 Welcome to the school trial of version one of the National Literacy and Numeracy Learning progressions. Your participation in this trial will make an important contribution to the further development of the progressions. So what are the progressions and why have they been developed? As teachers we all know there's a range of literacy and numeracy abilities across students in our classes. Literacy and numeracy development impacts on a student's ability to be successful with the Australian curriculum from foundation to year 10 and in all learning areas. The literacy and numeracy progressions have been designed to assist you to locate the literacy and numeracy knowledge, understanding and skills of your students so that you can better plan teaching and learning to support student needs. The progressions describe observable or measurable student indications of key learning at increasing levels of sophistication or complexity in important aspects of literacy and numeracy development. More details about the literacy and the numeracy progressions including expert video explanations is available in these sections of the website. The project is a national collaborative action being led by ACARA and supported by all states and territories. These learning progressions are being developed in two phases and we're midway through that process. To create version one the project team studied national and international research and initiatives and worked with key Australian literacy and numeracy academics and researchers. ACARA is indebted to these experts. Along with the research base the experts are acknowledged in the appendix of the PDF version of the progressions. Now it's your turn. The trial will focus on the clarity, coherence and usability of the progressions and will guide the revision and publication of version two at the end of 2017. Some 600 teachers from across Australian schools covering all learning areas and all years of schooling F to 10 are providing us with feedback through this trial. Thank you. We greatly appreciate your willingness to help shape this exciting project. At the same time we know how busy you are and have tried to ensure the workload won't be onerous. You don't need to change your plan teaching and learning program. We want you to use student evidence produced through your day-to-day teaching and learning practices. It's important to note that the survey is anonymous and no data collected in the trial will be used to identify individual students, teachers or schools. We do however need to know that the students, teachers and schools across the trial are representative of diverse Australian contexts. So what do you need to do now? The trial process section of the website takes you through what you have to do in detail. Let's start with part A of the trial process. From March the third review the website and participate in the induction session. Study the survey questions so you know what information you'll be asked to provide at the end of March. Most importantly become familiar with the progression you are providing feedback on. You may like to print off the PDF version of the progression so you can read and make notes of it. Select your six students to reflect high, middle and low literacy or numeracy ability in your class. Identify at least two threads of the progression that align to what you are planning to teach and study these threads closely. From the 9th to the 31st of March observe the literacy and numeracy development of your six students and locate the development on the chosen threads. By the 31st of March make sure you complete the survey questions. At the beginning of April the survey will be closed and we will upload all materials for part B of the process to the website. Part B goes from the 3rd of April to the 10th of May. You'll select two sets of student work samples and use the progressions to locate the level of literacy and numeracy development shown in the work samples. By mid-May the school trial will be complete and the project team will sit down to analyse and revise on the basis of your feedback. Thank you for your participation in the trial. Please contact us if you have any questions or need further information. Best wishes.