- Familiarise yourself and other teachers with the new syllabus by prioritising professional learning from the department’s syllabus-specific Professional learning – curriculum K–12 and NESA online learning hubExternal link.
- Identify your professional learning needs to effectively lead change in your school.
- Explore the NSW CurriculumExternal link to understand the evidence underpinning the new syllabus.
- Work with the leadership team to lead staff in their understanding of the Phases of curriculum implementation and Leading curriculum K–12.
- Create opportunities for networking with other principals and formal/informal networks of schools (see Curriculum Reform Communities).
Curriculum implementation journey – teaching principal
Guidance for teaching 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.
Download the curriculum implementation journey – teaching principal (PDF 1.5 MB) graphic.
Engage
In the engage phase, teaching principals:
- explore aspects of the new syllabus
- identify and plan for changes required for effective curriculum implementation.
Suggested activities
Explore
- To what extent do I and/or my team have a deep understanding of the syllabus and the evidence underpinning the new syllabus?
- What resources are required to commence syllabus implementation to meet curriculum planning and programming, assessing, and reporting requirements?
- To what extent does the implementation plan allocate time for reflection and evaluation?
Enact
In the enact phase, teaching principals:
- teach, assess and report using the new syllabus
- evaluate to refine practices and systems.
Suggested activities
Teach
- Access and apply professional learning to enhance student learning experiences (see Professional learning curriculum – K–12).
- Collaboratively plan and optimise learning for all students (Curriculum planning for every student – advice).
- Consider networking with other schools to collaboratively plan and program, using the department’s resources, to meet the needs of students (see Planning programming and assessing K–12).
- Ensure there is a coherent, inclusive school-wide approach to deepening teacher understanding of cognitive load theory and explicit teaching practice (see Explicit teaching).
- Implement changes to pedagogy and create opportunities to collaboratively plan and evaluate teaching and learning.
- Create opportunities for explaining the curriculum to parents, carers and the community through authentic community engagement in line with agreed school processes.
- Connect with other schools to plan effective learning experiences for the full range of students?
- To what extent are parents and the school community aware of the changes to the curriculum?
- How effective are the processes in place to support changes to assessing and reporting?
- How effective are the processes and structures in place to evaluate the implementation of new curriculum?
Embed
In the embed phase, teaching principals strengthen and scale to ensure sustainable practices and systems.
Suggested activities
Strengthen
- Create a culture of evidence-based teaching and learning for ongoing improvement.
- Access ongoing professional learning to ensure a high expectations culture for student learning (see Principals).
- What has been the impact of curriculum change on student learning?
- To what extent has the implementation of the new syllabus led to improvements in teaching practice?
- What are the enablers and barriers for future curriculum implementation?
