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- The department recognises
the importance of monitoring students' development
of foundational literacy and numeracy skills
in the early years of schooling.
To support schools in this critical work,
the department developed Early Start in partnership with
the Australian Council for Educational Research.
Early Start is the department's key literacy
and numeracy monitoring tool
for students in prep to year two.
And the tasks and resources are designed specifically
for a Queensland context.
In 2019, the department partnered with
the Australian Council for Educational Research
to conduct a rigorous review
of the Early Start suite of materials.
The review confirm the currency and validity of Early Start
as a best practise monitoring tool
and showed that the materials allow teachers
to monitor students with a range of abilities and needs,
including students with learning difficulties
and disabilities
and those of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent.
It is affirming to know
that the review further found
that the Early Start tasks show appropriate mapping
to core skill development
as identified in literature for early years
literacy and numeracy.
Early Start materials are aligned to aspects
of the Australian curriculum,
allowing teachers to plan for differentiation
of literacy and numeracy within planned curriculum delivery
and automatically mapped to the P-10 literacy continuum,
allowing teachers to continue to monitor
and respond to students' development across the school year.
Importantly, as Early Start covers a range
of critical aspects in literacy and numeracy,
it is invaluable for identifying
and confirming through ongoing monitoring
students who may require further diagnostic investigation.
The high quality, age appropriate, engaging
and Queensland contextualised tasks
support teachers to implement Early Start with students
to monitor and track their literacy and numeracy progress
across prep to the beginning of year three.
One of the great benefits of administering Early Start
in one school is the range of reports
available for analysis.
And the student dashboard view in one school
provides a quick overview
of student literacy and numeracy progress.
The department support school leaders
to take a whole of school approach
and lead data informed conversations to
interpret and analyse Early Start reports
and plan for next steps in teaching and learning.
I encourage you to engage
with the other EDTV episodes,
which unpack the available Early Start reports in detail.
Early Start EDTV episodes
share a range of experiences,
including an example of how Kedron State School's
early years teaching and learning programme
is enriched and strengthened
by the implementation of Early Start.
Kedron State School uses the literacy P12 hub
on the learning place
as a resource to support differentiated teaching
and learning for their students.
Alignment of Early Start, the Australian curriculum
and used in conjunction with the P10 literacy continuum
support schools to plan for every student's progress
and success as part of curriculum delivery
in all Queensland early years classrooms.
For more information about Early Start,
visit the Early Start website on the learning place,
click on the professional learning tab
to find the Early Start task implementation training videos.
These short clips support teachers with strategies
for working with students
for each of the Early Start assessments.
And for information on the Early Start back to basics
appropriation payment,
click on the support tab.
This funding can be used to support the release of teachers
so Early Start tasks can be implemented
with individual students.
The Early Start EDTV episodes provide a step-by-step guide
for schools implementing Early Start.
These can be viewed by individual teachers
or used for a whole of school approach
to implementing Early Start.
For more information contact the Early Start team.
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