 I'm Barry McGaw, I'm Chair of the Board of the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority. Now the authority began its life in 2008 as an interim National Curriculum Board with a limited remit just to develop a national curriculum in English, Mathematics, Science and History. Now when the interim board became the authority in 2009 its role had been broadened in ways that opened exciting possibilities. The curriculum coverage was extended to the whole curriculum. Responsibility for all national assessment was transferred to Okara allowing for a much stronger link to be forged between curriculum and assessment. And creating what became my school to provide transparent public reporting on all schools closed the circle. We now have an Australian curriculum in all learning areas from Foundation to Year 10 and in some areas already for years 11 and 12. English, Mathematics, Science and History to Year 10 have been implemented throughout the country and the rest are ready for implementation as individual states and territories are ready. In developing our national curriculum we've examined carefully the best curricula internationally particularly those of high performing countries. We wanted to be sure we would not be expecting any less of our young people than they are of theirs and I'm confident we're not. As a result we've raised the level of demand particularly at the primary school level. We've also enriched the curriculum by including some new things, economics and business, digital technologies and civics and citizenship. We've also included general capabilities what some people call 21st century skills though many of them were relevant in earlier centuries too of course. One such as critical and creative thinking, ethical understanding and personal and social capabilities. Now we've not bolted them on as yet more subjects. We've designed the curriculum so that they're covered through the existing subjects. Now when I say we and are in all of this I mean the nation, not just Akara's board or its staff. All jurisdictions have nominees on the Akara board. Akara staff have been drawn from around the country and work in locations around the country. The curriculum is the work of many minds across Australia and almost extraordinarily in our Federation people have put aside jurisdictional preoccupations to work together in the national interest. And finally nothing becomes the Australian curriculum until all nine education ministers agree. We have a 21st century Australian curriculum and it's one in which there's growing interest in other parts of the world. The national assessment program literacy and numeracy or NAPLAN will now be redeveloped in its content now that we have a national curriculum as well as in its form as it's taken online from 2017. Surveys of the achievements of samples of students will be extended to more learning areas than at present and will allow us to monitor the development of students general capabilities as well. Now we're not going to end up with a heavy assessment regime like those in some of the high-performing Asian countries but we will have enough assessment to be able to monitor student learning and to know how the curriculum is working and then occur as completely new creation at the request of ministers my school. It compares schools without creating unfair league tables of the type that the media have foist upon Australian schools for years. My school compares only schools whose students have a similar level of socio-educational advantage and it reveals remarkable differences among them. The best challenge others with similar students to aim higher and we're seeing the results already in some remarkable improvements in school performance. It's been a wonderful professional experience to be involved in ACARA. I've worked with remarkable colleagues in ACARA's board and staff and in other agencies throughout the country. My term's up but I will now watch with great interest as others build fine national structures on the foundations we've laid. Since we started many governments and ministers have changed but commitment to the national enterprise has endured. I'm confident that will continue.