As part of the 2024-2027 planning cycle, schools are encouraged to have a purposeful focus on a small number of improvement measure focus areas including attendance, reading, numeracy and pathways (if the school has senior secondary students). Schools are also able to set additional school-developed improvement measures, for example on wellbeing or writing, based on the needs of students. To support this purposeful focus, schools are encouraged to use the annual reflection process to identify those initiatives in their SIPs which are most impactful.

The approach to school improvement measures is inclusive, purposeful and reflects the wide range of school contexts in NSW. While schools are provided guidance about improvement measures, principals are encouraged to work with their Directors, Educational Leadership (DELs) to set aspirational, yet achievable measures that are appropriate for the school context and that speak to the needs of the school and students.

Where possible, the processes for updating SIPs will be streamlined and automated.

Progress measures will now also represent the work that schools are doing in support of improvement measures. Principals are able to work with their DELs to choose and develop annual progress measures that reflect the improvement initiatives they feel will best lead to achievement of the improvement measure. For attendance and pathways, chosen progress measures will be reported in annual reports in 2024, 2025 and 2026, with improvement measures reported in annual reports in 2027.