Great teaching starts with calm, predictable classrooms and it doesn’t happen by chance.

In this episode of Magnify Matters, host Ashley Marsh is joined by Dr Tim McDonald and Sara Wiggins from Classroom Mastery, to unpack the strategies, structures and mindset shifts that create classrooms where learning thrives.

With experience spanning classroom teaching, system leadership, research, and hands-on coaching, Tim and Sara share what it takes to embed consistent, evidence-informed behaviour routines across schools, and why that work is foundational to teaching and learning.

In this episode, we explore:

• How Classroom Mastery was developed and why it's resonating across Australia.
• What makes classroom routines like “entry,” “exit,” and “cue to start” so effective.
• How Catholic schools in the Sandhurst Diocese are adapting the model to their own context through Magnify Sandhurst.
• Why this work isn’t about control — it’s about consistency, belonging and the students.
• The research behind behaviour and how low-level disruptions impact achievement.

Now stay with us as we magnify what truly matters.

Mentioned in this episode

• Magnify Sandhurst
• Catholic Education Sandhurst
• Classroom Mastery
• Knowledge Society
• Australian Education Research Organisation(AERO)
• Tom Bennett
• ABC 7.30 Report - School behaviour change program for disruptive classrooms
• Explicit Direct Instruction by John Hollingsworth and Silvia Ybarra

ABOUT CLASSROOM MASTERY

Classroom Mastery provides leaders and teachers with the knowledge, skills and strategies they need to create classroom behaviours and school culture that foster positive learning environments for all students.

ABOUT MAGNIFY SANDHURST

Catholic Education Sandhurst rolled out Magnify Sandhurst, an evidence-informed, science of learning school improvement initiative, to its 51 Catholic schools across the Sandhurst Diocese at the beginning of 2025. Magnify Sandhurst focuses on how the brain learns, how literacy is effectively taught, uses a low variance, knowledge-rich curriculum and the creation of positive classrooms. Our practice is calm, predictable, and repeatable to maximise learning time in all classrooms. Magnify Sandhurst is deliberately bold and wide-ranging, generating whole-of-system improvement.

ABOUT CATHOLIC EDUCATION SANDHURST

Catholic Education Sandhurst is home to 56 Catholic schools across Central and North Eastern Victoria, educating 19,750 students. We partner with schools, students and families to provide innovation and excellence in education, inspired by the Catholic story.

Visit www.ceosand.catholic.edu.au or follow us on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.