Matt Hill

Hi, I'm Matt. I'm here with Jane from NESA and we're going to have a talk about the Creative Arts K–6 Syllabus.

Jane Lancaster

Hi Matt.

Matt Hill

Hi. The syllabus provides opportunities for learning in dance, drama, music, and visual arts. Can you please tell us about the strengths of the syllabus?

Jane Lancaster

Thanks, Matt. Yeah, well The Creative Arts K–6 Syllabus provides a curriculum entitlement for all students, and the outcomes and content really work together to provide that opportunity for students. There's a distinct body of knowledge in each of the creative arts focus areas for dance, drama, music, and visual arts and it builds a progression of learning, developing students' terminology and vocabulary, which then enhances their understandings in each of those focus areas.

Matt Hill

Could you expand on the distinctions between the focus areas for us?

Jane Lancaster

Sure, so in dance students are learning how to use the human body and movement to express and communicate ideas. And in drama, they're enacting and embodying people, worlds, and experiences. In music, students recognise how music is a form of personal and cultural expression and a way of expressing things through sound and silence. In visual arts, students recognise how they themselves as artists and other artists represent and communicate ideas about the world and subject matter through their artworks, and that that communicates understandings to audiences.

Matt Hill

And what do you view as the most important changes to impact student learning?

Jane Lancaster

Yeah, well, we know that students are coming from lots of different contexts, and the syllabus is really clear about the expectations of what students need to know, understand, and do, and it clarifies the learning for them and the content and the outcomes really work together to do this. The syllabus is really clear about the learning expectation for students, which aligns with our beliefs about excellence and equity for all students in education. The students engage in practical experiences where they develop curiosity, creativity, and imagination. Students develop artistic and aesthetic understandings by engaging in critical and creative practises. So through the progressions of learning, students are learning about the arts through time and across cultures, which is really important as well.

Matt Hill

The creative arts syllabus builds students artistic and aesthetic knowledge, skills, and understandings, and lays the foundation for learning across the focus areas. What are some other important features of the creative arts syllabus?

Jane Lancaster

Yeah, that's right, Matt. So the content is accessible for all students in New South Wales and for the first time we have access content points which support students with significant intellectual disabilities who are working towards early Stage one outcomes. This allows students to demonstrate achievement and experience success. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Priorities highlight rich and meaningful learning experiences for students as well, teaching specific vocabulary of the elements of dance, drama, music, and visual arts. And the art world concepts also prepare students with terminology and vocabulary, which deepens their knowledge and understandings. Creating written texts in stages two and three builds on students vocabulary that they've developed in early Stage one and Stage one, and reinforces their knowledge and their learning as they're creating written texts. The examples that we have in the syllabus are really illustrative of the content and the teaching advice supports teachers and provides background knowledge for them.

Matt Hill

Thanks, Jane. We see there's a lot of support in the syllabus through the teaching advice and examples. The syllabus contains a clear structure with content groups that identify the practises in each focus area. For example, in music the practises of performing, listening, and composing structure, the content. How do the content groups support students to develop knowledge, understanding, and skills in each focus area?

Jane Lancaster

So, the syllabus shows a really clear progression in learning in the content groups and to make it very explicit about the learning expectations for students. And we've done that throughout all of the syllabuses. And the example that you referenced there in music performing, listening, and composing, they're interrelated and should be taught in interrelated ways across the content area, so students are applying their knowledge and their learning.

Matt Hill

The syllabus is based on evidence, highlighting that the arts foster creativity and the imagination. How does the syllabus provide opportunities for students to generate ideas and develop their creativity and imagination?

Jane Lancaster

So there's a lot of opportunities for teachers to provide stimuli such as music, texts, images, objects, things like that to inspire students' creativity and connecting to other learning areas, of course, is a lot of opportunity to stimulate their thinking and their creativity. And the critical and creative thinking skills are embedded in all content across all of the syllabuses. And for example, in creative arts, in drama, there are opportunities for students to improvise and experiment. And in visual arts, students have opportunities to explore materials and experiment with different effects and techniques and different ways of representing ideas and subject matter and really focusing in on their own intentions and interests. Students have lots of opportunities to explore connections across the curriculum in the primary school. So for example, in visual arts, they'll be learning about ancient artworks, and that obviously connects to their learning in HSIE when they're learning about the ancient past.

Matt Hill

Yeah, there are some fantastic opportunities there. And we also see a lot of opportunities in the syllabus for students to develop knowledge and understanding of cultures and contexts. Can you explain how this content will strengthen student learning in the creative arts?

Jane Lancaster

So when students experience dance, drama, music, and visual artworks from around the world, it really expands their understandings of the way peoples express and communicate ideas and meaning. Students develop an understanding that the creative arts have been a part of all cultures throughout history, and in particular, they learn about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural practises and that they've been part of the oldest continuous living culture. And that's a really important thing for students to develop understandings about. Developing these intercultural understandings really builds empathy in students as they understand different perspectives and views of the world. And it's a really great opportunity for students to explore their own cultural backgrounds and to make associations to their own experiences and understanding of the world and that builds a sense of identity and belonging for them as well. And exploring these creative works from cultures around the world is really a great source of inspiration for all students in terms of their own making and composing. And so it feeds back into their learning and ways of expressing themselves.

Matt Hill

Thanks so much, Jane, we really do see there are a lot of exciting opportunities for students to develop their creativity through this syllabus.

Jane Lancaster

Yeah, that's right. Thanks, Matt.

Matt Hill

So, if you haven't already, please head to the NESA website, check out the new syllabus there, and also the introductory video that goes along with it.

[End of transcript]

Sara Lind

[Description: Title slide. Left of screen shows text over a navy-blue background. Text reading Creative Arts K–6 (2024) Syllabus familiarisation video. Right side of screen shows of photo of a student smiling and painting.]

Welcome to the creative arts K-6 syllabus familiarisation video. My name is Sara Lind, and I am a Creative Arts K-6 Curriculum Advisor, along with my colleague, Matt Hill.

[Description: Acknowledgement of Country slide. Left of the screen shows a artwork depicting the moon and sun rising. Right of page has acknowledgement text over a white background.]

I begin today's video by acknowledging the ongoing custodians of the many lands and waterways where we live and work. I pay respect to Elders past and present as the ongoing teachers of knowledge, songlines, and stories of this land and the lands across our beautiful state.

[Description: Title reads Syllabus familiarisation video, Purpose and outcomes. Left side of screen shows text over a white background listing purposes and outcomes of the familiarisation vide. Right of the screen is a diagram listing the content sections.]

This video will support understanding of the purpose and organisation of the Creative Arts K-6 syllabus, key inclusions, how the teaching advice supports the quality teaching of Creative Arts, and advice on where to next.

[Description: Title slide, left of screen is text over a nevy-blue background. Text reads purpose of the Creative Arts K–6 Syllabus. Right of screen is an image of someone playing piano, the images is a close up of the fingers over the white and black piano keys.]

The Creative Arts syllabus outlines key learning in dance, drama, music, and visual arts. We're going to begin by identifying the purpose of learning in the Creative Arts as outlined in the rationale and aim of the syllabus.

[Description: Text over white background. Listing the aim of the Creative Arts K–6 syllabus.]

The aim of the syllabus provides a common understanding of the value and importance of the Creative Arts in student learning. The arts are central to the development of creative, confident, compassionate, and resilient individuals. Learning in the creative arts establishes the foundations for students' cultural citizenship, providing students with opportunities to participate in and contribute to cultural life. The content of the syllabus supports the development of the capabilities and priorities of the New South Wales curriculum.

[Description: Title of page reads What is the purpose of learning in the creative arts syllabus. Under the title are 4 boxes with examples of purposes.]

The purpose of the Creative Arts syllabus is to outline the key knowledge, understanding, and skills that will support students to represent ideas, communicate meaning, and engage in artistic and aesthetic practices through dance, drama, music, and visual arts.

The Creative Arts K-6 syllabus presents an opportunity for students to develop understanding, think critically, and analyse creative works, and develop insights into personal, social, cultural, historical, and contemporary contexts and perspectives. The arts provides students with opportunities for creativity, self-expression, self-awareness, enjoyment, and creating shared meaning. Learning in the Creative Arts expands students' perspectives of cultural diversity in Australia and the world, which fosters intercultural understanding.

[Description: Title slide, text over a navy-blue background. Text reads Organisation of the syllabus. Right of screen is a photo of two students playing with hand puppets.]

Let's take a look at how the syllabus is structured to outline learning in dance, drama, music and visual arts.

[Description: Text against a white background. Title reads The structure of the Creative Arts K–6 Syllabus. The left of the screen shows a diagram explaining how the syllabus is structured. Highlighted in a red box are the 4 focus areas and below the interrelated content group. The right of the screen shows what is included in the syllabus.]

In viewing the digital syllabus, you will see how the Creative Arts K-6 syllabus is structured. Here, you will locate the aim, rationale, outcomes, and content, as well as other components of the syllabus, such as examples and teaching advice. The new structure includes the four focus areas: dance, drama, music, and visual arts. You will no longer see language of strands and sub strands. The interrelated content groups for each focus area shown in the dark blue boxes are not intended to be hierarchical or taught in a linear, sequenced way. For example, the visual arts practices of making, appreciating and exhibiting are best taught in an interrelated way, highlighting connections so that students are applying the learning across the content groups. The red line surrounding the diagram

shows how knowledge, understanding, and skills are applied through the interrelated practices of each focus area. Schools can deliver the essential content in a manner reflective of their context for the needs of their students and within policy requirements.

[Description: Title of page is Creative Arts K–6 outcomes. A diagram of syllabus outcomes appears showing the different focus areas, when elements will be taught and what is included in those elements.]

Consistent with the aims of Curriculum Reform, there is now a reduction in the number of outcomes in creative arts. Each outcome summarises the intended learning for all the interrelated practices in each focus area. The outcomes show a clear development of knowledge, understanding, and skills as students progress through the stages of learning. The syllabus now contains just one outcome per stage in dance, drama, music, and visual arts. In Stage 3, there is an additional outcome for creating written texts in Creative Arts.

[Description: Title of page reads Creating written text and vocabulary development in Creative arts. Under the title two boxes with quotes reading:

‘The learning areas provide meaningful content for writing beyond he subject of English’ (nesa 2024). ‘When writing instruction prompts students to think deeply and/or make decisions about content, learning is improved’ (AERO 2022)

Under the quotes is a diagram showing continued learning through from Early Stage 1 to Stage 3.]

Vocabulary development is essential to support student learning across the primary curriculum and is best taught in context. You will notice that there is new creating written texts content, including an outcome in Stage 3 that connects writing to the creative arts. In Early Stage 1 and Stage 1 the focus is on developing students' subject-specific vocabulary to support communicating in the Creative Arts. For example, students will express ideas, feelings, and opinions in response to creative works that they view and use tier 2 and tier 3 vocabulary to identify and describe elements of these works. In Stage 2 opportunities are embedded within the content for students to create written texts that enhance their learning in Creative Arts, applying the language of each focus area. For example, in Stage 2, students will use tier 2 and tier 3 vocabulary along with specific sentence-level grammar to create written reviews of performances or descriptions of creative works. In Stage 3, there is a dedicated creating written texts outcome with specific content for each focus area. Learning is enhanced through content, such as documenting ideas through multi-modal texts, creating or adapting written scripts, and adapting song lyrics.

In dance, explicitly teaching the language and vocabulary of the elements of dance supports students to understand and describe dance as they learn to compose, perform, and appreciate it. In drama, explicitly teaching the language and vocabulary of the dramatic elements provides foundations for learning in the context of drama.

Students build their vocabulary of the elements of music to form connections about how sounds are created, organised, or performed, and how to respond to different genres of music across time and cultures.

Teaching the language of visual arts, including the vocabulary of the elements of art and design, provides the foundations for learning. Students develop the vocabulary necessary to reflect on their own art-making experiences and to describe artworks from a range of contexts.

[Description: Title page. Left of the screen has text over navy-blue background reading Key inclusions. Right of the screen has picture of 5 students dancing at school.]

We're now going to take a closer look at some of the key inclusions in the Creative Arts K-6 syllabus with a focus on what's new and what's different.

[Description: Diagram outlining content groups and essential content. Diagram show the progression of content points in the content groups and when they’ll be addressed between Early Stage 1 and Stage 3.]

There are three content groups in each focus area. The content groups are interrelated and cluster the intended learning for each stage. The example on the screen shows the progression of the performing content group in music from Early Stage 1 to Stage 3. You can see that the learning increases in complexity and depth as students progress through the stages. Essential content is specific and carefully sequenced across the stages of learning. It supports teachers to understand the essential learning required for students to meet outcomes, supporting equity for all students.

In this example, the highlighted text demonstrates how the syllabus content has been carefully sequenced to support a clear progression of learning. It is important to recognise that changes in the syllabus are not just about new outcomes and content. This syllabus is deeply enriched and supported by research in both content and pedagogical expectations.

[Description: Text against a white background. Title reads Strengthen focus on learning about cultures, context and historical periods. Below title is a diagram with the Stage 2 creative arts focus areas.]

In each focus area, there is an explicit focus on a range of cultures, contexts, and historical periods so students can deepen their knowledge and intercultural understanding.

The examples on the screen show new content in Stage 2 that explores cultural and historical context around the world and Aboriginal histories and cultures content across Stage 2 focus areas. We can see that this content is represented across all focus areas, building students' understanding of how a range of cultures have expressed ideas and communicated meaning through different forms and practices across time and place. Students also investigate some of the influences on these cultural and historical arts practices. These clear connections across focus areas support students in progressively developing their understanding of historical, contemporary, cultural, social, and personal contexts. Students focus on art forms and styles from a range of cultures and context to build their intercultural understanding.

The examples in the syllabus provide support on how to approach this learning. NESA have carefully selected the examples to guide teachers in selecting cultural arts practices across continents and historical periods, such as including examples across all continents throughout a stage of learning. Note that the examples are not prescriptive, and as always, teachers are encouraged to contextualise learning and select examples that best suit their learners.

[Description: Diagram and text over white background. Title reads The elements and artworld concepts from the foundations of learning. The left of screen shows elements of art forms broken down into the foundations of learning. The right of the screen shows a visual example of their relationship with each other. Artwork being the centre of the diagram.]

Terminology in the syllabus has been streamlined for consistency. Each arts focus area now builds students' vocabulary and skills around the elements of each art form. The elements of dance, drama, and music form the foundations of learning in these focus areas. By using this language of the elements, there is now a clear and consistent progression of learning with 7-10 syllabuses. The teaching advice contains definitions of the elements of dance, drama, and music, as well as key questions and examples of vocabulary to support student understanding.

Learning in visual arts builds foundational understanding of the relationship between artworks, artists, audiences, and the world to support progression into stage four and beyond. In the syllabus, these are referred to as the art world concepts. Students also develop knowledge, skills, and understandings of the materials, techniques, processes, forms, and the elements of art and design as they progress through the stages of learning.

The teaching advice and examples provide additional information to support incorporating the elements and art world concepts into teaching and learning.

[Description: Title slide with text over navy-blue background. Left of screen text reads Teaching advice and examples. Right of screen has a image of a teacher supervising a painting lesson with students.]

Let's have a look at how the teaching advice and examples in the syllabus can support teaching and learning.

[Description: Title of slide reads Examples of teaching advice to support learning. Left of screen shows a screen shot from the syllabus website with examples of syllabus content points. Right of the screen shows an example of teaching advice.]

NESA has provided teaching advice and examples in the online syllabus. Within each stage focus area, there are examples for many content points. These are useful in supporting explanations of the content or understanding techniques or processes described in the content. Please note that the examples are not mandatory and teachers are encouraged to choose examples relevant to their context and students. There is teaching advice for each focus area in each stage. The teaching advice and examples provide further guidance to support the progression of learning and authentically incorporate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander priorities. It also helps to build background knowledge for teachers by providing advice on why each focus area is important and clarifying the intended learning in each content group.

[Description: Text over white and light blue backgrounds. Title reads Supporting vocabulary development and connections across the curriculum. Left of the screen shows examples from the syllabus website and related content. Right of the screen shows further examples from the syllabus website.]

The teaching advice also supports the development of subject-specific vocabulary by defining the elements or art world concepts and providing key questions and vocabulary examples. It also lists further examples of relevant vocabulary that can support students when talking about the content or creating written texts. There are also connections through related content that can support learning across the curriculum. These are relevant to each focus area and stage and vary dependent on the content being addressed. The connections listed are not an exhaustive list, and teachers are encouraged to connect learning relevant to their context.

[Description: Title slide reading Where to next? Left of the screen has text over a navy-blue background. Right of the screen has image of a teacher playing the ukulele.]

The final part of this video will provide a brief update on Curriculum Reform and the support being provided by the department.

[Description: Title of slide reads Planning advice. Below title is 2 graphs that show the implementation timeline for primary K–6 syllabuses.]

NESA guidelines for the implementation of K-6 mandatory syllabuses highlight that time should be taken over 2025 and 2026 to plan and prepare for the teaching of syllabus content before teaching in 2027.

Consideration of teaching for new syllabuses in 2027 needs to take place. The department has developed example models of syllabus implementation for the 4 CHPS syllabuses. When engaging with the Creative Arts K-6 syllabus, you will need to consider your school context and how to best support your students and staff with the implementation of the 2024 syllabus. This will include discussions of what school-wide resources are available, the expertise within your own school as well as other school networks, and some staff may need to gain a deeper understanding of the creative arts content, and as described, the teaching advice and examples are a valuable resource to assist with this.

[Description: Text and diagram over white background. Title text reads Creative Arts K–6 Syllabus implementation support. Below text are two diagrams showing implementation support offered.]

The Creative Arts K-6 syllabus implementation support package will include: microlearning modules, a sample scope and sequence for each stage of learning, sample units of work, and student-facing PowerPoint slides. The support is planned for release in 2025 through 2026 and 2027 and will be made available to schools via the curriculum webpage. All communications about the release of the support package will be made via the Primary Curriculum Statewide Staffroom and Staff Notice Board.

[Description: Title reads Further information and support. Left of screen shows information regarding support. Right of the screen shows a QR code that links to a support website.]

All teachers should engage with the syllabus to explore and understand the content, teaching advice, and examples. A support resource accompanies this video to guide teachers through some of the key inclusions and their implications for schools. If you are not already a member of the Primary Curriculum Statewide Staffroom, scan the QR code now to register. This provides teachers with access to the Creative Arts and announcements channels for updates on the release of resources, advice, and frequently asked questions.

More information is available via these links and websites. These links will be provided in the support resource for this video.

[Description: Title of page reads Creative Arts K–6 advisors. In the centre of the page there are 3 headshots. Matt Hill, Sara Lind and Kiralee Strahle. Below the headshots is the contact email CreativeArtsK–6@det.nsw.edu.au.]

The Creative Arts K-6 Curriculum team are here to support you in any way that we can. Contact us at the Creative Arts inbox listed on your screen or through our Creative Arts channel in the Primary Curriculum Statewide Staffroom. Thank you for joining us for this familiarisation video.

[Description: Text on light and navy-blue backgrounds. Text has references to material sourced for this video.]

[Description: Text on navy-blue background. Text showing copyright sources for material in this video.]

[End of transcript]