Tag Archives: classroom resources

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PIEFA’s National Ag Week 2022!

National Ag Day 2022 will take place on Friday, November 18. Always a highlight on PIEFA’s calendar, we’ve turned National Ag Day into National Ag Week (again) – from November 14 to 18!

This year, we’re offering several opportunities for educators and students across Australia to get involved and celebrate the importance of agricultural education.

Available to download now, our DIGITAL TEACHER KITS have been created as a step-by-step guide to implement a variety of food and fibre Farmer Time lessons into you classroom. Kits include Farmer Time videos, student activities and worksheet. Access the primary and secondary Digital Kits here with plenty of time to prep before Ag Day on November 18

On the 15th and 18th of November, food and fibre producers and industry representatives will be online to provide information for students, carers and educators on the different career pathways in agriculture. We’ve secured some outstanding people in ag for our LIVE AG CAREERS PANELS. Make sure you register to hear real stories from people in the ag industry.

SESSION ONE: Tuesday, November 15 @ 2:00pm | SESSION TWO: Friday, November 18 @ 10:45am

Finally, for teachers looking to ramp-up their food and fibre content in the classroom, our LIVE TEACHER PD session will take place on Tuesday, November 15 at 4:30pm (AEDST). Targeted to secondary teachers, this online teacher professional development session will showcase Primezone resources and the Farmer Time program, helping you to build confidence in the classroom to deliver food and fibre content.

All of PIEFA’s National Ag Week events are FREE and available to register/download now! www.primezone.edu.au/agday2022

In addition, the National Farmers Federation is running a series of events to celebrate National Ag Day. Celebrating innovation in agriculture, National Agriculture Day is your chance to celebrate and learn about Australia’s incredible farm sector. You can get involved by hosting a lunch, entering the photo/video competition, wearing an AgDay t-shirt or attending an event. Find out more here: http://agday.org.au/ 

Categories News

Grattan Institute reports critical teacher support required

A new report on curriculum issues and needs in schools was released on October 16, 2022 by the Grattan Institute. The report, titled Ending the lesson lottery: How to improve curriculum planning in schools, is packed with data, and includes a range of recommendations that would deliver much-needed support to teachers and schools across the country – including government funding to produce high-quality curriculum materials that would be made available to all teachers and schools.

The Grattan Institute report identified that, of the 2,243 teachers and school leaders across Australia that were surveyed, 15% (or less) had access to high quality curriculum materials. The Australian Curriculum (and State variants) provide high-level teaching direction, but specific lesson planning is left to individual teachers – a time consuming endeavour that’s required term-after-term.

Alarmingly, the authors of the report claim teachers across Australia are forced to source and utilise classroom resources and materials alone, often times trawling through social media. With the lack of government support in this area, teachers carry a heavy curriculum planning load and school students are left with inconsistent classroom learning.

Through its Primezone, Primezone Academy and Farmer Time programs, Primary Industries Education Foundation Australia (PIEFA) hosts more than 600 curriculum-aligned, food and fibre education resources. With a mission to embed the value of Australia’s food and fibre production in schools and community, PIEFA is regularly developing and rolling out new credible, hands-on classroom resources and lesson plans, but capacity to produce these resources is limited due to funding constraints.

The message is clear from educators – they need more structure and support to be more effective in the classroom. Organisations like PIEFA have the knowledge, skills, experience and technology to produce a scalable program that enhances learning across primary and high school classrooms, nation-wide, providing real, highly implementable resources that are curriculum-aligned.

We encourage our community to access and read this crucial report.

ACCESS THE FULL REPORT VIA THE PIEFA WEBSITE HERE