The Australian Government provided $1.9 million for an early learning teaching pilot to help Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander children get ready for school.
On this page:
About the pilot
The Early Learning Teaching Pilot (ELTP) aimed to get more children ready for school. It did this by strengthening literacy and numeracy skills through professional development, mentoring and feedback for educators, with a particular focus on improving educational outcomes for First Nations children.
The pilot has now concluded. A summary report of the evaluation and outcomes is available below.
Design and delivery
We partnered with the University of Melbourne to design, deliver and evaluate the pilot.
The pilot drew on international evidence and local expertise regarding the benefits of different instructional models. It aligned with existing play-based approaches under the Early Years Learning Framework, which are known to improve children’s early developmental outcomes.
The pilot contributed to the National Agreement on Closing the Gap targets 3 and 4.
Findings from the pilot will be reflected in the government’s 2025 Closing the Gap Annual Report.
Sites
The pilot took place at 3 early childhood education and care services:
- Yappera Children’s Service in Thornbury, Victoria
- Larapinta Preschool in Alice Springs, Northern Territory
- Braitling Preschool in Alice Springs, Northern Territory
Evaluation
The evaluation was underpinned by collaboration between:
- the ELTP professional learning and evaluation teams
- key stakeholders, including staff and families at the 3 participating services
- the department.
Key findings present an encouraging picture that demonstrates the value of the ELTP model in positively impacting teachers’ and educators’ confidence and teaching practices. The corresponding positive growth in children’s emergent literacy and numeracy outcomes across the year further verifies the positive impact of the ELTP.