Michelle Tregoning, Leader K–12 Initiatives, Hannah Crawford, Teaching Principal (Niangala Public School) and Erin McShane, K–6 English Advisor discuss embedding English in a small school. Listen to them share stories about specific syllabus changes and the importance of vocabulary, especially in written and oral language. Catch the ignition ideas that principals and teachers can reflect on and use tomorrow.

Michelle

The following podcast is brought to you by the School and system leadership team in the Curriculum Directorate of the NSW Department of Education.

The podcast focuses on teaching principal and subject experts sharing their experiences to support all. These individual experiences are only one of many ways schools can work towards curriculum implementation.

Welcome to our podcast, small school, big Impact bite-sized strategies for leading curriculum. I'm joined today by Hannah Crawford and Erin McShane and our focus in today's session is embedding English in the curriculum I would like to recognise the ongoing custodians of the lands and the waterways where we work and live. I'm joining from Gundungurra Country today. We pay respect to elders past and present as ongoing teachers of knowledge, song lines and stories we strive to ensure every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learner in New South Wales achieves their potential through education.

As mentioned before, today we are focusing on embedding English in the curriculum, and we're gonna listen to some stories from two different colleagues across the department. Hannah Crawford, who is one of our teaching principal colleagues, and Erin McShane, who's part of the curriculum team.

Two very different, unique contexts that will provide us with some interesting insights and examples that we can reflect on, learn from and get inspired by. I'm gonna hand over to Hannah to introduce herself. She's a teaching principal at a lovely little school, not too far away from Tamworth.

Over to you, Hannah.

Hannah

Thanks, Michelle. Lovely to be here today. I feel very privileged to be part of this. It's really exciting. I'm teaching principal at Niangala Public School, which as you mentioned, is in Northern New South Wales, near Tamworth and Armidale. We have 12 students currently. It's a beautiful little school set, rural and remote, very agricultural area.

We split our school into two classes, mainly K 1 and 3, 4, 5 are all in together.

Michelle

And I know when we met last week, you told me that you had about 12 students that come from about 7 different families.

Hannah

Yes. Yep. So there's lots of sibling rivalry at recess and lunch time. Yeah.

Michelle

And Erin, would you mind just sharing me a little bit about your role in the department?

Erin

Sure. Thanks Michelle. So I am one of the English KLA advisors in our K to 6 English curriculum team. I'm very excited to be here today to discuss embedding English.

Michelle

Hannah, we know one of the things that you have a really strong and almost relentless focus on in your school is the use of the teaching learning cycle and ensuring that that's really implemented well to support students in their work.

Hannah

I think what's really interesting about a small school and being a teaching principal is that you're in the classroom. You are very much the coalface of the learning that has to happen. That's what I really like about being a teaching principal, is the teaching part. It enables you to really work together as well, so you can implement change much faster and monitor that much more than you probably could in a bigger school. So we're really about that core business, and we've found that if we just follow that teaching and learning cycle really well, you are managing to improve the kids' outcomes. And I think you can identify where you need to make change a lot faster. So we make sure that we are getting lots of data, but we are using the data. That's my big thing, that there's no point in getting the data if we're not actually going to use it. That's how we've embedded it, because that makes it sustainable.

One of the biggest changes from the old syllabus to the new syllabus is the vocabulary. So we've found that if we can help kids build their vocabulary, it helps them be able to access language and then English as a whole.

Michelle

And that's always such an interesting point of reflection, I think, is when we get new syllabus, or other things, that change is looking at what are the specific things that it's guiding us towards shifting and enhancing in our own practice for the students too.

So Erin, we might draw from your expertise, to talk a bit more about what are some of those shifts that we should be paying attention to in the vocabulary expectations in the new syllabus.

Erin

So when Hannah shared how her school recognised a shift in the new syllabus, it really caught my attention. The new English syllabus places a much stronger focus on vocabulary, not just treating it as an isolated focus area, but seeing it as a, a key part of learning across all focus areas, within the syllabus. Vocabulary supports our students oral language, boosts their reading comprehension, and also strengthens their writing skills.

So when the K to 6 English curriculum team reviewed the research and evidence supporting the English syllabus, it became really clear to our unit writers that even if vocabulary is explicitly mentioned in only one or two content points within a unit, the teaching of vocabulary can and should be carefully woven throughout a unit.

This means using a clear, intentional approach to vocabulary instruction, such as carefully selecting key words, explaining their meanings in depth, exploring how they're used in different contexts, and helping students consolidate their understanding over time. It's really important to understand that vocabulary teaching isn't something that happens in isolation.

It's integrated throughout the learning to support students oral language, reading and writing skills. From an English syllabus perspective, vocabulary is a foundational pillar that runs through the entire curriculum, and it's really exciting to see how schools like Hannahs are embracing this focus on vocabulary, making it a central part of their teaching practice.

Hannah

One of our kindergarten students in his writing. He wanted help to write, the sentence stem that I had was, when I grow up I want to be, and he said, I want to be a submarine pilot (laugh) so I can take people down to see the Mariana trenches (laugh) or trench. Actually, I got in trouble 'cause I said trenches and he said, no, it's just one trench (laugh). So yes. The use of vocabulary is so important.

Erin: And then there are the high leverage possibilities with an intentional focus on tier two vocabulary. When I was in my school as an AP C&I, the students just absolutely switched onto it. They grabbed it because they could already see it was almost instant. I've seen this word, I can read the word, but now if I really understand this word. I can use it in my oral language. I can understand the text I'm reading better. Or our big aim was to see that translation into their writing as well.

The confidence that the children have to be walking around using a, a tier two word or they would see us on the playground, then they try to use that word. That was the focus in context and it was just really lovely. But then even as a teacher, you're like, oh, I think they might understand this 'cause they've used it in a different context. They've used it outside the classroom and when you have like a laser focus on one component of the English syllabus, it's really that mindful of, okay, are we still engaging with this? Are we now enacting it and are we actually going to now be embedding it? If they're starting to take risk in their classroom or try new things and then they're sharing it with each other or taking it into other classrooms, I think they can be little hints of, okay. I think we are definitely now enacting this shift in our pedagogy, and are we now going towards that embedding?

Michelle

Hannah Erin's now got me thinking. We've mentioned pedagogy a few times as we've been talking today, and I wonder if there's anything that has been an intentional focus in the shifting of pedagogy. You might talk about that in relation to vocabulary.

Hannah

I think our biggest change would be the meta language that we use. It's teaching the kids the language so that then they can reuse that language and not keeping it a secret. So this is what we're learning, this is why we're learning it, this is why you need to know it, and this is how you use it.

We don't want things to be a surprise for them, and I think that is also you asked earlier about how do we know that we've embedded it? I think when the students are using that meta language and the terminology that we want them to use and understanding what it is, I think that's when you know that you're sort of on the right track.

Michelle

Erin and Hannah, you and I could sit here and talk about all of these things for a very long period of time. This teaching principal podcast is meant to be short, so I'm thanking you both so much for being here today, Hannah, in particular, we know it's really hard when you're a teaching principal to find times. We're so, so grateful that you managed to meet with us today and share some stories with colleagues across New South Wales. We wanted to end the session today with an ignition idea. And what is one thing do you think, Hannah, that teaching principals could use to light up their school tomorrow?

Hannah

I find this a very difficult question, but Michelle, I think I'm going to steal something that you taught me many years ago or a few years ago, but age ourselves too much.

Michelle

Thank you. I appreciate that (laugh).

Hannah

It was when, when you're stuck or when you're having a problem, don't let it get all overwhelming. Just do something, try something. If it doesn't work, change it, tweak it, start somewhere. Do something and work from there. Don't let it get all a bit overwhelming and yeah, it's kind of fun. It's good to go on a learning journey and make the most of it is to just jump in, have a go. If it doesn't work, you try to just change it.

Michelle

That is good. I didn't, I can't claim that advice, Hannah, that came from my friend's dad, who one day I was like, you know, stuck in a spiral of indecision and he goes, Michelle, whatever you do, just don't do nothing.

Hannah

Yeah.

Michelle

What about you, Erin? Anything for you that you think, here's just one thing that you could have a try tomorrow?

Erin

Let's keep what's working and choose one thing to refine in light of what we have learned. It's the idea of we've taken on some valuable new learning and to really integrate it into our teaching practice.

It's important to consider how we might refine one aspect of our approach. Uh, sometimes we can come across so much exciting information and new strategies. Our teaching practice can start to feel a little bit crowded. So as we reflect on our craft, we can consider what is one particular aspect we might choose to refine or adjust to make space for these new ideas.

Making thoughtful changes allows us to focus on what truly supports our students' learning, rather than feeling overwhelmed by trying to do everything at once.

Michelle

I've got one that I'll share too, that you both made me think about today, which was when I started learning Beck and McKeown's work on vocabulary development. They talked about this notion that one of the things that you can do to help build tier two vocabulary for students is this idea of teaching in the parentheses.

So a little thing that you can do tomorrow is start thinking about what are the words, or the meta language or the phrases that we wanna help build for students in any syllabus area that you're working with. What do they already know as an anchor point? And then teaching the parenthesis, so it might sound like this.

Say a student understands the word confused, but you are wanting to expand their vocabulary. You might say, oh my gosh, that would, he looked very discombobulated. You go, that means he felt confused. And then you keep going. So little teeny tiny thing. Very useful for mathematics. Anyone out there who shares my passion and joy as well as for helping with English, history, science, PDHPE, anything that you like.

Thanks everybody for sharing your experiences.

We look forward to listening to others share their experiences next time. Have a lovely rest of your day.

[end of transcript]

Michelle

The following podcast is brought to you by the School and system leadership team in the Curriculum Directorate of the NSW Department of Education.

The podcast focuses on teaching principal and subject experts sharing their experiences to support all. These individual experiences are only one of many ways schools can work towards curriculum implementation.

Welcome to our podcast, small school, big Impact bite-sized strategies for leading curriculum. I'm joined today by Hannah Crawford and Erin McShane and our focus in today's session is embedding English in the curriculum I would like to recognise the ongoing custodians of the lands and the waterways where we work and live. I'm joining from Gundungurra Country today. We pay respect to elders past and present as ongoing teachers of knowledge, song lines and stories we strive to ensure every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learner in New South Wales achieves their potential through education.

As mentioned before, today we are focusing on embedding English in the curriculum, and we're gonna listen to some stories from two different colleagues across the department. Hannah Crawford, who is one of our teaching principal colleagues, and Erin McShane, who's part of the curriculum team.

Two very different, unique contexts that will provide us with some interesting insights and examples that we can reflect on, learn from and get inspired by. I'm gonna hand over to Hannah to introduce herself. She's a teaching principal at a lovely little school, not too far away from Tamworth.

Over to you, Hannah.

Hannah

Thanks, Michelle. Lovely to be here today. I feel very privileged to be part of this. It's really exciting. I'm teaching principal at Niangala Public School, which as you mentioned, is in Northern New South Wales, near Tamworth and Armidale. We have 12 students currently. It's a beautiful little school set, rural and remote, very agricultural area.

We split our school into two classes, mainly K 1 and 3, 4, 5 are all in together.

Michelle

And I know when we met last week, you told me that you had about 12 students that come from about 7 different families.

Hannah

Yes. Yep. So there's lots of sibling rivalry at recess and lunch time. Yeah.

Michelle

And Erin, would you mind just sharing me a little bit about your role in the department?

Erin

Sure. Thanks Michelle. So I am one of the English KLA advisors in our K to 6 English curriculum team. I'm very excited to be here today to discuss embedding English.

Michelle

Hannah, we know one of the things that you have a really strong and almost relentless focus on in your school is the use of the teaching learning cycle and ensuring that that's really implemented well to support students in their work.

Hannah

I think what's really interesting about a small school and being a teaching principal is that you're in the classroom. You are very much the coalface of the learning that has to happen. That's what I really like about being a teaching principal, is the teaching part. It enables you to really work together as well, so you can implement change much faster and monitor that much more than you probably could in a bigger school. So we're really about that core business, and we've found that if we just follow that teaching and learning cycle really well, you are managing to improve the kids' outcomes. And I think you can identify where you need to make change a lot faster. So we make sure that we are getting lots of data, but we are using the data. That's my big thing, that there's no point in getting the data if we're not actually going to use it. That's how we've embedded it, because that makes it sustainable.

One of the biggest changes from the old syllabus to the new syllabus is the vocabulary. So we've found that if we can help kids build their vocabulary, it helps them be able to access language and then English as a whole.

Michelle

And that's always such an interesting point of reflection, I think, is when we get new syllabus, or other things, that change is looking at what are the specific things that it's guiding us towards shifting and enhancing in our own practice for the students too.

So Erin, we might draw from your expertise, to talk a bit more about what are some of those shifts that we should be paying attention to in the vocabulary expectations in the new syllabus.

Erin

So when Hannah shared how her school recognised a shift in the new syllabus, it really caught my attention. The new English syllabus places a much stronger focus on vocabulary, not just treating it as an isolated focus area, but seeing it as a, a key part of learning across all focus areas, within the syllabus. Vocabulary supports our students oral language, boosts their reading comprehension, and also strengthens their writing skills.

So when the K to 6 English curriculum team reviewed the research and evidence supporting the English syllabus, it became really clear to our unit writers that even if vocabulary is explicitly mentioned in only one or two content points within a unit, the teaching of vocabulary can and should be carefully woven throughout a unit.

This means using a clear, intentional approach to vocabulary instruction, such as carefully selecting key words, explaining their meanings in depth, exploring how they're used in different contexts, and helping students consolidate their understanding over time. It's really important to understand that vocabulary teaching isn't something that happens in isolation.

It's integrated throughout the learning to support students oral language, reading and writing skills. From an English syllabus perspective, vocabulary is a foundational pillar that runs through the entire curriculum, and it's really exciting to see how schools like Hannahs are embracing this focus on vocabulary, making it a central part of their teaching practice.

Hannah

One of our kindergarten students in his writing. He wanted help to write, the sentence stem that I had was, when I grow up I want to be, and he said, I want to be a submarine pilot (laugh) so I can take people down to see the Mariana trenches (laugh) or trench. Actually, I got in trouble 'cause I said trenches and he said, no, it's just one trench (laugh). So yes. The use of vocabulary is so important.

Erin: And then there are the high leverage possibilities with an intentional focus on tier two vocabulary. When I was in my school as an AP C&I, the students just absolutely switched onto it. They grabbed it because they could already see it was almost instant. I've seen this word, I can read the word, but now if I really understand this word. I can use it in my oral language. I can understand the text I'm reading better. Or our big aim was to see that translation into their writing as well.

The confidence that the children have to be walking around using a, a tier two word or they would see us on the playground, then they try to use that word. That was the focus in context and it was just really lovely. But then even as a teacher, you're like, oh, I think they might understand this 'cause they've used it in a different context. They've used it outside the classroom and when you have like a laser focus on one component of the English syllabus, it's really that mindful of, okay, are we still engaging with this? Are we now enacting it and are we actually going to now be embedding it? If they're starting to take risk in their classroom or try new things and then they're sharing it with each other or taking it into other classrooms, I think they can be little hints of, okay. I think we are definitely now enacting this shift in our pedagogy, and are we now going towards that embedding?

Michelle

Hannah Erin's now got me thinking. We've mentioned pedagogy a few times as we've been talking today, and I wonder if there's anything that has been an intentional focus in the shifting of pedagogy. You might talk about that in relation to vocabulary.

Hannah

I think our biggest change would be the meta language that we use. It's teaching the kids the language so that then they can reuse that language and not keeping it a secret. So this is what we're learning, this is why we're learning it, this is why you need to know it, and this is how you use it.

We don't want things to be a surprise for them, and I think that is also you asked earlier about how do we know that we've embedded it? I think when the students are using that meta language and the terminology that we want them to use and understanding what it is, I think that's when you know that you're sort of on the right track.

Michelle

Erin and Hannah, you and I could sit here and talk about all of these things for a very long period of time. This teaching principal podcast is meant to be short, so I'm thanking you both so much for being here today, Hannah, in particular, we know it's really hard when you're a teaching principal to find times. We're so, so grateful that you managed to meet with us today and share some stories with colleagues across New South Wales. We wanted to end the session today with an ignition idea. And what is one thing do you think, Hannah, that teaching principals could use to light up their school tomorrow?

Hannah

I find this a very difficult question, but Michelle, I think I'm going to steal something that you taught me many years ago or a few years ago, but age ourselves too much.

Michelle

Thank you. I appreciate that (laugh).

Hannah

It was when, when you're stuck or when you're having a problem, don't let it get all overwhelming. Just do something, try something. If it doesn't work, change it, tweak it, start somewhere. Do something and work from there. Don't let it get all a bit overwhelming and yeah, it's kind of fun. It's good to go on a learning journey and make the most of it is to just jump in, have a go. If it doesn't work, you try to just change it.

Michelle

That is good. I didn't, I can't claim that advice, Hannah, that came from my friend's dad, who one day I was like, you know, stuck in a spiral of indecision and he goes, Michelle, whatever you do, just don't do nothing.

Hannah

Yeah.

Michelle

What about you, Erin? Anything for you that you think, here's just one thing that you could have a try tomorrow?

Erin

Let's keep what's working and choose one thing to refine in light of what we have learned. It's the idea of we've taken on some valuable new learning and to really integrate it into our teaching practice.

It's important to consider how we might refine one aspect of our approach. Uh, sometimes we can come across so much exciting information and new strategies. Our teaching practice can start to feel a little bit crowded. So as we reflect on our craft, we can consider what is one particular aspect we might choose to refine or adjust to make space for these new ideas.

Making thoughtful changes allows us to focus on what truly supports our students' learning, rather than feeling overwhelmed by trying to do everything at once.

Michelle

I've got one that I'll share too, that you both made me think about today, which was when I started learning Beck and McKeown's work on vocabulary development. They talked about this notion that one of the things that you can do to help build tier two vocabulary for students is this idea of teaching in the parentheses.

So a little thing that you can do tomorrow is start thinking about what are the words, or the meta language or the phrases that we wanna help build for students in any syllabus area that you're working with. What do they already know as an anchor point? And then teaching the parenthesis, so it might sound like this.

Say a student understands the word confused, but you are wanting to expand their vocabulary. You might say, oh my gosh, that would, he looked very discombobulated. You go, that means he felt confused. And then you keep going. So little teeny tiny thing. Very useful for mathematics. Anyone out there who shares my passion and joy as well as for helping with English, history, science, PDHPE, anything that you like.

Thanks everybody for sharing your experiences.

We look forward to listening to others share their experiences next time. Have a lovely rest of your day.

[end of transcript]