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We are leading the development of the Preschool Outcomes Measure, a new national tool to help teachers and educators support children's learning and development in the year before full-time school.

Teachers and educators will be able to use the tool to document children’s progress in two learning domains:

  • oral language and literacy
  • executive function

These domains are essential for children’s learning and development, supporting their growth in all areas of the Early Years Learning Framework.

For every child

Adaptive to the needs of all Australian children

Tasks built around authentic educator-child interactions

Learning
progressions

Includes descriptions and examples across a broad span of children’s learning​

Supported

Offering teachers and educators professional development and support resources

Aligned

Aligned with the Early Years Learning Framework and state and territory equivalents

Project stages

stage 1

Consultation and design


May — September 2024

We developed an initial design of the Preschool Outcomes Measure tool

To help us do this, we gathered insights from
 teachers, educators and the broader community about what’s most important to them

stage 2

Small-scale Trial


October 2024  —  February 2025

Our facilitators visited a sample of preschool settings to trial an initial design

We used the findings from these visits to refine the design in preparation for the next stage

stage 3

National Applied Trial


2025

Teachers and educators in participating states and territories will road-test the refined design for themselves

We will use their feedback during this stage to help us finalise the design

What the tool will measure

Oral language and literacy

The way children understand and use language to communicate for a range of different purposes.
Oral language and literacy helps them become creative and purposeful in expressing their ideas.

Executive function

The way children explore the world around them, develop positive relationships and understand themselves as learners. Executive function helps them do things
like remember instructions involving more than one step, break a big task into smaller steps and stay focused.

National Applied Trial 2025

All states and territories will participate in the National Applied Trial using a formative assessment tool aligned to nationally agreed learning progressions.

The majority of jurisdictions will trial the Preschool Outcomes Measure tool, which we are developing on behalf of the Australian Government. Some jurisdictions, including Victoria and South Australia, will trial alternative tools.

We encourage services to refer to their state or territory education department for jurisdiction-specific information about the National Applied Trial.

Partnerning with

Goodstart Early Learning

and

Ninti One