K-6 Educational Resources — Board of Studies, New South Wales, Australia
Primary Matters
Primary Matters May 1996
From Board Bulletin, Vol 5, No. 3, May 1996
Primary Matters - the Conference
The Primary Matters conference brought together primary teachers from government and non-government schools across the State.
A feature of the conference was the opportunity it gave teachers to interact and share information with those managing K-6 syllabus projects. An interesting strategy that was used by an enterprising group of schools on the South Coast (Towamba PS, Wyndham PS, Wolumbi PS and Bemboka PS), was to arm their 'representative', Michelle Pike from Candelo PS, with an assortment of questions to ask at the conference.
In the interest of schools that may have these same questions, here are a couple of Michelle's questions ... and our answers:
- Will the Board be releasing syllabuses on CD-ROM?
Yes - it is anticipated that in addition to teachers receiving hard copies of the revised English K-6 syllabus, schools will be provided with a CD-ROM copy of the syllabus and other related publications. - Shouldn't all units and support material for syllabuses be available to
schools free of charge?
The Board's responsibility extends to providing each primary teacher with a syllabus and associated support documents free of charge. Teaching kits, which focus on syllabus topics and options for how these may be taught must, however, be developed on a cost-recovery basis.
Curriculum Integration Workshop
A curriculum integration workshop was recently held at the Office of the Board to examine implications for curriculum development arising out of the Board's Guiding Statement on Curriculum Integration. The workshop brought together members of the Board's Curriculum Integration Working Party, Board officers with expertise in the key learning areas of the primary curriculum, and teachers identified by the members of the Curriculum Integration Working Party as practitioners with expertise in programming and planning integrated units of work (Nerida Murray, Lakemba PS, Meredith Tomkins, Corpus Christi PS, Lisa McInally, Lalor Park PS, Jane Daley, Corpus Christi PS, and Chris Sloviaczek, Arncliffe PS).
The program for the workshop included discussion of issues involved in curriculum integration in light of the primary syllabus development timeline, views on current classroom practices, teachers' experience of using syllabuses and support documents, and the identification of areas to be considered by the Working Party as potential curriculum integration projects. During the workshop the participants developed draft material concerning key questions that should be asked of writers and teachers when writing and/or evaluating integrated units of work, processes to be followed when writing integrated units based on the Board's Guiding Statement on Curriculum Integration, and possible curriculum integration projects.
Easter Show 1996
A number of primary school classes took time to visit the Education and Training stand on the opening day of the 1996 Royal Easter Show. During their excursion to the Show, teachers, parents and class groups from Tempe PS, Ferncourt PS, North Curl Curl PS, Woollahra PS, Undercliff PS, Carlton South PS, Double Bay PS and Eastlakes PS examined the Board's interactive CD-ROM material and sample-bagged a number of our brochures. One of the most popular brochures 'sampled' by the public at the Show was the recently released flyer for parents, Helping your child with English K-6.
Primary Curriculum Information on 'the Web'
A K-6 page has been added recently to the Board of Studies' Web site. This page enables Internet users to gain access to an archive of Primary Matters pages from past Board Bulletin. The Board has plans to extend the service, adding other Board documents of special interest to primary teachers, as well as links to selected K-6 Web sites. The Board of Studies' Web address is: http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au. Internet users are invited to click on 'Your Comments' and suggest K-6 material you would like to see made available on the Web site.
If you would like further information regarding these items or K-6 curriculum matters in general, contact Margaret Malone, Inspector, Primary Education, phone (02) 9927 8199 or fax (02) 9954 9218.