- Familiarise and lead teacher understanding of the changes in the new syllabus (see the department’s Professional learning – curriculum K–12 and NESA online learning hub).
- Work in partnership with middle leaders to support teachers to understand the evidence underpinning the new syllabus (see Leading curriculum K–12 and Literacy and numeracy guides).
- Work in partnership with middle leaders to build teacher capability of the literacy and numeracy demands of the syllabus (see Literacy and numeracy professional learning).
- Collaborate with other middle leaders and schools through local school networks (see Curriculum Reform Communities).
Curriculum implementation journey – assistant principal
Guidance for assistant principals implementing a new syllabus. Suggested activities, reflective questions, and useful resources can be used flexibly across a range of schools for each phase of curriculum implementation.
The assistant principal should work in partnership with middle leaders and leadership teams in their school. Middle leaders could include the assistant principal (AP), curriculum and instruction (C&I), aspiring leaders, highly accomplished teachers and lead teachers.
Download the curriculum implementation journey – assistant principal (PDF 608 KB) graphic.
Leading effective curriculum implementation professional learning is available for K–12 middle leaders.
Engage
In the engage phase, assistant principals:
- explore aspects of the new syllabus with their team
- identify and plan for changes required for effective curriculum implementation.
Suggested activities
Explore
Identify and plan
- Work in partnership with middle leaders to effectively identify and meet the diverse learning needs of all students (see Curriculum planning K–12 professional learning and Universal design for learning).
- This includes students with disability, high potential and gifted students, Aboriginal students and students who are learning English as an additional language or dialect.
- Work collaboratively with middle leaders to develop processes for the collection and analysis of student achievement data to identify teacher and students’ needs (see Data analysis resources – guiding advice).
- Use School planning for curriculum implementation to align School Excellence Plan (SEP) initiatives (see School excellence in action).
- Allocate time to work collaboratively with staff to evaluate, select, adapt and create resources for teaching and learning (see Planning programming and assessing K–12).
- Collaboratively identify and plan for assessment (see Effective assessment practice and NESA assessment advice).
- Use Transition from primary to high school advice to facilitate effective transition processes and strengthen continuity of learning practices.
- To what extent do my colleagues and I have a deep understanding of the syllabus and the evidence underpinning the new syllabus?
- How will the new syllabus affect classroom practice?
- What resources are needed to meet curriculum planning and programming, assessing and reporting requirements?
- How will I work in partnership with middle leaders to build the expertise and capability of teachers to implement the new syllabus?
- To what extent does the implementation plan allocate time for evaluation and reflection of identified changes?
Enact
In the enact phase, assistant principals:
- support their team to teach, assess and report using the new syllabus
- evaluate to refine practices and systems.
Suggested activities
Teach
- Work with middle leaders to access and lead professional learning with staff to enhance teaching and learning (see Professional learning – curriculum K–12).
- Support staff to collaboratively plan and optimise learning for all students (see Curriculum planning for every student – advice).
- Lead and support colleagues to plan for the intentional use of explicit teaching strategies at the right time for the right purpose (see Explicit teaching).
- Ensure processes and structures are in place to support staff to collaboratively plan and evaluate teaching and learning (see Planning programming and assessing K–12).
- Plan, model and lead evidence-based models of collaborative inquiry to build teacher and team capability (see Guide to evidence-based models of collaborative inquiry (staff only)).
- Create opportunities for explaining the curriculum to parents, carers and the community through authentic community engagement in line with agreed school processes.
Assess and report
- Work in partnership with middle leaders and teachers to plan assessments aligned to the new syllabus outcomes (see NESA assessment advice and Curriculum planning and programming, assessing and reporting to parents K–12 policy).
- Support staff to refine processes for assessing and reporting on student progress with the new syllabus (see Reporting to parents).
- Work collaboratively with the leadership team and teachers to analyse internal and external student progress and achievement data to improve student outcomes.
Evaluate
- Work collaboratively with middle leaders and teachers to evaluate school processes and structures to ensure effective teaching strategies are used to improve student learning (see Evaluating curriculum implementation).
- Collect and evaluate evidence aligned to initiatives in the School Excellence Plan (SEP).
- To what extent are parents and the school community aware of the changes to the curriculum?
- How are all staff planning effective learning experiences for the full range of students?
- How effective are the processes in place to support changes to assessing and reporting?
- How will I work in partnership with colleagues to evaluate the implementation of the new curriculum?
Embed
In the embed phase, assistant principals work collaboratively to strengthen and scale to ensure sustainable practices and systems.
Suggested activities
Strengthen
- Work with all staff to create a culture of evidence-based reflective teaching and ongoing improvement.
- Ensure systems are in place to support the team to continually reflect on teaching standards and practices.
- Sustain a culture that supports meaningful teacher collaboration, observations, co-teaching and planning, reviewing evidence and reflecting on practice (see Middle Leaders).
Scale
- Work with the leadership team to evaluate and scale processes and structures for whole school monitoring of planning and programming, assessing and reporting.
- Review implementation data and work with school leadership to make changes to the School Excellence Plan (SEP) (see Evaluation resource hub).
- Support other teams through syllabus implementation and ensure content, learning experiences, assessment and instruction continue to reflect the new syllabus outcomes.
- What has been the impact of curriculum change on student learning?
- In what ways are staff supported to reflect on their teaching practice?
- What are the enablers and barriers for future curriculum implementation?
