Catholic Education Northern Territory oversees 18 schools spread right across the NT, from small, remote communities to larger urban areas like Darwin and Alice Springs. While we share an overarching vision, each school has its own values and priorities. That diversity is our greatest strength. But it also makes system-wide decisions, like choosing a common learning management system, far more complex.
When teachers across different schools began telling us that one of our system-wide tools was making their work harder, we knew it was time for change. Finding the right platform, however, wasn’t straightforward. We needed to evaluate our options for our various contexts, while also bringing coherence to our wider community.
We evaluated 10 vendors, and Toddle was the standout choice
We assembled a procurement panel including principals, deputy principals, and IT from different school contexts. We wanted the leaders who would actually live with this decision to have a voice in making it.
We interviewed each vendor with a comprehensive feature list in hand, asked detailed questions about data security, integration with our existing systems, and more. Several platforms impressed us, but Toddle stood out for four key reasons.
- All in one space: Toddle offered an option to link all of our current apps into one. For teachers, it meant just logging into one platform in the morning.
- Safe, education-focused AI: The safety surrounding Toddle’s AI, purposely built for education, aligned with what we were looking for. When we saw how future forward it was and how it could support our teachers across every part of their day, it became a game-changer.
- Data security: Toddle checked all our boxes on this front. It complies with Australian Privacy Principles, has been assessed by ST4S (including for AI), holds ISO certifications for data security, and stores all data on Australian servers. That gave us the peace of mind we needed to move forward.
- Support: For our system, the support offered with the implementation was also important. We appreciated how Toddle listened to our context, asked thoughtful questions about our needs, and showed flexibility in how they could adapt.
When you find that kind of partnership with a vendor, the decision becomes pretty clear.
The decision was made, then we met Sarah and Paula!
Once we decided to move forward with Toddle, we were introduced to Sarah and Paula, our School Engagement Manager and Toddle Buddy, who have worked 1:1 with us throughout the rollout and implementation of Toddle.
They worked not just with the central team, but with individual schools and teachers directly. Our schools have had weekly check-ins with them as well as impromptu calls and emails when they needed help in planning their onboarding timeline, support with data migration, or technical guidance on a tricky integration.
Sarah and Paula visited many of our schools across our network, including our most regional and remote campuses. When we saw that kind of dedication – people willing to go that distance, literally – it meant everything.
What meant the most though, is that the support never tapered off after onboarding. Sarah and Paula continue working closely with us now, nine months later. It’s changed how our schools experience support entirely. Sarah and Paula are common names amongst Catholic Education NT now.
We co-created a custom roll out plan for each of our 18 schools
From the beginning, we were mindful of change fatigue. We didn’t want to overwhelm anyone, and the Toddle team understood that instinctively.
We set reporting as the universal starting point, every school would begin there. But beyond that, each school could define their own rollout plan based on their priorities. Some chose parent communication, others decided on planning, pastoral care, or attendance. Sarah and Paula worked with individual schools to tailor a plan for them.
At Holy Spirit, for example, Sarah joined us for a professional development day to co-create our rollout plan. It wasn’t just me as the Deputy Principal telling my staff where to start. And it wasn’t the Toddle team arriving with a one-size-fits-all strategy. Instead, we sat down together, Sarah, our leadership team, and our teachers, and mapped out what mattered most and how we would introduce Toddle carefully, piece by piece.
The Toddle team built us a whole integration within a weekend
We have 5,300+ students across the Northern Territory, and all of their data – their personal information, class rosters, timetables, attendance records – needed to sync securely with our Student Information System, Civica, into Toddle.
Toddle didn’t integrate with Civica at the time, but the team didn’t see it as a roadblock. Instead of asking us to work around it, they simply got to work. Within a weekend, they’d built the integration specifically for our needs. It automated the entire data flow – rostering, timetabling, attendance – so information moved between the two systems without any double handling.
That might sound like just technical backend work, but for us it was proof of just how responsive the team was to our needs.
When teachers logged into Toddle for the first time, everything was there. Their students. Their classes. Their existing data pulled through automatically. Teachers were able to get started straight away.
Training was deeply tailored to different roles
Another strength of Toddle was the flexibility in how training sessions were delivered. Some teachers preferred asynchronous learning. Others valued in-person visits. Sarah and Paula made sure we had both options available, at a schedule that worked for us.
Training was also tailored to different roles. Teachers received training focused on their day-to-day work in the classroom. Office staff have received training specific to their administrative needs. And our tech teams received technical training to support the integration and backend setup. Everyone got what they needed to ease into Toddle.
Nine months in, and we’re seeing plenty of wins already
We’re nine months into having Toddle in our system, six months into teachers actively using it.
Reporting is smoother. Parents have had no trouble accessing reports. What used to be stressful and fragmented is now just… done. Teachers are asking deeper questions about curriculum and planning. They’re using Toddle’s built-in AI tools throughout the day to work more productively. Pastoral care is consistent across schools, and because we now use a shared language, the data finally tells a clear, connected story.
There are plenty of wins like these, but one moment really stood out for me. I was walking past a relief teacher who had only been with us a few weeks. She had the Toddle Planner open on her screen, and was moving through it with complete ease. When a system-level change reaches a teacher that new, and they’re already working confidently within it, you know it’s truly embedded. I messaged Sarah and Paula, our Toddle support team, and said: “We’ve done it.”
Looking ahead:
Our next step is expanding into parent engagement and making fuller use of the curriculum hub, which allows high-quality teaching and learning resources to be centrally planned and then distributed across our school network.
There’s also so much more we can do within Toddle, but with so many possibilities, it can feel like a lot to take on at once. That’s why, as tempting as it may be, we’re making sure to move forward in manageable, meaningful steps.
What we’ve learnt in our first year with Toddle is that change doesn’t have to be hard when you have the right partner, a clear plan, and the patience to let schools move at their own pace. We’re not done yet, but we’re already seeing the impact and looking forward to what comes next.
