Media Release - Primary Principals Welcome Draft Australian National Curriculum

APPA has issued a media release following the announcement by Julia Gillard about the draft national curriculum.

Click here to download the media release in PDF format.

The Australian Primary Principals Association (APPA), representing Government, Catholic and Independent sectors, welcomed the announcement by Minister Gillard of the release of the draft Australian national curriculum documents.

APPA has always supported the concept of a consistent curriculum across States and Territories as long as it enhances teaching in primary schools. APPA President, Leonie Trimper, said today of the draft Australian national curriculum:

APPA welcomes the development of a truly Australian curriculum and we look forward to going through the detail of what has been developed. Our top priority is to ensure that what the Government has developed works to effectively reduce the crowding of the school curriculum so that students can focus on getting the basics right. We will be looking to see how this draft curriculum works toward that priority.

Primary school principals will also want to see appropriate recognition of what can realistically be covered by a teacher in any given day or week in a primary school. Ms Trimper called on the Government to think carefully about how a new national curriculum could support a teacher’s effectiveness, for example how it specifies particular knowledge and skills for each subject and clearly states the expectations for each year level.

At the moment some States and Territories have curriculum documents that are so vague and so broad that teachers have to almost re-write them before they can start their teaching program. This does nothing for the students and only diverts a teacher’s energy away from where it should be focused – the classroom. We will be looking carefully to ensure this draft national curriculum actually helps teachers in the classroom.

While strongly supportive of the development of a national curriculum, Ms Trimper reiterated the concerns of all primary school principals that the rollout of a truly national curriculum would not succeed unless a national implementation plan providing specific details of how it will be delivered in schools was also provided.

Our biggest concern is that all the good intentions in the world amount to nothing if the Government’s work here is just handed over to jurisdictions without an appropriate, consistent implementation strategy. The last thing we want to happen is for State and Territory education systems to cling on to their existing curricula and adopt the national curriculum in name only.

Ms Trimper also called on the Government to develop a comprehensive resource impact statement to outline the resources schools will need and the professional support and training needed for the successful implementation of a national curriculum. This will be particularly important for primary schools, where for example, History as a discrete learning area will be new for many teachers; or where many teachers feel they don’t have sufficient expertise to teach Science.

Ms Trimper said that APPA would provide feedback to the Government about the proposed draft Australian national curriculum from its members.

APPA represents approximately 7,200 primary school principals across both the government and non-government sectors.