Every lesson at Ingleburn High runs on a two-minute clock. Teachers deliver a new instruction roughly every two minutes. They check for student understanding every two minutes. And then they provide feedback. How often? Every two minutes.
“It is quite exhausting,” says Georgina Koskinas, the school’s deputy principal of inclusion and support.
“It is all about keeping them on task every two minutes so that you can keep them engaged.”
Dividing lessons into small intervals resulted in big academic improvements, with the school recording the largest growth in literacy scores among similarly advantaged institutions, a Herald analysis of NAPLAN results found. The NAPLAN data is from the government’s MySchool website and was supplied by the SchoolRank website, which allows parents to search and compare schools.
While the top of HSC league tables are dominated by schools typically populated with the most advantaged students, the analysis tracked student performance from year 7 in 2023 to when they sat the tests again in year 9, 2025. Schools were grouped into quartiles of socio-educational advantage.
Ingleburn High’s two-minute guideline is part of its explicit direct instruction framework, which it adapted in 2022 from a Data Works program in the US. The model was originally used to teach children English as a second language.
“The principal at the time, Catherine Argyle, said: ‘This is what we need to do. This is going to work. This is for the context of our students,’” Koskinas said.
Teachers set “learning intentions” and success criteria at the start of each lesson. They also cart crates full of mini whiteboards around. Teachers explain concepts, then test students. Pupils hold up their answers on the whiteboards.
“You can visibly see around the room very quickly if the majority of the students understand,” she says.
There are formulas and sequences for classroom teachers. Teach first, ask a question, students share their response in pairs, the teacher calls on a non-volunteer to answer. The teacher listens before providing effective feedback. Or they reteach the concept.
“When you think about the child’s cognitive load based on the age they’re at, what stage they’re going through puberty, it’s all about keeping them on task every two minutes so that you can keep them engaged.”
The state’s selective schools all showed big gains in numeracy, as did many girls’ schools, including Ravenswood, Tangara, Loreto Kirribilli and Our Lady of Mercy College, Parramatta.
Marist College North Shore, which had some of the biggest numeracy gains, has also adopted the learning intention formula. Every lesson ends with an “exit ticket”.
“It may be something as simple as a short one or two question little sheet that they do at the end of the lesson,” says the school’s head of mathematics, Holly Potvin.
The idea behind the concept is to check that students have understood what’s been taught and teachers adapt for the next lesson.
The learning intention lesson formula is used in other subjects, says Daniel Junge, the school’s head of teaching and learning, and allows students to see how learning is relevant to them.
“‘What am I going to get from this?’ And then they can see links to that.”
At Our Lady of Mercy in Parramatta, maths classes are not streamed, director of teaching and learning Louise Millar said.
“What you’re really doing is saying to all of your students, we’re all working hard together. You’re not missing out because you’re in some bottom class. You’re getting the same instruction,” she said.
Underlying the school’s success is its cautious approach to educational trends, not claiming it to be a fix-all. Students learn in 65-minute blocks, which Millar says means teachers can go into depth in subjects and there is a strong learning culture.
“You don’t need bells and whistles. What you need is good leadership, good teachers, good culture, and that you share that culture with your parents and your community.”
St Andrew’s Cathedral School had the biggest improvement overall and was among the best for writing, an achievement it attributes to its formal, structured approach to writing, beyond just English.
“We saw the need for developing an explicit and interdisciplinary approach to teaching writing as the impacts of technology became evident within students’ work over the last decade,” Brad Swibel, the deputy head of the school said.
Students are taught subject-specific writing scaffolds, while subject-specific vocabulary is taught to enhance the clarity of students’ expression. The English Department focuses on “micro skill” development. Short stories by authors Langston Hughes, Amy Tan and Margaret Atwood are exemplary texts.
“There is no substitute for learning how to punctuate dialogue, develop sensory imagery and vary their sentence construction from the masters themselves,” he said.
“We have found that complementing this with reflective writing has helped students understand that all written expression is intentionally crafted, and that their narratives can also have an impact on an audience, just like the authors they emulate.”
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