Home Schooling webinars and recordings

Our numbers have started to climb.

I am mindful that you have given up your time for today and I am super grateful you could make it because this is something very new for NESA and the Home Schooling Unit and we are acknowledging the broad range of experience from our home schooling community. At the same time, we acknowledge the huge changes that the curriculum reform has brought about.

So, while we are giving you information about syllabuses, just be mindful that this is information that may assist you, you can take on board what you feel comfortable with and still do things in your own way as you have great flexibility as a home schooling parent in how you meet the requirements.

So, welcome everybody to our first webinar for home schooling parents

We are trialling the webinar format as an additional way to support you, particularly given these changes in syllabuses that have continued to take place.

I’d like to thank you for your patience in advance as we navigate this new platform, and just in case we hit any snags along the way.  Technology is the unknown beast here, so I thank you in advance.

My name is Diane, and I will be hosting today’s webinar.

Our focus today is to break down NESA syllabuses so you may feel a little more comfortable with using them.

My role, and my colleague Padraig’s role, is to support the Home Schooling Unit and you, the parents, with support materials, to help locate and use NESA syllabuses and to navigate the NSW Curriculum website.

We are here, on that basis, to support the curriculum reform agenda.

In doing so, we aim to provide you with greater confidence with the registration requirements.

Before we begin, I have just a few housekeeping notes.

We are recording today’s event with the aim to publish it on our website in the future so that others to access the learning if they’ve been unable to join us today.

So, while it is our aim to publish, just know that sometimes, things do not always go to plan. So, we can’t absolutely guarantee but it is definitely our aim to publish this webinar today.

We want you to feel comfortable in this first webinar, so some of you may wish to turn off your cameras. For us, we always like to see participants, so we like to see a face there on the other side.

We have enabled the Q and A features for this webinar. If you haven’t used the Q and A feature before, you may see the icon on your task bar.

My colleague, Katherine, will be managing the Q and A so please, use this feature to add in any questions you may have about the information as we go.

You may find that Katherine will provide brief answers as we progress through the presentation, or she may address your question at the end of our webinar.

During the webinar I have included a range of quick ‘Polls’ to get a sense of your experiences and to gain feedback so that at the end we can review how we are meeting your needs. I have also included a Slido feedback option at the end.

Now, all these applications do not require or collect any personal information, and your responses will be anonymous.

Acknowledgement of Country

To begin, I would like to share an Acknowledgement of Country.

I want to acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the many lands from which you are joining us today. I recognise and celebrate the diversity of Aboriginal Peoples and their ongoing Cultures and connections to the lands and waters surrounding us.

Today, I am presenting from the land of the Gadigal People of the Eora nation. ‘Eora’ is the name of the coastal Aboriginal Peoples around Sydney. ‘Eora’ means ‘here’ or ‘from this place’, so it is from this place, on Gadigal land, that I acknowledge how grateful I am for the opportunity to gather and present to you today. I hold in high reverence and honour Elders past and present and extend that respect to any Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People who join us today. 
 

As most of you would be aware, NESA has been revising and creating new syllabuses and this is a process that will continue for a few more years.

As home schooling parents you are also users of NESA syllabuses, so we have organised today’s webinar Let’s Talk: NESA Syllabuses to provide an overview of the features of NESA syllabuses.

We also plan to have a follow up webinar that is more practically based, so we can navigate together, and we want to call that Let’s Try using syllabuses.

During the webinar we will be referring to new NESA syllabuses. We acknowledge that not all syllabuses have been revised yet and so some of the formatting and inclusions may be different to the older syllabuses.

Before we start though it would be helpful to know a little about you and your experiences to date. For those who wish to participate, have your mobile phones at the ready, feel free to respond to the following two questions.

Our first question is:

How would you rate your understanding of NESA syllabuses?

There is a second question there for anyone who wishes to participate.

What are you using the NESA syllabuses for?

We will just give you a minute to see if you are able to connect.

We might move on. If there are no suggestions, there.

So, our agenda today is in three main areas and when you started your journey to home school your child, you may have faced a lot of new language when reading through the registration requirements and the Guidelines.

Some of you may have been doing this for a long time and others may not have been doing it for so long. So, your understanding levels are different.

Today we hope to demystify some of that by talking about what we mean by a curriculum and a syllabus.

We will also provide overview of the syllabus elements with a greater focus on syllabus outcomes and content.

As we move through these topics, we will also point out some home schooling support materials that you may find helpful.

Remember these materials are there if you wish. You may undertake home schooling and use the resources as you choose as you meet requirements.

Stages of learning

One of the terms you will hear referred to quite often is stages.

You may be used to talking about your child’s learning, one year at a time.

They may be in Year 10 this year but will move into Year 11 next year.

Within syllabuses, the outcomes and content are divided into stages.

Kindergarten, or Early Stage 1, is our only stage that covers one year group.

From there, Stage 1 includes Years 1 and 2, and you can see as they progress, each stage includes two years of learning.

This is important to keep this in mind, especially for those new to home schooling.

If you are applying to home school when your child is already in Year 4 at school, then your educational program will focus on the outcomes and content from Stage 2 that your child is yet to cover. It would then follow on with Stage 3.

Syllabuses and curriculum

Let us start with a couple of other terms you may hear most frequently: syllabuses and curriculum.

One of the registration requirements is that your child has an educational program that is based on a range of NESA syllabuses.

A syllabus is a document produced by NESA to inform teachers about what they need to teach to children and why.

When home schooling, you take on the role of the teacher or educator – so the syllabuses also become your guide on the areas that need to be covered.

In the Primary years, for example, you must include syllabuses from English, Mathematics, Science and Technology, Human Society and Its Environment, Personal Development Health and Physical Education and Creative Arts.

You may wish to include optional electives such as Languages but they are not required.

As your children progress to the secondary years, the syllabuses you refer to will change.

No matter what stage of learning your child is in, when you package all the relevant syllabuses together for your child it is referred to as your child’s curriculum and it forms the base of your child’s home education.

Of course, just like in schools, children can access a variety of other learning opportunities outside of their regular classes. You may include a range of learning experiences into your child’s curriculum in addition to those outlined within the syllabuses and we know that many families do this in a variety of ways.

When we refer to curriculum however, we are referring to the plan for learning.

This plan includes all the relevant syllabuses that you will be including in your child’s educational program.

So that’s the key terms to start with.

Where are syllabuses located?

Knowing where syllabuses are located is an important first step

You can find syllabuses on the NSW Curriculum website. Using the NSW Curriculum website ensures that you are always accessing the most up to date syllabuses and information.

We understand that sometimes this site may be tricky to use, it is new to many families.

We have developed a helpful Guide to assist home schooling parents navigate the NSW Curriculum website. You can find this guide on the ‘Curriculum Reform for home schooling parents’ page.

As mentioned earlier we will be holding a follow up webinar to guide participants through the NSW Curriculum website in the coming weeks.

Syllabuses and requirements

Why is this important to parents who home school their children?

Well, we need to go back to the basics here.

The Guidelines for Home Schooling Registration identify the requirements for registration.

This includes requirements around your child’s curriculum and how NESA syllabuses are addressed in your educational program.

The first requirement in the Guidelines states that:

The child’s educational program is based on, and taught in accordance with relevant NESA syllabuses as determined by the Act, that is, the minimum curriculum for primary education, secondary education or the curriculum for senior secondary education.

How you do this is up to you.

For those parents using a commercial product or using external providers as resources within your child’s educational program, familiarity with NESA syllabuses is very important to make sure that the product you have purchased is helping you to meet NESA’s requirements. 

NESA support materials

So, while the NSW Curriculum website is the number one spot for all NESA syllabuses, we have developed a range of materials, to help you work with the NESA syllabuses.

You may consider the range of syllabuses that are available for your child’s stage of learning and as that stage increases, the range of syllabuses grows.

The syllabus overviews we have developed, may be a helpful guide for you.

Each overview contains a summary of each syllabus in the K to 10 years and a selection of the syllabuses that are more commonly studied in Years 11 and 12.

For parents preparing an educational program for a child with an intellectual disability, the syllabus overview for Year 7-10 Life Skills is also available.

Each syllabus overview provides details on how you might structure your child’s learning, the content you may choose to cover, and features that are unique to the syllabus along with the outcomes for each stage. They are a very handy way to get a sense of each of the syllabuses that you may be thinking about covering in your educational program. They could be like your one stop shop for syllabuses.

These documents are located under Home Schooling / NESA Support materials page on the NSW Government website.

Just a quick note on the NSW Government website:

For those of you who may have previously been using the NESA website, you may notice our home schooling website has changed AND now sits under the NSW government site.

After this webinar, you may wish to update any saved bookmarks or links that you have from the previous site.

At times, I may refer to our website, when I do this, I mean our section, the home schooling section, of the NSW Government website.

What is in a syllabus?

So, let’s walk through the syllabus elements for those syllabuses on the NSW Curriculum website.

Syllabuses describe the essential learning required in each subject.

They identify the knowledge and skills to be learnt and provide opportunities for students to apply relevant skills within each subject.

To look at the various features, we will be using the Computing Technology 7-10 syllabus as an example.

We can see the implementation date for schools is here.

Remember, home schooling parents have more flexibility with implementation so while this may be a helpful guide, the Home Schooling Curriculum reform page contains more specific information on implementation timelines.

Underneath ‘implementation’ we have all of the syllabus elements.

These are consistent across all syllabuses.

For those of you who have been home schooling for a while, you may notice that the older syllabuses may not be as consistent.

Features of a syllabus: Overview

The Overview explains:

• how the subject area is organised
• important requirements, and
• Information regarding the diversity of learners

That is, information on how the syllabus may support a child’s individual learning needs.

It also includes information about written texts

Creating written texts is an important area of focus across all syllabuses and has been a key priority of the Curriculum reform process. It’s placement in the overview highlights the significance of writing on a child’s learning and is an area that should also be reflected in their educational program.

Features of a syllabus: Rationale

Next, is the rationale, which offers insight into the value and importance of this subject area.

It describes how the subject area relates to the child and the world around them.

This example, which is small portion from Creative Arts K-6, links the subject area to the wider appreciation and understanding of our world and the diversity within.

Features of a syllabus: Aim

Next, the aim.

The aim indicates the broad purpose and objectives of the syllabus.

It can provide a helpful basis to understand the broad nature of the syllabus and its intention when it comes to your child’s learning.

As we move on to the next two elements, you may notice that the syllabuses no longer contain stage statements.

Stage statements summarised the outcomes and content of a syllabus. They indicated what a child may experience in broad terms.

Syllabuses now contain clearer content. You will also find the syllabuses are:

• Written in plainer language
• Are consistent in structure and approach and have
• fewer outcomes.

When using syllabuses from the NSW Curriculum website, it is important to note that, with stage statements now removed from all new syllabuses, your child’s educational programs should relate to the outcomes and/or content of the syllabuses, which is why our syllabus overviews are so helpful.

Features of a syllabus: Outcomes

So, let’s now move onto outcomes.

How many of you refer to syllabus outcomes?

We have a growing number of people that use syllabus outcomes.

That is one way and one syllabus element you may choose to use as part of your educational program.

Let’s walk through syllabus outcomes.

An outcome is the result or planned goal of learning, and we know learning can and does take place anywhere, at any time and in a range of ways.

Many of you may have experienced teaching your child to ride a bike.

If we consider the steps to riding a bike independently, your child would have achieved a range of skills in order to achieve that outcome.

The first outcome achieved may be to:

1. ride a balance bike,
2. then to pedal on a tricycle,
3. to ride a bike with assistance (which for some may include training wheels) and
4. then to ride a bike independently.

This may include developing the ability to balance, use movement skills, coordination, and strength at the same time.

Over time and with practice, these individual skills may, for many, result in achieving the outcome of riding a bike independently.

Just as with riding a bike, syllabus outcomes demonstrate progression over different stages of learning.

Outcomes demonstrate a progression of knowledge, understanding and skills across stages of learning.

And they often build upon outcomes from previous stages.

Outcomes have unique codes, and each code is organised in the same way.

Let us look at some outcomes from the Mathematics K-10 syllabus.

The beginning of the code can tell us the syllabus and the stage.

MA represents Mathematics.

The E in the first code represents Early Stage 1 or Kindergarten

In the second outcome, the 1 represents Stage 1 or Years 1 and 2

And then finally the 2 represents Stage 2 or Years 3 and 4.

The middle letters represent the related Focus area – which in this example is AR for ‘Additive relations’. The numbers that follow represent the number of each outcome. In this case it is outcome number 1.

Knowing how the codes work may help you when developing your child’s educational program.

Let’s look at learning activities and outcomes that represent a progression of mathematical knowledge and skills from Early Stage 1 to Stage 2.

In the first image we can see the child counting three more than five.

She is demonstrating a learning activity, that relates to the focus area of ‘combining and separating quantities’ from Early Stage 1 or Kindergarten.

In this second image a more advanced mathematical skill from Stage 1, or Years 1 and 2, is being demonstrated.

This child is recalling number bonds up to ten. Or addition of two numbers up to 10.

The third image demonstrates more advanced mathematical skills in Stage 2 or Years 3 or 4.

This child is solving additional problems of up to three digits.

If we revisit our bike analogy, just as practise is needed to ride a bike on different surfaces, in different conditions and at various locations; practise is also required to achieve our goals in learning. We represent these achievements or goals through outcomes.

Through different learning experiences, your child may demonstrate their knowledge, understanding and skills in a range of ways and in different circumstances.

We will briefly view the Stage 3 from the K-6 HSIE syllabus on the NSW Curriculum website.

In a syllabus, the outcomes are linked with syllabus content.

So even when you are looking through the syllabus content, you will also see the outcomes.

In this case, there are two outcomes linked to the Focus area: Geographical information is used to plan for sustainable futures. This means that your child will be able to work towards achieving both of these outcomes by engaging with the content provided on the right.

As with other syllabuses some outcomes may link to more than one focus area. In this case, the HS3-ACH -01 outcome for Aboriginal Culture and Histories is also referred to in the Historical sources present perspectives on the past focus area.

At other times, you may find there is only one outcome linked to the content within a focus area.

So if we consider the syllabus outcomes as the ‘what can we do’, or even ‘what is it we are trying to do?’, then the syllabus content is the ‘how do we get there?’.

The content outlines the knowledge, understanding and skills required to be able to demonstrate or achieve the outcomes.

NESA describes the syllabus outcomes as the key reference points for decisions about student learning, progress and achievement.

As a point of reference, for children in schools, if they are able to demonstrate all of the content points connected to each of the outcomes, then they have achieved the outcome. You may see this as a useful way to understand the depth and breadth of content that is needed to achieve an outcome.

It may also be a useful and practical way of understanding where your child is at in their learning and when recording your child’s progress and achievement.

Remember, you have flexibility in how you develop your child’s educational program so long as it meets the requirements.

I am just providing an overview to the nature and purpose of outcomes and how they are intended within a syllabus.

NESA support materials

We have a range of support material available that may also assist you when using syllabus outcomes.

The outcome summaries will help you identify and track the use of syllabus outcomes across the primary and secondary stages of learning.

They allow you to map or mark off the outcomes as your child achieves them. This may be especially helpful if you have a child working across different stages.

The templates provide a way to record outcomes along with your child’s learning activities. They may be of assistance when you revisit outcomes across a stage.

The sample scenarios are like mini case studies. They address a range of curriculum and registration requirements throughout the scenario. There are a range of scenarios that provide examples of how you may use outcomes in your child’s educational program or when monitoring progress. We will be adding more scenarios to the ones currently available soon.   

Once again, all of these resources are there to help, but they by no means represent the many, many ways that home schooling parents can, and often do, meet registration requirements. So have a look and see if you think any of them can work for you.

Features of a syllabus: Content

Let’s now move onto syllabus content.

Just like our earlier analogy of outcomes with learning to ride a bike, when discussing syllabus content, it may be useful to look at content in a syllabus in the same way as we read an information book.

Just as when reading instructions or information from a book, there is a system of organisation to assist the reader.

We know that many books have chapters, subheadings and are full of information.

Reading the entire book provides you with a complete picture of its contents.

Reading only a portion of the book may build your knowledge in one area, but you may have gaps in understanding from the areas you left out or are yet to read.

Let’s apply this idea to a syllabus.

The Book title is the syllabus.

The chapters of a book are like the Focus areas.

Reading the chapters in order may help you understand all the elements related to the topic.

In this case, a book about textiles may include chapters on:

• the nature and features of textiles

Content groups are like the subheadings within a chapter that help to organise information.

The content then is all the information that guides our knowledge, understanding and skill development.

In a syllabus, this content is provided through the dot points. It is these dot points that can be especially useful in better understanding the learning intention for each outcome.

Now let’s view content by using the Mathematics K-10 syllabus as our example.

There is a consistent structure to how the content is represented across all syllabuses.

Focus areas are used to structure the syllabus.

In this example I have provided some of the Mathematics Stage 4 focus areas, one of which is Computation with integers.

Within each focus area, the content groups are used to organise related content.

They are like a series of headings that you might find within one chapter of a book.

The content contained within each of the content groups is the intended learning for each outcome.

It also provides explicit details of the learning opportunities within each content group.

Skipping elements of content, represented by content groups and content dot points, may lead to gaps in knowledge, understanding and skills.

Your child’s level of familiarity with the content may help to determine how much time you spend, or how closely you read the information, in that chapter.

Each syllabus also provides additional support for children with disability.

In the K-6 years, additional support is now available to support children with intellectual disability.

For children who are unable to achieve an outcome in Early Stage 1, or kindergarten, Access Content Points may provide you with the content to meet the child where they are at and support their learning.

Some children’s programs may refer to Access Content Points for one or more subject areas and across one or more years.

Here is a screen shot of Early Stage 1 for PDHPE.

Under the content group ‘Participate with others during physical activities’ we can see each content dot point.

When developing an educational program for a child with significant intellectual disability, this content, on the left, may be far too challenging. The content, provided as Access Content points may provide a stepping stone to the content in Early Stage 1.

For parents who have a child with disability, you may consider referring to Access Content Points in order to build upon your child’s abilities and strengths.

Another way that the syllabuses are supporting children with additional learning needs is through ‘Complementary content’.

Complementary content can be found in the English and PDHPE K-6 syllabuses and provides alternate content in the areas of communication, handwriting and fundamental movement.

Our next webinar will demonstrate how to locate these features, and we will have future support materials to help you use these features.

In Years 7-10, Life Skills outcomes and content are available for children with intellectual disability.

Some children’s programs may refer to Life Skills for one or more syllabuses.

Using the Music syllabus as an example we can see the content for Stage 4

By selecting ‘View Life Skills’ you can access the Life Skills outcomes and content.

Additional support material is available on our website about accessing Life Skills. But it is important to note that Life Skills and Access Content Points are available for children who are unable to engage with the main syllabus content due to intellectual disability.

In most cases, children will be able to work with the content in a syllabus, even with a few adjustments to how it is delivered or with the resources used.

NESA support materials

We have developed a range of support material that is available to assist you when using syllabus content.

The templates provide a possible way to record content you have covered through your child’s learning activities.

As mentioned earlier, the sample scenarios are like mini case studies. They address a range of curriculum and registration requirements throughout the scenario. There are a range of scenarios that provide examples of how you may use syllabus content in your child’s educational program or when monitoring progress.  All of this material is simply there to use if you wish to. There is no need to use them if they don’t work for you or your approach to your child’s education.

Features of a syllabus: Glossary

We have two syllabus elements to complete for our overview:

The glossary, which is found within each syllabus. You may find that there will be some language that can be quite specific in any one particular subject area. The glossary can help with the terminology used in a syllabus.

Features of a syllabus: Teaching and learning support

The final element along the line of syllabus elements is Teaching and learning support.

NESA has developed a range of support materials for teachers.

While developed for teachers in schools, many contain information that may be very useful to home schooling parents as well.

We will use the Technology 7-8 syllabus as an example.

Some of the teaching and learning support material includes:

• Advice on writing: on how you may incorporate writing into an educational program.
• Sample units: where you might get some ideas about activities you have done or choose to do or resources that you might find helpful.
• Supporting your child: this is for parents of children in schools. It is about how parents of children in schools can further add to their child’s learning.
• Teaching advice: this provides additional information about specific areas of focus from that syllabus.

So, in this case of the Technology 7-8 syllabus, it is the project design. It may give you ideas for how you may look at the skills your child has developed and the experiences they have had, and you can correlate that with the syllabus.

Overview

So, today we have looked at:

• What is a curriculum
• Syllabus elements including outcomes and content
• And home schooling support materials

Earlier, I referenced a follow up webinar. That webinar is intended to be a more of a practical session where we can move through the NSW Curriculum website together.

I look forward to joining you for that session.

We have additional support materials to be published in the coming months. This includes a range of recorded presentations to walk you through various elements of NESA syllabuses and how they may be addressed in your educational programs.

Before we move on to questions and finish up for today, I would appreciate your feedback on today's session.

We will have a couple of minutes for questions that have been posed in the Q & A and if you have any comments regarding this presentation or you wish to share future topics that may be of use to the home schooling community, we will keep this Slido survey open for an hour.

I am going to stop sharing this presentation and I’ll invite Katherine to run through some of the questions today.

Q&A Session

Katherine: Thanks so much Di and really appreciate that presentation and hope that the people present today found it useful just as a starters guide to NESA syllabuses, the outcomes and content.

We had a couple of questions come through, not a great deal, but there was a great question that came through from someone who wanted to know whether or not, well, there was a question around the statement ‘if you choose to use NESA outcomes’ and they were under the impression that parents had to use outcomes, and that was a great question. And hopefully Di’s presentation today has clarified it a little bit that parents have enormous flexibility in how they use NESA syllabuses, and the syllabuses have outcomes in them, they have content and they have focus areas and content groups and how you choose to use those syllabuses is really up to you.

Some parents choose to take the outcomes alone and work with those in their program. Some people prefer to take just the content because they find it perhaps a little more specific about the types of things that can be learned, and they find that useful. Some people like to use a combination and there are also other things in the syllabuses that you might like to draw on as well to help support you.

So as a parent who is educating your own child, you can draw on those syllabuses as they work for you and as they work for the learning you are designing for your child.

There was also reference to whether or not you could use Australian Curriculum. Absolutely! You can use the Australian Curriculum, you can use other curriculums you may source from elsewhere, however, one of the requirements is that it is based on NESA syllabuses, so what you would need to do as a parent is you would need to find the ways that the curriculum you are using can be connected to a NESA syllabus and potentially you may want to talk that through with an Authorised Person where you can see those connections so that they can be satisfied that it is based on a NESA syllabus. So, lots of flexibility available, but as long as, in that program, there are connections to those NESA syllabuses, then everything is fine.

There is also a question about young people who might have autism and whether or not the access content points can be used for them. Access content points are for children with an intellectual disability. And not just that they have an intellectual disability but that they an intellectual disability and are unable to access or meet that particular outcome at that kindergarten stage. So, if a child has autism and is unable to access that outcome there are other things you can do; you can make adjustments, you can use different ways of engaging your child, different strategies, different resources, but it is designed for young people with an intellectual disability. But, of course, if you have any particular questions about your child and you want to talk that through, then please, feel free to get in touch with us at the Home Schooling Unit to talk with one of our staff members about that.

We have a question about whether or not you can chat with your Authorised Person outside of your particular time where you have your assessment just to clarify syllabus outcome questions. The Authorised Persons are there to assess your program, to review it and to have a look at whether or not it meets requirements, so it isn’t part of their role to take questions and provide answers about the syllabus outcomes. However, it is our job to do that, so you are very, very welcome to contact us, in the Home Schooling Unit, by email or by phone and we have officers available to talk you through those things and give you answers, and we are very much looking forward to anyone doing that as we always love to chat to our families.

There’s a question also about AP’s and whether or not they are trained in how this applies to home schoolers. Absolutely, AP’s are already familiar with the flexibility that is available and we also do regular professional learning with AP’s and because we have the new syllabuses coming out, we’ve actually had increased amounts of professional learning in the area of syllabuses, so 100%, AP’s are getting some valuable professional learning in that area. Thank you for that question.

Hopefully, everyone has had one or two things that they’ve been able to take away from today’s session.

If you think of a question, maybe later, that you didn’t think of at the time, once again, please just send us an email, give us a call and we are really happy to answer your questions.

Diane: Thank you very much, Katherine.

Thank you all for attending today.

Don’t forget we’ve got a follow up webinar in plan; that is, how to use the NSW Curriculum website.

We look forward to seeing people there and we understand that there was a huge uptake. Unfortunately, not all those people have turned up today. So, if you know people who are registering, please make sure that they do come along because it is taking the place of others who most keenly wanted to be here. We know that, by the positive communications we have received about people wanting to join today.

Thank you again.

I hope you have gained some helpful information, and we look forward to working with you in the future.

Goodbye.

Diane Twomey:

Welcome to our second webinar for homeschooling parents. We're pleased to have you join us and hope you find this session useful. For those of you for who are attending for the first time. This webinar follows our first webinar: Let's talk - NESA syllabuses.

Our first webinar focused on demystifying the terminology used around NESA syllabuses and provided an outline of syllabus elements. It's step through the syllabuses and support materials on the NSW curriculum website.

This first webinar is in the process of being published to our website.

As you are aware, we are still trialling the webinar format and as an additional way of supporting you. Particularly given the changes in syllabuses that have and continue to take place. So, thank you for registering and being here today.

My name is Diane and I'll be hosting today's webinar.

Today is to help you navigate the NSW curriculum website. I'm planning to guide you through the different parts of the syllabus on the website and highlight what they are so you can feel more comfortable when using them and also provide greater familiarity with what's available.

My role and my colleague, Padraig's, role, is to support the homeschooling unit and you, the parents with relevant materials to help locate and use NESA syllabuses and the NSW curriculum website.

In doing so, we aim to provide you with greater confidence with registration requirements before we begin, I have just a few housekeeping notes. We are recording today's event with the aim to publish it on our website in the future as a way for others to access the learning if they've been unable to join us today.

As this is a trial though and technology is what technology is. I'd like to thank you in advance for your patience as we navigate this new platform just in case we hit any snags along the way. So, while it is our aim to publish, just know that sometimes things do not go to plan. We'll see how we go, but it is definitely our aim to publish this after today. We'd like you to feel comfortable, you may wish to turn your cameras off and at the end for Q&A, you may wish to may wish to leave them off or turn them back on.

We have enabled the Q&A features for this webinar. If you haven't used the Q&A before, you may see the icon on the top of your taskbar. My colleague, Katherine, will be managing the Q&A, so please use this feature to add in any questions you may have about the information being presented. You may find Katherine will provide a brief answer as the webinar progresses, or we may address your question at the end of the webinar. You may not see the response automatically and you may need to click on your comment to see her response.

Firstly, I would begin with an Acknowledgement of Country. I want to acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the many, many lands from which you are joining us today. I recognise and celebrate the diversity of Aboriginal Peoples and their ongoing Cultures and Connections to the lands and surrounding waters surrounding us. Today I'm presenting from the land of the Gadigal People of the Eora Nation. Eora is the name of the coastal Aboriginal Peoples around Sydney. Eora means here or from this place, so it is from this place on Gadigal Land that I acknowledge how grateful I am for the opportunity to gather and to present to you today. I hold in high reverence and honour Elders past and present and extend that respect to any Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People who join in today.

Now, before we begin, it would be helpful to get to know you a little bit and to know what stages you are working with. I'm going to ask you to use the reaction from your toolbar for your responses here.

Can you possibly use the reaction tool with a thumbs up if you have a child in the primary years?

Can you select the heart if you have a child in the secondary 7 to 10 year?

Finally, can we have the applause or the clapping hands if you have a child in the senior secondary years?

So we know that we have a whole range of people and we will be going through and touching on each area, each stage of learning, today.

You may wish to take notes as we go along, but just remember that we are hoping to publish this, so you should be able to view it at a later time. Before we go live on to the NSW curriculum website, it's important to note that this is a site with resources developed for teachers within a school context. While this is who they are designed for, the resources available can still be useful for when you are educating your child at home. You might find that there are some that you want to use and others that you don't, and that's perfectly fine. We're just trying to show you what is there.

I will refer to our homeschooling pages on the NSW Government website during this webinar. Here you may find some support materials that may also assist you. I encourage you to check them out when you have time.

The areas of the website that we will be covering today are all those areas of the NSW curriculum website. That includes syllabus implementation information, Learning areas, syllabus elements - both outcomes and content, meeting your child's individual needs, Teaching and learning support, and how to download syllabus elements.

If you're going to be moving along with me on your own device, you may want to make your way to the Curriculum NSW website. For those of you who are doing that, I've included the address at the top right hand side of the slide. For those people who wish to, move on to curriculum.nsw.edu dot au, you may want to do that on another device and follow through. Or we can just work through it together.

Now we've made our way to the NSW curriculum website.

We will focus our journey on the stages of learning – primary, secondary, and then senior secondary. After the senior secondary years, I will move on to some unique features for some of our syllabuses.

Firstly, we'll look at our initial options on the home screen.

The home screen has Stages and below it has Key learning areas or Learning areas.

I prefer to navigate through the Learning areas to clearly view the range of syllabuses available in each stage of learning.

I also like to have open the Guidelines for Homeschooling Registration (Guidelines)
for easy access to the minimum requirements for each stage of learning.
The guidelines clarify some enquiries parents may have regarding their child's curriculum.

The Guidelines are on the Home Schooling pages of the NSW Government website, but the enquiries that it can solve are things like:

• are languages mandatory and the guidelines clearly indicate that they are not;
• and does my child need to study history and geography in the secondary years? The guideline indicates that any one HSIE or Human Society and Its Environment syllabus may be included in your child's educational programme in those years.

Having the guidelines on hand ensures your child's educational plan meets the minimum curriculum requirements.

The other tabs I like to have open are the homeschooling pages from the NSW government website. I'll provide details on how these pages are linked throughout the presentation. So now let's dive into some syllabuses.

I will be using a range of syllabuses as examples throughout today's webinar. You will find that the syllabus elements highlighted today apply to most syllabuses.

Firstly, we will look at the English K - 10 syllabus.

The first thing you can see on the English K - 10 syllabus is implementation information.
This is information for schools regarding when the syllabus is required to be implemented. Home schooling parents have been provided with additional time to implement the syllabuses. You may implement any K - 10 syllabus once it's released or any time up to the homeschooling implementation date.

You can find details on our website by navigating to the curriculum, reform and home schooling parents page.

After we look at the implementation, you can navigate using the tabs.

The overview provides helpful information about the significant features and organisation of the syllabus. You may notice some common features throughout a range of syllabuses.

All syllabuses in the K - 10 years will refer to the priority area of creating written texts. The information for the importance of creating written texts is found here.

In all K - 10 syllabuses, you will see reference to access content points. Access content points are for children with significant intellectual disability in the K - 6 years.

In the 7 to 10 years, you will see Life Skills outcomes and content for children with intellectual disability.

The information under the heading Working at different stages may provide helpful guidance when addressing your child's learning needs.

The Rationale and the Aim are the next two tabs. They provide an indication of the significance of the syllabus and how the syllabus relates to the child's engagement in society.

Now let's move on to the main areas that our parents will be using, Outcomes and Content. Outcomes indicate a child's progress. They indicate what a child can do. Some parents use outcomes to monitor their child's progress. You may find some commercial resources also refer to outcomes.

You can see the outcomes for all stages within the English K - 10 syllabus here.

Early Stage 1 is for kindergarten. Stage 1 is for years 1 and 2, and as they move up, Stage 5 that covers years 9 and 10. To gain an understanding of the outcome codes and how outcomes may be used, you'll soon be able to view the previous webinar, Let's talk - NESA syllabuses, on our website.

By selecting the box on the right, you can select ‘Show aligned content’. You can see the content that relates to the outcome.

We have assisted parents by creating outcome summaries for syllabuses in the K - 10 years. You can find the outcome summaries on the homeschooling pages of the NSW Government website, under NESA, support material.

You can see for English in Early Stage One, there are a range of different outcomes and this is not unlike all syllabuses and stages.

We will now move across to the tab for Content.
Content represents the knowledge, skills, and understandings required to achieve an outcome. It can also be a really helpful way to better understand the intended learning of an outcome. If I select Early Stage One as an example, important features of the content are available to us. They include the Focus areas down the left hand side.

The focus area is also highlighted in the content box and it has the aligned outcome in the Navy blue box. Under the focus area, Oral Language and Communication, you can see the content groups.

They include:

• Listening for understanding
• Social and learning interactions
• Understanding and using grammar when interacting and
• Oral narrative.

There is now additional support for children with diverse learning needs.
You can see under oral narrative there are a range of content groups for Complementary content. Complementary content is available for each content group in this focus area to support children with disability access content. Within this stage. It enables children to meet the syllabus outcomes in their own way. Complementary content is also found in the Handwriting focus area, and in the Personal Development, Health and Physical Education syllabus for fundamental movement.

Moving back up the page, there are additional areas that you may find helpful.

By selecting ‘Teaching advice’ you will gain insight or further information on the content and how it may be taught in schools. It offers strategies and additional links that may be helpful. While this area is designed for school situations, sometimes you may find that it supports your own understanding of the content or the strategies you may use with your child.

As well as Teaching Advice, there is another selection: ‘Examples’.

You will see a grey box appear that offers guidance to what a content dot point may look like or may include. These Examples may be very helpful when developing your educational programme. It can just be an indication if you're on the right track.

The third selection that's available in the K -6 range is ‘Access content points’.

There are additional ways an educational programme may cater for a child with disability. The educational programme may refer to outcomes and or content from the child's stage of learning with adjustments, and this may mean incorporating different learning experiences or different ways to demonstrate the outcomes.

Some programmes may refer to outcomes or contents from a previous stage, and other programmes may refer to Access content points. By selecting Access content points, you can see the content changes. Access content points are to support children with significant intellectual disability who are working towards Early Stage 1 outcomes.

The content is not a replacement for Early Stage 1 content, rather, it provides content that reflects that the child may be working towards Early Stage 1, so they operate as a bridge, or a support, to get them to the point that they can work with the Early Stage 1 outcomes.

You may find the support materials on the Home schooling pages of the NSW government website helpful in this area.

I'll now move to a new syllabus.

By selecting ‘Learning areas’, I can move into Science and select the ‘Science and Technology K- 6’ syllabus.

Now a quick reminder is that, as with the other syllabuses, there is implementation information there for you. You can see that the implementation date for Science and Technology, but you may begin it earlier than that time.

In the overview you will see the organisation of Science and Technology, but you will also see the protocols for collaborating with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities and engaging with Cultural and heritage works. This information can be helpful when you're interacting with Aboriginal Communities or using, selecting or purchasing Cultural materials.

As mentioned earlier, ‘Creating written texts’ is also in the syllabus, as it is a priority area, and it will be available in all syllabus documents.

Now if I return to the content in the Science and Technology syllabus. This time I will select ‘Stage 2’. Again, you can see on the left there are only two focus areas, ‘Physical and living systems depend on energy and design processes’, and ‘Digital systems are used to create solutions’ as the second focus area.

The content for Stage 2 is for years 3 and 4. By selecting Design processes and digital systems, we can then select ‘Teaching advice’. Again, Teaching advice may help you with ideas of how you may address aspects of the content in your educational programme.

You can see here that there is a focus on ‘Language and vocabulary development’.
There is also the design process, which is an important element of this syllabus.

Another area which I find especially helpful is the ‘Making connections through related content’. This area indicates that the content within this focus area also addresses content and outcomes from other syllabuses. Some parents may find this helpful when monitoring and reporting their child's progress. This example shows that within the focus area of ‘Design and digital systems’, you may be covering aspects of ‘Oral language and communication’ from the English syllabus, ‘Vocabulary’ from the English syllabus, or ‘Geometric measure’ or ‘Data’ from the Mathematics syllabuses, and sometimes those links are helpful to know.

Now I'll move on to a secondary example. Moving back to the Learning areas, I will select Mathematics. So again, Mathematics has the same tabs available of Overview, Rationale, Aim, Outcomes, and Content that we've been using.

In the Outcomes tab, you can see that in Mathematics, Working mathematically is the same outcome across all years and all stages, and this is an outcome that is integrated in the teaching of Mathematics.

Now moving through to the content, we might select ‘Stage 4’ this time.

You can see again that the focus areas are on the left and we have a longer list of focus areas for Mathematics.

You can also see some of the options have changed. Now we have ‘View Life Skills’, ‘Teaching advice’ and ‘Examples’.

In the secondary syllabuses, ‘Access content points’ has been replaced by ‘View Life Skills’.

Just as in the primary years, there are additional ways an educational programme may cater for a child with disability. Educational programmes may refer to outcomes and or content from the child's stage of learning, with some adjustments. Again, this may mean incorporating different learning experiences and ways to demonstrate outcomes. Other programmes may refer to outcomes and or content from a previous stage and for some children this may include the primary stages of learning. And other programmes may refer to Life Skills outcomes and content.

By selecting ‘View Life Skills’ you can see the content changes. You can see that Life Skills, outcomes and content for Stages 4-5 are available to support children with intellectual disability who are unable to attain outcomes through the use of adjustments or from previous stages. There is helpful information on the NSW curriculum website under ‘Diversity of learners’.

Mathematics also has some unique features. You may see their outcome codes have changed and that's where you may find the ‘Teaching and learning support’ area provides you with good insight into what those changes are.

We will move to one more syllabus. We are moving back to the Learning areas and looking at HSIE or Human Society and Its Environment. You may see under this learning area there are 7 syllabuses. You may include any one HSIE syllabus in your child's educational programme.

Looking at syllabuses, you may see some of them have a red line at the top. This means that it is a new syllabus. It has already been updated and it sits on the NSW curriculum website. For syllabuses that are yet to be updated, they do not have the red bar at the top but this website will redirect you to their location on the NESA website.

If you are still using a current syllabus, that has since been updated, for example, History K-10 syllabus, the current syllabus is on the NESA website. You will need to move to the NESA website to find that syllabus. The NSW curriculum website only holds the most current version of a syllabus.

Now we will move into the senior secondary years.

Back again to Learning areas and we will look at English.

Within English, there are a wide range of syllabuses available, and you may consider using the syllabus that suits your child's needs. There is:

• English Advanced
• English As an Additional Language and/or Dialect
• English Extension
• English Life Skills
• English Standard
• English Studies.

When selecting syllabuses in the 7- 12 years, you may find our syllabus overviews provide an insight into the 7-10 electives or optional syllabuses and a range of syllabuses from years 11 and 12. The syllabus overviews can be found on the NSW government website here:

https://www.nsw.gov.au/education-and-training/nesa/home-schooling/nesa-support-material

Syllabus overviews may help you when you're considering which English syllabus you may include in your child's educational programme. Each syllabus has a different clientele, and you will be able to find one that can suit your child. If we look at English Advanced 11 - 12 syllabus, you can see the very same tabs appear as in in the primary and the secondary syllabuses. However, the Overview has had some change.

There is a tab here for ‘Syllabus overview’ and a second for ‘Course description’. This is because the syllabus is designed for teachers working in schools and children in schools have requirements in order to meet the HSC. The overview provides a lot of the requirements for these children and is for these teachers.

As we move to the Outcomes, you may see that instead of having outcomes by stage, we now have outcomes for each year.

Again, you can select ‘Show aligned content’ to gain an understanding of the content areas that together lead to the achievement of the outcome.

Moving on to Content, again, the content is divided into year groups rather than stages and within the content of Year 11, you can see the Focus area, the Content group and the content that is required for this area. Teaching advice is also available within the senior secondary years.

Now there are some additional elements that you may find helpful.

We will revisit the Mathematics K - 10 syllabus, but this time we're going to select the ‘Teaching and learning support’ tab on the end. Now you can use the filters to find information, but we will just have a look at the information as it sits here.

Once again, this information has been designed with teachers in mind, but there are a number of resources here that you may also find useful in your context and for your child.

There are ‘Sample scope and sequences’. A scope and sequence places the content and the outcomes into a stage plan.

I am just downloading a scope and sequence so that you can see.

The scope and sequence will give you information about what content it's including and then how teachers in schools may choose to break up their topics. This may be helpful if you're developing your own educational programme in a similar way.

There are also other helpful files here.

The ‘Determining key progress point assessment pack’ is another useful piece of support material. It has some work samples that may provide ideas for your learning experiences.

In addition to that, there are ‘Work samples’. The work samples indicate what learning may look like when addressing an outcome and the aligned content. This may help if you are planning to return your child to school or if you wanted to have an idea of what a skill may look like in regard to the content or outcomes from the syllabus.

There are also ‘Sample units’ that you may find helpful if you are organising the learning on a theme or a topic. This sample unit is for children studying Life Skills in their educational programme. They are using outcomes and content and it's around managing a budget. It gives you an indication of the different learning experiences and elements from the syllabus that may be covered.

In addition to that, there are additional Teaching advice materials which explain, in more detail, elements of Mathematics and, in line with the focus of all syllabuses, there is a focus on vocabulary and language and how that can be integrated in your mathematics teaching experiences. You may find that some terminology in Mathematics may be unfamiliar to you, and this document may be helpful.

Another area that may be helpful is found in Modern Languages.

Moving to Languages we can see we have had a significant change in this area.

Modern languages is a category that includes languages that, outside of Aboriginal Languages, that are any language that is currently in use.

Aboriginal Languages are considered a modern language. However, many Aboriginal languages are in various stages of reclamation and revitalization, and the Aboriginal languages syllabus addresses those features.

So previously there was a syllabus for each of the individual languages. Now, however, there is a consistent approach to the content and outcomes across all modern languages.

By going into the content, for those of you who may include languages in your child's educational programme, you can see that there is no specific reference that may help guide you with your target language.

The ‘Examples’ provide flexibility to how you programme your languages, taking into account that children come into languages at different stages. Some children may be a beginner of the language, they may have intermediate skills or advanced skills. The Examples provide guidance on what depth and breadth of content you may include.

If we move into ‘Teaching and learning support’ within Modern Languages, you will see that there is support material for each main target language which can help when you are developing your educational programme. So, this is a great resource if you are including languages in your child's educational programme.

Now there is one more area that I would like to look at today and that is the ‘Download view’.

Often, we can see information but it may be tricky to use or not very helpful because it's on our screen. By selecting ‘Download view’, you will have an opportunity to select from the different Learning areas, Stages and Syllabus elements.

I'm going to select the ‘Creative Arts K-6’ syllabus, and I would like to download the outcomes and content for Stage 2. Now you may choose to include the ‘Examples’ in the download when you do this. I find that it is helpful because the Examples are in context with the content, and you will be able to see them when you refer to it later. The ‘Access content points’ may also be helpful.

In the downloaded document, you may see that there's information about the syllabus, then the implementation information, followed by the outcomes. When looking at the outcomes, all the outcomes in the K -6 years are included. This is because some children may progress at different rates through the outcomes. So even though I've selected ‘Stage 2 content’, the outcomes for that stage of learning, primary or secondary, will all be included. In Stage 2 you can see the content with the shaded boxes of Examples.

So while you've had a walkthrough of the curriculum website, my colleague Katherine has been monitoring the Q&A features and we'll have a couple of minutes for Katherine to answer any questions that have been posed.

Katherine Lowing:

Thanks so much Di. That was great and possibly a little overwhelming for some people. As you know, discovering all the bits and pieces that are available to look at, but hopefully you've all been able to take something from that that you can refer to later. And when we publish this, you'll be able to go back and refer to it in relation to any questions that came up along the way.

Up until just a moment ago, there was only actually one question that came through in the Q&A. It was… it was a good one.

We had someone talking about a resource that they use, that says that they have updated the syllabus and updated their materials with the new curriculum. This person made the observation that they thought the outcomes looked quite similar and they just wanted to check whether or not they can continue to use older maths books.

I did provide a response there, but just for the benefit of everyone.

If they've said that they've updated their material then, then, you know, that hopefully they have and they are using the new syllabus, outcomes and content. However, at the end of the day, it is also the responsibility of you as the parent to make sure that that is correct. So, it might be useful for you to do a little bit of a cross check to see that they are actually the new outcomes.

However, in terms of using old resources, that's absolutely fine. You can use whatever resources you like, whether they say they're using new syllabuses or old syllabuses. Ultimately, it's about whether or not that resource is going to support the learning in your programme and is your programme based on the syllabus. You might find a resource that has been created in America. Well, that's not based on our syllabus, but it might still be useful for the content that you're actually addressing. So, I'm not sure whether that's clear. If there's anyone with a question, I’m happy to take a follow up question if need be. But at the end of the day, as the parent, you're the one who determines the learning for your child, and you're also responsible for making sure that it does still meet our syllabuses, so doing a bit of a cross check - that is always a really good exercise.

I don't believe actually there were any other questions submitted in the Q&A function. So, if anyone has any burning questions right now that they want to quickly pop in the Q&A I can try and address those for you. But ultimately if you don't have any right now, but you think about any later on, please feel free to drop us a line in the Home Schooling Unit via e-mail or by phone call and one of our staff members can talk you through or answer questions about the syllabuses. We also have, I'm not sure whether I mentioned it, I can't remember, but we also have a resource on the home schooling page that is a bit of a walkthrough of the different elements of the website as well, with some screen grabs and instructions of how to walk through it. So, feel free to find that resource as well and explore the website for all the various features it offers.

But as for now Di, I think, that's all we have for questions. Thank you.

Diane Twomey:

Excellent. Thank you, Katherine.

So today we've looked at the NSW Curriculum website, we've looked at syllabus, implementation, curriculum choices, syllabus elements, meeting your child's individual needs, Teaching and learning support and downloading syllabus elements.

Earlier I referenced that we plan to publish the webinar so you can watch the recording of the webinar later and can go back and refresh your memory. It will also assist parents to navigate the website if they want to explore its features when developing their child's educational programmes.

Remember, if you have any follow up questions, just like Katherine mentioned, you can get in touch with us. Please feel free to contact us via e-mail or phone. Also, if you have any comments regarding this presentation or you wish to share ideas for future topics that you believe may be helpful to home schooling community we will be emailing a feedback link on today's session.

Thank you for joining us today. We look forward to seeing you at our next webinar. Thank you very much.