Major Curriculum Reforms: An Expert Review of the New English K-2 Syllabus | Australian Schools

Karen Yager Award-winning leader & adviser on academic improvement

Webinar 48min

This webinar will provide headteachers, principals, senior leaders and teachers with an expert overview and insight into the new English syllabus for children in kindergarten, year 1 and year 2. It follows the first comprehensive review of the curriculum by the New South Wales (NSW) government in more than 30 years.

Description
Learning Outcomes
Expert
Reviews

This webinar will provide headteachers, principals, senior leaders and teachers with an expert overview and insight into the new English syllabus for children in kindergarten, year 1 and year 2. It follows the first comprehensive review of the curriculum by the New South Wales (NSW) government in more than 30 years.

On 15 November 2021, the NSW Education Standards Authority published it’s new English K-2 syllabus. It follows several recommendations made in the Masters review related to building strong foundations in the early years and aims to develop students’ understanding of how language use is determined by different contexts, audiences and purposes.

In this webinar Karen Yager, award-winning leader and adviser on academic improvement and English teaching with 25+ years’ experience, will explore the reforms in more depth including how the new syllabus is structured, what skills and competencies the curriculum expects young students to develop and how content has been sequenced to highlight connections across oral language, reading fluency, comprehension, and writing.

Karen Yager

Karen Yager has over 25 years’ experience in education in the public and private sectors and over 18 years in leadership. She is currently Deputy Head Student & Teaching Excellence K-12 at Knox Grammar School in Sydney and has been appointed as the new head of Hills Grammar School in 2022. She was a university lecturer, tutor and ICT integrator at the University of New South Wales for 12 years in English Method.

Karen has provided critical advice to NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) on syllabus implementation, and is a life member and vice president of the English Teachers Association NSW. Karen is the 2022 president of the Professional Teachers’ Council NSW (PTC), director of Australian Professional Teachers Association (APTA), the 2022 president of Australian Association for the Teaching of English (AATE).

In 2006, Karen was awarded the NSW Premier’s Scholarship to travel to the UK to research using Shakespeare in schools. She has published three English texts with the Oxford University Press, winning a national publishing award. In 2020, Karen was awarded the National Reading Australia fellowship to research how to improve student writing and created a website of resources developed for primary and secondary teachers:

https://sites.google.com/view/enrichingstudentwriting/home.

In 2020, she received a leadership scholarship to travel to China to visit leading schools. Karen is a Lab Champion for Learning Creates Australia that is researching alternative credentials for pupils.

Karen’s ongoing commitment to education is evidenced by the recognition she has received. She was awarded the first International Teaching Fellowship by the Singapore Ministry of Education in 2011, and the NSW PTC award in 2009, the APTA award in 2014 for her contribution to the teaching profession and 2021, the NSW PTC award for exceptional contribution to the teaching profession over a significant period.

Karen is currently doing a PhD with a focus on how an effective professional learning model can enable teachers to foster global competency and academic excellence.

See more from Karen Yager