This guide makes recommendations based on the best available research evidence about how early childhood services with 3-5 year-olds can engage with families to enhance children’s early learning and development.
1 It sets out ‘promising’ and ‘not promising’ approaches drawn from multiple studies which have measured the effects of different strategies. While there is room for improvements in the quality of available research evidence,
2 these approaches provide ‘best bets’ for guiding practice. This guide also sets out next steps for early childhood services and practitioners to consider how the findings are relevant to them.

There is a great deal of evidence that families play a critical role in their child’s early learning and development. This resource details strategies for engaging families from culturally diverse backgrounds, families with English as an additional language, and families from refugee backgrounds by elaborating on the ‘promising approaches’ outlined in AERO’s family engagement for early learning practice guides (which target early childhood services with 3 to 5 year-olds).

There is a great deal of evidence that families play a critical role in their child’s learning. This resource details strategies for engaging families from culturally diverse backgrounds, families with English as an additional language, and families from refugee backgrounds, elaborating on the ‘promising approaches’ outlined in AERO’s family engagement for learning practice guides.

There is a great deal of evidence that families play a critical role in their child’s learning. This resource details strategies for engaging with families of children in out-of-home care (OOHC) to support children’s learning outcomes. These strategies elaborate on the ‘promising approaches’ outlined in AERO’s family engagement for learning practice guides.

The promising approaches include:

- recognising and supporting family engagement in learning at home
- supporting two-way, positive communication and providing light touch updates about learning
- promoting a literacy-rich environment at home (primary school guide)
- collaboratively planning and problem solving with families.

There is a great deal of evidence that families play a critical role in their child’s learning. This resource details strategies for engaging with families of children in out-of-home care (OOHC) to support children’s learning outcomes. These strategies elaborate on the ‘promising approaches’ outlined in AERO’s family engagement for learning practice guides.

The promising approaches include:

- recognising and supporting family engagement in learning at home
- supporting two-way, positive communication and providing light touch updates about learning
- promoting a literacy-rich environment at home (primary school guide)
- collaboratively planning and problem solving with families.

There is a great deal of evidence that families play a critical role in their child’s learning and development. This resource details engagement strategies for families of children with disability by elaborating on the ‘promising approaches’ outlined in the Australian Education Research Organisation’s (AERO) family engagement for early learning practice guides (which target early childhood services for 3- to 5-year-olds). In this resource, the term ‘disability’ also encompasses any children with developmental delay who may require additional support within an education and care setting. The Disability Discrimination Act 1992 protects Australians from discrimination based on disability. A child with a disability is entitled by law to be provided with an education program that is appropriate for their development and academic needs. Under the Disability Standards for Education 2005 (‘the standards’), education providers are obligated to make reasonable adjustments, consult with children and their families, and eliminate harassment and victimisation. The standards place responsibility for family
engagement on services, educators and teachers. This supports the requirements to build partnerships with families set out in the Early Years Learning Framework and National Quality Standard.

There is a great deal of evidence that families play a critical role in their child’s learning and development. This resource details engagement strategies for families of children with disability by elaborating on the ‘promising approaches’ outlined in the Australian Education Research Organisation’s (AERO) family engagement for learning practice guides. The Disability Discrimination Act 1992 protects Australians from discrimination based on disability. A child with a disability is entitled by law to be provided with an education program that is appropriate for their development and academic needs. Under the Disability Standards for Education 2005 (‘the standards’), education providers are obligated to make reasonable adjustments, consult with children and their families, and eliminate harassment and victimisation. The standards place responsibility for family engagement on schools, teachers and leaders. Families are important partners in supporting the learning of their children, so it is vital to understand how to work with them effectively as part of this engagement responsibility.

This guide makes recommendations based on the best available research evidence about how primary
school teachers and leaders can engage with families to bring about improvements in students’
learning outcomes. It sets out ‘promising’ and ‘not promising’ approaches drawn from multiple studies
which have measured the effects of different strategies. While there is room for improvements in the
quality of available research evidence,2 these approaches provide ‘best bets’ for guiding practice. This
guide also sets out next steps for considering how the findings relate to your individual practice or
whole school strategy.
Note that some of the examples offered may not apply in all contexts. Reasonable adjustments should
be made where necessary to ensure full access and participation for all families.

There is a great deal of evidence that families play a critical role in their child’s learning. So how can secondary school teachers best work with families to support student learning?

This guide makes recommendations based on the best available research evidence about how secondary school teachers and leaders can engage with families to bring about improvements in students’ learning outcomes.

An effective entrance routine promotes safety, builds positive connections with students and maximises instructional time.

This practice guide will support you to refine an effective entrance routine, which is important for maintaining a safe, supportive and orderly start to the day and classroom environment.

This guide is the fourth and final guide in the series and focuses on evaluating the processes and outcomes in the strategic plan.
Evaluation is central to strategic planning as it allows you to review what is and isn’t working on the school improvement journey. There are 2 types of evaluation you should consider:
Process evaluation examines whether practices have been applied in the way they were planned.
Outcome evaluation examines whether practices are having the desired effect on student learning.
Process and outcome evaluation both play key roles at different stages of a strategic plan’s life cycle.

This guide recommends practical steps for evaluating processes for improving practices, as well as the effect of these practices on student learning. We recommend reading this guide after you have read the third guide in this series, Selecting Practices to Deliver Improvement.

It includes guidance on how the unit was structured and sequenced and can be used while interacting with the Ochre resources. The plan also allows teachers to see an example of planning for a sequence of lessons and
reflect on their own teaching and effective practice. The unit plan is annotated to explicitly show some of the decisions that are made during the planning process.

This unit plan was developed by Ochre Education and maths teacher Sue Davis. It outlines her approach to teaching a Year 3 unit of maths on place value.
It includes guidance on how the unit was structured and sequenced and can be used while interacting with the Ochre resources. The plan also allows teachers to see an example of planning for a sequence of lessons and
reflect on their own teaching and effective practice. The unit plan is annotated to explicitly show some of the decisions that are made during the planning process. Another way to use this unit plan is as a starting point for discussions with colleagues to build collective capacity for lesson and unit planning. Teachers can also use the unit plan to reflect on their own planning for lessons and units and guide future planning.

This unit plan was developed by Ochre Education and science teacher Darcie Clarke. It outlines her approach to teaching a Year 8 unit of science on cells, organs and tissues. It includes guidance on how the unit was structured and sequenced and can be used while interacting with the Ochre resources. The plan also allows teachers to see an example of planning for a sequence of lessons and reflect on their own teaching and effective practice. The unit plan is annotated to explicitly show some of the decisions that are made during the planning process.

Executive function and self-regulation contribute to all five outcomes in the Early Years Learning Framework by enabling children to engage in learning, develop strong relationships with others and make choices that enhance their wellbeing.

This guide is one in AERO’s Tried and Tested series on evidenceinformed teaching practices in early childhood education and care settings that make a difference. Educators and teachers can use these guides to reflect on their practice and inform their planning for future instruction.

Executive functions enable humans to control impulses, stay focused, prioritise, and achieve our goals. They include 3 higher-order thinking skills that emerge during early childhood: working memory, inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility.

This early childhood learning trajectory looks at children’s progress in executive functions, to help you plan the next steps in their learning and development.

An exit routine at the end of a lesson provides a safe, predictable and organised end to learning. It’s important to plan dedicated time at the end of a lesson to ensure a consistent exit routine can take place every time students leave the classroom.

This practice guide will help teachers create, explain and use well-informed learning objectives and success criteria and activate students’ prior knowledge.

This practice guide will help you reflect and take action to develop your practice with a greater understanding of:

*the learning benefits when students understand the objectives of a lesson and how they can be successful
*specific techniques and strategies you can adopt to understand students’ prior knowledge, create well‑informed learning objectives and success criteria and use them effectively.

This guide is one in AERO’s Tried and tested series on evidenceinformed teaching practices that make a difference. Teachers can use these guides to reflect on their classroom practice and inform their planning for future instruction.

Implementation checklists are a list of practical steps you can take to support the implementation of an evidence-based practice in your setting.

This checklist focuses on implementing explicit instruction.

Have I...

*Broken down the piece of curriculum/syllabus content down into smaller tasks for my students? (this is known as “chunking”)
*Removed any parts of information that are not relevant, necessary or at the correct level of challenge for my students? (see formative assessment for learning where students are at)
*Created a learning objective to establish what students will need to know and produce by the end of the lesson?
*Communicated this learning goal to my students, and explained how it links to their previous work?
*Sequenced the instructional tasks so that they build on each other so that students can see their improvement?
*Allocated time in the lesson for students to practise using the new information before moving onto the next section of work?
*Designed worked examples designed to guide students through their first interaction with the work?
*Provided students with scaffolds that increase in their complexity and decrease in their modelling of skills as student proficiency grows?
*Planned some opportunities for feedback, including giving my students time to action the feedback, before moving onto the next chunk of work?