A Change of Government in NSW: What does this mean for Shore?
“Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities.”
(Romans 13:1)
Dear Students, Parents and Carers,
A new Minister of Education, Prue Car (yes, this is the correct spelling), has taken office as a consequence of the recent election. She has considerable positional authority as Ms Car is the Deputy Premier. One of her first actions has been to gain the applause of teachers everywhere by slowing the pace of curriculum change. This change is an outcome of the review of the curriculum initiated by the last State government and undertaken by Professor Geoff Masters, the CEO of the Australian Council for Educational Research, the peak body of its kind in Australia. The Masters Review made many recommendations, the most significant of which was that the curriculum is too cluttered and content-heavy and that curriculum reform needs to replace content-laden surface coverage with a greater in-depth concentration on less content. These recommendations were made with an eye to Australia’s declining results in the once every three years Program of International School Assessments (PISA tests). PISA increasingly examines in-depth understanding across the OECD nations.
A lot of confusion exists within education regarding the sources of authority and the lines of accountability. The State Minister of Education is the Minister for schools in all sectors, comprising government, non-government (largely Catholic diocesan schools) and independent (like Shore). The Department of Education has no authority over Shore or other independent schools. In our sector, the relationship between the Department and its schools is reversed; that is to say, the Association of Independent Schools is the servant of schools, not their master. Independent schools are independent!
The NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) reports directly to the State Minister and is responsible for curriculum and assessment (including the HSC) across all schools of all sectors. The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) reports to the Federal Minister of Education and is responsible for the Australian curriculum and NAPLAN. The Australian curriculum is interpreted and applied in our State by NESA. Confused? Such is the nature of Australia as a federation and with multiple sectors of education.
The Minister’s information release indicates a change of direction, or rather a narrowing of immediate focus, where syllabus reform in NSW will focus on the Maths and English curriculum across Years 3 to 10, ready for implementation at the beginning of next year. The information release says this is an amendment to the previous government’s requirement that teachers be ready to implement 100 new syllabuses over the next two years. This moves the government’s stance, the media release says, in keeping with the ten-year timetable envisaged by the Masters Review and will have all new syllabi visible to teachers by 2027 instead of 2025. It is also a relief for teachers who would have needed to deal with 26 new syllabuses released for consultation this term.
The concentration on Maths and English will play well in voter land. The main impost of this syllabus change would have been and still will be, in reduced fashion (more time), on our primary school teachers, as they teach all subjects. The impact will be variable on senior school teachers, depending on how many subjects are taught within each faculty. This is, effectively, a window into the behind-the-scenes or “back room” of teaching. The “front room” is the work of teachers in the classroom. Often the community have little understanding, because of lack of visibility, of the work teachers must do in programming syllabus documents. In essence, this is writing curriculum in schools in the form of learning programmes, an important quality approach within schools, and a requirement of NESA at each five-year registration inspection. Part of this is to plan Scope and Sequence documents, which operate as essential guideposts. The days when this would arrive ready-made from a curriculum authority ended decades ago. These days teachers must write programmes that are finely tuned to the needs of their students in a particular school community.
Essentially, Minister Car has given teachers and schools the gift of time – time to plan effectively, with less overwhelming stress of busyness. It is a Christian principle to obey the governing authorities – “Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities.” (Romans 13:1) In this case, we do it very gladly!
Dr John Collier
Headmaster
