most cats will do very nicely in 8-12 knots of wind... you will love the speed compared to a mono hull

You dont need a high tech/high performance boat to teach kids, and their safety should be a BIG part of the choice if that is one of the main goals...

So if you will have lots of kids on the boat, strong, sturdy, maybe boomless should be a part of your considerations (in my opinion)

more so than performance. You could also start with one cat and in a few years upgrade to a rocket!