Insight

Primary School

The new Mathematics syllabus is focused on ensuring the basics of Mathematics are explicitly and effectively taught. The new syllabus provides teachers with the time to teach concepts deeply and ensure that students have mastered them. For example, a common complaint has been that the fractions syllabus content was too fast-paced. Common misconceptions about fractions were persisting into Senior Primary, which suggested that the syllabus was not allowing students enough time to build a solid understanding before jumping into more complex problems. The new syllabus allows students to leave Primary School with a strong conceptual understanding of all the basics. The College Board and leadership have generously supported the process of curriculum reform by creating two Senior Curriculum Advisor roles in Primary School. These roles focus on supporting teachers to implement the new syllabus documents and to ensure that students have a consistent learning experience. The College looks forward to partnering with parents/carers in the education of students as the journey of improvement continues.

In New South Wales, major curriculum reform is currently underway. In 2023, a new English and Mathematics syllabus was introduced for Kindergarten to Year 2. This year, the College implemented a new syllabus for English and Mathematics in Years 3 to 6. The rest of the Key Learning Areas will follow over the next few years. In Primary School, the staff are excited by this curriculum reform, which affirms what they are already doing. There is a vast body of research, commonly referred to as the Science of Learning and the Science of Reading, which outlines the most effective methods for teaching and learning. Content needs to be carefully sequenced in small steps with a lot of examples, checking for understanding and opportunities for review. Additionally, an approach called balanced literacy has dominated reading instruction in NSW over the past few decades despite compelling evidence that explicit systematic phonics instruction is the best way to ensure that all students learn to read. Parents/Carers may be familiar with predictable levelled readers with wording such as “This is a giraffe. It has spots. This is a zebra. It has stripes.” Much of this text is not decodable for a beginner reader and promotes guessing rather than actual reading – especially when paired with pictures of a giraffe and a zebra. Under the balanced literacy approach, too many students did not effectively learn to read because they were not explicitly taught. The College identified this several years ago and began a process of transforming instruction to be explicit and include the Sounds-Write systematic phonics program. Since then, the College has been consistently working to ensure that teaching practice provides all students the best possible opportunities to learn and grow. Previously, teachers were required to search beyond syllabus documents to find the best practices for teaching English, but that is no longer necessary. The updated English syllabus acknowledges the significance of the methods the College implemented many years ago. The College continues to teach explicit systematic phonics while building language comprehension through high-quality children’s literature so that all students are challenged. Reading and writing is now linked together so that students build knowledge and demonstrate comprehension and critical thinking through all their learning tasks in English. The approach to Spelling has been reviewed to ensure that students understand why particular spelling patterns exist and how they are to be used. It is encouraging to see increased student engagement and achievement as a result of these changes.

Mrs Susannah Wallace Senior Curriculum Advisor Primary

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Toongabbie Christian College