National Partnerships Acquired In A Formal School Curriculum

A formal school curriculum or curriculum framework provides the guidelines and approaches that teachers use in school for students to achieve the expected learning outcomes stated in the curriculum (Marsh & Willis, 2007, p. 1: McLachlan, Fleur & Edwards, 2010, p. 59). A formal curriculum for a country or region identifies the important learning aspects for their children which reflect the values and beliefs of that society. The various sectors of people who participate in the construction of formal curriculum such as leaders of government departments, business and community leaders, educational experts and parents’ groups all have their own personal beliefs, values and reasons as what should be included in a formal curriculum, therefore, curriculum

Unfortunately, poverty tends to go hand in hand with migrants and refugee families which further complicated their children’s learning needs. To develop strategies and plans to tackle these issues, teachers and educational sectors must first acknowledge that racial categorisation and classification exist within our educational systems (Siraj-Blatchford & Clarke, 2004, p. 24). The Australian Government acknowledge these issues through school reform initiatives of the Council of Australian government (COAG). In 2008, Western Australian Government signed the Three Smarter Schools National Partnerships which provide funding to schools to support students, teachers and school leaders. The Three National Partnerships

Western Australian Government has further identified schools as priority for inclusion due to low Scio-Economic Index (SEI) score, such as schools in the remote Kimberly region. Western Australian Government has also identified schools where students are at or below the national minimum literacy and numeracy standard. The list is then cross-matched against schools selected for low SES National Partnership to ensure combined sustained effort is achieved. Within the Literacy and Numeracy National Partnership, Western Australian Government has selected 147 schools in 2009, involving 42,534 primary school children with 3,021 or 7.1% are Indigenous children. Within the Low SES Communities National Partnership, the Western Australian Government has identified 151 schools, involving 28,069 students with 9,844 or 35.07% Indigenous children. Regarding the Improving Teacher Quality National Partnership, strategies includes improving in-school support for teachers, school leadership support, mentoring support for new teaching graduates and upskilling of Indigenous educational assistance in schools in the Kimberly region. Intervention strategies are embedded in the overall strategies to support students with English as second language or English as second dialect (ESL/ESD) to ensure that differential learning is