External providers
Use visiting speakers and external providers only where this adds value to existing teaching and learning practice. Principals and teachers have primary responsibility for education programs in schools.
As a teacher, you have expertise in teaching and learning, knowledge of your students’ needs and abilities and the ways they learn. You are skilled in developing teaching and learning programs that address the needs of students within a curriculum context.
Use of visiting speakers and external providers should be embedded within existing programs where learning activities and opportunities for debriefing are provided before and after the event.
Consider the expertise and approaches of external providers or individuals prior to the event.
One-off speakers or sessions, isolated from the context of a planned approach to education, will have minimal effect in enhancing students’ knowledge and skills.
Effective programs should involve progressive learning that is reinforced over the school years.
Use the Guidelines for engaging external providers for curriculum implementation (DOCX 72 KB) when determining whether to use external providers to support curriculum implementation both within and beyond the school.