Discussion - English and Mathematics Learning Time by Jeonghyun Kim

Thank you for the outstanding examples of instruction and the clear explanations accompanying them. The content is exceptionally well-presented and highly effective. It all makes perfect sense and reflects a deep understanding of best practice. Truly impressive work.

2025-08-07 06:08:36 UTC

2025-08-07 06:08:51 UTC

Same as other schools, will need to restructure release programs to fit in enough English and Maths. This may mean losing assessing subjects like HPE, Art, etc

Good

2025-08-07 06:08:56 UTC

Already following a similar outline but aiming for closer to 2 hours daily

Great framework with really good examples. It is helpful to hear about integration with other content areas. Very clearly explained

2025-08-07 06:09:13 UTC

Example timetable already aligns with our literacy block practices

2025-08-07 06:09:22 UTC

2025-08-07 06:09:23 UTC

Also great. Gives a good structure

2025-08-07 06:09:32 UTC

Love the practical examples! Been waiting for this!

Two examples, one being of more than one strand, particularly useful for shared classes/part time staff.

2025-08-07 06:09:52 UTC

This will be a great conversation starter for our staff - not just about the time spent but about making decisions as a team about sequencing the content well.

2025-08-07 06:09:52 UTC

Thoroughly presented and clear to understand. Thank you

2025-08-07 06:09:56 UTC

This is great as a minimum and should be clear for teachers that it is a minimum only.

2025-08-07 06:09:58 UTC

I like how it is highly structured and I feel that it will particularly benefit new educators. Nice to see reading and writing clearly linked as it should be.

2025-08-07 06:10:02 UTC

I love the clarity- we currently have a 2 hour 'literacy' block- the junior senior examples of structure are very helpful

2025-08-07 06:10:07 UTC

2025-08-07 06:10:10 UTC

Really good information, thank you. Would love more direction on which 'programs' or resources will be endorsed by the Directorate to help 2026 planning.

Like the clear expectation of mental maths as fluency building. This is sometimes forgotten.

2025-08-07 06:10:12 UTC

This looks great and aligns nicely with the structured literacy block we are using across the school to ensure that sufficient time is spent on high impact routines.

samantha — 2025-08-07 06:10:13 UTC

Does the 90 minutes have to be continuous? or can it be broken up across the day? Especially if we are integrating across other subject areas.

2025-08-07 06:10:17 UTC

reSolve CRA session yesterday discussed explicit teaching coming towards the end of the lesson, after students have experienced a rich task and explored concepts and skills. Teacher then brings this together with explicit teaching of what students discovered.

2025-08-07 06:10:18 UTC

Routine

2025-08-07 06:10:25 UTC

Does the activate - instruct - apply - reflect graphic need to be linear? Would it not be better to show that reflection should be ongoing throughout the lesson to check for understanding, misconceptions etc and adjust as you go?

Really like the first model

2025-08-07 06:10:26 UTC

Is there room for the minutes to be accumulative? For instance some of our staff don't have the 90 + 60 available on their release days...

2025-08-07 06:10:31 UTC

2025-08-07 06:10:32 UTC

The structure and guidance is good with the detailed explanation. Not to dissimilar to what we already do - probably just need to be a bit more ridged with the timing.

I like the two examples, one focusing on one area and the other making connections between areas of mathematics

2025-08-07 06:10:37 UTC

We follow this structure- but the mental maths being explicitly timetabled is good

2025-08-07 06:10:51 UTC

Examples of best practice - what are you expecting daily review to look like? That seems to be coming up a lot and when we spoke about it last meeting there weren't many resources to be shared in the space. We all know about Ochre - but is this what we are aiming for or is there a different vision in mind?

2025-08-07 06:10:52 UTC

Mathematics is always missing out in our teachers timetables. So again we need to stress that this is a minimum amount of time.

2025-08-07 06:10:52 UTC

It would mostly impact the release model - trying to timetable that around these mandated times.

2025-08-07 06:11:01 UTC

2025-08-07 06:11:12 UTC

Appreciate the explicit support/recommendation for integrating literacy and numeracy into all content areas to support learning in other subjects while building literacy and numeracy skills

Supporting us to connect with schools that are implementing this well

2025-08-07 06:11:34 UTC

Not very different to what we already do in the first model. I personally do not like the second model I feel it can’t lead to deep understanding due to constant flipping

2025-08-07 06:11:45 UTC

Example for structuring the mathematics block and specific details about what are the components of the block are very helpful and validating as it aligns with what we have already started working towards

2025-08-07 06:12:11 UTC

2025-08-07 06:12:25 UTC

Examples provided a a great starting point for school discussions. It is however important to ask if the 90 mins instructional time must be in a 'block' type structure as it could become overly prescriptive to dictate exactly how/when things must be taught. These structures could be just as easily implemented with a bit more flexibility to support teaching styles, differentiation and personalisation within our schools.

Great to hear the acknowledgement of connected and integrated English and Maths in timetables with other subject areas- apply to real world and other subjects

2025-08-07 06:12:43 UTC

A regular question from our school is if the ESO is going to provide schools with expected scope and sequences for content (this may be a way away of course if it is!)

2025-08-07 06:13:16 UTC

2025-08-07 06:13:26 UTC

The inclusion of reflection time is important to retain learning each session

We have a large collaborative planning block for teacher release each week which means one day ends up being about a half day of classroom teachers on class. We find we have to have shorter English and Maths sessions on these days. Not really sure how to get around this if we are expected to do the 90 and 60 every day.

2025-08-07 06:13:28 UTC

I find the change from literacy to "English" as a subject as controversial as I feel it is very important to link our reading and writing to the knowledge needed in other areas of the curriculum such as your Pygmy possum example and changing to the English only discipline may mislead people in learning English in isolation of curriculum content.

samantha — 2025-08-07 06:13:38 UTC

We integrate our subject areas and feel that this works well looking at writing to link in with HAAS etc and also maths eg economics with money and advertising

2025-08-07 06:13:57 UTC

2025-08-07 06:14:13 UTC

The inclusion of daily mental maths practise to build fluency

Can ESO work with reSolve on a full list of mathematics understandings please.

2025-08-07 06:14:28 UTC

It would be really important to monitor that the learning is deep and not surface level. Ensuring students have sufficient time to practice and achieve mastery of the key literacy skills. As reflected in the research, students key learning times are first thing in the morning and therefore the block should be continuous.

2025-08-07 06:14:42 UTC

Very thorough presentation of all the components of English instruction

2025-08-07 06:14:50 UTC

very relieved that the integration of subject areas is being mentioned. I'd love to see the reading and writing as one large chunk to highlight the importance of both being taught alongside each other.

2025-08-07 06:15:05 UTC

There is no implication for our school as we have a 120 minute of literacy every morning that is uninterrupted.

2025-08-07 06:15:48 UTC

Is ESO going to move towards providing 'researched based' mathematical resources we will be guided to use? Like the literacy programs?

2025-08-07 06:16:15 UTC

As part of our agreed practices we have 5 hours of scheduled maths time each week.

2025-08-07 06:16:19 UTC

Already on our way to planning our mathematics blocks similarly. Helps to see the structure

2025-08-07 06:16:22 UTC

How does Daily Review work if blocks being use flexibly across the day?

2025-08-07 06:17:04 UTC

Would you do a daily review at the start of each block of time?

Share programs and resources which would support teachers in planning and reducing workload

2025-08-07 06:19:57 UTC

We have been working on the Readers Workshop model to ensure there is differentiation for our learners and a routine for teachers to focus on the mini skills of reading, targeted to individual students. Where might this fit into the new model? I don't see differentiation mentioned.

2025-08-07 06:21:04 UTC

Implementation timeframes

2025-08-07 11:34:43 UTC

It is a big expectation on schools to be ready to go with full implementation of Strong Foundations by the start of 2026. To embed all information coming out from SF English and Maths and new teaching and learning guides will take more than 6 months to do justice and actually upskill our teachers with quality PD and mentoring.