Two years ago, almost every kindergarten child at Tregear Public School in Sydney's west was behind in their learning before they even stepped into a classroom. Some could not count to 10 or even identify numbers.
Now, only a handful of students are struggling to keep up, with more than 90 per cent of kindergarten students meeting the required standard in reading and numeracy.
A high-level advisory group headed by former NSW education director-general Ken Boston has implemented a five-year literacy and numeracy action plan in more than 300 of the state's most challenging government, Catholic and independent schools which have been battling for years, if not decades, to raise their levels of literacy and numeracy.
Dr Boston describes them as "the most valiantly struggling schools in the state".
The plan involves specialist teachers, known as instructional leaders, helping classroom teachers to carefully track the progress of each student from kindergarten to year 2 once every five weeks and tailoring specific programs to individual children based on their diagnosed level of learning. They also run intensive intervention programs for children who are at risk of failing to meet benchmarks.
After just two years, the advisory group has reported to NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli that the action plan is on track to finally lift the educational levels of the most disadvantaged students.
Dr Boston remembers Tregear as a poor-performing school when he was the director-general more than 20 years ago and says it has continued to struggle. Before it started the action plan, Tregear's year 3 NAPLAN results placed it in the bottom 20 per cent of schools in the state.
"All the signs are that, for the first time in a long period of time, something's happening," Dr Boston said.
"The turnaround has been incredible and it's happening not only here but in the other schools we've targeted too. We are incredibly optimistic that we're onto something here and that the rest of the schools in the system can learn something from it."
Tregear principal Richard Ford said almost all the students have had a tough start to life and some children arrived at the school with the development of a three-year-old.
"We identify them very early and we know exactly where they are at and what interventions they need," Mr Ford said.
Since the school joined the action plan in 2012, Mr Ford said he noticed a significant drop in behavioural problems, which were previously a hindrance to learning.
"The amount of suspensions we have at the school has dropped and I would put that solely down to the kids not being bored because they don't understand what's in their work," he said.
The school's instructional leader, Kerry Weston, said early intervention was crucial because it was "extremely difficult" for students to catch up if they were neglected until the older years.
"The road starts to get steep after kindergarten," she said.
"It's like you're running a race and the road becomes steeper. Year 1 is even harder and the difference between year 2 and year 3 is quite significant."
Mr Piccoli said there would be 400 schools in the action plan next year and more schools could use Gonski funding to employ instructional leaders in their classrooms.
"This is not about one great teacher in one school teaching one class, this is about having a great teacher imparting their knowledge on the whole school," he said.
"It is very data driven so teachers can track every five weeks how those students are doing, not relying on a test every year or every couple of years, and they can scientifically identify where each student is lacking and it can also do the same for professional development, so they can see where teachers can improve."
How it works
- Schools employ instructional leaders to help teachers in the classroom
- Teachers use data to constantly monitor students' achievements
- Tailor-made programs for each child
- Intensive intervention programs for children who are falling behind
