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A whole-school approach in literacy and numeracy

Teacher guide A whole-school approach in literacy and numeracy

TLF ID S7060

This teacher resource describes the successful whole-school strategies implemented by 147 New South Wales schools to improve the literacy and numeracy of students, particularly those not achieving national minimum standards. Organised in nine sections: Summary; Target student group; Method; Results; Next steps; Lessons learned; Research base; Further reading and links; and Contacts, the resource evaluates the suite of whole-school strategies from which the schools selected and shows how the selected strategies, professional learning, facilitation and mentoring support combined to build capacity in school leadership and teaching staff and improve student achievement.

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Educational details

Educational value
  • This is a valuable resource for primary schools concerned about improving their students' NAPLAN results in year 5 and attainment of the English and mathematics achievement standards in years 3 to 6. Providing certain conditions were in place in the school, such as strong and committed leadership and a collaborative culture, the suite of whole-school strategies improved the literacy and numeracy of students, especially Aboriginal students, students with disabilities or learning difficulties, students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and students with behavioural issues.
  • The resource has clear implications for the implementation of the English and mathematics curriculums at the whole-school level. Evaluations of the strategies - Reading to Learn, Mindful Learning, Mindful Teaching, Accelerated Literacy, Focus on Reading 3-6, Taking Off With Numeracy and QuickSmart Numeracy - were unable to conclude unequivocally that any one was better or worse than any other. The resource makes clear that what counts are overarching strategies tailored to the school context, cultural change within the school and improvement in the capacity of school leaders and of staff teaching literacy and numeracy.
Year level

3; 4; 5; 6

Topics Educational research Teaching methods Mathematics Language proficiency Learning strategies Remedial programs School leaders
Learning area
  • English
  • Mathematics

Other details

Contributors
  • Contributor
  • Name: Education Services Australia
  • Organization: Education Services Australia
  • Description: Data manager
  • Copyright Holder
  • Name: Commonwealth of Australia
  • Organization: Commonwealth of Australia
  • Address: AUSTRALIA
  • URL: http://www.australia.gov.au
  • Publisher
  • Name: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Organization: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Description: Publisher
  • Address: AUSTRALIA
  • URL: http://www.esa.edu.au
  • Resource metadata contributed by
  • Name: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Organisation: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Address: AUSTRALIA
  • URL: www.esa.edu.au
Access profile
  • Generic
Learning Resource Type
  • Online
  • Text
Rights
  • © 2014 Commonwealth of Australia, unless otherwise indicated. This material is provided under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike licence (CC BY-SA 3.0 AU) unless otherwise indicated. You may distribute, remix and build upon this material, provided that you include the acknowledgement '© Commonwealth of Australia 2014' and license under the same terms any new creations you have based on the material.