Ochre Education welcomes the Grattan Institute’s recognition that Australia needs a new approach to curriculum planning and has called on governments to invest in comprehensive curriculum materials to assist teachers better support student learning.
In its report ‘Ending the lesson lottery: How to improve curriculum planning in schools’, the Grattan Institute has recommended that all teachers have access to high-quality curriculum planning materials that they can choose to use and adapt as required.
“The Grattan Institute report represents a significant call to action for governments to do more to ensure that all teachers have access to the curriculum resources they need to ensure the best learning outcomes for their students,” said Ochre Education co-CEO Reid Smith.
“We are calling on governments to prioritise – through the National Teacher Workforce Plan handed to Ministers in December – immediate investment in comprehensive curriculum materials. This should be accompanied by independent evaluation to ensure that teachers – and their students – are getting the best possible support they deserve.”
Mr Smith said it was pleasing that Ochre’s potential to contribute to addressing this issue was reflected in the report, which highlights the opportunity for investment to build-off its curriculum materials.
“Our high-quality materials, which are developed by working teachers, embed all the key features recommended by the report, and are also – critically – free for all teachers to access and adapt,” Mr Smith said.
“A recent UK survey identified a key challenge for teachers was in finding high-quality, evidence-based, sequenced resources that were also free or affordable[1].”
Ochre was established in 2021 as a not-for-profit enterprise to address educational inequity in Australia, recognising – as the Grattan Report calls out – that high-quality curriculum materials boost student learning and have particular potential to support disadvantaged students.
“We heard that teachers want more support with curriculum planning, and – as a teacher-driven organisation – we have been taking direct action to help,” Mr Smith said.
“Our innovative approach – working with a community of expert practising teachers to develop and share a comprehensive bank of free, quality-assured, evidence-based, curriculum-linked teaching resources for educators to tailor and adapt – has already seen significant uptake by teachers across Australia.
“In our own survey of teachers, 90 per cent told us that they would find a resource like Ochre extremely useful[2].”
Ochre has partnered with the Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO) as well as Catholic Education Canberra Goulburn, through its Catalyst Program, to develop nearly 360 evidence-based lessons with 1,800 resources, and more than 20,000 teachers have accessed them so far this year.
[1] Teacher Tapp, 5140 respondents, June 2022
[2] Ochre Education, 290 respondents, September 2021