Ancient History Life Skills 11–12 Syllabus (2024) – information for school leaders
Learn about the Ancient History Life Skills 11–12 Syllabus (2024) – what has changed and where to get further support.
The Ancient History Life Skills 11–12 Syllabus (2024) replaces content in the Ancient History Life Skills Stage 6 Syllabus (2017). Planning and preparation will commence from 2025 with implementation in 2027.
This syllabus recognises the critical importance of providing equitable curriculum access for students with intellectual disability, including the essential role of collaborative curriculum planning.
This syllabus aligns with the Ancient History 11–12 Syllabus (2024) to provide opportunities for integrated delivery.
The NESA Statement of Equity Principles underpin the Ancient History Life Skills 11–12 Syllabus (2024), ensuring that students from diverse cultural, linguistic, social, economic, geographic and family backgrounds are challenged and engaged to maximise their individual talents and capabilities.
What you need to know
- The Ancient History 11–12 Life Skills Syllabus (2024) will be taught in all NSW high schools from 2027.
- The Ancient History Life Skills 11–12 Syllabus (2024) is a live document available via NESA’s digital platform.
- NESA will continue to add teaching advice and support materials throughout the implementation process.
- Flexibility to select outcomes to meet the needs of individual students remains a central element of the syllabus.
- Opportunity to connect student learning to their real-world context is provided throughout the content.
- Students may participate in a Historical investigation, which can be undertaken collaboratively or independently.
- There is no requirement for formal assessment of Life Skills outcomes, however, evidence of student achievement can be acquired through formative and/or summative assessment.
- The NSW Department of Education will be providing support materials to schools to assist and guide the implementation process.
The Ancient History 11–12 Life Skills Syllabus (2024) includes:
- increased outcomes that improve clarity regarding the knowledge, understanding and skills students should be able to demonstrate to achieve the outcome
- student requirement to demonstrate achievement of one or more Ancient History Life Skills 11–12 outcomes.
- Life Skills outcomes mapped to the Ancient History 11–12 Syllabus (2024) outcomes to facilitate integrated delivery
- Note that some outcomes (for example, AH-LS-01) do not have a related outcome due to increased number of outcomes in the Life Skills course.
- flexibility for teachers to select, group and sequence outcomes and content to meet the needs of their students
- historical concepts and skills that are no longer aligned to specific outcomes to allow more flexible integration throughout the course
- 7 focus areas for Ancient History 11–12 as suggestions only to provide possible frameworks for addressing the Ancient History Life Skills 11–12 outcomes and content
- content for historical concepts and skills to be integrated throughout the course.
The organisation of Ancient History Life Skills 11–12 image is from the Ancient History Life Skills 11–12 Syllabus (2024) © NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA), for and on behalf of the Crown in right of the State of New South Wales, 2024.
Prior to implementing the Ancient History 11–12 Life Skills Syllabus (2024), leaders will need to consider the following:
- planning and decisions about curriculum options for a student with intellectual disability should be made through the collaborative curriculum planning process
- complexities for staff working to implement multiple new syllabuses and curriculum
- whether the course will be integrated with Ancient History 11–12, separately or a combination of both, taking into consideration student needs, school structure and logistical requirements
- logistical changes, such as updating the name of the subject in published documentation and subject selection information
- building teacher understanding of new content and links to Ancient History 11–12 Syllabus (2024)
- complexities for staff teaching Ancient History Life Skills 11–12 out-of-field and ensuring adequate professional learning, where relevant
- awareness of the Controversial Issues in Schools policy and procedures as essential in planning for the teaching of various aspects of Ancient History Life Skills 11–12.
The syllabus for Ancient History Life Skills 11–12 is based on evidence summarised in the Bibliography: Ancient History 11–12 highlighting that:
- integration of historical knowledge, understanding and skills is central to learning history
- historical thinking is developed through inquiry, which is core to the discipline of history
- it is important to recognise distinctions and connections between substantive and disciplinary knowledge in history
- incorporation of sources with the teaching of content are key in the teaching and learning of history.
Ancient History Life Skills 11–12 Syllabus (2024) © NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) for and on behalf of the Crown in right of the State of New South Wales, 2024.
Knowledge of the syllabus and professional learning needs
- 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?
- What evidence is there that staff have understood syllabus changes and familiarised themselves with the new syllabus?
- What professional development will teachers need in pedagogy and content knowledge to deliver this syllabus?
- How will this be evaluated to maximise support for teachers?
Collaborative planning and development
- Which communities of practice does the school collaborate with to enhance teacher curriculum knowledge and pedagogy?
- Do staff have the skills and understanding to collaboratively undertake syllabus implementation?
- What explicit systems are in place to foster collaboration?
Resourcing and support
- How has the school engaged with departmental resources and support for curriculum implementation, for example, Curriculum Reform Communities, curriculum resources, professional learning, and DEL network initiatives?
- How are expert teachers identified and used to build the teaching knowledge and capacity of colleagues?
- How have change management considerations been embedded into the School Excellence Plan (SEP) to support teachers and sustain and strengthen curriculum implementation?
- 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?
Ongoing evaluation and refinement
- How is the new syllabus being used to lift teaching practice?
- How does the plan for curriculum implementation measure the impact of this?
- What is in place to support and evaluate the impact of these changes in practice to maximise support for teachers and the impact on student outcomes?
- NSW Department of Education Planning, programming and assessing Ancient History 11–12
- NSW Department of Education Professional learning HSIE K–12
- NSW Department of Education HSIE 11–12 curriculum resources
- NESA Ancient History Life Skills 11–12 Syllabus (2024) Teaching and learning support
- NESA Introduction to the History 11–12 syllabuses video (3:48)
- NESA Ancient History Life Skills 11–12 Assessment
- NESA Life Skills
- NESA Collaborative curriculum planning
Further support
- See Leading curriculum K–12 for updates and additional information
- HSIE K–12
- Contact the HSIE curriculum team at hsie@det.nsw.edu.au
- Join the HSIE statewide staffroom (staff only)