Six Ways to Boost Teaching and Student Performance

Staff morale, enhanced teaching quality, and student performance at school all flow from whole-school approach to curriculum planning.

When teachers have access to a common bank of materials, they are almost four times more likely to say they are satisfied with their school’s planning approach - and they save about three hours a week because they don’t have to source and create materials themselves.

The Grattan Institute’s research on the topic has resulted in a Guide for principals: How to Implement a Whole-school Curriculum Approach, which identifies six key features of a whole-school curriculum approach:

• A shared vision among school leaders and teachers
• Shared, detailed, and sequenced curriculum plans and materials
• An agreed approach to classroom instruction
• A tiered model for supporting the learning of all students
• Curriculum leadership roles and expertise
• Ongoing professional learning and support for teachers.

The guide warns that Australia will not close the widening achievement gap between disadvantaged and advantaged students unless we standardise curriculum planning in our schools.

A survey of 2243 teachers and principals across Australia found only 15 per cent of teachers have access to a common bank of high-quality curriculum materials for all their classes.

Teachers say they often plan lessons from scratch, scouring the internet and social media to try to find materials.

This creates a ‘lesson lottery’ in Australian schools and it undermines student learning and adds to teacher workloads.

The Guide draws on lessons Grattan’s education experts learnt on a study tour of five schools across Australia that have successfully implemented a whole-school curriculum approach.

The role-model schools are:

• Marsden Road Public School in south-west Sydney
• Docklands Primary School in central Melbourne
• Ballarat Clarendon College in regional Victoria
• Aveley Secondary College in outer Perth
• Serpentine Primary School in a regional town near Perth.

“Transformational change like this is hard,” says Grattan Institute Education Program Director, Dr Jordana Hunter.

“It takes leadership, commitment, cooperation, and persistence – successfully implementing a whole-school curriculum approach can take five years or more. But the payoffs are enormous, for teachers and students.”

Read the guide

Image by Rodnae Productions