NSW primary school curriculum to get huge shake-up

Big changes to how and what kids learn are coming to NSW classrooms. Here’s what the overhauled curriculum means for your kids. And why the first lesson will be patience.

Kindergarten kids will learn about consent, the human body, and world history for the first time under sweeping changes into the NSW primary school curriculum – but for most children the benefits won’t come for another two years.

From 2027 teachers across the state will need to teach from a new playbook, with new subject-specific syllabuses covering history, geography, health, science, technology and the arts flipping the script on how – and what – kids are taught.

The four new syllabuses replace what are, in some cases, two-decade-old documents, and represent the most significant shake-up since the 80s.

Education Minister Prue Car said the new curriculum is a better fit for modern education, having removed “a lot of the gobbledygook”.

“This is a knowledge-rich curriculum … based on the evidence that we know helps young brains,” she said.

Education Minister Prue Car. Picture: NewsWire / Gaye Gerard

“It is clear, it is concise, it is not overcrowded,” she said.

However, the Minister was forced to defend her government’s decision to delay the rollout. While new English and maths syllabuses are already being taught, the subjects released on Wednesday will not be made mandatory for another two-and-a-half years.

“One year to get used to the new curriculum … was always unworkable and preposterous,” she said.

“We need our teachers to be able to be familiar with the syllabus … so we proudly gave them more time to get used to it.”

The new curriculum has bipartisan support, with the former government having put nearly $200 million towards the reform process in 2021, but shadow education minister Sarah Mitchell said the delay is “concerning”.

“It’s great to see the Minns Labor Government unveil the new primary school syllabus today – the final product of the Coalition’s hard work,” she said.

Previous education minister and current opposition education spokeswoman Sarah Mitchell. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dylan Coker

“(However) I am concerned the … government has delayed the introduction of these curriculum reforms until 2027, which means we won’t see the benefits of these updates for several years.

“Our students can’t afford to wait that long.”

WHAT’S IN THE NEW NSW CURRICULUM?

Human Society and its Environment (HSIE) has faced the most reform, bringing together history and geography and introducing a greater focus on civics and citizenship in the early years.

Where Kindergarten and Year 1 students are currently only taught about their own family history and the lifestyles of previous generations, study of the ancient past will now be included – at a minimum, kids must “read and recount stories, myths or legends from ancient peoples, places and cultures in China, Egypt, Greece and Rome”, and study archaeology of ancient sites.

Study of the ancient world – including the Great Pyramids of Egypt – will be introduced in primary school under an overhauled curriculum. Picture: Ahmad Hasaballah/Getty Images

In science, labelling parts of the human body will now be taught from Kindergarten, after being left out of the previous syllabus completely.

As they get older, kids will no longer be asked just to ‘observe’ light and sound but are expected to learn how they travel, while lessons about gravity will be taken out of the optional examples and put back in the must-haves.

Consent will be taught explicitly from Kindergarten onwards – by the time they start Year 1, all students should be able to “assertively gain, give or deny consent and respect responses”, identify inappropriate contact from adults online and adopt the ‘No, Go, Tell’ strategy to protect themselves against abuse.

Keiraville Public School teacher Vanessa May is looking forward to teaching the new syllabuses to Year 3 students Zoe Markwick, Poppy Thomas, Zara Kotamanidis, Hunter Markwick, and Cillian Finlay. Picture: Rohan Kelly

It comes as the federal government pledges more than $25 million for NSW schools to spend on consent education programs, resources and professional development for teachers, to be divided up between the public, Catholic and independent sectors.

WHO WROTE THE NEW NSW CURRICULUM?

The curriculum is published by the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) who keep the identity of individual authors secret, citing privacy reasons. Consultation involved hundreds of “expert” teachers – including a special group from regional communities – as well as feedback from other groups. NESA’s head of curriculum Catherine Thomson had final oversight, and said the new syllabuses use as much plain English as possible while giving detailed examples where teachers might need them.

“What we know is that students really need background knowledge to develop critical thinking, reasoning and inference skills,” she said.

“Instead of looking at the student’s family (for example), which doesn’t develop a lot of vocabulary and background knowledge … in Kindergarten we look at transport – not only does it demonstrate change over time, or history, but it’s got wonderful vocabulary.”

WHY DID IT NEED TO CHANGE?

Fundamental to the once-in-a-generation curriculum reform is ending the era of “processes”, “capabilities” and the inquiry-learning education fads popularised in the mid-80s, returning instead to “explicit” teaching of facts and knowledge.

NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) CEO Paul Martin said the reworked syllabuses represented a “paradigm shift” and were “groundbreaking for Australia”, reducing the academic education jargon into a format far easier for parents to digest.

“My view is that a literate parent should be able to understand what their child is learning in primary school,” he said.

NESA CEO Paul Martin. Picture: Richard Dobson

“The new syllabuses will give students the opportunity to build deep knowledge that will increase in complexity over time and in preparation for high school. The link between Year 6 and Year 7 has never been clearer.”

The reforms also mark a move towards equality of education in the regions and remote areas, bridging the resource gap to ensure all students start high school with a common body of knowledge.

Bowning Public School principal Belinda Brown is responsible for 29 students enrolled in the tiny school 14 kilometres from Yass, and said the new syllabuses prove the voices of regional teachers have been listened to.

“For us, it is about equity as well … I think we forget that there’s so many wonderful opportunities for people here,” she said.

At Keiraville Public School in Wollongong, primary teacher of 25 years Vanessa May said the fact all four new syllabuses had been designed at the same time made the content for each subject “really clear” and easier to navigate.

“What is easier for us helps our students, because we are clear on what we need to be teaching them,” she said.

The concept of consent will be introduced explicitly in Kindergarten.

Dr Kevin Donnelly, who undertook a review of the national curriculum on behalf of the Australian government in 2014, noted the “jury’s still out” on the new NSW iteration, and will require appropriate training of teachers to be successful.

“The devil is always in the detail when it comes to curriculums – often there’s a lot of rhetoric, and the curriculum sounds good, but there’s still the problem of teachers being able to implement it effectively in the classroom,” he said.

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