The Visual and Motion Design 7–10 Syllabus (2025):

• has been streamlined through a reduction in outcomes and content
• replaces the conceptual framework with artworld concepts – designer, design artworks, world, and audience
• replaces the frames with viewpoints, retaining subjective, structural, cultural, and replacing postmodern with contemporary
• retains practice as essential learning which has been updated to design practice, focusing on the roles, intentions, choices and actions of visual and motion design practitioners
• provides an updated and expanded definition of design practitioners that includes visual and motion designers, companies, design houses and curators, critics and historians, branding and identity designers, graphic designers, illustrators, typographers, architects, automotive and industrial designers, exhibition designers, interior designers, packaging and product designers, set designers, textile designers, motion graphic animators, title sequence designers, digital media designers, interaction designers and immersive/ augmented reality (AR)/ virtual reality (VR) designers
• removes the ‘folio of work’ and introduces the body of work as a requirement in Stage 5 Designing and making as a way for students to establish their intentions as designers, and is developed and monitored as a demonstration of a student’s evolving practice, rather than an end product
• replaces the terminology ‘Visual Design journal’ with ‘design diary’ and provides updated implementation advice
• provides updated advice on 'Design practice: design forms' with teachers selecting one or more visual and motion design forms as relevant to their context
• updates course requirements to include a class time allocation of approximately 60% designing and making and 40% critical and historical studies
• contains explicit content points and advice related to working with Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Communities and Cultural material
• Life Skills outcomes have been mapped to Stage 5 outcomes to facilitate integrated delivery.

The organisation of the outcomes and content for Visual and Motion Design 7–10 Syllabus images is from the Visual and Motion Design 7–10 Syllabus (2025) © NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA), for and on behalf of the Crown in right of the State of New South Wales, 2025.

Prior to implementing the Visual and Motion Design 7–10 Syllabus (2025), leaders will need to consider the following:

• The course requirement for students to complete the mandatory Visual Arts course (Stage 4 outcomes and content) before starting this elective course.
• The complexities for staff working with current and new syllabuses to teach Visual and Motion Design 7–10, and the added complication of a staggered implementation structure (syllabus differences include structure, language, outcomes and content).
• The implications of multiple syllabus release dates across subjects within Creative Arts, and implementation structures staggered across multiple cohorts and subjects.
• The complexities of staff working with the Visual and Motion Design 7–10 (2025), Visual Arts 7–10 (2024) and Photography, Film and Digital Media 7–10 (2025) syllabuses, with subject-specific content of artworld concepts, viewpoints and practice being updated across all 3 syllabuses with some strong alignment and some points of difference in content and key terminology.
• Building teacher understanding about working with Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Cultural content and capacity to collaborate with local communities where appropriate to design and deliver visual and motion design learning activities and assessment.
• Developing school processes and systems for effective task design and valid assessment of reduced outcomes (6 outcomes in the new syllabus for Stage 5).
• Supporting teachers’ understanding of the principles of inclusive education, adjustments and access to the visual and motion design curriculum for all learners.
• Advice published by NESA on adjusting Stage 5 outcomes for implementation as a Stage 4 elective.
• Building teacher understanding of how subject-specific writing is defined in visual and motion design, including written, oral and multimodal forms.
• Resource and budget implications, including:
  • providing time for staff to engage with syllabus expectations and build their skills and understanding to effectively teach and plan for syllabus requirements across Visual and Motion Design to implement in 2028
  • determining what resources and equipment are currently available to address new course requirements, including designing and making in a range of visual and motion design forms, and the potential need to purchase additional resources and/or equipment to address areas of need
  • equipment that enhances learning and supports all students to access the curriculum, such as screen readers, digital and audiovisual material, and other inclusive learning tools.
• All decisions about curriculum options for a student with disability should be made through the Collaborative curriculum planning process.
• Suitability of a Life Skills pattern of study for students.

The Visual and Motion Design 7–10 Syllabus (2025) is based on evidence summarised in the Bibliography: Visual and Motion Design 7–10 published by NESA. The evidence base highlights that:

• established and contemporary theories in visual arts education that represent an updated body of discipline-specific knowledge
• established and contemporary discipline-specific knowledge in design and design education
• the impact of an interrelated study of the function and relationships between designer, design artworks, world and audience
• the value of
  • arts and design education in supporting students’ academic and social development
  • alternative perspectives such as structural, subjective, cultural and contemporary to scaffold students’ knowledge of the world and their skills as designers
  • practice, including the study of a diverse range of design practitioners, and the role of the body of work in developing students’ own practice
  • opportunities to develop and involve all the senses through the development of visual, multisensory and multimodal languages
• the relevance of emerging technologies, practices and theories in design
• the role of
  • curatorial judgement in student design practice
  • Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Cultural Protocols, Knowledges and Practices in Creative Arts
  • art education in supporting inclusivity for learners with disabilities.

• To what extent do staff understand the syllabus and the evidence underpinning the new syllabus? How has this been fostered and understanding evaluated?
• How will the new syllabus affect classroom practice? What is in place to support and evaluate this practice?
• What school practices and systems are in place to support teacher professional learning? How are these evaluated to maximise support for teachers?
• Which communities of practice does the school collaborate with to enhance teacher curriculum knowledge and pedagogy?
• What structures are in place for tailored professional support for all staff to strengthen curriculum implementation? What else might be required for this syllabus? 
• What resources are required to commence syllabus implementation and meet planning, programming, assessing, and reporting requirements?

• Planning, programming and assessing Creative Arts 7–10 NSW Department of Education
• Creative Arts K–12 curriculum NSW Department of Education
• Visual and Motion Design 7–10 Syllabus (2025) © NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) for and on behalf of the Crown in right of the State of New South Wales, 2025.
• Visual and Motion Design 7–10 Syllabus (2025) Teaching and learning support NESA