Curriculum Implementation for Leaders: Intellectual preparation and collaborative planning to support effective responsive teaching

Program Overview

This course supports leaders to reorient school and teacher practices away from ‘making’ lessons, towards adopting, adapting and refining existing curriculum resources to meet students at their point of need. Across three workshops, small teams of leaders will learn how to select and implement a high quality curriculum or instructional resource - including but not limited to Ochre units, senior secondary lesson resources and textbooks. 

What will I learn about:

Workshop 1:

• The evidence base supporting the use of shared, high quality curriculum resources to improve student outcomes.
• Steps for implementing a shared bank of high quality instructional materials.
• The critical role of intellectual preparation (also known as lesson study): an individual teacher’s process of planning and refining existing resources to ensure students are able to think, learn, and engage with the key knowledge and skills within a lesson.
• What intellectual preparation looks like in practice and how it differs from lesson planning and/or making curriculum resources from scratch. 

Workshop 2:

• The importance of coherence in effective implementation of high quality curriculum resources, including how improved ‘upstream’ clarity of a school’s curriculum and instructional vision can reduce frustration and inconsistency.
• How to select and implement high quality instructional materials for your own school context (templates provided).
• Specific processes and activities to plan a curriculum using Ochre resources (or any prepared lesson materials), including how to integrate these with existing school curriculum approaches, timetables, documentation and pedagogical frameworks.
• The important distinction between individual intellectual preparation and collaborative planning time and how to invest in both. 
• How to reorient curriculum planning meetings towards effective unit preparation, curriculum implementation and professional learning.

Workshop 3:

• Using the curriculum implementation framework to select effective points of intervention and/or professional learning to improve student outcomes.
• How to design and implement professional learning to support teachers to intellectually prepare lessons.
• Building an Action Plan for professional learning in your own school.

Coaching call: Follow up support and feedback on Curriculum Implementation or a Professional Learning Action Plan is provided after the workshops in the form of a 30-minute coaching call per school.

The program will be run by Ochre Education leader Sonia Loudon with additional support from Ochre’s education team.

Who is it for?

This program is designed for school-based leadership teams who are keen to develop their understanding of how to incorporate pre-prepared materials into existing school materials. Teams will work together to develop processes that build a culture of strong intellectual preparation for teaching. Leadership teams could include middle leaders, heads of department or Principals (depending on school context). Participants can be drawn from across States and Territories and all sectors. Ideally, participating schools should have an existing pedagogical model to draw from. 

Although this course will draw on Ochre resources to demonstrate key concepts, it is relevant for all schools, irrespective of whether they use Ochre materials or not. Leaders or teachers seeking support on unpacking and implementing specific Ochre Units of work are encouraged to utilise the free implementation resources on the Ochre website and/or enrol in the shorter ‘Planning Using Ochre Resources’ Workshop.

How is it structured?

There are three 3 hour virtual workshops (via Zoom) (scheduled during late mornings AEST / early mornings AWST), in which school teams learn together and apply that learning in session. Alongside the virtual workshops, schools have access to a range of templates and readings to support their work. They have an opportunity to consult with curriculum experts for feedback and next-step problem-solving, conducted as a 30-minute online group coaching session assigned per school. All workshops will also be recorded for review.

When does the program run? 

Cohort 2 will commence in Term 2 2025

Cohort 2

What is the cost?

The school course cost is $2,200 plus GST for up to 3 participants. This fee provides access to the webinars, curriculum feedback and access to additional resources. Note that all participants covered in the school fee must be from the participating school.

Extra participants from the same school can be added for an additional $109 plus GST per person. Once you have secured your school place, email us for access to the additional places.