- Familiarise staff with the new syllabus by prioritising professional learning from the department’s syllabus-specific Professional learning – Curriculum K–12 and NESA online learning hub.
- Explore the NSW Curriculum to understand the evidence underpinning the new syllabus.
- Work with the leadership team to lead staff in their understanding of the Phases of curriculum implementation and Leading curriculum K–12.
- Create opportunities for networking with other principals and schools (see Curriculum Reform Communities).
Curriculum implementation journey – principal
Guidance for principals implementing a new syllabus. Suggested activities, reflective questions, and useful resources can be used flexibly across a range of schools for each phase of curriculum implementation.
Download the curriculum implementation journey – principal (PDF 604 KB) graphic.
Engage
In the engage phase, you:
- lead and support staff to explore aspects of the new syllabus
- identify and plan for changes required for effective curriculum implementation.
Suggested activities
Explore
Identify and plan
- Work in partnership with the leadership team to effectively identify and meet the diverse learning needs of all students.
- This includes students with disability, high potential and gifted students, Aboriginal students and students who are learning English as an additional language or dialect (see Curriculum planning K–12 professional learning and Universal design for learning).
- Lead the use of School planning for curriculum implementation resources and align with School Excellence Plan initiatives.
- Identify school practices to support continuous, school-wide improvement through effective syllabus implementation aligned with the agreed actions of the NSW Plan for Public Education.
- Review the school budget to ensure adequate resourcing for new syllabus implementation.
- Allocate time and support for staff to select and adapt resources to teach the new syllabus (see Planning programming and assessing K–12).
- Collaboratively plan the school approach to assessing and reporting.
- Use Transition from primary to high school advice to facilitate effective transition processes and strengthen continuity of learning practices.
- To what extent do teachers and middle leaders have a deep understanding of the syllabus and the evidence underpinning the new syllabus?
- What resources do staff need to commence syllabus implementation to meet curriculum planning and programming, assessing, and reporting requirements?
- To what extent does the implementation plan allocate time for reflection and evaluation?
To access further reflective questions for the engage phase see the Leading collaboration for school improvement toolkit.
Enact
In the enact phase, you:
- lead and support staff to teach, assess and report using the new syllabus
- evaluate to refine practices and systems.
Suggested activities
Teach
- Work with the leadership team to provide professional learning to build teacher capability to enhance teaching and learning (see Professional learning – curriculum K–12).
- Support the leadership team to collaboratively plan and optimise learning for all students (see Curriculum planning for every student – advice).
- Ensure there is a coherent, inclusive school-wide approach to deepening teacher understanding of cognitive load theory and teaching practice (see Explicit teaching).
- Support school leaders to prioritise collaborative planning and programming to adapt the department’s resources to meet the needs of staff and students (see Planning programming and assessing K–12).
- Create opportunities for staff to plan and evaluate teaching and learning.
- Create opportunities for explaining the curriculum to parents, carers and the community through authentic community engagement in line with agreed school processes.
Assess and report
- Work with the leadership team to refine processes for assessing and reporting using the syllabus (see Reporting to parents and Curriculum planning and programming, assessing and reporting to parents K–12 policy).
- Review systems for analysing internal and external student data to gain insights on student progress (see Data analysis resources – guiding advice).
Evaluate
- Evaluate school processes and structures to ensure they support new syllabus implementation (see Evaluating curriculum implementation).
- Use strategic financial management to maximise resources available to implement the new syllabuses.
- How will I lead and support staff to plan effective learning experiences for the full range of students?
- To what extent are parents and the school community aware of the changes to the curriculum?
- How effective are the processes in place to support changes to assessing and reporting?
- How effective are the processes and structures in place to evaluate the implementation of new curriculum?
To access further reflective questions for the engage phase see the Leading collaboration for school improvement toolkit.
Embed
In the embed phase, you strengthen and scale to ensure sustainable practices and systems.
Suggested activities
Strengthen
- Work with the leadership team and teachers to create a culture of evidence-based reflective teaching and ongoing improvement.
- Create and sustain a culture that supports meaningful teacher collaboration and high expectations (see Principals).
- Ensure systems facilitate professional dialogue, collaboration and modelling of effective practice to provide ongoing development opportunities for staff.
Scale
- Evaluate processes and structures for whole-school monitoring of planning and programming, assessing and reporting (see Evaluative thinking).
- Review implementation data and consider changes to the School Excellence Plan to meet system expectations for future syllabus implementation.
- Refine whole-school approach for identifying effective curriculum implementation practice for future syllabuses (see Annual reflection support tool (DOCX 74 KB) (staff only).
- What has been the impact of curriculum change on student learning?
- How has the implementation of the new syllabus led to improvements in teaching practice?
- How are staff engaging with others to continually build their capability?
- What are the enablers and barriers to future curriculum implementation?
To access further reflective questions for the engage phase see the Leading collaboration for school improvement toolkit.
