Acknowledgments

I wish to acknowledge the traditional owners and custodians of the land on which we meet—the Turrbal land and the Jagera people—and pay my respects to their elders, past and present.

I extend that respect to other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who are here today.

I’d also like to acknowledge:

• Uncle Albert, Elder
• School principals, teachers and representatives of education authorities from around Australia
• People watching the live stream

Introduction

It’s great to see so many people here.

We share a national commitment to improve the education of children who are vulnerable from poor literacy and numeracy.

We know that getting children onto a positive developmental pathway is critical to their success and satisfaction in later life.

We understand literacy and numeracy are the essential foundation skills children need during their education.

And we recognise these skills are also vital to ensure children are able to fully participate in their community once they leave school.

We also know that the lack of adequate literacy and numeracy will stop people from learning during their adult lives.

So as a society we can’t afford to be complacent about giving children strong skills in literacy and numeracy.

The good news is there is much we have already achieved, yet there is much more we can do.

I’m very aware that everyone in this room and watching this session is making a difference to literacy and numeracy in each of your communities.

This is the patient, time-consuming work which supports vulnerable students to achieve and to realise their potential.

So it’s exciting to have you all in this room and I want to thank you for taking the time to be here and discuss these critical issues.

Partnership for Literacy and Numeracy

The results we’ve already achieved under the Smarter Schools National Partnership for Literacy and Numeracy are very promising.

Today, the Council of Australian Governments Reform Council has released performance reports on progress during 2010.

The proportion of students achieving at or above the national minimum standards on literacy and numeracy has been more than 90 per cent for some years.

Off this very high base, we’ve seen a welcome increase nationally between 2008 and 2010 in reading skills of a few per cent for Year 3 students and also improvement in Year 7 reading and Year 5 numeracy.

It’s also been good to see a strong increase in the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students at or above national minimum standards for reading in Years 3 and 7.

However, there was a decrease for national Year 9 reading achievement over this period, and it’s clear that significant additional improvement is required to meet the COAG target of halving the Indigenous literacy and numeracy gaps within the next decade.

But overall it’s a very strong performance with welcome improvement for the younger children who will continue to benefit during their lifetime from this positive start.

So I do hope these results inspire you to continue your own excellent efforts.

Since the reforms commenced in 2009, we’ve seen about 1100 government and non-government schools benefit from participating in the Literacy and Numeracy partnership.

That’s around 11 per cent of all Australian schools.

We’ve seen more than 400,000 students given support they wouldn’t have received without the national partnerships being in place.

That’s 12 per cent of all students and includes about 28,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.

I want to give just a couple of examples where progress is being made and it is exciting progress.

The experience of Dernancourt Primary School in South Australia is just one example of the difference the extra assistance available can make.

Dernancourt Primary School is a government primary school with 155 students.

Thanks to National Partnership funding, it has a whole-of-school literacy program, and a partnership coach has been employed to help teachers plan lessons so they meet the needs of all students.

The NAPLAN results for Dernancourt Primary tell the story: 

• The Year 3 Numeracy average score has increased from 367 in 2008 to 425 in 2010.

  That’s a 58 point increase in just two years.

• The Year 3 Reading average score has increased from 379 to 454.

  An even bigger increase of 75 points.

• And the Year 5 Numeracy average score increased from 419 in 2008 to 476 in 2010.

  Again a very impressive 57 point increase.

So the Principal and teachers at Dernancourt are making a real difference to the lives of vulnerable children, who might otherwise miss out on these critical foundation skills.

Here in Brisbane, another great example is the Taigum State School. This primary school now has a numeracy coach who mentors and develops teacher skills.

As well as the numeracy coach, the school is supporting teachers to develop an understanding of the expectations of literacy and numeracy skill levels across all learning areas.

Teachers are also being given access to data tools that help monitor student progress.

Of course this also helps teachers plan their teaching in a more informed way.

So here at Taigum we have:

• The Year 3 Reading average increasing from 337 in 2008 to 370 in 2010.
• The Year 3 Numeracy score increasing from 331 to 378 in the same period.
• The Year 5 Reading average increasing from 416 to 450.
• The Year 5 Numeracy average increasing from 428 to 458.

These exciting results have been facilitated by the national partnerships, but I know very well it is the teachers and administrators who have made this happen at the local level.

You work under considerable pressure, with too few hours in each day.

I know the great majority of teachers go the extra mile for their students – and the mile after that as well.

That’s why as well as doubling the education budget and setting up the three $2.5 billion Smarter Schools Partnerships with the states and territories, we focused this year’s Budget on supporting teaching and teacher quality.

To support and motivate teachers – and because we know quality teaching is the single most important in-school contributor to the achievement of students – we provided substantial new funding to improve schools and recognise and reward teachers.

This includes the Rewards for Great Teachers initiative, which recognises our exceptional teachers and rewards them for their valuable work.

We have also acted to attract more people into the teaching profession, with the Teach Next program, to bring talented professionals in to teach in areas of critical shortage, such as mathematics and science, in some of the most challenging schools.

We also recognised the unique role and responsibilities of school principals through our Empowering Local Schools initiative.

This allows principals and the school community to set local priorities and gives schools the power to make decisions about what works best in that place.

And there’s the Reward for School Improvement initiative that will support and reward the work of schools to improve the results they are achieving for their students.

I’m listening very closely to the profession and what they think about the roll out of these initiatives. This is all part of the game changing agenda we have underway in school education, including national assessment, a national curriculum, national teacher training standards, and of course the Smarter Schools partnerships.

I am particularly focussed on the importance of closing the gap in literacy and numeracy between Indigenous and other students.

At Nhulunbuy Primary School in the Northern Territory, Literacy and Numeracy Partnership funding is being used to train teachers in the First Steps in Reading and Writing Strategy. 

Ten literacy tutors, and a numeracy program have also been introduced to help the kids who most need it. 

Last year the school was awarded a ‘Smart Schools’ Excellence Award for improving literacy and numeracy. 

As with my other examples, there’s huge improvement, with the Year 3 Reading average score increasing from 358 in 2008 to 411 in 2010.

That is a phenomenal result and all those other examples I have mentioned show what can be achieved when hard‑working teachers and busy school communities are given extra, targeted support in the critical areas of literacy and numeracy.

As a further incentive, we’ve provided more than $138 million in Commonwealth reward funding this year for meeting targets under the Literacy and Numeracy Partnership.

Each state and territory has received a share of the funding based on performance against their specific targets.

We are rewarding those who do well and withholding reward funding from those states who haven’t met their set targets.

We recognise that this is a challenging, long-term improvement agenda. But we are determined to drive performance that improves our education system.

As the impact of the reform efforts are expected to be more evident in the second year of this Partnership, the Australian Government has ensured that unclaimed reward funds from the first year be rolled over to the second year. 

This will give states and territories the opportunity to demonstrate further improvement against truly ambitious targets and be rewarded for doing well.

Teach, Learn, Share: National Evidence Base

Not only are we seeing schools showing significant improvements in literacy and numeracy from the partnership, but critically we are also using this information to build the evidence base for what works and what doesn’t.

To further build the evidence base, today I invite everyone here – teachers, principals, school leaders, education practitioners and academic professionals – to contribute your successful strategies to the Teach, Learn, Share: The National Literacy and Numeracy Evidence Base.

This will be open for submissions on 21 November.

The National Literacy and Numeracy Evidence Base will offer teachers and educators an online resource for sharing information about literacy and numeracy tools and strategies.

It’s the people in this room and your colleagues around the country who know what works and who can contribute a huge range of ideas and evidence because of your intimate knowledge of teaching and student learning.

We want to capture this expertise so we can share the best strategies and programs so that we can make further rapid advances in literacy and numeracy across the nation.

This is a great initiative and I encourage you to get involved and make a submission.

Each contribution will be evaluated by an assessment panel to make sure every strategy included in the Evidence Base is effective. 

We’ve developed this evidence base initiative in partnership with state and territory governments. Because working in partnership is essential to achieve these critical reforms.

And with your input and expertise it will be a terrific example of how we can all work together positively to improve these critical foundation skills.

It’s a model with enormous potential for the future and for application in other areas of teaching and learning.

We do want to make Teach, Learn, Share a trusted and useful source of information for educators that embeds the good work of the Literacy and Numeracy National Partnership and moves beyond it to capture and share future success. 

Review of Funding for Schooling

Finally, I would like to add a few quick words on the Review of Funding for Schooling, chaired by David Gonski.

The need to fund all schools appropriately is an essential part to realising our agenda for schools reform.

The task set for the Gonski Review comes down to a number of key questions:

•  Are our schools being supported to prepare our children adequately for the economy, the society and the world into which they are graduating?
• And what fundamental ingredients must we provide as a nation to ensure we give every student– that adequate preparation?

Our goal needs to be ensuring that every child and every school has access to the right resources to educate our children to the standard we expect as a leading OECD nation.

I want to emphasise no school will lose a single dollar per student as a result of the Gonski Review.

The review will also provide advice on appropriate transitional assistance to help schools move easily and fairly to any new future funding arrangements.

The fact is, this is genuinely and literally, a once-in-a-generation opportunity to establish a sure footing for schooling in Australia.

The Government will wait to receive the advice that comes out of the Review before making any decisions on future directions.

We really are committed to making every school a great school and continuing this part of substantial reform in school education.

Conclusion

In the meantime, it’s terrific to share the buzz in this room and think about what will be achieved over the next few days.

I see people deeply committed to supporting our young people to gain core literacy and numeracy skills that will help them to build the futures they want for themselves through education.

I share your commitment.

I am convinced that high quality teaching, together with strong school leadership and whole school approaches are the foundation by which schools can support our students to build those futures.

We cannot allow a generation of students to fall short of their potential because they lack basic literacy and numeracy skills.

This Forum is a great opportunity to learn about the initiatives that work and consider how you might apply these in your schools and communities

So I encourage you to take back the wisdom and good practice, and share it with your colleagues.

I am very pleased now to formally declare the Forum open and I wish you well as you discuss and consider these important issues – issues that are absolutely essential to the prospects of our nation – over the next few days.

ENDS