Teaching, Learning and Curriculum
Guide to Planning, Teaching, Assessing, and Reporting Learning in the Middle Years of Schooling
The Guide is a starting point that assists teachers to develop teaching and learning experiences for adolescent learners..more
Delivering the Curriculum
The Northern Territory Curriculum Framework (NTCF) is the required curriculum for students in the Middle Years. It provides teachers and schools with the scope and opportunity to plan, deliver and assess learner-centred, outcome-focused teaching and learning experiences.
The flexibility of the NTCF enables teachers to select content and teaching methods that are relevant to student needs. The aim is to keep students interested in their learning and give teachers the opportunity to ensure students achieve success.
The Middle Years approach to schooling requires a strong focus on the explicit teaching of literacy and numeracy skills across all areas of learning, as well as an increased focus on developing the knowledge, skills and understandings of vocational learning.
The Teaching, Learning and Standards team (Curriculum Services) will work with schools to scope and design appropriate pedagogy and assessment practices based on the Middle Years Principles and Policy Framework.
This process will enable teachers to:
- identify how they will use the NTCF to plan, teach, assess and report student learning in the Middle Years
- identify how they will collaborate to provide students with access to quality programs and become actively engaged in their learning.
Middle Years teachers will be provided with the Ready Set Go Middle Years materials.. In addition, every teacher has access to online curriculum support materials (known as Layer 2 materials) through the NT DET Schools Portal.
This includes:
- system-developed materials
- system-recommended materials
- teacher-devised and recommended materials.
Keeping Middle Years students interested in their education is essential to prepare them for the Senior Years. It is vital that we build student capacity to view the world critically and to act independently, cooperatively and responsibly.
Student-Teacher Relationships
The move from primary school to secondary school is an exciting time for many students. For some it can also be a very daunting experience. Students have to leave a familiar school environment, where they are usually exposed to either a small number of teachers or a single teacher for most of the school day, to one where they may be exposed to many teachers during the course of the school day.
The Middle Years approach bridges the gap between these two very different models of education and developing strong teacher-student relationships is critical.
In the Middle Years, students will generally have two or three main teachers during the day working as a team. They will also have access to specialist teachers who will teach particular subjects. Students will have more opportunities to discuss and determine some of their learning with their teachers and will be encouraged to gradually take greater responsibility for their learning.
This gives teachers the opportunity to develop stronger relationships with each student and design programs that allow for the individual differences in interest, achievement and learning styles. Teachers will have greater scope to engage with their students and make the transition a positive experience for them.
