns Catholic Education Services

About Catholic Education, Diocese of Cairns

The 29 Catholic schools and colleges of the Cairns Diocese educate almost 11,200 students – from Tully in the south, west to the Atherton Tablelands, and north to the Torres Strait.

Most schools are clustered around the populous centres of Cairns, the Atherton Tablelands and the Innisfail/Johnstone district. All schools, except the most remote schools at Thursday Island (and its campus on Hammond Island) and Weipa, are within two hours driving time of Cairns.

Diocese schools vary in size from less than 40 students at the smallest Primary School to over 1,700 students at the largest P - 12 School in Cairns.

Their aim is to provide a consistent, quality education that is not merely academic, but also focuses on the full development of the child – intellectually, spiritually, physically, morally and emotionally.

About the Resource Centre

Located in Cairns, the Diocese Resource Centre is a place of reflection, learning, collaboration, and creativity. It supports the educational, personal and spiritual growth of the Cairns Catholic faith community through the provision of quality information resources and services.

The Centre provides a host of services to school library staff and other stakeholders across the Diocese and broader community.

Resource Centre catalogue resources include:

• Religious based resources to support schools, community, and staff including university students.
• Academic resources to support CEO staff, School Staff and University Students in their professional development.
• Curriculum-based resources to support schools, including technology items such as robotics and green screens.
• Resources to support the Diocese team of professional staff such as speech pathologists.

The Centre also acts as a meeting space for small workgroups and is responsible for sourcing and provision of new and current resources, as well as providing phone and in-person support on all thing’s library related.

Introducing Oliver v5 School Library Software at all Diocese schools

School Information Systems Manager, Alison Forster, joined the central office team in 2014 and oversees a range of systems used across all schools.

With significant variance in school size, providing consistent central systems and services helps to provide equity and strengthen the holistic educational experience for all students, Alison explained.

One of these systems is their Oliver v5 school library software, which was selected and rolled out across schools in 2018/2019.

“Providing an innovative, online tool to support students across the Dioceses with reading and research was the key educational objective of the process.”

Additional objectives included improving support and ensuring system reliability and security.

“Support becomes more effective when everyone is using the same platform. Reliability, data security and privacy were also pivotal to us.”

Integration between systems was also a factor. Alison’s management of a range of Diocese wide systems, including databases, finance systems, reporting and time tabling means schools can access central knowledge and optimum performance through system integration.

Finally, the Cairns Diocese work closely with Brisbane Catholic Education Diocese who also use Oliver v5 at all schools.

“Partnering with Brisbane Catholic Education on school systems creates greater breadth of knowledge, value and improved user experience for everyone.”

While not a direct user of the software, Alison said she could see that the Oliver v5 system created a lot more opportunity for engaging students and tracking reading than their previous system.

Implementation plus Softlink training and support 

Anne Petre is the Library Technician, School Information Systems for the Diocese. Anne supported schools through the implementation of their new software, which includes Softlink’s information and resource curating tool LearnPath as well as their Oliver v5 system. She continues to provide central support for all schools in the Diocese.

Both Alison and Anne have appreciated the quality of the training and support provided by Softlink.

School use and student access to resources

Anne explains that while diversity of school size and region means that individual school libraries are structured and resourced differently, all schools now have access to eBooks as well as physical books.

“It’s early days but the feedback we’ve had from schools that are promoting resources and online access has been very positive,” Anne said.

​Learn more about Oliver v5:

• This video gives a brief (2:24min) overview of Oliver v5, Softlink’s dynamic and engaging school library management software.
• Head over to this blog to find out more about our recent developments, that have been designed to engage students with the library. 
• Rutherglen High School has some fantastic programs that encourage reading and peer support. In this case study we explore how Oliver v5 has helped to process and promote resources within the library.