From the President: Australian Curriculum planning and familiarisation under way
Queensland Teachers' Journal, Vol 128 No 1, 17 February 2023, page no. 7
As we begin 2023, familiarisation and planning activities for the new version of the Australian Curriculum will no doubt have begun in many of your schools.
Across primary schools, English and maths are the learning areas for planning and familiarisation this year, with implementation from 2024. The Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority (QCAA) has funded one staff member each in the areas of English and maths to attend professional development. Many of these sessions are fully subscribed, with the webinars also being very popular.
In secondary schools, the approach is related to preparedness in each school. LCCs are to consult, discuss and adopt the way forward for planning, familiarisation and implementation through to 2026. Your schools may choose by learning area, strand, sub strand, year level or cohort.
The QCAA has developed curriculum materials to support your school in implementation, which are available on its website (https://www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/p-10/aciq). The department has also prepared and made available a wide range of resources for teachers, HODs, DPs and principals to support planning and familiarisation. These materials remain available to access. A range of curriculum resources are available through a resource finder at the Curriculum Gateway (www.det-school.eq.edu.au/p-10/updated-ac).
Thank you for the work you have undertaken throughout 2020 and 2021 in providing feedback and assisting further development of Version 9 of the Australian Curriculum.
Our members were represented on Learning Area Reference Groups, P-6 and 7-10 working groups regarding the content of this revised version.
A working group comprised of stakeholders, including the QTU, informed what the planning and implementation will look like across Queensland.
State Budget Submission
Our State Budget Submission, which was sent to the Minister, Treasurer, Leader of the Opposition, Opposition Education Spokesperson and the state Greens representatives last year, calls for resourcing for practitioners to enable them to familiarise, plan and implement the Australian Curriculum in an ongoing manner until completed in 2026.
The State Budget Submission calls for increased investment in professional development of teachers and education leaders, resourcing for curriculum implementation and increased resourcing and support in the planning, teaching and learning cycle. Given the department has now launched formally the Equity and Excellence document, it is important to note that this is also underpinned with curriculum, teaching and learning.
We have played an integral part in securing some of this resourcing, but curriculum implementation won’t just happen. It must be supported by genuine and on-going resourcing, time and PD. We can all play our part by highlighting the importance of the resourcing required to support quality teaching and learning in our schools. Use every opportunity to inform and reiterate this matter - when you have visitors from regional offices, are talking with community, or you have a local, state or federal politician visit, remember to reinforce the importance of resourcing.
NAPLAN
By the time you receive this Journal, NAPLAN will almost be upon you. 2023 is the first year that NAPLAN will be brought forward to March, in theory to make the data more useful for teachers and school leaders – and no doubt and by extension, school systems. However, as we know, changing the date does not change the fact that NAPLAN is past its use-by date.
We know that in 2022 ACARA had to extend its timeline to adjust for the many students who did not sit the test. We know that sitting NAPLAN is not compulsory and that the best measure of student outcomes is the daily interactions that occur in your classrooms. It is your skills, knowledge and feedback that take a student to the next step in their learning, aligned to the work done through the Learning Areas of the Australian Curriculum.
Changing the date of the test does not change what is well known by members, students, parents and others in the wider community. It is the human interactions of teaching and learning day to day that lead to outcomes beyond the narrow margins of NAPLAN. We know that our members -the teachers and the school leaders - are the experts in curriculum delivery and catering for the needs of students.