south australia department for education strategic plan

Our strategy for public education in South Australia

We aim to ensure South Australia’s public education system can unlock every child’s potential now and in the future.

Public education is for every young person in South Australia

Children and students learning and thriving..

Our purpose for public education in South Australia.

Public education is for every child and young person in every community across our state.

Educators and staff work in partnership with families and communities to nurture, develop and empower all South Australian children and young people with the knowledge, skills and capabilities they need to become fulfilled individuals, active, compassionate citizens and lifelong learners.

Our preschools and schools are the heart of local communities.

They are safe, inclusive, and collaborative – a place where every child and young person is encouraged to contribute, develops positive relationships, has a say in their learning, and where their needs, interests, languages and cultures are recognised and supported.

We are relentless in our ambition for all children and young people to enter the world beyond the classroom ready to learn and create opportunities to live a satisfying and fulfilling life of their choosing.

When our children and young people thrive so does South Australia.

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Strategy on a page

Our purpose and all the areas of impact, levers for impact, and performance measures on one page.

Read our strategy in full

Download a PDF copy of our purpose and strategy for public education.

How we created our purpose

To help build a world-leading public education system for South Australia, we led a statewide conversation, starting with our learners.

We’ve heard from over 10,000 preschoolers and school students across the state, staff, families, the community, and employers.

We also engaged with a range of local, national and international experts .

Their voices were used to create the purpose statement for South Australian public education.

Hear what our preschoolers and public school students had to say

South Australian public school students and preschoolers attended student forums to help decide our purpose and way forward.

Why our purpose is important

Our world is constantly changing and the future we’re educating our children and young people for will be vastly different from today.

Public education needs to continually adapt too.

We intend to stay ahead of these changing demands and support children and young people to learn and thrive as they prepare for their futures beyond the classroom.

We need to be clear about what we’re trying to provide for our students so we can measure whether we’re achieving it.

Chief Executive Martin Westwell discusses how we can shape the future of education in SA (7:39)

Areas of impact

Our areas of impact describe what we will prioritise and resource to successfully deliver on our purpose.

A solid evidence base and set of success measures will help us track how we’re going and what we need to focus on to fulfil our purpose.

These areas of impact are all interrelated and are underpinned by a series of domains – the outcomes we’re aiming for.

Discover our areas of impact by interacting with the diagram or scroll down to explore.

Our learners feel safe, included, and valued. They have access to support, experiences, teaching, and resources to build their resilience and social and emotional skills to positively and confidently engage in learning.

Belonging and safety

Learners feel they belong, are culturally safe, and are free to experiment, to raise questions and learn without feeling threatened.

Resilience and persistence

Learners have the capacity to cope with day-to-day challenges and persevere when faced with new or complex learning situations.

Cognitive engagement

Learners have the mental capability to engage actively in learning and feel stretched and challenged.

Check out the useful links or learn about our other areas of impact.

Useful links

• Wellbeing and engagement collection (WEC)
• School mental health service
• Student wellbeing leaders in schools
• Wellbeing Programs Directory
• Student mentoring
• Culturally Responsive Framework (PDF 6.7MB)
• Violence prevention and response in schools
• Statewide bullying prevention strategy
• Targeted learning services for mental health and trauma
• Breakfast programs

Case studies

Nurturing independence and confidence at Peterborough Community Preschool

Equity and student agency brings authentic learning to Craigmore High School

Equity and excellence

We strive for excellence including foundational capabilities such as literacy, numeracy and digital in all learners, by providing varied, challenging, and stimulating experiences.

As well as opportunities that enable all learners to explore and build on their own abilities, interests, culture and experiences. We seek out inequity, eliminate barriers to opportunities and support all students to learn and thrive.

Knowledge, skills, competencies, and capabilities

Learners develop foundational knowledge, capabilities including literacy, numeracy and digital literacy, skills and values. All learners have the opportunity to develop mastery in their chosen areas of interest.

Aboriginal learners

Aboriginal children and young people build on their cultural identity and pride, and develop the knowledge, skills, confidence and resilience needed to achieve their goals and thrive in society.

Learners from all social, cultural, community and family backgrounds, and of all identities and all abilities are able to access and fully participate in learning experiences.

Breaking the link between background and excellence

Our education system helps to overcome barriers to learning and empowers all children and young people.

• Literacy and numeracy programs in schools
• How to make numeracy count in the school
• Resources for families
• Literacy guidebooks (Education staff)
• Aboriginal education strategy
• Aboriginal education resources (Education staff)
• Culturally responsive framework (PDF, 6.7MB)
• Disability access and inclusion plan
• Improving support for children and students with autism

High expectations for all learners at Westport Primary School and Preschool

Belonging and connection – Tea Tree Gully Primary School is a place where everyone can succeed

Effective learners

Education must develop children and young people who can learn, not only when they are being taught. At preschool and school and throughout their lives, learners need to develop the skills to be effective learners so that they can make the most of future opportunities and respond to changes in their worlds.

Learners ask questions to ‘get to the bottom of it’ and are less accepting of received wisdom until it is evidenced.

Learners think ‘outside the box’, take chances, use imagination and intuition and are receptive to hunches and inklings.

Meaning making

Learners make connections between past information and/or experiences and new knowledge.

Strategic awareness

Learners know what to do when they don’t know what to do.

Metacognition and self-regulation

Learners who can stop and think about what’s needed to best achieve the task in front of them. Learners are able to understand and manage their behaviour and reactions to their environment.

Connecting student wellbeing and real-world learning at Seaton High School

Personalised pathways for SACE students at Seaview High School

Learner agency

Our learners are empowered to develop a sense of identity and responsibility as they participate in their preschool and school community and are supported to play a role in shaping their learning experiences.

Voice to agency

Learners have a say and ‘own’ what they learn and how they learn.

Partners in learning

Learners are active partners in their learning, collaborating with both teachers and peers to create a dynamic and engaging educational experience.

Discernment and judgement

Learners are able to make considered decisions about the best ways for them to go about their learning and assessment tasks and what new learning may be necessary for them to be successful.

Setting students up through design thinking and learner agency at Stirling North Primary School

Co-created learning and embedded decision making at Prospect North Primary School

Delivering on our purpose

Levers for impact

These 7 key levers will be used to make the most impact across our work. Our system levers support and enable our people to create the biggest impact for our learners. Our people are our strongest levers for impact, particularly those working alongside our learners to support their capacity to thrive.

People levers

To deliver on our purpose, we need to support and empower our educators as they hone their craft, celebrate and showcase their professional identity and support the critical role they play in supporting our learners to thrive.

Effective teaching and learning is our biggest lever in achieving our purpose. Teachers will be supported and empowered to innovate and be at their best to ensure our learners thrive.

• Networks will connect teachers with each other across the system to share their craft and learn from one another.
• Strong working relationships between our preschools, schools and service supports.
• Pedagogical learning and assessment expertise will be a focus through professional development and resources.
• Curriculum and other resources will support teaching and learning.

Leadership in our preschools and schools takes many forms. We need our leaders to hold tight to our shared purpose but be flexible to respond to the context of their community. As a system we will support our leaders to collaborate with their communities to lead the learning and change processes aligned to our purpose and principles.

• Leader networks will work collaboratively across partnerships and sites, with shared tools and resources.
• A focus on wellbeing will ensure our preschool and school leaders can access professional supports and have the capacity to fulfil their roles.
• Workload and intensity will be a focus so leaders in our preschools and schools can concentrate on leading for impact in their community.
• Focused professional learning that best supports preschool and school leaders in the core aspects of their role.

Public education is of and for our community. Families are a child’s first teacher and developing strong partnerships between preschools, schools and families is crucial. Partnering with cultural and community organisations and employers will help our learners have connected and supported learning opportunities.

• Preschools and schools will foster the connection with their local community, by developing partnerships with cultural and community organisations.
• Partnerships with industry employers will provide improved career opportunities for our learners and help young people to develop the skills, dispositions and capabilities that support success in the workforce.
• Families will be involved in goal setting for our learners, as well as celebrating and embracing their experiences and culture as part of the learning process in our schools and preschools.

Our learners are the most powerful source of intelligence as we consider the biggest impact public education can have in our community. Their input and work in supporting the learning process is critical in how we achieve our purpose.

• Working with learners, as agents of change, to better understand their needs will be a driver for our decision making, teaching and learning approaches and measurement.
• We will activate our learners to ensure the work being done to drive learning co-designed with leaders, and learner development is informed by their context of student needs.

System levers

Educators understand the needs of their learners and leaders understand their local community. We will continue to work closely with leaders and educators to provide supports that help our learners succeed.

• Greater recognition and understanding of the role non-teaching staff provide in supporting learners, preschools and schools.
• Stronger feedback loops and codesign approaches for the department’s preschool and school supports to ensure optimal impact for our learners.
• More flexible approaches to support the needs of each community.
• Provision of timely and appropriate support services for learners who may need extra help in the classroom.

Building a world-leading education system requires a considered resourcing and investment program. Our investment will reflect the infrastructure and resourcing for maximum impact in each community.

• Investment in developing and sustaining fit for purpose infrastructure where it is most needed to support our ambition for equity and excellence.
• Leverage school connectivity and digital learning for educators, leaders and learners.

Preschools and schools need to be able to make informed choices using data and evidence to respond to their learners, community, and context.

• School improvement will include a broader set of measures that recognise the success of the individual preschool or school as well as the areas of potential improvement, based on their own starting point and learners.
• Preschools and schools will use strategies for improvement that address their chosen areas of impact.
• Timely data for educators, leaders and staff for planning.

Guiding principles

Our guiding principles describe how we make decisions and approach our work in ways that best use the levers to achieve our areas of impact..

We all share responsibility to help our children and young people learn and thrive, and through collaborative effort we will achieve more than the sum of the parts, break down barriers and work together to deliver on our purpose and areas of impact.

This is a great strength of public education.

In public education, we learn with and from each other and have the confidence and vulnerability to try new things or change the things we think can be done better.

We will leverage expertise and be open minded to expert referencing.

Praiseworthy failure, through exploration and testing boundaries in the right way, will be embraced – this is how we will continually improve.

In public education we will keep in focus the difference we are making to our learners, through creating a culture that measures for impact using evidence, research and data and by using what we learn to inform our policy and practice at every level of the system.

We will be tight on the purpose we have agreed to take responsibility for, and we will be flexible on how it might be best achieved in different contexts.

We must be able to understand what that means for our work and within the preschool and school context and tailor accordingly.

Some areas of impact will need to take priority over others, providing the ability to make a difference based on our context and our starting point.

We will empower our staff with the autonomy to do great work, without losing sight of the big picture and provide support and structures to make informed decisions to deliver on our purpose.

We will start with the premise that we trust the professional judgement of our educators, staff and leaders.

We recognise that we are accountable to the public for the trust and resources provided to public education, and to our children and young people to keep the promise articulated in our purpose statement.

Measuring our progress

We will use success measures to guide our understanding of how the education system is working and how to adapt our strategy. Many of these measures will be collected in our schools. New and adapted measures will be developed and trialled collaboratively over time.

• Sense of belonging ( WEC )
• Resilience, distress and persistence ( WEC )
• Attendance (EDSAS/EMS)
• Engagement ( WEC )

• Foundations in literacy, numeracy and digital literacy* ( Phonics , PAT , NAPLAN )
• Subject grades ( A to E grade data collection (staff intranet) ; SACE )
• Child development upon starting reception ( AEDC )
• Earning and learning pathways after leaving school ( SACE , VET )
• Students leaving and joining public education (enrolment census)

• Voice and choice*
• Motivation and ownership*
• Purpose and self-efficacy*

* to be developed

• Learning practices and academic self-concept ( WEC)
• Experience of learning challenges *
• Perseverance ( WEC )
• Self-regulated learning and metacognition*

Strategy in action

Watch case studies of some of our schools and preschools learning and thriving

Video transcript and closed captions. #ChristiesBeachPrimarySchool

Video transcript and closed captions. #Wellbeing #LearnerAgency #PeterboroughCommunityPreschool

Video transcript. #LearnAndThrive #EducationSouthAustralia

Video transcript and closed captions. #LearnerAgency #EffectiveLearners #EquityAndExcellence

Video transcript and closed captions. #EffectiveLearners #EquityAndExcellence #LearnerAgency

Video transcript and closed captions. #EquityAndExcellence #Wellbeing

Video transcript and closed captions. #LearnerAgency #EffectiveLearners #Wellbeing

Video transcript and closed captions. #EffectiveLearners #LearnerAgency #Wellbeing

Video transcript and closed captions. #EquityAndExcellence #Wellbeing #EffectiveLearners

For staff (login required)

• NEW! Site planning for our strategy for public education
• NEW! Facilitator guide and resources to explore the strategy
• Meaning making workshop collateral
• Learner agency workshop for students with Professor Guy Claxton

From the experts

Valerie Hannon: Designing a public education system fit for the times

Geoff Masters: Equity and the purpose of public education

Sir Kevan Collins: The purpose of public education

Chris Harte: The role of technology in teaching and learning

• Authentic assessments: breadth vs depth - Innovation Playlist
• Community Circles - Innovation Playlist
• Democracy and public education - Alan Reid
• Most Likely to Succeed - docuseries playlist
• New metrics for charting success - Sandra Milligan
• Our global context: children and young people's future - Valerie Hannon
• The future of work: will our children be prepared? - What School Could Be
• Building a world-class system - Geoff Masters
• Learning on purpose: ten lessons in placing student agency at the heart of schools - Charles Leadbeater
• The Alice Springs (Mparntwe) Education Declaration - Australian Government
• The future of education leadership: five signposts - Valerie Hannon and Anthony Mackay
• Understanding equity in education part 1: What is equity? - Pasi Sahlberg

Return to start

Return to education .sa.gov.au

Improving schools: Reflections from education leaders in South Australia

In the course of 2018, the South Australia Department for Education embarked on a unique school-improvement program in which it leveraged student and school data to develop differentiated improvement strategies, created a robust improvement-planning tool kit for schools, and used best-practice change management for communication and to set high expectations. The program was led by Department for Education chief executive Rick Persse, who was just under two years into his role. Alongside him were Anne Millard, the department’s executive director of partnerships, schools, and preschools, and Ben Temperly, the department’s executive director of system performance. McKinsey’s Marieke D’Cruz, Seckin Ungur, and Bart Woord met with the three executives to discuss the program’s journey and ten-year strategy. The following is an edited version of their conversation.

McKinsey: What was the impetus for embarking on the reform strategy?

Rick Persse: We could point to NAPLAN 1 The National Assessment Program—Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) test, Australia’s standardized test for literacy and numeracy, is conducted annually for students in years three, five, seven, and nine. data, which showed that South Australia was losing touch with the national average at a worrying rate. In some ways, the state had almost convinced itself that this was acceptable because of socioeconomic factors. I do believe there is a relationship, but we were convinced that, with a concerted effort and clear strategy, we could do a lot better.

McKinsey: How did you go about setting up for the reform?

Rick Persse: We began with a data-analysis phase, which supported our hypothesis that we had a very patchy system. In addition, systemwide interventions largely hadn’t differentiated enough between schools to bring about effective change. So that triggered a series of conversations with every principal about where schools were in terms of their improvement journeys. These were pivotal for “baselining,” so we could then turn discussions toward how to improve.

Our data analysis showed that we had a lot of schools that were coasting—not going backward but not going forward either. We had a range of system strategies, which were not really differentiated and were not as data driven as they should have been. And we didn’t have the organization to be able to execute effectively.

We were supported by the state government and were able to pitch them our system-improvement story, which lined up with their ambition to have the best education system in Australia. We had a plan, and of course, the government had some priorities, and we were able to weave them into our strategic plan.

McKinsey: It sounds like there wasn’t much of an internal platform for change before you began. How did you generate buy-in from the system?

Rick Persse: The honest conversations we had with each principal were important. In essence, there is no principal who doesn’t want great outcomes for his or her kids. However, some principals are more experienced, have greater scale or more resources, or might be located in an inner-metropolitan area and have strong teams that are more able to deliver than others.

We have 500 schools and preschools in a large geography, and we were able to argue that the way we were supporting these schools and preschools was inequitable.

Ben Temperly: Prior to the school-improvement model, a lot of the conversations around learning outcomes were based on school mean scores. However, that hides the dynamic in terms of how individual students are tracking.

The conversation shifted from mean scores to a set of performance metrics based on both the learning achievement of every child and the change in that learning achievement over time. This moved the conversation from mean scores to learning growth. 2 A benefit of Australia’s NAPLAN test is that it is on a continuous scale, which allows systems to track the learning trajectories for individual students and pinpoint the students who are learning more or less compared with the national average. Students complete the NAPLAN test every two years from year three to year nine, allowing Australia to gauge whether the equivalent of two years of learning has been achieved for each student from test to test.

McKinsey: Some of the markers of success in implementing reform are having a defined set of priorities and not trying to fix everything at once—also being laser focused on implementation and communication. How did you think about defining and setting up the reform program?

Rick Persse: Certainly in the early days, it was very center led. Anne, Ben, and myself were key stewards of the design, and we made it clear that this was our number-one priority. We were pretty honest with ourselves and with our stakeholders about what we were going after and how. There was a package of reforms that needed to happen in concert, and there was also a required sequence around resourcing.

One of the obvious improvements was in relation to our education teams and education directors. 3 Education directors are direct-line managers for principals. When I came here, we had about 20 education directors, and each was responsible for a portfolio of 40, 50, or 60 schools and preschools. We were asking them to be the mediating layer between the Department for Education and each school and preschool. So we made multimillion-dollar decisions about resourcing the middle layer better.

Ben Temperly: You’ll have your moments with academics, and you might have your moments with unions. But we didn’t back away from those conversations. We were clear in what we were going after.

McKinsey: Speaking of what you were going after, could you describe the key elements of the reform since 2018?

Rick Persse: I think school-improvement planning was a key deliverable. That was a data-driven planning regime that would be consistent across all schools and subsequently rolled out, in a nuanced way, with preschools. It included a clear three-year school-improvement digital-planning template, which had consistent elements but also the ability to make contextual changes.

Often it was a case of schools having too many priorities and lacking focus. The data that Ben’s people brought to the table helped underpin schools’ priorities, and there were a series of interventions aligned to those, including our guidebooks focused on literacy and numeracy.

The establishment of our professional-learning academy was another key element.

Would you like to learn more about our Public & Social Sector Practice ?

Ben Temperly: Rick mentioned support for schools through additional local education teams. That was almost the first priority decision we made. We provided a dashboard for every school leader that included a suite of performance metrics, which we intentionally kept limited but well balanced between leading and lagging indicators. It included literacy and numeracy, year-12 completion and achievement, and some contextual information and organizational health indicators. We tried to be focused and consistent but also provide the basis for a shared understanding of where the school was on its improvement journey.

Rick Persse: I neglected to say each school was plotted on a maturity model 4 This was an analytical model using both student-performance and trajectory data to identify groups of schools at different stages of improvement. ; however, we never published the results, because we didn’t want a league table kind of conversation.

In the past, we’d put out a system strategy that was largely designed around the median, which wasn’t helpful. Now our guidebooks and other tools are differentiated according to our maturity model, which means we are much more targeted than in the past.

We also had fairly consistent key leaders, and our senior executive group has been fairly stable. The work we did to identify our ten-year aspiration would have meant the second-fastest education transformation globally, behind Singapore, so we were very aware of the fact that we couldn’t change the goalposts on everything. As such, our communication to the leaders has been pretty consistent, and I think that will be important as we maintain our shape going forward.

McKinsey: Could you talk a little bit about how you managed stakeholders? Which groups were most important to engage? Were there any particular groups that were difficult, and how did you overcome that?

Rick Persse: There are pivotal groups in any jurisdiction. Principals’ associations are one of them, and unions are another, as well as the government, the opposition, and the media.

Our principals’ associations probably weren’t wildly enthusiastic early on, but we developed design principles that addressed some of their pain points. We also spent some quality time discussing things with them.

We activated the middle layer—the education directors. Boosting their numbers by 50 percent meant that the quality and frequency of the conversations were better. We took the opportunity to recruit from within South Australia but also from outside South Australia and Australia, which was terrific.

I’ve also visited 400 schools and preschools. They respond to being listened to—to us “walking a mile in their shoes.”

McKinsey: That’s amazing. It’s a real example of putting the customer at the center in a very practical sort of way.

Rick Persse: South Australia is a good scale. We’re not tiny, but we’re not so huge that we don’t know every leader. We have been in every school and preschool. All of them email me, Anne, and Ben directly. We do little things. We’ve sent some chocolates to every person in a school or a preschool. But on the flip side, we’ve also made them do their reports, despite the COVID-19 pandemic. 5 South Australia has remained largely unscathed through the pandemic; the Department for Education had to close schools for just one week in 2020. We ask a lot of our leaders, but they always respond.

Anne Millard: We are immersing people in the conversation, so they hear exactly the same things, or pretty close to the same, from a whole bunch of directions—one on one.

A critical pivot we made was to reset the performance conversations we were having with schools and put the improvement model at the center. It was both useful for schools to have an anchor point for how to talk about school improvement, as well as for us to understand how the model was working on the ground.

Rick Persse: We have an annual Leaders’ Day. There are no hidden agendas. If we need to have a debate about something, we have it with the lights on and in the open.

‘But this is the beauty of a world-class aspiration. We look each other in the eye and say, “Is that going to be a world-class appointment? Is that going to be a world-class website? Is that going to be a world-class workforce strategy? Is that going to be a world-class professional-learning academy?”’ Rick Persse

McKinsey: I’d love to talk a little bit about capability and culture. What capability or cultural barriers did you face? How did you address them?

Rick Persse: There were certainly some capability gaps in a couple of areas, including in HR and in technology, so we recruited in those. I felt we had all the key ingredients in the core business—in school operations and curriculum. Rather than add capacity or capability, we lifted key people up. Lifting Ben’s system-performance group into codriving our reforms was important. We also made a change to flatten the executive structure.

But this is the beauty of a world-class aspiration. We look each other in the eye and say, “Is that going to be a world-class appointment? Is that going to be a world-class website? Is that going to be a world-class workforce strategy? Is that going to be a world-class professional-learning academy?”

Ben Temperly: One thing that helped was codesigning the dashboard with principals. We also developed our own data-product capability, which I think was a positive, rather than relying on outsourced options.

But the big capability we developed was implementation at scale—meaning consistency of application across all of our schools.

Anne Millard: I think there are a couple of things. One is that people quickly learned that the people at the center would be responsive and listen. I think the other was trying to become a much more contemporary organization.

McKinsey: How would you describe the success of the education-reform program since 2018? What were some pivotal moments, and how do you plan to sustain this going forward?

Rick Persse: I think a pivotal moment was having a “single source of truth” in a dashboard. Others were the abilities to plot each school and to have conversations about where they were on the maturity model. A pivotal moment was when every school had a school-improvement plan. They might sound a bit “tick box,” but it was a monstrous effort that the team pulled off.

More recently, it has been starting to see some of the fruits of our labors. Before we started, we were going backward in 12 of 16 domains, compared to the Australian average. We have completely reversed that. The numbers are encouraging, and we are only two-and-a-half years into our ten-year journey.

‘Before we started, we were going backward in 12 of 16 domains, compared to the Australian average. We have completely reversed that. The numbers are encouraging, and we are only two-and-a-half years into our ten-year journey.’ Rick Persse

Historically, we decided that the department wasn’t going to have views on what to teach and how to teach it. Now we are going to have those views, but we’re mindful that we’re doing it in an invitational way.

If we can provide high-quality materials that are helpful and curated with integrity, as well as the best evidence to underpin them, people will grab them.

We’re doing a range of other things. We’ve got this balancing act about not moving the goalposts, but then we’re also folding in accelerators. We couldn’t have done the current curriculum-support program without having a school-improvement regime and a planning regime. And we could not have had any of that unless the data supported it. So there’s a natural sequence that is important.

McKinsey: As you said, you’re two-and-a-half years in. Looking back, is there anything you would do differently?

Anne Millard: I think we have been pretty good at staying on course, but we could have put some mechanisms in to make that even more pronounced.

Ben Temperly: I think Anne’s observation about staying on course is right. But it seems like no matter how hard you try, you can pick up some “barnacles on the boat.”

I think the main challenge for the ten-year journey will be, “How do we retain that clarity of vision?” Avoiding overloading schools with good ideas that are incidental to the overall system aspiration is going to be tricky. I’ll also agree that there’s work required to bring everyone along on the journey.

I’d argue that we needed to be fairly tight in that initial period of time. I think one of the decisions that stood us in good stead was that we prioritized the elements of the school-improvement model that we felt were most important. And it was a fairly constrained reform agenda, based around the improvement dashboard, the school-improvement-planning process, literacy and numeracy guides, and building out support for schools from the middle.

The challenge for us now is to hold to accelerators in a way that means they are truly accelerators and not confound the messaging.

Rick Persse: Obviously, there are national reforms that we participate in, and we are always interested in international developments. It is also partly about the kind of people that we want to work with. I want fewer higher-quality partners over the long run, whether that be in technology or strategy or something else.

What we are really excited by at the moment is actually how to capitalise on COVID. We’ve never had parents more engaged in their kids’ learning, and everyone has now experienced the benefits of our investment in high-speed broadband across the country.

There are always things, given the benefit of hindsight, that we could have done better. But all in all, I could not have asked for more from this group or the educators in this state.

Anne Millard is executive director of partnerships, schools, and preschools with the South Australia Department for Education, where Rick Persse is chief executive and Ben Temperly is executive director of system performance. Marieke D’Cruz and Bart Woord are consultants in McKinsey’s Sydney office, where Seckin Ungur is a partner.

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Department for Education Strategic Plan – Towards 2028

A copy of the updated iteration of the Strategic Plan – Towards 2028 outlines the steps we are taking as we strive for a world-class public education system.

The plan focuses on the six key levers and outlines the reforms we will implement over the next 3 years to help us achieve growth for every child and student, in every public school and preschool in South Australia.

This strategic plan is for everyone. To achieve this goal, we need a coalition committed to our world-class ambition. A coalition of leaders, educators, staff, parents and carers, communities, employers and industry.

For more information, please click on the following links:

Strategic Plan – Towards 2028 – www.education.sa.gov.au/world-class

Plan on a page – www.education.sa.gov.au/world-class

2021 Action Plan – www.education.sa.gov.au/world-class

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The strategic plan 2012-2016: for South Australian public education and care

Societal changes are closely reflected in the changing nature of education and learning. Globalisation, technological advances and environmental challenges will continue to directly impact on educational delivery. However, three major purposes remain the hallmark of a robust and vibrant public education system. These three purposes are: individual purpose, economic purpose and democratic purpose. Public education can provide opportunities for all children and young people to develop skills and understandings and to pursue interests that will enable them to lead rich, fulfilling and productive lives. This makes an important contribution to the Australian economy by preparing people for work in the many occupations that comprise the modern labour market.

This strategic plan aims to expand upon the strong foundations that currently exist and respond to the challenges in our sector that will unfold in the near future.

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• Capacity to Contribute scores for non-government schools
• Direct Measure of Income Refinement Working Group
• Terms of Reference for Independent Review into Regional, Rural and Remote EducationTerms of Reference for Independent Review into Regional, Rural and Remote Education
• Review Panel
• Terms of Reference
• Consultation paper
• Ministerial Reference Group
• School Funding Glossary
• How is the Australian Government supporting reform efforts in Catholic and Independent schools?
• What is a new school?
• What is the National School Reform Agreement?
• Schooling Resource Standard’s Capacity to Contribute
• The National School Reform Agreement
• What additional support will be provided to the Northern Territory?

South Australian Commission for Catholic Schools Inc. 2019-22 Strategic Plan

The 2019-22 Strategic Plan for the Non-Government Representative Bodies under the Non-Government Reform Support Fund

• Download South Australian Commission for Catholic Schools Inc. 2019-22 Strategic Plan as a DOCX (610.12kb)
• Download South Australian Commission for Catholic Schools Inc. 2019-22 Strategic Plan as a PDF (1.48mb)

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South Australian Skills Plan

Consultation has concluded. Thanks for your contributions.

Help us develop a new South Australian Skills Plan to shape the strategic agenda for reform and delivery of a high performing skills system in our state.

What's being decided?

Skills SA is seeking feedback on the concept for the South Australian Skills Plan to ensure it meets the needs of learners, workers, employers, industry and the community.

Hearing from you to better understand your aspirations or any concerns will inform the development of a Plan that meets the needs of South Australia. Skills SA is committed to ongoing, meaningful engagement and consultation with all those who have a stake in the development of a world class South Australian Vocational Education and Training (VET) system.

We believe that South Australia's VET system should reflect the needs and aspirations of its users, while contributing to the economic and social well-being of all South Australians.

We want to ensure that our Plan is based on what matters to you.

In developing the South Australian Skills Plan Concept , Skills SA undertook initial engagement with stakeholders to seek feedback on the opportunities and challenges for the sector through workshops and interviews held in early 2022.

This initial engagement with students, employers, industry, and training providers showed a need to:

• Improve the cultural perception and attractiveness of VET as a credible pathway to increase participation and skill levels
• Reduce VET system complexity, enhance collaboration, connectivity and responsiveness in the sector and improve ease of navigation for learners at all stages
• Collaborate to improve service offerings and design new innovative products, services and solutions
• Expand the capacity and capability of training providers to develop and deliver flexible, relevant, high-quality products and services to customers
• Improve workforce planning and pathway mapping that informs funding support and learner journeys
• Ensure appropriate measures of success that focus on outcomes for learners, industry and the economy.

We are now seeking input from stakeholders on the Skills Plan Concept and the Concept Summary to validate what we have heard from stakeholders on where we are now and help shape priorities for future responses.

Get involved

Find out more:

View the South Australian Skills Plan Concept and Concept Summary which provides an overview of:

• the focus areas of the Plan,
• where we are now,
• what we want to achieve and,
• how we will create change.

Have your say:

• Complete our short online survey
• we will be hosting a number of stakeholder workshops in regional and metropolitan areas. To register your attendance at one of the workshops visit the Eventbrite registration page
• submit your feedback or send your submission to [email protected]
• ask your questions via the Questions and Answers Tool
• post your written submission to:

Department for Education

GPO Box 320 Adelaide SA 5001

What are the next steps?

Feedback received through YourSAy, submissions, and stakeholder workshops will be considered and used to inform the final South Australian Skills Plan for South Australia.

Do you have questions on the Skills Plan Concept?

Provide your questions here and a team member will respond to you as soon as possible.

• Port Augusta Workshop 06 December 2022
• Online Workshop 08 December 2022
• Closure 12 December 2022

This consultation is open for contributions.

Pending Outcome

Contributions to this engagement will close on 12 December 2022 for evaluation and review.

Final report

The outcome of the engagement will be documented here once the feedback has been considered and the Skills Plan finalised.

• How has the Department got to this point in the development of the Skills Plan Concept?
• How did you come up with the 3 focus areas?
• Who has the Department already consulted with? (Internal/External)
• Are the needs of learners being considered as part of the South Australian Skills Plan? If yes, how?
• How will the Skills Plan respond and adapt to the emerging needs of employers, industry and Government more broadly?
• Who will be responsible for the implementation and long-term monitoring of the plan and its outcomes, including post 2033?
• How does the South Australian Skills Plan relate to other Education related initiatives?
• What makes this plan different to previous South Australian skills plans or strategies?
• How does the South Australian Skills Plan connect or relate to the South Australian Skills Commission Strategic Plan?
• How will the Skills Plan respond to immediate skills needs?

Who's Listening

Project Manager

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