Breaking down school content with a new style of teaching

For the past 18 months, the explicit teaching strategy has been adopted by Glendore, Budgewoi, Belmont North and Kurri Kurri public schools, and is helping children reach success.

The teaching method is used to break down literacy and numeracy in the classroom, removing room for error early on, Glendore Public School deputy principal, curriculum pedagogy Elise Mountford says.

"I think traditionally kids were often left to do work by themselves in their school experience. Often there's a little explanation and off you go and do a worksheet," she said.

"A lot of the time that meant kids would practice errors which were not noticed until the teacher marked their work."

Charlestown South Public School adopted the strategy a decade ago and in the NSW Premier's visit to Newcastle this week, Chris Minns got to experience first-hand the work of students and teachers in explicit learning.

"Explicit instruction is the pedagogy that's been here for a decade," principal Tim Sparke said.

"If this is happening across Australia, public education is in good hands."

Ms Mountford said the teaching process was about mastering one concept at a time.

"We're checking for understanding throughout that teaching process and ensuring we're building students independence gradually," she said.

"We do lots of work on whiteboards, lots of checking for understanding and making sure they're not making mistakes really early in the process," she said.

Ms Mountford is working with other schools in the Hunter under the Effective and Systematic Teaching Network (EAST) to develop and implement resources for the mathematics curriculum.

Kurri Kurri Public School implemented explicit teaching only this year with a mathematics-focused curriculum, and principal Simon Mulready has already seen the benefits.

"For some of the students who weren't as engaged or finding it difficult to engage, this year have really connected with their learning," he said.

"Next year we'll have a look at the way explicit teaching will apply to the English curriculum."

Ms Mountford said the work of the EAST network in collaboration for education was "powerful".

"I think in the schools that have done this with fidelity and really committed to it, they get really, really strong results," she said.

She said there had been a transformative school culture from successful students to teachers feeling fulfilled, and a decline in behavioural and wellbeing issues.

"I've seen children who are from complex backgrounds, to high achievers benefit enormously from it. They feel seen and they feel successful," she said.

"There is no better feeling than looking across the classroom and knowing that every single child is engaged in the lesson that you're delivering."