It helps principals ensure external partnerships support teaching and learning while keeping curriculum delivery as the school’s main responsibility.

An ‘external provider’ is any individual, organisation or group that delivers services or resources to support school-based education.

Principles for engaging external providers

1. Principals lead and are responsible for the planning, delivery and evaluation of teaching and learning programs in NSW public schools.
2. Teachers apply expertise in teaching and learning, knowledge of students’ needs and abilities and the ways they learn to develop teaching and learning programs within a curriculum context.
3. 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.
4. Partnerships with external providers can enhance school teaching and learning programs when embedded in the school's progressive approach to the content and be reflective of the school's needs. Learning activities and opportunities for debriefing should be provided before and after the event.
5. The department’s and the principal’s ‘duty of care’ (and, by extension, the duty of care of departmental officers including school staff) cannot be transferred to external providers.
6. A NSW Government-employed teacher must be present to actively supervise each student group when external providers deliver services at school, with supervision ratios based on standard class sizes.
7. Principals should be satisfied that any material to be delivered by external providers complies with Controversial issues in schools.

Use the Guidelines for engaging external providers for curriculum implementation (DOCX 326 KB) when determining whether to use external providers to support curriculum implementation both within and beyond the school.

The guidelines apply when schools are considering engaging Respectful Relationships Education external providers from the department’s Student Wellbeing external programs catalogue to supplement or complement curriculum requirements.