Framing the support

Curriculum reform involves change that spans many aspects of schooling, including teaching, learning, assessment and reporting to parents. School planning for curriculum implementation is a significant, complex and ongoing process. Effective curriculum implementation drives student growth and attainment, and school improvement. New syllabuses provide schools with a unique opportunity to re-focus and place curriculum at the heart of school planning.

This information is designed to support schools in the provision of high-quality educational outcomes for all students by ensuring that school planning processes recognise the centrality of the curriculum to the domains of learning, teaching and leading. It addresses the following questions:

• How can schools develop a Strategic Improvement Plan (SIP) initiative specific to curriculum implementation?
• How can schools align curriculum reform activities to existing SIP initiatives?
• How will curriculum reform impact on implementation and progress monitoring (IPM)?
• How can schools map curriculum reform activities to the School Excellence Framework (SEF)?
• What questions and data sources are required to support the evaluation of curriculum reform activities?

The phases of curriculum implementation

Effective curriculum implementation is best understood as an iterative journey, rather than a single event.

The following phases of curriculum implementation can be used to guide and align curriculum reform to school planning:

• Engage – explore aspects of the new syllabus to identify and plan for changes required for successful curriculum implementation
• Enact – teach, assess and report using the new syllabus and evaluate to refine new practices and systems
• Embed – strengthen and scale to ensure sustainable practices and systems.

Developing a curriculum implementation SIP initiative

The SIP is a working document outlining the steps schools will take to improve learning outcomes and the achievement and growth of all students. It is developed in collaboration with the school community and underpinned by the SEF, SEF Self-assessment Surveys and the external validation process.

As schools undertake external validation and have the opportunity to develop a new SIP, they should consider including SIP initiatives specific to curriculum implementation or embedding curriculum reform activities in initiatives related to excellence in teaching and learning.

Curriculum reform activities may include:

• engaging staff and managing change
• planning and programming
• resourcing
• engaging students (including assessment)
• engaging parents (including reporting).

SIP alignment

Curriculum reform activities should be aligned to existing SIP initiatives that focus on school priorities related to continuous improvement and student learning outcomes. Schools need to consider which of their current initiatives best reflects this focus.

Reflective questions to help schools align curriculum reform activities to their SIP:

• What activities will the school undertake to engage teachers with the new syllabuses and explore the evidence underpinning these changes? How will such a significant change be managed?
• What activities and professional learning will the school undertake to support teachers in planning and programming for curriculum implementation?
• What activities will the school undertake to ensure adequate resourcing for curriculum implementation aligned to new syllabuses?
• What activities will the school undertake to engage students with the new curriculum (this will include aligning assessment to new syllabus outcomes)?
• What activities will the school undertake to engage parents with the new curriculum (this will include reporting to parents)?

Developing IPM for curriculum implementation

The purpose of implementation and progress monitoring is to ensure the successful implementation of the initiatives aligned to strategic directions within a school’s SIP. Curriculum reform will be a considerable focus for schools and activities should be embedded into SIP initiatives to support the achievement of improvement measures. Curriculum implementation planning support is available for each phase of curriculum implementation – Engage, Enact and Embed – to assist schools to plan, monitor and evaluate activities.

Engage

Planning support for schools exploring new aspects of the syllabus to identify and plan for changes required for successful curriculum implementation. Sample activities centre around ‘school processes for professional learning and curriculum implementation’ and ‘data collection and analysis to inform teaching and learning’.

→ Engage planning support

Enact

Support for schools planning to teach, assess and report using the new syllabus and evaluate to refine new practices and systems. It expands on the activities in the Engage phase through the inclusion of a range of tools schools can use to support effective evaluation.

→ Enact planning support

Embed

Support for schools planning how to strengthen and scale sustainable practices and systems. The Embed phase is an iterative part of curriculum implementation and hence the activities reflect the necessity of developing whole school processes to support ongoing curriculum implementation.

→ Embed planning support

Curriculum implementation and the SEF

The SEF supports all NSW public schools in their pursuit of excellence by providing a clear description of the key elements of high-quality practice across the 3 domains of learning, teaching and leading. By mapping each phase of curriculum implementation to the SEF, schools can ensure curriculum reform activities reflect the needs of their school context and drive student improvement.

Engage

• Learning: Curriculum – Curriculum provision
• Teaching: Professional standards – Improvement of practice; Learning and development – Professional learning
• Leading: Educational leadership – Instructional leadership; Educational leadership – High expectations culture; School planning, implementation and reporting – Continuous improvement

Enact

• Learning: Curriculum – Curriculum provision; Curriculum – Teaching and learning programs; Curriculum – Differentiation
• Teaching: Effective classroom practice – Lesson planning; Data skills and use – Data use in teaching; Learning and development – Professional learning
• Leading: Educational leadership – Instructional leadership; Educational leadership – High expectations culture

Embed

• Learning: Learning culture – High expectations; Curriculum – Curriculum provision; Curriculum – Teaching and learning programs; Curriculum – Differentiation
• Teaching: Effective classroom practice – Lesson planning; Data skills and use – Data use in teaching
• Leading: Educational leadership – High expectations culture; School planning, implementation and reporting – Continuous improvement

Remember, where possible, schools should triangulate multiple sources of data to ensure perspectives are balanced. They should also apply the principles of evaluative thinking when analysing the data. These principles include:

• suspending judgement (and being aware of potential bias)
• asking important questions
• using existing evidence well
• strengthening the evidence base.

Evaluating curriculum implementation

Guides for schools in using evaluative thinking practices to plan, monitor and evaluate activities aligned to the phases of curriculum implementation.

Data analysis resources

The following resource can be used to guide schools in using data analysis practices to monitor and evaluate activities aligned to the phases of curriculum implementation.

NESA teaching resources

NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) – Teaching resources