To support literacy skill development, we use the PEEL (Point, Explain, Example, Link) Paragraph Writing Strategy to help students structure quality answers to questions. We use this strategy a lot in Year 7 and 8 to get them familiar with quality responses. For HSC students, we use strategies to help them plan and answer exam style questions at the right level to receive the highest marks.

Numeracy plays a crucial role in Industrial Technology, enhancing students’ understanding and skills. Incorporating opportunities to develop numeracy skills has allowed for improved student achievement and engagement. We regularly embed learning experiences around measurement, conversions, multiplicative thinking, proportional thinking, number and reasoning in lessons. In addition, we support students to use spreadsheets to track material costs, project timelines, or design specifications. Proficiency in spreadsheet software allows students to create formulas, analyse data, and present information effectively.

Graeme Edgar, Head Teacher, Industrial Arts

Together, we have developed a strong understanding of Number Talks and Number Sense Routines.

Through planning and implementing purposeful Number Talks daily in my classroom I assess and target areas for student number sense development. The process of planning also provides me with the opportunity to identify key teaching points and rehearse representing student thinking. The ‘tuning in’ and orchestrating ideas during Number Talks has led to class conversations to be sequenced, focused and meaningful.

Through focusing on dialogic practices, students have developed strategies to communicate and share their thinking through quality talk. I have found these strategies are used in all other learning areas as they foster communication skills such as actively listening to others, asking questions and responding through hand symbols or gestures. This has promoted class engagement as all students feel like they have a voice and their ideas are valued by our class.

Our class have also developed positive dispositions towards numeracy and mathematics, creating a culture of exploring and risk taking as all students can share their thinking through a range of communication methods. This often links into other learning areas as we share what ‘mathematicians’ are and can do. Our classroom walls are filled with our mathematical thinking and ideas, and the generalisations we learn!

Claire Farquhar, Classroom teacher

We structure professional learning sessions collaboratively so that teachers can share their knowledge and skills together and build efficacy across the school team including learning support, support staff and principal. We gather work samples every 5 weeks and share data to ensure a consistent approach to assessment and criteria is understood and implemented by all teachers. This collaborative approach allows teachers to reflect on their strategies and student achievement and through a whole school data wall, students can be identified for support and achievement.

The celebration of student achievement is then acknowledged in our school newsletter with a “Writer of the Week” identified from each class and award presented. A mathematician award is being formalised for our new focus of Number and Place Value. We look forward to highlighting more academic success as new practices are embedded and love hearing the pride in our students when they are recognised by their teachers and peers.

Kristy Glyde, Principal

Together, we’ve used the K-2 Effective Reading Guide to refine our teaching cycle.

Recognising the need to boost reading fluency, we collaborated with my School Learning Support Officer (SLSO) to implement paired reading activities. These sessions not only helped students practice their fluency but also taught them how to give each other warm and cool feedback, making the learning process both purposeful and engaging. To further reinforce these skills, students learned a repetitive rhyming narrative, which they later performed for their peers—providing a real-world context that made reading fluently both fun and meaningful.

Our whole-school commitment to phonics and spelling has also been transformative. We’ve developed a phonics scope and sequence that aligns with our decodable texts, allowing us to differentiate instruction across all classes. This consistent approach has significantly increased the number of students mastering the phonetic code by the end of Year 2, a success reflected in our NAPLAN results, where more of our students are now achieving above the state average in reading and spelling.

Azaria Rossiter, Classroom teacher

Leading this successful effort is Jarad Freebody, Head Teacher and SGT Coordinator. Jarad leads the team in analysing student data to identify focus areas. These areas are then addressed in targeted withdrawal sessions with small groups of students, ensuring focused and effective learning interventions. The school team engages in professional development, such as weekly SGT Buzz sessions hosted on the SGT Statewide Staffroom, to improve teaching practice and stay across important updates.

The SGT program has bolstered students' academic skills and inspired their career aspirations. Students value the opportunity to connect with ITE educators currently studying at university. This interaction has fostered a stronger connection with the school community and motivated many students to consider university pathways themselves.

Jane Moore, School Support Advisor, Small Group Tuition.

All students across the school have individualised learning goals in literacy and numeracy and these are displayed on ‘Kicking Goals’ in literacy and numeracy walls in classrooms. We have embedded the use of the Literacy and Numeracy Precursors and the Literacy and Numeracy Learning Progressions into our practice and use these to support the setting of individualised goals, and the monitoring of student progress at an individual and whole school level.

Effective whole school practices include building teacher capacity in improving student literacy and numeracy through professional learning, sharing of good practice and modelled explicit teaching. We also engage in timetabled sessions to input and analyse data on student progress as well as termly ‘data talks’ to interrogate how to support students to make improvements in these foundational skills.

Teachers engage in learning ‘walks and talks’ and are provided with regular opportunities for shoulder-to-shoulder teaching experiences to further enhance teaching practice and learning experiences for students.

It has been wonderful to be able to share and celebrate student progress in literacy and numeracy with families through communication books, achievement certificates, the school newsletter, open classrooms and parent teacher meetings.

Wendy Du Plessis, Relieving Principal

This collaborative forum was designed to support, and build the capacity of APs, C&I by fostering a culture of shared expertise and evidence-based pedagogies. Central to this initiative has been our partnership with Strategic Delivery, which has played a pivotal role in providing targeted professional learning.

Our Steering Committee meets each term to review data and strategise future directions. A collaborative approach is taken when planning termly network meetings and professional learning days, which focus on showcasing effective practices and fostering a supportive community. The Sutherland CoP hosts one network meeting once a term focusing on illustrations of practice and engagement in collaborative sharing across schools. A tri-network professional learning day is also planned each term with the focus determined in response to the feedback from regular AP, C&I network surveys.

The AP, C&I CoP-Sutherland Network also benefits from a dynamic Microsoft Teams page. This online platform facilitates ongoing engagement, allowing APC,&Is to ask questions, share resources, and access up-to-date information on professional learning.

The success of our AP, C&I CoP is foundationally built on our strong focus on strengthening collective teacher (and leader) efficacy. We believe that as AP,C&Is and leaders in schools, we can more positively impact the learning in our schools, if we too work as a team, within and across schools.

Kathy Corby, AP, C&I Jannali Public School and Melissa Redmayne, AP, C&I, Bonnet Bay Public School.

We began by triangulating internal and external data to identify a focus area, with writing being identified as a point of need. We engaged in weekly professional learning, which focused on components of explicit teaching, the writing process, the research underpinning best practice and effectively using Learning Intentions and Success Criteria. The Gradual Release of Responsibility model was used to model the writing process in each classroom before the teaching moved to the classroom teachers. We celebrated our successes during our professional learning sessions. We conduct a termly assessment and schedule time into our professional learning plan each term to jointly mark and analyse the data using a writing rubric and identify individual and class goals. Teachers conference with each student following the assessment to celebrate areas of strength and to identify areas of focus moving forward. Despite the virtual nature of this model of support, the virtual AP, C&I has been able to take responsibility for planning high impact professional learning and providing in-class support. We have established a strong professional relationship, where all decisions are made with students in mind. What makes our model of support unique is that the majority of our support occurs virtually. This requires a strong commitment from our teachers and leaders. We haven’t let this be a barrier, as we continue to work together to build our expertise in the teaching of literacy and numeracy, whilst striving to achieve strong academic outcomes for our students.

Kellie Noske, Principal, Yerong Creek Public School and Rebecca Thompson, virtual AP,C&I.

The School Sport Unit’s Teacher Resource Hub provides a wealth of resources and professional learning opportunities to support educators in embedding physical activity into other curriculum areas.

Thinking while Moving (TwM) is an innovative approach that integrates physical activity into key learning areas, including literacy and numeracy. Developed by the School Sport Unit, TwM aims to invigorate the curriculum and maximise opportunities for movement-based learning. Teachers can use TwM activities in various ways, including as part of planned lessons, classroom energisers, to consolidate learning or spark student engagement. TwM increases student physical activity levels and supports proficiency in literacy and numeracy.

We have also created a suite of swimming and water safety resources. In addition to teaching water safety messages, the learning sequences embed literacy and numeracy skills throughout. Within lessons, students have opportunities to read, write, communicate, reason, problem solve and explain how to behave in aquatic environments and to be responsible in, on and around water.

Peter Banks, Leader, School Sports Unit

This gives students the opportunity to interact through speaking and listening, and practice reading price tags. Numeracy is woven through where students need to calculate the total cost of items, work out change and use their mathematical reasoning.

Applying literacy and numeracy skills in practical contexts gives EAL/D students the confidence to use English in real-life situations, helping them build the language proficiency and academic skills necessary for success.

Salam Haidar, Literacy and Numeracy Assessment Coordinator.