School Improvement and Education Reform Group

The School Improvement and Education Reform (SIER) group coordinates the department’s enterprise-wide transformation agenda, including driving key school improvement priorities. SIER monitors and reports on the most important and complex departmental targets and strategies including Premier’s Priorities, the school improvement agenda and skills reform. The group’s work also includes corporate and delivery planning and support.

SIER comprises the Education and Skills Reform, School Performance – North, School Performance – South, and Learning Improvement groups, as well as the Transformation Office.

Transformation Office

The Transformation Office coordinates the department’s agenda for delivering school improvement and skills reform, including oversight of the Premier’s Priorities. The directorate works to track and report progress of the department’s system-level targets and provides a common approach to how we deliver business-critical projects and programs to lift school performance and student outcomes.

Teams in the directorate partner with business units across the department to identify and prioritise the issues needing to be tackled to:

• reach targets
• design the right interventions
• deliver the changes for schools and students
• ensure the department’s work has a positive impact.

Education and Skills Reform

The Education and Skills Reform (ESR) group drives innovation, reform and policy development based on strategic analysis and evaluation, aligned with external relations for the whole Education system. ESR delivers critical programs to improve outcomes in early childhood education, schooling and skills. This includes driving the Skilling for Recovery program and the broader skills reform agenda.

Responsibilities also include:

• securing national and state funding for education services
• distributing funding to non-government schools
• driving a whole-of-department focus on Aboriginal outcomes including raising Year 12 completion rates for Aboriginal students.
  

School Performance (North and South)

The two School Performance groups lead and direct the operations of more than 2,200 NSW public schools. They aim to maximise the academic achievements of all students and create a culture of success, learning and a desire to achieve, underpinned by innovative, adaptive and supportive strategies to support quality teaching and educational leadership at the school level.

The groups are responsible for the achievement of excellence in educational leadership, as well as professional practice and school performance in preschools; infants, primary, secondary, central and community schools; specialist and comprehensive schools; schools for specific purposes; and intensive English and environmental education centres.

School Performance – North

School Performance – North is responsible for 4 School Performance directorates:

• Metropolitan North
• Regional North
• Regional North and West
• Rural North.

The group also has responsibility for statewide student services, including:

• arts, sports and initiatives
• Assisted School Travel Program (operations)
• child wellbeing and mental health services
• community languages
• international programs.

School Performance – South

School Performance – South is responsible for 4 School Performance directorates:

• Metropolitan South
• Metropolitan South and West
• Regional South
• Rural South and West.

The group is also responsible for delivering the Bushfire Relief Strategy, Connected Communities and strategic school improvement.

Learning Improvement

Learning Improvement works collaboratively across the department and non-government sectors to support schools to improve outcomes for every student. The group is responsible for ensuring the youngest children get the best start in life by supporting and regulating the early childhood education and care sector. It is also responsible for the development and delivery of evidence-based programs to improve educational standards and the quality of teaching and learning in all NSW public schools. It does this by:

• monitoring, supporting and regulating the early childhood education and care sector in NSW and ensuring continuous improvement in quality
• maximising access, inclusion and wellbeing of all students through the oversight of relevant policies and by commissioning programs or strategic partnerships with other agencies and service providers
• leading curriculum reform for the department, in collaboration with NSW Education Standards Authority
• supporting teachers to achieve high professional standards in the delivery of curriculum, assessment and reporting
• developing evidence-based programs, professional learning and instructional resources in partnership with schools, teachers and leaders.

Early Childhood Outcomes

The Early Childhood Outcomes division is responsible for ensuring all children make a strong start in life and learning, and make a successful transition to school. The division will transform early childhood education and care, child development and contribute to women’s economic participation in NSW through improved access, affordability and quality of care and services.

It includes strategic investments to:

• attract, retain and develop early childhood education and care teachers and educators
• work across government to expand proven child development programs
• provide fee relief for families of preschool-aged children so all children can participate in 600 hours of quality education in the year before school, while increasing quality and availability of preschool in NSW
• support quality practice to enhance outcomes for children in NSW, particularly for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, children with disability, and children living in regional and remote areas
• fund the early learning sector to innovate, grow and address gaps in services
• design, develop and introduce a year of no-cost, quality early learning for every child in NSW in the year before school by 2030.

People Group

The People Group is responsible for ensuring educational outcomes through support and development of staff. This work includes:

• driving human resources and workforce strategy, including developing better technology for our human resources functions
• strengthening school leadership and boosting the supply of high-quality teachers
• leading work across work health and safety
• driving accountability through professional and ethical standards
• ensuring that the department is a high-performing organisation and a great place to work.

Operations Group

The Operations Group is responsible for providing high-quality services and support to the Education system. This includes:

• ensuring that the cluster makes the best use of our resources to improve education outcomes for children and young people
• making sure that schools and the department have the right technology to support the delivery of education and simplifying administrative processes
• providing information, support and advice to schools and corporate staff through EDConnect, the shared service centre, and promoting consistent and effective operational practices
• supporting, promoting and enabling good governance, risk management frameworks, controls assurance, and fraud and corruption services
• delivering simple, strategic and customer-centred legal advice and representation to schools and the department, which enables the department to focus on improved educational outcomes.

School Infrastructure NSW

School Infrastructure NSW is the department’s centre of excellence for infrastructure planning, delivery and asset management. It responsible for delivering the NSW Government’s investment in education infrastructure.

School Infrastructure NSW:

• drives the service, planning, procurement and construction of school facilities to meet changes in population growth, to accommodate new ways of teaching and learning, and to help foster better educational outcomes for students
• ensures school-based assets are regularly renewed and maintained
• supports the department through managing office accommodation
• leads work to expand before and after school care places for children across NSW
• works closely with school communities; the NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment; Infrastructure NSW; and the Greater Sydney Commission to deliver public education infrastructure where and when it is needed.

Office of the Secretary

The office supports the work of the Secretary as well as the department’s relationships with key stakeholders outside of the department, to help meet strategic objectives across the Education cluster. This includes:

• providing secretariat support for Executive
• supporting ministerial offices and responding to Cabinet and other government business
• leading work across communications
• responding to media enquiries and correspondence, helping to share outcomes from across the Education portfolio.