The Biology Life Skills 11–12 Syllabus (2025):

• has been streamlined and peripheral content removed, allowing for a restructure to include 7 focus areas – three (3) in Year 11 and four (4) in Year 12
• includes clearly defined content that improves student access to rich learning opportunities at school and pathways after school
• offers increased opportunities to apply scientific concepts and ideas to real-world situations
• includes specified scientific investigations that offer accessible opportunities for developing knowledge, understanding, and skills
• includes Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ content that provides all students with opportunities to explore Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ Knowledges and Cultures
• Life Skills outcomes have been mapped to the Biology 11–12 Syllabus (2025) outcomes to facilitate integrated delivery.

Biology Life Skills 11–12 Syllabus (2025) © NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) for and on behalf of the Crown in right of the State of New South Wales, 2025.

Before implementing the Biology Life Skills 11–12 Syllabus (2025), leaders will need to consider the following:

• complexities arising for staff working across 2 biology syllabuses as they will teach different courses to their Year 11 and Year 12 cohorts. It also coincides with the implementation of the Physical World Science Life Skills 11-12 Syllabus (2025) and the Science 7–10 Syllabus (2023), with Year 8 and Year 10 scheduled to be taught for the first time in most schools in 2027
• building teacher understanding about working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander content when designing and delivering content and assessment
• supporting teachers’ understanding of the principles of inclusive education, adjustments and access to the Biology Life Skills 11–12 Syllabus (2025) for learners
• resource and budget implications, including:
  • providing time for staff to engage with the expectations of the Biology Life Skills 11–12 Syllabus (2025), especially the novel content contained in it, so that they are best prepared to teach the course in 2027
  • determining what resources are currently available to address new course requirements, including practical investigations and purchasing equipment and additional resources to address areas of need
• all decisions about curriculum options for students with disability should be made through the collaborative curriculum planning process
• leaders will need to consider the eligibility of students for a Life Skills pattern of study.

The Biology Life Skills 11–12 Syllabus (2025) is based on evidence summarised in the bibliography published by NESA. The evidence base highlights that:

• students need to make connections across scientific concepts that facilitate the application of knowledge to new scenarios (Bravo González and Reiss 2021; Harlen et al. 2015)
• although built on prior knowledge and understanding, the learning of new abstract concepts is aided by the multisensory input inherent in modelling and practical experiences (Essex, 2018)
• student performance at multiple levels of sophistication is supported by a learning progressions framework which identifies and fuses core disciplinary ideas and scientific practices (Corcoran et al., 2009; Gotwals & Songer, 2013)
• the syllabus should be knowledge-rich, as disciplinary knowledge is liberating and enables students to make sense of the living world (Young, 2014)
• the syllabus should distil scientific knowledge into big ideas and guiding principles for students to be able to explain and make sense of a diversity of biological phenomena (Harlen et al., 2010)
• the need to prepare students for a changing society and workforce where skills are identified as core capabilities (Rumbens, 2014).

• How will the new syllabus affect classroom practice? What measures are 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?
• To what extent are staff ready to undertake syllabus implementation? How is that readiness determined?
• How has the school engaged with departmental resources and support for curriculum implementation, such as Curriculum networks, curriculum resources, professional learning, and DEL network initiatives?
• What enablers and barriers to successful curriculum implementation have been identified? What plans are in place to overcome the barriers and leverage the enablers?

• NSW Department of Education Planning, programming and assessing science 11–12
• NSW Department of Education Professional learning science K–12
• NSW Department of Education Science 11–12 curriculum resources
• NESA Biology Life Skills 11–12 Syllabus 2025
• NESA Teaching and learning support for Biology Life Skills 11–12 Syllabus (2025)
• NSW Education Standards Life Skills
• NSW Education Standards Collaborative curriculum planning