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Video transcript
Adele Amorsen
Goodstart National Lead – Early Career Teachers
Goodstart Early Learning
We support teachers around creating those broad learning goals that are drawn from all areas of the QKLG, and then we encourage them to draw the individual goals from those long-term broad ones and in this way there's a really clear, link or connection, I guess, between the broad learning priorities for children and the learning priorities for each individual child. And of course, our teachers look at children's skills and knowledge and understandings, and their preferred ways of working, and of course, their interests. And they bring all of that together to create learning priorities that are just right for each individual child meeting their needs, but that also link back to those broad learning priorities for the whole group.
We encourage our teachers to review individual learning priorities and goals regularly throughout the year because children all develop and grow at different rates, so it's really important to keep an eye on progress. Part of that review involves the children of course, but also their families and getting that really strong two-way communication between the centre and the home. So that when goals are reviewed, everyone is aware of the child’s progress, but also everyone is aware of the best teaching strategies and the best ways forward for that particular child. Part of the process is that we encourage teachers to use a range of informal and formative assessments, so that they have an evidence base to make those choices and decisions around, what are the best strategies for this child. And that's a part of an ongoing planning process that's really productive and effective.
We encourage teachers to ensure that that's a collaborative process when reviewing the goals. And the collaboration can happen between children and families so that everyone is aware and involved in the goals that are being reviewed.
And I think one of one of the challenges for our teachers is helping parents to understand that, because parents will often have a particular goal or set of goals around the school environment, and helping teachers to have those conversations with parents around unpacking what that means in a kindergarten environment, in a play-based environment, is really important work to be doing
We support teachers around planning for groups by providing them with opportunities to plan for, long-, medium- and short-term planning. One of the advantages of planning in this way is that it ensures that teachers consider it planning in a really holistic way, and that incorporates all the different areas of the learning and development from the QKLG.
Sophie Heasman
Senior Early Childhood Teacher
Goodstart Early Learning
We call our group learning priorities goals and they are what informs our short-term planning.
At the beginning of the year, we're really looking for that settling-in period. We are focusing on building relationships, managing routines, finding that sense of belonging, and sense of security for the children in the classroom. So a lot of our group learning priorities are based around, you know, building that sense of identity, that sense of connectedness to the world around them.
We tailor group goals towards individuals by assessing their needs and then adjusting teaching strategies and the complexity and level of support needed. For example, one of our whole group goals is to use everyday language to describe shapes. One child might need more infrequent reminders of naming features of shapes in their loose parts play, and another might require more explicit support in naming those features through modelled language.
At the end of the term, we will create a summative assessment, pulling all that evidence together, which will inform what we write in the summative assessment. And from there we can see where there are any gaps, if there's anything that the children need to extend on, if we need to change our teaching strategies in any way to support them in redirecting their goals or navigating new goals for them.
We will work with the families and they'll have a read through of what their child has been doing over the last term. And together we'll talk about where their child is at in their learning development and where they want to go next. If we need to renew any of the goals and what the next steps will be.
- Last updated:
- 25 February 2026
