STATE MINISTERS AGREE ON SENIOR SECONDARY AUSTRALIAN CURRICULUM
The Standing Council on School Education and Early Childhood (previously Ministerial Council for Education, Early Childhood Development and Youth Affairs - MCEECDYA) met today and agreed that the curriculum content and achievement standards for Senior Secondary Curriculum in English, maths, science, history and geography would be the common base for state and territory courses.
ACARA will now work with state curriculum authorities on implementing the new curriculum. ETA has had assurances that the Board of Studies will be retaining English Extension courses and will ensure that the Advanced course will remain as preparation for these. What exactly "the common base" will mean is presumably where ACARA's work with the BoS will lie.
Ministers today agreed in principle to NAPLAN tests' moving online by 2016. ACARA will now carry out more detailed work on how this goal can be achieved.
NEW ETA EXECUTIVE
The ETA AGM was held on 24th November at the conclusion of the Teaching Extension 2 day. Every second year the Executive comes to the end of its term and a new group of volunteers is elected.
This year Prue did not stand as president because of family commitments but has agreed to be co-opted onto the Executive. We all appreciate her commitment to ETA as President, her insight into operations and her ability to cut through to the heart of the matter. Prue led the organisation through times of change for the association and her wisdom and counselling were greatly appreciated by all of those who worked with her. She has been a progressive force for ETA, leading us into digital developments and supporting the association through her contacts at the DEC. It is through Prue that we were able to introduce video-conferencing to the regions and her advice and connections have supported our use of webinars. We thank Prue for all her work in her role as President and the way she represented ETA as a progressive group with the benefit of teachers and their students at its heart.
Deb Simpson also did not stand for an executive position as this year she will be undertaking further study in addition to her usual work. Deb has been a staunch supporter of ETA and a valued contributor to its work. She frequently puts her hand up for a range of duties, from the intellectually demanding to the simply functional. She has written material, presented, organised conferences and simply pitched in. Whatever she commits to is done energetically, thoroughly and in good time, even when the circumstances are difficult. We are very grateful for all her work for the ETA and look forward to working with her again when she has fewer commitments.
The new ETA executive is:
President: Karen Yager
Treasurer: Susan Gazis
Manager Branches: Rosalee Whitely
Directors: Matt Bentley, Lisa Peterson, Sharon Stafford, Penny Waters.
Congratulations to you all – and thank you.
PROFESSIONAL TEACHERS COUNCIL OUTSTANDING SERVICE AWARDSCongratulations to Lisa Peterson (Manager Curriculum and Assessment and ETANSW representative to AATE), Cathy Edwards (Treasurer Wagga Wagga branch) and Di Lockhart (Peel Valley branch) who have been acknowledged as outstanding contributors to the English teaching profession through their volunteer work for ETA. These awards are presented annually at the Professional Teachers Council.
NEWS FROM THE BoS
A very good news story is the soon to be published document Suggested Texts for the English K-10 Syllabus. Updating Fiction, Film and Other Texts, this resource of over 500 texts (fiction, poetry, film, nonfiction, drama, media, multimedia and digital texts) has been a year in development. To assist teachers, additional information about the texts has been included, such as a summary of the story, relevant themes, interesting characters, age appropriateness and genre and syllabus content requirements. We can expect it on the Board's website by the end of January.
Three additional modules have recently been published on the Board's website for the English Studies course. They further enhance the options available to teachers of this course.
Still to come:
- Support material has been promised to assist teachers with the implementation of the new K-10 syllabus including sample units of work in each Stage and sample Scope and Sequences for each Stage. As yet there is no firm release date.
- New HSC Prescriptions (Text list) for 2015 is in preparation and should be available on the website from the beginning of semester 2 2013.
EVENTS SEMESTER 1 2013
February
- 6th Head Teacher Series Session 1
This will be a NSWIT endorsed course at the Accomplishment level and involves 4 online sessions on Wednesday afternoons after school in Week 3 of each term.
- 16th Introduction to the new syllabus
March
- 1st: HSC Paper 1 Student Day
- 2nd: Inside HSC marking (note change of date from last newsletter)
- 7th: Follow up of Teaching Ext 2 day (Nov 2012) online Session 1
- 10th: HSC Extension 2 Student day
- 12th: Grammar and Writing Course by webinar. Session 2
- 16th: Early Career Teachers Big Day Out 1 (This year there will be two "Big Days Out" for Early Career Teachers)
Big Day Out for ECT mentors - 26th: Grammar and Writing Course by webinar. Session 3
April
- 2nd Grammar and Writing Course by webinar. Session 4
- 30th The new 7-10 syllabus:getting up close and personal
May
- 7th Grammar and Writing Course by webinar. Session 5
- 9th Follow up of Teaching Ext 2 day (Nov 2012) online Session 2.
- 15th Head Teacher Series Session 2
- 18th ECT Day 2
- 21st Grammar and Writing Course by webinar. Session 6
- 31st Teaching the modes Years 4 -10
June
- 2nd HSC Extension 1 Student Day
- 4th Grammar and Writing Course by webinar. Session 7
- 14th HSC Modules Student Day
ADVANCE NOTICE: What Matters? Competition 2013
The Whitlam Institute is delighted to announce the details for our popular What Matters? writing competition for 2013. The annual competition asks young people in Years 5 to 12 across NSW and the ACT to write 400 – 600 words about what matters to them.
The competition opens in the first week of February and closes on 3 May 2013. Entry forms and posters will be posted to all High School English Coordinators and Primary School Principals, and will also be available for download at www.whitlam.org from 4 February 2013.
Cash prizes will be awarded to the winner and runner up in each category at an Awards ceremony on 29 July 2013. Every entrant will receive a certificate of participation.
For more information please visit www.whitlam.org. If you would like to be notified when competition materials are available please send your contact details to info@whitlam.org.