Kathy Rushton and Joanne Rossbridge outline the theory and research about young children’s language and literacy development through play; and provide teachers with engaging and inclusive activities and resources to foster creativity and student engagement in the early years of schooling. . .
Learning in the early years
In the first years of schooling young children are encouraged to develop understandings about the use of language in a range of contexts – both oral and written. Before school, understandings and experiences have been developed through oral language interactions some of which may have been around the written word.
However, some children might experience the language to talk about language, metalanguage, for the first time when they go to school. Some children will be able to confidently discuss many aspects of how language works and how it is used in a variety of contexts, even if they are not yet independently literate.
Developing language for a range of purposes and the use of metalanguage to reflect on the choices speakers and writers make are most easily developed through play. Play provides opportunities for both individual choice and collaboration and, with a teacher’s support, in providing contexts and modelling language (Karaolis, 2023), individual students are enabled to develop and build on their own language resources. Scaffolding learning experiences to be both challenging and supportive (Hammond, 2021) is dependent on a pedagogy which supports language development as a catalyst for emergent literacy.
Developing language and the language to talk about language: metalanguage
In the school years students will engage with oral and written texts which are broadly categorised as imaginative, persuasive or informative. Within these broad categories there are a range of twenty or more genres (Derewianka, 2022; Humphrey, Droga & Feez 2012, p.199) which students will encounter and learn to both read and write. To comprehend or produce a text, written or spoken, the choice of grammatical features is always defined by the audience and purpose of the text and the genre. Metalanguage is developed when teachers read, deconstruct and jointly construct texts with their students. In this way knowledge of language and grammar is developed in a familiar context through oral interactions about texts (Rossbridge & Rushton, 2010).
The first language or dialect is not taught to a young child rather it is developed through meaningful oral interaction. The use of the speech functions such as statements (greet, observe, play); commands (command, demand, play); questions (greet, demand, play), exclamations (demand, command, play) begin to be developed even before a young child can speak fluently. Within a range of contexts, the choices a speaker or writer makes reflect both the audience and the purpose of the text. Grammar“is a way of describing how a language works to make meaning.” (Derewianka, 2022, p.1)
The use of the concept of the mode continuum exemplifies the range of grammatical choices speakers and writers make to produce effective oral and written texts.
The picture books and traditional rhymes and songs that young children encounter, often use more spoken like text and are, therefore, supportive in developing decoding skills and sound and letter knowledge and phonemic awareness for emergent readers. However, as they are sung or recited in a context in which the focus may be on movement the words are often ancillary to the main focus of the activity. We learn to use language to satisfy our needs as we play, perform and “do” the moves. If every song or rhyme also includes the presentation and exploration of the written text, there will be many opportunities to develop literacy.
Not only questions but also Think alouds (statements) can explore the meaning of the rhyme. Using the Here; Hidden; Head framework, comprehension and vocabulary can both be supported e.g. Here: I think I know what a candlestick is. Hidden: I wonder what ‘nimble’ means. Head: I wonder who Jack is and why he was jumping. Modelled and guided reading can be supported by jointly constructing texts developed in meaningful play-based contexts (Davis & Dunn, 2023 & Karaolis, 2023). Drama strategies like Readers Theatre; Freeze frame and drawing; Puppet Theatre and Interviewing can be integrated with the use of quality children’s literature to provide contexts for playing with ideas and language.
Reading for meaning (Comprehension, vocabulary development and decoding)
Most students enter early years classrooms with an amazing resource which forms the foundation of language and literacy acquisition as they move through their schooling. This resource is oral language, and it is the foundation of all learning. When used in meaningful contexts to communicate with others, oral language serves to draw upon, not only existing language, but scaffolds both reading and writing. (Hammond, 2021 & Gibbons 2015)
Talk and play as a context for reading development
An effective and engaging way to draw upon the language skills that students bring to classrooms is by connecting speaking, listening, reading and writing in real world scenarios. By designing learning through play, students are given numerous opportunities to practise language and interact with others by drawing on their own background and experiences as well as the languages and dialects they use in the home and community. As a teacher models being a reader, and students engage with texts, they are not only active meaning makers but developing vocabulary and hearing the sounds and rhythm of language as they decode in the context of engaging quality literature (Adoniou, Cambourne & Ewing, 2018).
Careful selection of texts, such as picture books, can be the catalyst for designing meaningful learning situations which can be placed along the mode continuum. A context, theme, topic or concept can be selected as a starting point for text choice. The following texts were chosen for their representation of dogs and their interactions with humans. Obviously, looking at texts and interactions around getting and caring for a dog may not be the best choice for all students given their interests and background, but any context can easily lead to a range of possible texts and scenarios for play.
Let’s Get a Pup! (Bob Graham, 2001, Walker Books)
When Billy was a Dog (Kirsty Murray and Karen Blair, 2019, Walker Books)
Too Many Cheeky Dogs (Johanna Bell and Dion Beasley, 2016, Allen & Unwin)
My Dog Bigsy (Alison Lester, 2015, Penguin)
Sad the Dog (Sandy Fussell and Tull Suwannakit, 2017, Walker Books)
A Human for Kingsley (Gabriel Evans, 2021, Hardie Grant)
Annie’s Chair (Deborah Niland, 2006, Penguin)
‘Let’s get a Pup’ by Bob Graham (2001, Walker Books) is the story of a family who visit a rescue centre to get a pup but end up with not only a pup but also old, grey Rosy. It celebrates the interactions of humans bringing dogs into their family.
Using this book, in conjunction with opportunities for play, and incorporating before, during and after reading strategies through shared reading (Gibbons, 2015), is an example of how to provide opportunities for comprehension, vocabulary development, and an explicit focus on sound and letter knowledge.
Before reading
Floorstorm (display covers of all books above and ask students to share what they see)Play sounds of dogs and humans interactingList noises dogs make in different languagesPredict from front cover by focusing on human and dog relationships – record student ideas and vocabulary (add to after reading)Take turns to walk in role taking a dog for a walk (with lead and dog puppet)
During reading
Read the book uninterruptedRead the book again with think alouds using Here, Hidden and Head statementsReread the book uninterrupted allowing students to respond
After reading
Students draw their own interactions with a dog and share with classRank a list of words/pictures/nouns in order of importance of what a new dog might need e.g. food, water, bed, blanket, brush etc.Group words from the book with the same sound such as ‘u’, e.g. pup and mum in comparison to cute and rescueRole play human/dog interaction scenarios with puppetsIndependent play with: a toy dog a vet kit dog washing/grooming kit etc.
Before reading strategies are critical prior to the first reading of a book as they provide opportunities to activate prior knowledge so students can bring their own life and language experiences to the book. They can also serve to provide knowledge and vocabulary needed for comprehension. Young children also feel a sense of satisfaction when they can confirm their predictions.
The first reading of a book needs to be uninterrupted, so students are able to take in the story as a whole and get the overall gist. When the teacher rereads with carefully designed think alouds, students are then exposed to what a reader does during the reading process whilst also being alerted to key meanings and language within the text. Subsequent readings invite the students to add their own thoughts and responses to the text. It is critical that the book should be read multiple times by the teacher throughout any teaching sequence.
When designing learning for after reading, strategies need to support response to the text particularly through the use of oral language and play. These strategies may need to be initially modelled and supported by the teacher but ideally the talk is coming mainly from the students as they use their own resources to directly engage with meanings in the text or beyond the text. With students controlling the talk, particularly during play scenarios, they are using their own language resources and building upon them with the meanings, language and vocabulary encountered in the book.
After reading is also an opportune time to explore targeted vocabulary and letter and sound knowledge in the context of the book as students are considering language choices, patterns andconventions based on meaning. They are in the position to discuss features with reference to meaning which is the time for the teacher to introduce metalanguage to explicitly talk about language. This might include the use of terms such as letter, word, sound, and nouns for naming things.
Extending access to a range of texts ensures students are exposed to a range of genres. Reading can be further supported through shared reading of a range of other texts related to the picture book. Based on student interests these may include:
looking at websites on dogs for adoption
viewing videos on how to care for dogs and dog training
reading information texts on dog breeds
locating pet products on pet shop websites
comparing online reviews / star ratings of possible food and pet toys
watching cartoons with dogs as characters.
Developing written text: Play as a context for writing
Many of the strategies suggested in the table above for after reading are play based and do not involve writing. For students with developing literacy, oral language is drawn upon when looking at responding to text and can be again drawn upon with the move into writing. Students can be supported to write through teacher modelling and joint construction and again the focus text and play opportunities can stimulate the creation of a range of real-world scenarios which provide a purpose for writing.
Purposes for writing could include:
a shopping list before going to the pet shop
description of a favourite dog
an animal meal plan or pet menu
instructions on how to care for a pet
recount of events with a pet
narrative about a problematic adventure with a pet.
Writing for a purpose and joint construction
To prepare for writing students can be involved in independent play such as visiting the vet, introducing a pet to other pets or friends and family, or shopping at the pet shop. This can be developed through use of props, costumes, toys and puppets.
The vet kit shown below provides opportunities for students to take on the role of a vet, client or pet. Students will need to make different oral language choices given their roles. The props such as stethoscope and thermometer also stimulate talk appropriate for the context. The mobile phone, clipboard and medication provide numerous opportunities for role playing both literacy and numeracy practices. From this play students are then able to transfer their experience and oral language to jointly constructing a text such as recounting an experience to the vet, writing a list of supplies and equipment needed by a vet or writing instructions on how to care for a pet. In doing so, language choices move from the spoken to more written-like choices along the mode continuum and possibly from a home language or dialect to include English.
When joint construction occurs with students there is a balance between the talk of the teacher and the students. The teacher acts as a guide to make thinking explicit whilst the students contribute ideas and discuss choices (Rossbridge and Rushton, 2014 & 2015). In the example below, students and the teacher were sharing the pen resulting in greater participation in the joint construction by students.
Thank you to Marie Bashir Public School.
During joint construction the teacher can support explicit discussion about the purpose and audience for the writing as well as the use specific metalanguage. For example, when writing instructions, action verbs will tend to be at the beginning of commands. When writing a recount, the focus will also be on the actions undertaken but in past tense. When writing a list, the language will be noun groups such as ‘medicine, dry food, dog treats’. If the students don’t have this language, they are able to share the experiences of other students through play which not only supports ideas for writing but also the development of metalanguage.
Conclusion
The school years are focussed on the development of literacy as well as developing knowledge about literature and language. When teachers recognise the differences between spoken and written language, they are most effectively able to build on individual students’ knowledge, understanding and use of language – both oral and written. As young students begin to explore the audiences and purposes of a range of genres, the diverse voices available in quality children’s literature can both expand and confirm children’s experiences of the world and help them to make connections to their own lives. Quality texts exemplify the effective use of language and provide great models for writing as well as opportunities to explore language and grammar in context and to develop metalanguage. Perhaps though the most important aspect of the early learning experience is that it is engaging, inclusive and enjoyable for all our young students. Play provides a context which can foster creativity and student agency as they engage with the challenges and rewards of becoming literate.
Adoniou, M. Cambourne, B & Ewing, E (2018). ‘What are ‘decodable readers’ and do they work?’. The Conversation.
Derewianka B. (2022) A New Grammar Companion for Primary Teachers. Newtown: Primary English Teaching Association Australia.
Gibbons, P. (2015) Scaffolding Language Scaffolding Language: Teaching English language learners in the mainstream classroom. Portsmouth: Heinemann.
Hammond, J. (2021) ‘Scaffolding in EAL/D education’ in Harper, H and Feez, S, An EAL/D handbook, Newtown, Primary English Teaching Association Australia, pp 16-18.
Humphrey S., Droga, L. & Feez, S. (2012) Grammar and Meaning: New Edition. Newtown: Primary English Teaching Association Australia.
Rossbridge, J. & Rushton, K. (2010) Conversations about text 1: Teaching grammar using literary texts. Newtown: Primary English Teaching Association Australia.
Joanne Rossbridge is an independent language and literacy consultant working in both primary and secondary schools and with teachers across Australia. She has worked as a classroom teacher and literacy consultant with the DET (NSW). Her expertise and much of her experience is in working with students from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Joanne is particularly interested in student and teacher talk and how talk about language can assist the development of language and literacy.
Kathy Rushton is interested in the development of language and literacy especially in disadvantaged communities. She has worked as a classroom teacher and literacy consultant and provides professional learning for teachers in the areas of language and literacy development. Her current research projects include a study of multilingual pre-service teachers and the impact that teacher professional learning has on the development of a creative pedagogical stance which supports translanguaging and student identity and wellbeing.
In this exciting new CPL course participants will delve into women in history, investigating programming approaches for History 7-10, History Elective years 9 and 10 as well as Extension History Year 12.
Utilising history case studies of both the well-known and forgotten women of history, participants will explore thematic, comparative and biographical event-based programming approaches, taking in key historical debates and the big questions in history.
Primary, Secondary and TAFE teachers are encouraged to apply to attend this course.
Presenter Judy King will take participants through planning units of work in History 7-10, History Elective years 9 and 10 and Extension History Year 12, including perspectives on women’s history in a variety of topics.
As well, participants will be given an overview of the Australian Research Council (ARC) international digital history project Conviction Politics.
If you are interested in this course, you may also be interested in a connected social event. Meet History’s (In)Visible Women over a drink and snack, is designed to complement the course and offers a relaxed social setting for those interested in women’s history and activism.
Friday 22 August
NSW Teachers Federation, Surry Hills
Completing Women in History Reclaiming (ln)visible Women will contribute 5 hours of NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) Accredited PD in the priority area of Delivery and assessment of NSW Curriculum/Early Years Learning Framework addressing Standard Descriptor 1.2.2 from the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers towards maintaining Proficient Teacher in NSW.
Judy King
Judy King is a former high school principal and a life member of the NSW Teachers Federation, AEU and SPC. Judy retired from Riverside Girls High School in 2010 after 19 years as a secondary principal.
Since retirement Judy has worked part time at Chifley College Mt Druitt campus, Northmead High and Georges River College in an executive support role with a strong focus on teaching and learning, assessment and reporting, especially in the areas of reading for meaning and writing for purpose.
She currently teaches History and Politics at WEA , the oldest adult education foundation in the CBD of Sydney.
Judy represented secondary principals on the Board of Studies (now NESA) from 1998-2004 and was History Inspector at the Board in 1991. Judy was deputy president of the SPC from 1998-2006
In 2018 she researched and wrote a history of the NSW Teachers Federation 1918-2018 as part of its centenary celebrations. The articles were published throughout each edition of Education in 2018 and were featured as part of a three week exhibition in the Federation building.
In 2007 Judy was awarded the Meritorious Service in Public Education medal by the Department of Education.
Judy has an abiding interest in all aspects of Ancient, Mediaeval and Modern History as well as archaeology, politics and film. In 2014 and 2019 she attended the Cambridge University History Summer School for international students and hopes to return in 2025.
Jen Sonter
Jen Sonter began teaching in 2016 around the Central Coast, eventually landing at Terrigal High School in 2018. She has since been working full time at Pittwater High School on the Northern Beaches of Sydney, finally achieving permanent employment there in 2022.
She has predominantly worked in mainstream classroom settings throughout this time, but has also worked in wellbeing roles such as Year Advisor.
She is a passionate history teacher and takes up any opportunity to travel and experience historical sites from far and wide. She brings this passion into the classroom in the hopes of passing it on to her students.
$220 for one day
“Excellent resources provided by all speakers.”
“Judy’s session was very thought provoking and a great way to start. Very inspirational woman.”
“All presenters were engaging and informative. I appreciate their generosity in sharing.”
“Very valuable course. (I have) new ideas to take back to school.”
“Thank you Federation and the CPL team for providing another extremely useful PD. All PD by the CPL has presenters who are genuine experts in their fields and provide useful resources and knowledge.”
The Supporting Students with ADHD in K-6 course is designed to support teachers to:
develop an understanding of the wide range of characteristics of students with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD);
explore a range of strategies which address the needs of students with ADHD in the areas of language and cognitive development, communication skills and social behaviour;
develop specific strategies to help students with ADHD access the curriculum, and
develop an understanding for the need for explicit instruction in the essential components of literacy in every classroom every day.
Face to Face in Surry Hills(Term 3)
Monday 8 September 2025
Online (Term 4)
Monday 17 November 2025
Dr Rose Dixon
Dr Roselyn Dixon has been a special education teacher in both mainstream and special education settings in primary and secondary schools. Rose has been in academia and involved with Inclusive Education for more than 25 years. She has published research in the fields of social skills and behavioural interventions for people with a range of disabilities including students with Oppositional Defiance Disorders and Autism.
She has been actively involved in examining the relationship between digital technologies and pedagogy in special education and inclusive classrooms for students with Autism as well as the implications of the NDIS on people with disabilities in rural and remote communities. Rose is an Honorary Associate Professor at the School of Education, University of Wollongong, where she was previously the Academic Director of Inclusive and Special Education. She continues to support doctoral students in Inclusive and Special education with a focus on Autism.
Catherine Myson-Foehner provides a guide to the new Mathematics Syllabus K-6…
The price of doing the same old thing is far higher than the price of change
Education is evolving rapidly, driven by a strong faith in the ‘magic’ of research. Inside the classroom we keenly feel this maelstrom, with seemingly constant changes to not only what students learn, but how, why and where they learn. In 2023, all NSW primary teachers are either trialing, or implementing, the reformed mathematics syllabus. Being given a new road map to your job in any field of work is a stressful and confusing time. It takes energy because things that ran on automatic pilot now demand attention to detail and thoughtful interaction. And change takes from teachers that one resource which is always in shortest supply – time. As teachers, we have a broad set of mandated goals. We must improve student achievement, but also take the lead in tackling social problems such as poverty, inequality, complex fast-paced change and fragile mental health. The new tasks thrust upon us require new approaches, new understandings, and above all, a closer relation between practice, research and theory.
And therein lies the story of our new syllabus.
Why change the syllabus?
There are three main drivers of syllabus reform.
Firstly, we are failing to meet our own national education goals. In 2019, Education ministers agreed on a vision of education for all young Australians under the Alice Springs (Mparntwe) Education Declaration (Education Council, 2019). The first goal is: ‘The Australian education system promotes excellence and equity.’ This means a commitment to ‘provide all young Australians with access to high-quality education that is inclusive and free from any form of discrimination’ (Education Council, 2019). And yet in our schools and classrooms, academic achievement is still tied to wealth, to gender, to indigeneity. By Year 9, students from the lowest quartile of socioeconomic advantage are roughly 3 years behind students from the highest quartile. And startlingly, for each 25% of wealth and social capital, you lose a year in mathematical achievement. Moreover, how is it possible that in 2021 the gender gap in Year 3 NAPLAN numeracy was the widest yet of any test in favour of boys at 2.52 months? (Thomas, 2021)
Secondly, the NSW Curriculum review (Department of Education NSW, 2022)voiced concern that Australian students’ level of mathematical achievement appears to be in decline. Analysis of PISA data suggested that Australian students have slipped from being some of the highest performers in mathematics to being near the OECD average. Reforming the curriculum was seen as essential step in ensuring all students are challenged and engaged to maximise their individual capabilities and potential.
Thirdly, and crucially for us as teachers, a major driver of syllabus change was our own feedback to the NSW Curriculum Review – that the curriculum ‘contains too much clutter, with not enough time to focus on deep learning’
These three factors, contextualized by the fast pace of educational and social change, brought about an inevitable reform to our curriculum. It is essential we reflect on the ‘why’ of the reform as we implement these changes because, as teachers, its success rests in our hands. The syllabus always was, and always will be, the basis for all teaching and learning programs. Until it is enacted in our classrooms, the attempts to support higher achievement, to untie educational destiny from socio-economic status, gender and indigeneity, and to (eventually) reduce our workload, will fail. We are mandated to carry out the reform and we can use it to illuminate possibilities for the way mathematics is taught and learnt in our classrooms.
The key changes
The structure and content of the syllabus was adapted to reflect current evidence on what makes good teaching and learning. The key changes are:
clearer, more explicit outcomes for what students are to know, understand and do,
more deliberate and careful sequencing of content K -6 with a reduction of content and repetition, and a focus on connecting knowledge
greater emphasis on mathematical reasoning, with one overarching Working mathematically outcome K-6
increased opportunity for students to apply their knowledge.
The syllabus now sits in a purpose-built, digital portal. Online links provide continuously updated resources such as teaching advice, vocabulary guides, assessment resources, and content examples. This framework of support is essential viewing because it provides context and support for teaching and learning. A resource tab provides tailored support such as work samples, professional learning opportunities, and parent/carer guides.
Explicit goals for what students are to know, understand and do.
To make it easier to identify what students need to know, the Mathematics K-10 syllabus has been streamlined and the content described in simpler, more precise language. Stage statements have been removed, reflecting the fact that content within a stage of learning represents what students ‘typically’ know, do and understand. The change acknowledges that students can have different learning trajectories and teachers are best placed to make decisions on student learning goals.
Syllabus content remains organised into three conceptual areas: ‘Number and algebra’, ‘Measurement and geometry’ (previously ‘Measurement and space’) and ‘Statistics and probability’. There are clearer expectations for students’ developmental progression in relation to foundational concepts such as place value, additive and multiplicative relations, and fractions. Focus areas have been renamed to make the learning content more explicit. For example, in K-2, Addition and Subtraction has been replaced with ‘Combining and separating quantities’, moving to ‘Additive relations’ in Years 3-6. This shifts the focus from treating addition and subtraction as two separate mathematical processes to examining the relationship between them. Similarly, Multiplication and Division is now ‘Forming groups’ in K-2, moving to ‘Multiplicative relations’ in Years 3-6.
Each focus area is also accompanied by teaching advice to assist with programming and lesson design. The advice covers aspects such as possible misconceptions, developmental progression, and interrelationships with other mathematical concepts. To clarify teaching and learning goals, appropriate content points have drop downs which provide unambiguous examples.
Student goal setting is supported through a tight integration of assessment resources. The K-2 syllabus has key progression point tasks in Representing number, Combining and separating quantities and Forming groups. To provide a direct link between observable behaviours and syllabus outcomes, National Numeracy Learning Progression V3(ACARA, 2020) are tagged to syllabus content from K-10. Teaching advice supports the development of assessment tasks by helping teachers understand where students are on the trajectory of learning. Linked assessment resources provide a range of strategies to monitor student progress and identify areas where additional support may be needed. Underlining a strong focus on equitable outcomes, sample access points are integrated for students with complex disabilities who are working towards Early Stage 1 outcomes.
The content is more deliberately sequenced and connected.
The new syllabus draws on contemporary research to redesign the way we identify, introduce and progress key concepts. Content within, and across, focus areas has been realigned and sequenced to improve the progression of learning and build stronger schemas of understanding. Purposeful connections have replaced isolated repetition. For example, in Measurement and geometry, content relating to time and mass now fall together under Non-spatial measure, emphasising the different conceptual approach required to measure things we can’t see or touch. Volume now falls under Three-dimensional spatial structure as a natural connection to how we describe and quantify objects.
Many of the changes reflect that ‘skills and knowledge for focus areas often develop in an interrelated manner and can be addressed in parallel’(NESA, 2022). For example, patterning is a basic mathematical skill that enables students to sequence, see order and make predictions. It underpins all mathematical relationships from the memorisation of the counting sequence to spatial thinking and geometry. Being able to identify the repetition of a unit is the basis of multiplicative thinking. Therefore, it just makes sense to liberate ‘Patterns and Algebra’ from its isolated outcome in the 2012 syllabus and entwine it in all focus areas.
Fractions are another (particularly striking and important) example of how making connections explicit can drive changes to the way we teach, and students learn. We know that almost all students find fractions challenging, and almost all teachers find fractions challenging to teach. Research suggests ‘a student’s proficiency with fractions is directly related to the conceptual and procedural interweaving they make over a long period of time’ (Australian Government Department of Education, 2022).
To support this, the ‘Fractions and Decimals’ outcome from the previous syllabus has gone from K-2, and fractional understanding is woven into Forming groups and Geometric measure. The emphasis is on conceptual understanding of the whole, and its relationship to the parts, rather than on fractions as a number. Of the three different fraction models – linear (partitioning a length or line), area (partitioning whole shapes or areas) and discreet (partitioning a collection) – the area model is the most challenging. The parts must be equal (‘exactly equal’), and students must understand that a shape or object has many different attributes and that only some of them contribute to the measurement of area (for instance – not colour, not orientation, not position). K-2 students are slowly building their ability to estimate and compare area by superimposing shapes, using indirect comparison and, finally, by using grid overlays. Introducing fractions through halves and quarters of shapes assumes students already have a deep understanding of this challenging concept. Indeed, the typical objects we halve (apples, pizzas, leaves, playdough) are often not halves in terms of their mass or volume, and only ‘about half’ in terms of their size. We are inadvertently contributing to the misconception that one out of two pieces is a half, rather than focusing on the equality of the parts and their relationship to the whole.
The new syllabus, therefore, introduces halves through collections when forming groups, and half (and about half) of lengths in Geometric measure. Students are then introduced to the focus area Partitioned fractions (or fractions as parts of things) in Stage 2, in preparation for representing quantity fractions (or fractions as numbers) in Stage 3.
All of these changes are framed by an increased focus on reasoning. Opportunities for students to reason are tagged to relevant content, and teachers are supported to engage students in mathematical reasoning activities through linked teaching advice. Research suggests that ‘children’s mathematical reasoning might be the mediator between social background and children’s mathematics’ (Nunes et al, 2009). If we are serious about closing the equity gaps in mathematical achievement, this is the place to start.
The focus on reasoning informs the move to a single, overarching Working mathematically outcome. It emphasises the interrelationship of the processes that make up working mathematically – understanding and fluency, problem solving, reasoning, and communicating through mathematical language and models. When teachers feel pressured,they often revert to more traditional teaching methods which don’t address mathematical reasoning. It seems like a more efficient way of getting through the content. Yet having students listen to, share, and make sense of their classmates’ reasoning is vital to building and maintaining a focus on mathematical understanding. For example,learning multiplication facts by rote can be helpful but many students are never able to recall them all accurately. In a classroom where reasoning and communicating is expected, students have to clarify and organise their thinking about the multiplicative relations underlying fact families. This helps them identify important mathematical connections and build fluency through understanding. That most incorrectly remembered multiplication fact, 6 x 8, can then be accessed or checked through more familiar facts such as (6 x 4) + (6 x 4), or (7 x 6) + (1 x 6).
Implementation Support
There is no shortage of support for teachers to engage with the new syllabus. NESA has an online learning portal, NESA Learning, which deals with all aspects of the new curriculum. The NSW Department of Education has a wide range of professional development opportunities, as well as on-demand support through Statewide staffrooms and Curriculum networks. A complete set of sample units for Mathematics K-2 Syllabus can be downloaded from the Universal Resource Hub. A selection of sample units for Stage 2 and Stage 3 are also available, with the rest being released in a phased manner into 2024.
However, after all the professional learning is done and all the resources are downloaded, the most important thing will be those discussions in stage meetings, in the staffroom, in classroom doorways and at student desks. It is here that we, as teachers, will really begin to ‘work mathematically’, exploring, connecting, choosing, applying, reasoning, and communicating newly acquired syllabus content knowledge, reflecting on our beliefs about successful teaching practices and illuminating our own way forward. The best advice I have? A cut and paste from Jenny Williams’ and Mary-Ellen Betts’ words of wisdom for teacher approaching a previous ‘new syllabus’ in 2014: “Open the syllabus and read it.”
Clinton, W. J. (1994). Public papers of the Presidents of the United States, William J. Clinton. Washington, DC :Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records
Catherine Myson-Foehner has held classroom teacher and executive roles in NSW schools. She is currently employed by the NSW Department of Education as a Teaching and Learning Officer within the Educational Standards Directorate. She assists in the development, implementation and evaluation of innovative approaches to planning, programming and assessment for primary mathematics teachers.
Catherine has a strong educational interest in curriculum development and its impact on student equity. She worked on the K-2 and 3-6 writing teams for the K-10 Mathematics syllabus and delivers professional learning for teachers on syllabus implementation, including workshops at the Centre for Professional learning.
Margaret Gordon writes on the importance of quality PE programs in primary schools and offers practical suggestions for classroom teachers. . .
“Personal Development, Health and Physical Education (PDHPE) develops the knowledge, understanding, skills and attitudes important for students to take positive action to protect and enhance their own and others’ health, safety and wellbeing in varied and changing contexts. Physical education is fundamental to the acquisition of movement skills and concepts to enable students to participate in a range of physical activities – confidently, competently and creatively.” PDHPE K-10 NSW Syllabus Rationale 2018
Why is this important?
If we learned nothing else from the COVID years of lockdown/pandemic let it be the importance of health, safety and wellbeing, for ourselves and for the students we teach.
Ask yourself- “How effectively can we teach children who are unhealthy, unsafe or unwell?”
We simply cannot! Arguably, this makes PDHPE the most important subject of all! If the aim is that “PDHPE K–6 equips students with knowledge, understanding and skills to support their health, safety and wellbeing.” (Draft new syllabus. NESA, 2023) then the importance of quality teaching and learning in this Key Learning Area (KLA) cannot be underestimated.
Primary school teachers tend to cover Personal Development and Health (PDH) concepts well. The Department of Education requires that Drug Education, Road Safety and Child Protection concepts are taught in every stage of learning across Years K-10 and ample support materials are made available online. Extensive instruction regarding respectful relationships and anti-bullying is provided through the plethora of positive friendship and social skills programs employed in public schools across NSW. These have even been commercialised, with great financial reward for savvy businesspeople worldwide. Furthermore, individual teachers address social conflicts daily making it feel like we are constantly going back over positive friendship behaviours, respectful relationships etc.
But what about PE? Far too often, Physical Education (PE) is relegated to an afternoon treat or reward. Classes play another game of Bin-Ball or Capture the Flag because the students love them, and the games just run themselves.
This is not because teachers don’t understand the importance of PE, and it certainly is not because they don’t care. Instead, PE simply is often not prioritised because we are all so overworked, trying to meet the minimum requirements for each KLA. Ask yourself; what’s the first thing to be scratched from your day plan when school-life gets busy, or your maths lesson didn’t quite go to plan? How often do you resort to the same game outside because the kids have been begging you?
We must mandate and prioritise quality PE and provide our students with a wide variety of physical activity experiences. Students thrive when challenged by the physical activities in which they participate. Unless it truly is meeting the students at their point of need, Bin-Ball is not a PE lesson in and of itself. By all means, go outside and play a game for fun. But it is not a PE lesson. Quality and authentic PE lessons need to be planned just as carefully and strategically as any other KLA. The development of both fine- and gross- motor skills should be a priority. So should be the all-important skills of resilience, cooperation and sportsmanship, which are inherent within a quality PE lesson.
PDHPE deserves same time and attention as the other 5 KLAs. Use strategies such as the teaching/learning cycle and backwards mapping. Consider the outcomes towards which you are moving your students.
Ask yourself- what do these students need to learn? How can I plan a program to help them learn it? How will I know when they have learned it successfully? Differentiate, by considering the four key classroom elements; content/process/product/learning environment. These apply to PE just as much as they do in any other subjects! Not every student will be the next superstar, but they still should be given ample opportunity to enjoy being active.
What does a quality PHYSICAL EDUCATION program look like?
The program will be unique to your educational setting, but here is my advice:
-Plan for PE just as carefully and strategically as you would for any other KLA. Meet students at their point of need.
Incorporate the Game Sense pedagogy; have most kids moving, most of the time. “In the Game Sense approach, individuals learn within the context of the game and teachers employ questioning instead of direct instruction.” (Georgakis, Wilson & Evans, 2015, p. 73)I highly recommend this article as a starting point if Game Sense pedagogy is new to you
The School Sport Unit offers some valuable professional learning online via MyPL. Search MyPL for the following short courses; School Sport Unit: Thinking while Moving.
School Sport Unit: Game-based learning in sport and physical activity
School Sport Unit: Delivering engaging sport and physical activity programs in K-2
-Warm up with a quick start, run around game which gets everyone moving. Two of my favourites are ‘Infinity Tag’ or ‘Who’s Got Game’.1
-Cool down with questions, but, whilst doing so, incorporate movement. Walk and talk with students as you guide them to consider:
What worked during our main event today?
What was the key concept of the game?
How could we challenge ourselves more if we played this again?
How did we solve this movement challenge collaboratively?
-Avoid teaching formal sports in PE as this instantly will put off some students. Those who already play that sport will dominate; those who don’t will not even try. Rather than teaching Touch Football or Netball select the key skills and concepts of these sports and simplify them. These are both invasion games which focus on moving the ball from one side of the play space to the other, without losing possession to the opposing team.
Repeat the same simple games but vary the experience by changing:
the ball you use,
the size of the goal zone,
the number of passes required between teammates,
or the allocated time for play.
Simple tweaks can make the world of difference.
Introduce sport-specific rules, such as no-contact for netball or backwards passing in touch football, as the students’ skills progress.
-As much as possible, avoid teaching skills through drills. “Game-ify” the learning! Keep all students occupied rather than waiting in line for their turn. For example, when teaching dribbling in soccer or basketball, pair students up then give each pair a ball. One player is the dribbler, the other is the chaser. If the chaser can steal the ball, they swap roles.
– Emphasise personal challenges- kids love to achieve a high score, though this doesn’t mean they need to compete against anyone but themselves:
How many safe passes can you make before a dropped ball?
How many safe passes can you make in one minute / two minutes / before your classmate runs all the way around the court?
Can you beat your previous high score?
Increase / decrease the play zone or game space.
GET THEM THINKING:
Ask questions to prompt students’ own critical thinking throughout the lesson.
Allow time and space for the learners to solve problems on their own = cooperation, collaboration, relationship building
Ask the students- how could we make this harder/easier for you?
How would you teach this skill to younger students?
When or where might this skill be useful?
Common excuses not to teach PE.
The kids’ behaviour is out of control. We can’t trust them to play games and sports.
As is the case for all teaching and learning, if you hold high expectations in PE the students will rise to them. Just as you would for any other lesson, give explicit instructions, provide clear boundaries and always have a back-up plan. Follow your usual behaviour management procedures just as you would in the classroom and consider carefully how you will group students throughout the lesson.
Two Key Tips for PE:
Make sure you have a good quality whistle and establish clear, consistent whistle signals for outdoor PE lessons-: one whistle means freeze; two whistles means stop & drop, three whistles means game over etc.
Incorporate movement and games into the allocation of groups or teams and by all means, PLEASE avoid the practice of selecting two team captains who then take it in turns to select individual players, which can be seen as a humiliating experience for some students. For example, play ‘Would you rather?’ where students move to one side to indicate their preferences such as chocolate vs. ice-cream, Summer vs. Winter, Socceroos vs. Wallabies etc. These groups then become teams for the next game. OR Play tips where students hold hands to form a human caterpillar when tipped. These groups can then be used as teams for the next game. Remember, sport isn’t always fair, so groups don’t necessarily have to be ‘equal’ – use this as another element of challenge!
We don’t have time
It is essential to make time. PE is mandatory! The NSW Department of Education Sport and Physical Activity Policy states that “NSW Public Schools are required to provide a minimum of 150 minutes of planned physical activity for students in K-10 each week” (NSW Department of Education, 2018)
This, however, doesn’t have to all happen in one hit. Make it work best for you and the learners in your specific context. Short bursts of daily fitness activities can be a positive way to start the day. Some schools use RFF teachers to deliver quality, consistent PE lessons across the school. Others incorporate deliberate movement opportunities in mathematics lessons, which is just one way to embed PE concepts in a meaningful, relevant context. As the old saying goes, “work smarter, not harder,” by combining KLAs.
We don’t have space.
Not all PE lessons need to happen outdoors on a football field or basketball court. You will not always have access to the school hall.
Think creatively and flexibly:
How can you use your classroom space to get kids moving? Get the kids involved in finding a workable solution to this genuine ‘movement challenge.’
Come up with safe, simple routines to either move or incorporate classroom furniture into your PE lessons.
Speak with your colleagues about how you can work together to share space for the benefit of all students. Could you swap classrooms for a session each week?
Combining classes or even stage groups for a giant game provides ample opportunity for practising respectful relationships/getting on with others.
Don’t be afraid to combine Infants with Primary classes.; This can be a great opportunity for peer-support or buddy activities! The older kids will LOVE teaching and helping the younger ones to develop key movement skills.
It’s too cold, too windy, too wet, too hot.
Honestly, fair call! No-one loves standing in the freezing wind or sleeting rain, and running around during the peak of Summer can be downright dangerous in the Australian climate.
My favourite back up plan, for when the weather won’t play nice, is to combine and conquer…PDHPE combines beautifully with Creative Arts. Lots of drama games incorporate sophisticated physical movements.
Dance is both a creative art and a physical activity. Once again, don’t be afraid to ask the students to help solve movement challenges. As I’m sure you can appreciate, they will come up with remarkably creative, flexible ideas about how to be physically active within the confines of a classroom!
Final thoughts
PE deserves your professional attention, for the benefit of the students you teach and for their health, safety and wellbeing now and into the future. Mandate it; make it as fun for as many students as you can; keep them moving and keep them thinking. You never know, you might even have some fun too!
Helpful Resources
The Australian Council for Health, Physical Education and Recreation.
This is the national professional association representing people who work in the areas of health education, physical education, recreation, sport, dance, community fitness or movement sciences. https://www.achpernsw.com.au/ accessed 21/07/2023
Sport Australia Playing for Life game cards.
These are a broad selection of ready to print, ready to use PE activities. There are examples of everything, from invasion games to ball-striking.
When a player is tagged, they must stand still with their hands on their head, to indicate to other players that they have been tagged. They are back in the game as soon as the player who tagged them gets tagged. If two players tag each other at the same time, they play a quick game of Scissors Paper Rock; winner keeps playing, loser stands still as though they have been tagged. Play continues infinitely, or until the teacher calls time.
(I am yet to meet a class where we reach the point of one player left but, theoretically, it could be done!)
Who’s Got Game H3 Similar to the classic playground games of ‘Bullrush’ or ‘Red Rover’.
Players stand at one side of the play zone. The aim is to cross to the other side without being tipped. One person or a small group stand in the middle of the zone. These are the tippers.
Tippers call out ‘Who’s Got Game?’
Players call out ‘We’ve Got Game!’
Tippers give a free pass; ‘You’ve got game if…you’re wearing white socks/have a brother/ate a banana with your breakfast’ Players cross safely to the other side if the free pass is true for them.
Other players wait for the tippers to call an action (run, skip, jump) then GO! Players and tippers have to move as per the action. If a player is tipped they swap teams and join the tippers. Play continues until one player remains. They are then ‘in’ for the start of the next game.
Light, R., & Georgakis, S. (2023). Teaching Physical Education for Happiness and Well-being. The International Journal of Sport and Society, 14(2), 41-50.
Margaret works as an Assistant Principal on the mid-north coast of NSW. She began teaching in 2015, leaving her hometown of Sydney to work in regional NSW.
Margaret has taught mainstream classes across all year groups, K-6. She worked for three years as a specialist PE teacher to cover RFF for all stages and loved every minute of it.
Despite making a return to classroom teaching in 2023, Margaret’s passion for quality physical education and wellbeing drives her classroom practice. She maintains active involvement in the local PSSA and seeks professional learning opportunities through the DoE’s School Support Unit. Margaret is also a member of the NSWTF’s Sport Special Interest Group (SIG). To be added to the Sport SIG’s mailing list, contact Federation on (02) 9217 2199.
In this course you will develop a practical understanding of modern assessment theory and look at strategies for promoting and assessing higher order thinking skills in your students. We will focus on two assessment formats: multiple choice, and performance-based items, and consider the purpose and design of rubrics. We will look in depth at the advantages, disadvantages, tricks, and pitfalls of these different styles, emphasising the interrelationship between learning and assessment.
Professor Jim Tognolini and Dr Sofia Kesidou from the University of Sydney’s Centre for Educational Measurement and Assessment lead an interactive and content-driven professional learning day. Completing this course will consolidate your expertise in helping your students develop analytical, evaluative, and creative skills.
This course is NESA Accredited. Please expand the ‘Accreditation’ bar for further details.
Face to face at NSW Teachers Federation, Surry Hills
6 August
Online, via Zoom
20 August
Face to face in Blacktown (Club Blacktown, 40 Second Ave, Blacktown NSW 2148)
5 November 2025
Prof Jim Tognolini
Professor Jim Tognolini is Director of The Centre for Educational Measurement and Assessment (CEMA) which is situated within the University of Sydney School of Education and Social Work. The work of the Centre is focused on the broad areas of teaching, research, consulting and professional learning for teachers.
The Centre is currently providing consultancy support to a number of schools. These projects include developing a methodology for measuring creativity; measuring 21st Century Skills; developing school-wide practice in formative assessment. We have a number of experts in the field: most notably, Professor Jim Tognolini, who in addition to conducting research offers practical and school-focused support.
Dr Sofia Kesidou
Sofia Kesidou is an executive leader and academic researcher with close to 30-years’ experience in international educational assessment, curriculum and research.
Sofia has taught courses in assessment to undergraduate and graduate students, and has conducted numerous professional-development sessions related to standards-based curriculum and assessment as well as assessment and data literacy internationally.
Completing Modern Assessment Theory and Assessment Strategies for Higher Order Thinking: K-12 will contribute 5 hours of NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) Accredited PD in the priority area of Delivery and Assessment of NSW Curriculum/EYLF addressing standard descriptors 5.1.2 from the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers towards maintaining Proficient Teacher Accreditation in NSW.
K-12 teachers
$220
Face to face in Blacktown (5 November 2025)
“Great learning to empower teachers to be better professionals and create better outcomes for students, strengthen the profession.”
“A very practical course to use for the planning and implementation of classes with the intention of improving assessments/evaluating/testing for the students.”
“Every aspect of this course was informative and useful. I’ve had an opportunity to think about what has been presented and engage in collegial discussion.”
Helen McMahon, Michelle Gleeson, Andrea Gavrielatos & Trystan Loades consider one of the most important topics for all teachers … classroom management. Helen, in the introduction, returns to a topic that she wrote about in the 2015 edition of the JPL. Michelle and Andrea then give us the primary school perspective and Trystan discusses the high school context . . .
Introduction
Teaching is complex, no more so than when it comes to the management of student behaviour. Effective teaching can only occur when the behaviour of students is successfully dealt with at a whole school and individual class level. High standards of behaviour are essential in creating a productive and positive learning environment, as well as a safe and respectful school.
A high standard of behaviour should be expected of all students and applied throughout the school each day by everyone. From the outset it is important to understand a fundamental principle: while the public education system accepts all students, we do not accept all behaviours.
The student profile of many of our schools is becoming ever more complex and, therefore, teachers require increasingly sophisticated sets of skills to deal with behaviour in their own classes. However, it is important to understand that the management of student behaviour is also a collective responsibility, across the whole school by all staff, and in serious cases with systemic Department of Education support.
As all schools are required to develop a behaviour management plan, it is essential that this is developed collaboratively, and closely adhered to by all staff, in order to develop consistent approaches to unacceptable conduct.
Individual teachers, particularly for those who are beginning their teaching career, will usually need additional advice, support, and professional learning opportunities to acquire the range of skills that allow them to gain confidence and become professionally autonomous. Any professional learning should cover areas such as:
why engaging teaching strategies can be the basis for minimising unacceptable behaviour
how to manage persistent disruptive and challenging behaviours
strategies that could be used to de-escalate conflict situations
the need to engage parents and caregivers early and in a positive manner
the support that will be available from colleagues and executive teachers.
The NSW Department of Education’s Student Behaviour Policy (2022) states, “All students and staff have the right to be treated fairly and with dignity in an environment free from intimidation, harassment, victimisation, discrimination and continued disruption.” To ensure that schools are safe, productive, and stable learning environments it is essential that this fundamental policy position is embedded in the school culture and reinforced daily.
Classroom management – school contexts
During the liveliness and excitement of a bustling school day, there are many things out of our control. One of the things that we, as teachers, can control is how we set up our day and our classroom to ensure that we set our students (and ourselves) up for success.
The way classroom management looks in each classroom is ultimately up to the teacher. And whether or not you are working in a school which sets clear systems, expectations and routines, there are practices for your classroom that can make the day flow in a more positive direction.
Before we launch into the what and the how, let’s start with the why. On top of knowing our content and how to structure a lesson, classroom management directly affects the conditions for student learning and effective teaching. When the learning space is organised … students’ academic skills and competencies, as well as their social and emotional development are supported and enhanced (Kratochwill, DeRoos, Blair, 2009). This aligns with the Professional Knowledge and Professional Practice domains of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (NESA 2018), specifically that teachers ‘Create and maintain supportive and safe learning environments’ and ‘Know students and how they learn’. The intersection of these two standards with regards to classroom management highlights that not only do our considerations about how we arrange the learning space matter, but this, combined with a deep understanding about our students’ individual characteristics and needs, can be affected and supported by that very learning environment. What are the things we need to factor in for our students before they’ve set foot through the door for our lesson or for the day? How can we suitably reflect on our lesson plan to anticipate how we might deal with behaviours that become too excitable? How can a teacher pre-empt and identify strategies to ensure all students are engaged safely and successfully in classroom activities?
Across both primary and secondary settings, there are universal elements to classroom management. that link back to the Standards. that can help us reflect on how we best set our students up for success in their learning. Let’s take a look at a day in the life of a primary school teacher and a learning period for a high school teacher, and, in doing so, share some strategies which you can add to your toolbox to support you…
A Day in the Life of Primary School – through the lens of classroom management
Starting the day
Classroom management begins well before the front gates open for students and families. This time is quite possibly the most important part of the day with regards to effective classroom management.
A good habit to develop each day when you arrive at your classroom is to map out the day plan in a visual timetable, either written or with visual aids, displayed at the front of the room. This practice is an example of how to utilise Universal Design for Learning as seen in the Universal Design for Learning planning tool (2021). This framework is most beneficial for students with additional needs, however it reduces the fear of the unknown and can be beneficial for all students. Taking a moment to walk through what’s happening, on any given day, can also help you to anticipate the flow of what’s planned and review what you’ll need for the lessons for the day. Using the morning routine to locate and organise resources needed for your lessons will assist in those teaching moments to maintain your students’ focus and minimise opportunities for behaviours to unravel. Being proactive in having what you will need at the ready, or mentally noting what you need to prepare during the session break and considering how and where resources are accessed during the learning is an important aspect of classroom management related to the routines you establish and maintain in your classroom.
Setting the tone of your learning environment
How you then organise your classroom with resources and routines inherently sets the tone of the learning environment. Giving attention and consideration to how the classroom helps to develop a culture of learning and structure is something which can often be forgotten. Setting up the learning space in a way which is conducive to teaching and learning is paramount.
It is helpful to ask questions such as ‘can students and teachers move around the room with ease?, ‘is there enough room to walk?’, ‘is the floor clear of resources?’, ‘are resources clearly labelled and packed in the appropriate place?’, ‘where will students sit for group discussions or brainstorming or modelled lessons?’, ‘what kind of noise levels are acceptable and at what times?’.
Ideas as simple as group structures and seating arrangements can promote positive behaviours and academic outcomes (Wannarka & Ruhl, 2008). There is evidence to support the idea that ‘if students are working on individual assignments, they should be seated in an arrangement that makes interacting with peers inconvenient…for example, in rows students are not directly facing each other’. Conversely, ‘when the desired behaviour is interactive… seating arrangements that facilitate interactions by proximity and position, such as clustered desks or semi-circles, should be utilised’ (Wannarka & Ruhl, 2008). Strategically planning these structures prior to the day beginning can have a positive influence on student engagement and behaviour.
Involving your students to establish a set of expectations supports a shared understanding of what is valued in the learning environment for everyone to be able to engage in learning. It can also assist students to regulate collaboratively the classroom behaviour. What is important to one group can be vastly different to another, so this process is a crucial component to classroom management and is most successful when students have agency in determining the conditions for learning as well as the positive rewards and negative consequences that go along with these. Along with collaboratively setting up, and explicit teaching of, class expectations, each teacher will have a different system of organisation with regards to student jobs, and overall set up. It is important to be strategic in deciding which student will be responsible for each job depending on their social, emotional and academic needs. Guiding questions such as the following are helpful to ask yourself when selecting students for each job: Do any students require regular breaks? Does a particular student require a peer to assist them in executing the job? Will the students be able to refocus upon completion of the job?
As with any element of classroom management, it is crucial to model and guide students in how to successfully perform each task before expecting them to complete it independently.
Relationships sit at the heart of effective classroom management and a simple yet effective way to connect with your students, and to set the tone of the day of learning, is to greet students personally as they enter the classroom. Positioning yourself at your door, monitoring both students as they unpack and those that are settling into the room allows you to:
start the day with a positive connection with your students,
remind students of classroom expectations through specific praise of preferred behaviours, in turn supporting the transition into the formal learning space, and
gauge the moods and mindsets your students have before the learning begins.
This, in turn, offers a “low-cost, high-yield” proactive strategy that complements the organisational elements to setting up the learning environment (Cook, et. al 2018). Coupled with your proactive measures of setting up your resources, being proactive with your students’ behaviour, and starting every day with a positive and personal acknowledgement of each student in your class, has been shown to promote higher levels of academic engagement. It also minimises, even prevents, the occurrence of problem behaviours that disrupt learning. Additionally, being perceptive to the emotional wellbeing of your students, not only as they start the day but throughout the day, and particularly following transitions, can assist you in managing behaviours through pre-corrections, further modelling or revision, or tuning in to students’ needs to support them to re-engage or regulate their behaviour.
Positive reinforcement extends the tone of the learning environment and can take varied forms without always being a tangible reward although, at times, the extrinsic motivator can help. Acknowledging and reinforcing the behaviours you expect supports students with direct feedback on what is valued, but is only effective when the reinforcement is genuine, clear, and explicit about the behaviour and given in a timely manner (i.e., straight after the target behaviour). If there are established positive reinforcement procedures in your school, it is critical that these are integrated into your own systems. Such integration, however, does not preclude the use of your own additional strategies, if required, which can be as simple as non-verbal cues and verbal praise, a positive phone call to parents, to tangible reward tokens or activity rewards. Knowing the individual preferences of your students will also inform the approach that you take for encouraging positive behaviour in your classroom. Most students will respond to the universal support and expectations for behaviours (be they the whole school or your class systems) but some students may require an individualised approach with targeted and specific behaviour goals that have positive consequences negotiated with the student and their parents or carers.
“Be the calmest person in the room”
And while giving attention to the routines and structures of our classroom allows us to exert some control in pre-empting behaviours, the only thing we can control is ourselves and to be the calmest person in the room. The key to effective routines and structures lies in modelling and explicit teaching but this begins with our own behaviours. Students are more likely to replicate calm energy if they have been shown this. The importance of being responsive over reactive, having and modelling empathy, and above all else being consistent, sits hand in hand with the positive, safe and supported learning environment that is conducive to the success of our students.
Transitions and breaks
When it comes to managing your expectations around behaviours at any point in the school day, it’s often safer to never assume your students will know how to behave. Establishing expectations not only with regards to the use of resources and interactions for group or independent work, but also around transitions requires explicit teaching through modelling. For example, if your students are expected to enter and exit the classroom quietly and in two straight lines or move from sitting on the floor to their desks, then preparing them from the outset with clear expectations and demonstrations is required, even for simple tasks such as these. Show your students what the transition looks like, sounds like and feels like so that they can experience that through practise, revising as often as needed.
While classroom management is often viewed as enacted within the four walls of the classroom, practices such as active supervision apply in the playground and have similar effect and impact in managing behaviour. The proverbial ‘eyes in the back of your head’ comes to mind. The effects of scanning, movement and proximity on supporting positive behaviour in any school setting will influence behaviour. It is important to remember that our job is to teach and that every moment is a teaching moment, whether we are in the classroom or elsewhere. Teach and praise what you want to see more of and celebrate the steps along the journey.
Managing the end of the day
The bookends of the day largely dictate the overall organisation of your classroom, and where much attention is given to setting up the day, the end of the day is equally important. Similar to the setup, pre-empting issues and being proactive is key at the end of the day – knowing that your students are going to start feeling tired and fatigued, consider what could go wrong with the planned group activity, or art lesson, and make adjustments to your plan where necessary. If you think they require some time to regulate, complete a calming ‘brain break’. If it seems as though they are lacking energy, complete an energising activity. (Although ‘brain breaks’ can be done at any time throughout the day, the end of the day is often when they are utilised most regularly).
Allow yourself plenty of time for packing up, giving yourself at least 10 minutes at the end of the day to finish calmly and smoothly with an activity before students are dismissed such as read a story/poem, play a game, silent reading or journaling, guided drawing, practise gratitude, dance or sing. The activity could be a routine one or be different every day, this is up to you and your class. Just as the expectation stands for entering the classroom, be consistent with clear expectations for how students leave the classroom when the bell rings. Think about how many students will you dismiss at once- will they be the same students at tables/desks or the students who are packed up and quiet? Supporting a positive and calm end to the day will not only support your students in finishing the day on a good note but is also good for our own wellbeing to avoid ending the day in frantic chaos.
When you need support…
With the increase of students with additional needs enrolled in public schools, over the course of a career, teachers will likely be met with students who challenge and provoke our thinking. Sometimes, when redirection and all proactive, positive systems have been exhausted or when the safety of a child, a class, or staff members is at risk, different strategies are required.
Whether or not an individual behaviour plan is required, at times, it is critical to utilise expert and experienced staff, including senior executives, for support.
Some things to remember, if and when faced with more complex, challenging and escalating behaviours, are:
remain calm – think about your tone of voice, body language, what you are saying, how you are moving, where you are positioned,
explain why the specific behaviour is unacceptable – Is it unsafe? Is it disturbing the learning of others? Is it respectful?
don’t buy into any secondary behaviours which may arise,
give short and direct instructions – it is helpful to use the student’s name first and then the clear, explicit direction,
follow through,
call for assistance.
Remember, once any incident is dealt with, it is important to move on and start fresh.
Students come to school to learn and they all have a right to do so in our vibrant and diverse public education system. With clear and visible expectations and routines which are reiterated and retaught consistently through a calm and predictable teacher, you set yourself and your class up for success (Dix, 2017).
Consistency
For many students, their school, and in particular their classroom, is the place where they feel most at ease, at baseline and where they can truly be themselves. Their teacher is a constant and when we act and react predictably to all situations, it makes our students feel safe. Safety allows students to remain calm, display positive behaviours and in turn, engage in learning. ‘Visible consistency with visible kindness allows exceptional behaviour to flourish’ (Dix, 2017).
A High School Context
Teaching is a highly complex activity, which, depending on which research you read, requires a teacher to make as many as 1500 decisions a day.
As stated earlier, teachers have a core responsibility to ‘Create and maintain supportive and safe learning environments’ Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (2018). Our students also have a core responsibility to ensure that they are contributing to a positive learning environment. As Helen McMahon stated in our introduction: while public education accepts all students, we do not accept all behaviours.
High schools are busy places, in which movement and transitions are an integral part of every school day. The effective management of student behaviour is critical to ensuring that our practice and pedagogy impacts positively on the learning of our students. Without it, learning cannot take place.
Three ways in which teachers can impact on student behaviour are through: routines and structures, controlling the learning environment and engagement.
Routines and Structure
As high school teachers, we are always receiving students who are arriving from another context, be it roll call, recess, lunch or the previous lesson. Our class may be arriving as a group who were together in the previous lesson or be a group coming together for the first time that day. This poses significant challenges for a teacher who needs to ensure that the start to their lesson is both orderly and purposeful.
Paul Dix, author of When the adults change, everything changes (2017)states, “Your students might claim that they prefer to lead lives of wild and crazy chaos. In reality, it is your routines, and your relentless repetition of them, that makes the students feel safe enough to learn.”.
Managing the Start of Lessons – Explicitly teaching clear and consistent routines throughout the structure of your lesson has many benefits for you and your students. Meet students in the same way every lesson, if they line up, do it the same way every time. Greet every student, building a connection before entering the classroom. Ensure that the first contact is proactive, positive and within your control. If you search YouTube, you will find videos of teachers sharing elaborate handshake routines which are individual to each student. This would not be something we could all do, but a personal verbal greeting to all students is something we can all achieve, it could be asking about the lesson they have just left or simply a personalised greeting. These interactions also help teachers, before entry to the classroom, to pick up on issues students are arriving with.
Feeling Safe – Consistent routines and structures provide students a connection to, and a feeling of safety in, our classrooms. For students, the idea that ‘I know what to expect’ allows space for engagement in initial instructions and explicit teaching. For students who have experienced trauma and those who have additional learning needs this is critical to building a sense of trust and safety as a learner.
Managing the End of Lessons – Our role in supporting smooth transitions is particularly important at the end of lessons. It allows for reflection on the learning which has taken place and provides support to our colleagues who will be receiving our students during the next teaching period. It also directly impacts on the safety of students and staff as they move to the next location of their day. Having a consistent routine at the end of lessons is as important as at the start of each lesson. Developing a suite of strategies such as exit tickets, routines around packing up and preparing to leave the room are vital and the important thing is to, as Paul Dix said, be relentless in your repetition of them.
Controlling the Learning Environment
Taking control of your classroom is a vital component of being a successful teacher. There is no one way to do this, and every teacher is different, however, being passive is not an option.
The NSW Department of Education’s Classroom management: Creating and maintaining positive learning environments (CESE 2020) cites research which says:
Put simply, classroom management and student learning are inextricably linked; students cannot learn or reach their potential in environments which have negative and chaotic classroom climates, lack structure and support, or offer few opportunities for active participation (Hepburn & Beamish 2019, p. 82), and students report wanting teachers who can effectively manage the classroom learning environment (see Woolfolk Hoy & Weinstein 2006, p.183; Egeberg & McConney 2018)
Layout – Assert your control of the classroom environment through the arrangement of furniture. Set up the space before students arrive whenever you can. If there are materials to distribute to allow learning activities to begin, have them on desks before students arrive. This saves time and removes opportunities for disruption.
Managing Behaviour -Exercise power to gain power and, therefore, control of the environment. Gain compliance through small instructions which are easy to follow, such as completing a simple task of collecting or getting out equipment or setting up a page in a workbook can settle a class and establish your authority in the classroom. Taking ownership of behaviour management is critical in establishing your authority. You should always know how to get support from colleagues and your Head Teacher but resolving issues yourself will always pay off in the long run. It is important to note that knowing when an issue needs to be escalated is also critical.
Seating Plans – A well-considered seating plan allows students to know where to be and for you to control where individuals are in your learning space. Some students may have specific positions described in their Individual Learning Plans (ILPs). A seating plan can allow you to establish effective group work as a supportive structure in your classroom.
Non-Verbal Communication – The use of non-verbal communication is a core skill we all need to develop; it can allow us to intervene early and get behaviour back on track without drawing attention to a student or their behaviour. This can be as subtle as eye contact at the right moment, a hand movement to suggest calming or even a smile and a nod.
Positioning – Where you place yourself at key times such as student arrival, roll marking, giving instructions, asking questions will impact on each activity’s effectiveness. Your ability to move around the room while maintaining a scanning view allows you to keep on top behaviour and levels of student engagement. Some teachers use a specific position in the classroom to manage student behaviour which is separate to positions they use for explicit teaching. Used consistently, this can even become an example of non-verbal communication as students learn to associate it with an intervention by the teacher.
Pace – Your control of the pace of your teaching and the learning in your classroom is also a key strategy in developing an orderly and effective classroom. Research has shown that a slow pace of instruction can cause significant behaviour problems. The right pace in a lesson will positively impact on student engagement and progress in learning.
Engagement
Any teacher, who has become involved in a struggle of attrition with an individual or a class around behaviour, knows that it is a negative cycle, which needs to be broken. The way to break it is always through positive engagement in learning.
Explicit Teaching – Students’ knowledge of what they are learning, and why they are learning it, impacts on their engagement. Building their ‘field’ of knowledge around a topic or specific activity adds richness and promotes genuine understanding and interest.
Modelling – Modelling an activity for a class, or group within a class, draws students into a task and provides the opportunity for a teacher to build credibility with students. A teacher sharing skills is a way for students to see that their teacher is an expert from whom they can learn.
Questioning – A skilled teacher will use a wide range of questioning techniques to develop students’ ideas, to check on understanding, to draw individuals into the learning process and to inform their own decision making on where to take the lesson next. Questions allow a teacher to take a class deeper into a topic and promote students’ skills of justifying and explaining their reasoning. Simple techniques like ‘no hands up’ or ‘think, pair and share’ place structure and enhance the teachers control of order in a classroom. The use of closed questions to check recall and open questions to promote deeper thinking and analysis will be appropriate at various times within a class’s learning. Click here for the link to the Department of Education’s section on Questioning
Participation – Designing learning activities or tasks which require active participation is fundamental to building student engagement.
When teachers require that students participate in lessons, rather than sit as passive listeners, they increase the odds that these students will become caught up in the flow of the activity and not drift off into misbehaviour (Heward, 2003).
This idea is explored in detail by Geoff Munns’ JPL article from 2021. He said,
“We talked about students being ‘in-task’ (positively involved in their learning) as opposed to being ‘on-task’ (just complying with teacher instructions).”
No matter which stage you are teaching, being prepared, and having as much organisation in place as possible will enable any teacher to deal with the unexpected. As stated earlier a teacher will make as many as 1500 decisions in any normal school day, each one may be critical to a student’s learning or the management of their behaviour. Teaching really is rocket science.
Cook, C, Fiat, A, Larson, M, Daikos, C, Slemrod, T, Holland, E, Thayer, A & Renshaw, T (2018). ‘Positive greetings at the door: Evaluation of a low-cost, high-yield proactive classroom management strategy’, Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, vol. 20, no. 3.
Dix, P. (2017). When the adults change, everything changes: seismic shifts in school behaviour. (1st ed.). Independent Thinking Press.
Egeberg, H & McConney, A (2018) What do students believe about effective classroom management? A mixed – methods investigation in Western Australian high schools. Springer International Publishing
Hepburn, L & Beamish, W (2019) Towards Implementation of Evidence Based Practices for Classroom Management in Australia: A review of research Australian Journal of Teacher Education
Heward, W.L. (2003) Ten Faulty Notions about Teaching and Learning That Hinder the Effectiveness of Special Education. The Journal of Special Education
Wannarka, R., & Ruhl, K. (2008). Seating arrangements that promote positive academic and behavioural outcomes: a review of empirical research. Support for Learning, 23(2), 89–93. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9604.2008.00375.x
Woolfolk Hoy, A., & Weinstein, C. S. (2006). Student and Teacher Perspectives on Classroom Management.
In C. M. Evertson, & C. S. Weinstein (Eds.), Handbook of Classroom Management. Research, Practice, and Contemporary Issues (pp. 181-219). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Helen McMahon is an experienced secondary History and English teacher. For much of her career she taught in the south-west region of Sydney. Helen held the position of Deputy Principal at Bankstown Girls High School before being appointed as Principal to Leumeah High School. Following her retirement as principal she returned to the classroom, teaching English at Keira High School.
Helen is the author of a popular article on behaviour management published in the very first edition of the JPL which is still available. The article was based on beginning teacher professional development courses she delivered on behalf of the Federation.
Andrea Gavrielatos began teaching in 2015 at Bardia Public School in Sydney’s South West.
She has worked in mainstream and special education settings. Prior to her current role she worked as a relieving Assistant Principal in an SSP which caters for students with Emotional Disturbances, Behaviour Disorders and Intellectual Disabilities.
Andrea is currently an Assistant Principal at a large Primary School in the Canterbury-Bankstown area. She has worked in infants and primary.
Throughout her career, Andrea has supported early career teachers to establish planning/programming routines and classroom management strategies as presenter at various conferences and courses.
Michelle Gleeson began teaching in 2005 as a primary teacher and is currently acting Deputy Principal at a large primary school on Sydney’s Northern Beaches.
Throughout her career, Michelle has been involved in advising early career teachers on accreditation processes and supporting beginning teachers to establish planning/programming routines and classroom management strategies as presenter at various conferences and workshops for the CPL and NSWTF.
She worked as a Professional Learning Officer at the NSW Institute of Teachers (now known as NESA) and advised teachers and school executive on designing and implementing effective processes to support the learning and development of all staff, using the framework of the Teaching Standards.
Trystan Loades has been a high school teacher for 26 years. He has held classroom teacher and executive roles in both NSW schools and schools in the UK, where he was a Faculty Head Teacher for 6 years. He is currently a Deputy Principal at Keira High School in Wollongong.
In recent years Trystan has worked closely with the University of Wollongong Master of Teaching program. He collaborated in the writing and delivery of professional learning for teachers supervising Professional Experience.
He currently leads new staff induction and support for beginning teachers at his school.
If you wish to apply to attend a single day of this three-day course, please email us at cpl@nswtf.org.au
We will focus on oral language development as the basis for developing literacy through the cyclical use of a range of strategies. This will be achieved through consideration of how students need to make meaning in curriculum contexts with a particular emphasis on developing knowledge about language, particularly grammar and vocabulary.
The focus of this three day course presented by Kathy Rushton and Joanne Rossbridge is to develop understandings and strategies for participants who support EAL/D students in both small groups and mainstream classrooms.
Practical strategies will be provided to foster the use of English Language (L2) while encouraging students to use all the linguistic resources that they bring to school, including the use of their first language (L1). Consideration will be given to the wellbeing framework and supporting students in an inclusive environment which honours and confirms their identity, language, and culture.
Open All
Blacktown (3 Days, Term 3)
Day 1 – Friday 8 August 2025
Day 2 – Friday 29 August 2025
Day 3 – Friday 19 September 2025
Club Blacktown
40 Second Ave, Blacktown NSW 2148
Surry Hills (3 Days, Term 4)
Day 1 – Thursday 30 October2025
Day 2 – Friday 14 November 2025
Day 3 – Friday 28 November 2025
Federation House
23-33 Mary St, Surry Hills, NSW 2010
Day 1 – Speaking and Listening
Principles of second language learning
Lexical density and grammatical intricacy: The relationship between grammar and vocabulary development
The Mode Continuum
Elaborated and restricted codes and the relationship between L1 and L2
Strategies for developing oral language through planning and the cyclical use of range of activities, e.g. communicative activities, group work, drama, rhymes, chants, poems. Link back to the mode continuum.
Select a picture book and, based on today’s session, prepare strategies. Explanation of task for Session 2.
Day 2 – Reading
Introduction of Field, Tenor and Mode.
Before, during and after reading and in preparation for writing with a focus on: – field building activities to acknowledge and build on cultural knowledge (before) – intonation, pronunciation, punctuation and spelling (during) – inferential comprehension (after)
Strategies for categorising vocabulary and working with language features
Share strategies for selected picture book with a small group
Explanation of task for Session 3.
Day 3 – Writing
The teaching and learning cycle
Identifying strategies for developing writing through a joint construction.
Strategies for supporting written like text, eg Readers Theatre, Dictogloss, Running dictation, Advance /Detail
Making links to the community through writing for a purpose
Prepare notes for the joint construction of a Literary Recount and an Exposition using selected text.
Joanne Rossbridge
Joanne Rossbridge is an independent language and literacy consultant working in both primary and secondary schools and with teachers across Australia. She has worked as a classroom teacher and literacy consultant with the DET (NSW). Her expertise and much of her experience is in working with students from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Joanne is particularly interested in student and teacher talk and how talk about language can assist the development of language and literacy.
Kathy Rushton
Kathy Rushton is interested in the development of language and literacy especially in disadvantaged communities. She has worked as a classroom teacher and literacy consultant and provides professional learning for teachers in the areas of language and literacy development. Her current research projects include a study of multilingual pre-service teachers and the impact that teacher professional learning has on the development of a creative pedagogical stance which supports translanguaging and student identity and wellbeing.
Day 1
Completing Tell Me Your Story: Supporting EAL/D Students from K-8 (Speaking and Listening) will contribute 5 hours of NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) Accredited PD in the priority area of Delivery and Assessment of NSW Curriculum/EYLF addressing standard descriptors 1.3.2, 2.5.2 & 3.3.2 from the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers towards maintaining Proficient Teacher Accreditation in NSW.
Day 2
Completing Tell Me Your Story: Supporting EAL/D Students from K-8 (Reading) will contribute 5 hours of NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) Accredited PD in the priority area of Delivery and Assessment of NSW Curriculum/EYLF addressing standard descriptors 1.3.2, 2.5.2, 3.3.2 from the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers towards maintaining Proficient Teacher Accreditation in NSW.
Day 3
Completing Tell Me Your Story: Supporting EAL/D Students from K-8 (Writing) will contribute 5 hours of NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) Accredited PD in the priority area of Delivery and Assessment of NSW Curriculum/EYLF addressing standard descriptors 1.3.2, 2.5.2, 3.3.2 from the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers towards maintaining Proficient Teacher Accreditation in NSW.
Primary and Secondary teachers who support EAL/D students in both small groups and mainstream classrooms.
$660 for 3 days
Three whole day workshops with participants actively engaged in each session and undertaking reading and assignments between sessions.
The NSW Teachers Federation Conference Centre is a registered COVID safe business, and all courses are run in compliance with the Federation’s COVID safety plan.
“Perfect balance of theory vs practical strategies. The theories and strategies will be impossible to forget – putting it into practice between session was great.”
“Loved the depth of knowledge on all aspects of literacy in the context of EAL/D learners.”
“So glad I attended – have learnt so much and feel inspired to share what I have learnt.”
“Presenters are absolutely fabulous! The perfect amount of banter and professionalism. They are experts in their field, and it shows. They invite the learner in – whatever level of knowledge they are coming with.”
JPL Articles
Critical Literacy in English and History: Stages 3 & 4
The CPL and The University of Sydney’s Centre for Educational Measurement and Assessment (CEMA) have entered into a collaborative partnership to deliver professional learning Literacy modules for all K-12 teachers.
About the Assessment Literacy modules
The six modules include video presentations by Professor Jim Tognolini, downloadable PDF files, formative self-assessment, reflective questions, recommended short readings, and collaborative webinar opportunities.
Each module will take you between four and six hours to complete and achieve the requisite PD hours towards maintenance of accreditation.
You will be able to: develop an understanding that assessment involves professional judgement based upon an image formed by the collection of information and is used to locate student performance on a developmental continuum; contextualise the role of assessment in teaching, and know, understand and use assessment related terms and strategies including reliability, validity, assessment for learning, assessment of learning, performance standards, and normreferenced assessment. Modules also include a specific consideration of the standards referenced system used in NSW, predicated on a measurement model.
Module 1 – Modern assessment theory including standards referencing
Module 2 – Constructing selected response and short-answer items including Higher Order Thinking Skill (HOTS) items
Module 3 – Constructing extended response and performance tasks, and writing analytic and holistic rubrics
Module 4 – Evaluating the function and classroom assessment tasks and tests
Module 5 – Examining the impact of feedback on learning
Module 6 – Exploring the role of moderation and reporting in classroom assessment
A leading expert in educational assessment has designed the modules
You can start the fully-online modules when convenient and complete them at your own pace
Each module is competitively priced
Each module is accredited
Modules address Standard Descriptors in Proficient Teacher Standard 5: Assess, provide feedback and report on student learning (5.1.2, 5.2.2, 5.3.2, 5.4.2, 5.5.2)
The University of Sydney has approved the modules for articulation to postgraduate award courses. Details are available on the Centre for Educational Measurement and Assessment’s website
Please click here for further details on Assessment and Data Literacy. Data Literacy modules will be available at a later date.
$300 for each module.
Federation financial members are eligible to receive a 10% discount on each module.
On confirmation of your financial membership with the NSW Teachers Federation, you will be sent further details on how to register for the modules.
All Teachers K-12
These modules are delivered online and can be completed at your own pace.