K–6Creative Arts K–6 Syllabus

Figure 1 shows the organisation of Creative Arts K–6 and the essential knowledge and skills that are central to developing understandings and practices in Dance, Drama, Music and Visual Arts.

Image long description: The 4 focus areas are Dance, Drama, Music and Visual Arts. Essential knowledge, understanding and skills are positioned in columns within the focus areas. In Dance they are Composing, Performing and Appreciating. In Drama they are Making, Performing and Appreciating. In Music they are Performing, Listening and Composing. In Visual Arts they are Making, Appreciating and Exhibiting. Surrounding the whole diagram is a line labelled ‘Applying knowledge, understanding and skills through interrelated practices’.

Students engage in Composing, Performing and Appreciating as interrelated practices in Dance. They develop deeper knowledge, understanding and skills as they apply their learning to inform and enrich their dance experiences. Dance may be composed, performed, appreciated and accessed through the senses.

Composing involves structuring body shapes and movements using the elements of dance to communicate ideas and intent. The elements of dance provide a foundation for learning about movement principles. Students have opportunities to compose their own movements and sequences in response to different stimuli. They develop bodily competence and confidence using safe dance practices.

Performing involves communicating ideas and intent through body shapes and movements, developing bodily competence and confidence. Students have opportunities to develop knowledge, understanding and skills using the elements of dance to communicate ideas and intent. They perform dance from various contexts and their own compositions. Students develop an understanding of the roles of dancer and choreographer.

Appreciating involves students reflecting on their own dance experiences and investigating the works of others to understand how ideas and intent are conveyed through dance. Students have opportunities to explore how dancers use the elements of dance. They engage with dance styles from various cultures and contexts to understand how ideas are conveyed in dance for audiences to experience.

The Creative Arts K–­6 Dance focus area builds the foundational understandings which are further developed in the Dance 7–10 Syllabus (2023).

Students engage in Making, Performing and Appreciating as interrelated practices in Drama. They develop deeper knowledge, understanding and skills as they apply their learning to inform and enrich their drama experiences. Drama may be made, performed, appreciated and accessed through the senses.

Making involves devising and shaping imagined roles, characters, ideas, situations and stories. The dramatic elements provide a foundation for learning about ways to embody and enact ideas. Students have opportunities to use the dramatic elements to shape meaning in response to different stimuli.

Performing involves embodying and enacting roles, characters, ideas, situations and stories. Students have opportunities to develop knowledge, understanding and skills using the dramatic elements to shape dramatic meaning. They develop an understanding of the roles of dramatic practitioners.

Appreciating involves students reflecting on their own drama experiences and investigating dramatic works of others to understand how meaning is represented through drama. Students have opportunities to explore how drama is organised using the dramatic elements. Students engage with dramatic forms and styles from various cultures and contexts to understand how dramatic practitioners shape meaning for audiences.

The Creative Arts K–­6 Drama focus area builds the foundational understandings which are further developed in the Drama 7–10 Syllabus (2023).

Students engage in Performing, Listening and Composing as interrelated practices in Music. They develop deeper knowledge, understanding and skills as they apply their learning to inform and enrich their music experiences. Music may be performed, accessed and composed through the senses.

Performing involves singing, moving, playing and using listening skills. Students have opportunities to develop knowledge, understanding and skills in performing, using the elements of music to communicate musical ideas. They engage with music from various cultures and contexts, performing repertoire by others and their own compositions. Students develop an understanding of the roles of performer and composer.

Listening involves students using aural awareness to experience sound. Students engage with repertoire and music styles from various cultures and contexts. They use listening skills to explore how the elements of music are used in their own singing, moving and playing, and in the music they experience.

Composing involves organising sound by using the elements of music to convey musical ideas. Students use performing and listening skills as they explore and compose music through singing and playing. They have opportunities to imitate, improvise and arrange the music of others and create their own compositions. Students use symbols, graphic notation or staff notation to represent musical ideas.

The Creative Arts K–6 Music focus area builds the foundational understandings which are further developed in the Music 7–10 Syllabus (2024).

Students engage in Making, Appreciating and Exhibiting as interrelated practices in Visual Arts. They develop deeper knowledge, understanding and skills as they apply their learning to inform and enrich their visual arts experiences. Artworks may be made, appreciated, exhibited and accessed through the senses.

Making involves an understanding that artists make artworks to represent subject matter, ideas or symbolic meaning. Students experiment with materials, techniques and processes to explore ways to convey ideas through art forms. They make representations of their world by exploring their own ideas, interests and perspectives and the artworks and practices of artists. Learning in Appreciating and Exhibiting provides students with opportunities to develop deeper understandings that inform their own artmaking practices.

Appreciating involves students investigating ways artists represent their world through subject matter and ideas in their artmaking practices. They observe artworks from various cultures and contexts to explore ways artists make artworks in different ways using art forms. Students critique artworks and have opportunities to communicate ideas about artists, artworks, the world and audiences. They develop an understanding that audiences may interpret artworks in various ways.

Exhibiting involves developing students’ understanding that artworks are valued, displayed and interpreted by audiences. Students develop observation through a critical and creative lens in the interpretation of their own and others’ artworks. They explore ways curation and display can contribute meaning to artworks and develop understandings for audiences. Students have opportunities to exhibit or display their own artworks for an audience through virtual, physical, indoor or outdoor displays.

The Creative Arts K–6 Visual Arts focus area builds the foundational understandings which are further developed in the Visual Arts 7–10 Syllabus.

NESA is committed to working in partnership with Aboriginal Communities and supporting teachers, schools and schooling sectors to improve educational outcomes for young people.

It is important to respect appropriate ways of interacting with Aboriginal Communities and Cultural material when teachers plan, program and implement Creative Arts learning experiences that focus on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Priorities.

Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP) protocols need to be followed. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ ICIP protocols include Cultural Knowledges, Cultural Expression and Cultural Property and documentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ Identities and lived experiences. It is important to recognise the diversity and complexity of different Cultural groups in NSW, as protocols may differ between local Aboriginal Communities.

Teachers should work in partnership with Elders, parents, Community members, Cultural Knowledge Holders, or a local, regional or state Aboriginal Education Consultative Group. It is important that respect for Elders and the roles of men and women is shown. Local Aboriginal Peoples should be invited to share their Cultural Knowledges with students and staff when engaging with Aboriginal histories and Cultural Practices.

The attainment of knowledge is a key goal of education. There is accumulated knowledge and wisdom of our world that all students have a right to learn. The curriculum plays a key role in identifying shared knowledge that provides opportunities to foster belonging and cross-cultural understanding in our society.

Knowledge underpins our ability to think and do. Students learn new ideas with reference to their existing knowledge. In each learning area, background knowledge committed to long-term memory is vital to literacy development and underpins the ability to think critically and creatively. 

When learning to read, it is the development of broad knowledge, alongside vocabulary, which supports students to build mental models from the texts they engage with, secure schemas of increasing depth and complexity, and make connections with their world. Learning opportunities within the primary curriculum are coherent, intentional and designed to build knowledge and vocabulary of the learning area and support literacy development.

The Creative Arts K–6 Syllabus follows Recommendation 2: ‘Clarify and strengthen writing content in syllabus documents’ from Teaching Writing: Report of the Thematic Review of Writing (NESA 2018).

Creating written texts is a way of organising thoughts, explaining thinking, and making connections within and across learning areas. The learning areas provide meaningful content for writing beyond the subject of English. ‘When writing instruction prompts students to think deeply and/or make decisions about content, learning is improved’ (AERO 2022). Creating written texts in learning areas develops students’ critical understandings and voice.

Creating written texts content in the primary curriculum includes:

• systematic development of expectations for creating written texts, which aligns with the English K–10 Syllabus (2022)
• explicit writing content to support students to become fluent creators of texts, to deepen their understanding of the learning areas
• opportunities to practise the process of creating written texts to develop and communicate knowledge, understanding and ideas
• a focus on vocabulary and sentence construction.

Creating written texts refers to the act of composing and constructing a text for a particular purpose, audience and context.

Various methods of transcription may be employed, and a student’s preferred communication form(s) should be considered when teaching writing.

Image long description: Four horizontal rows labelled Creative Arts, PDHPE, HSIE and Science and Technology. Above these rows are 4 headings: Early Stage 1, Stage 1, Stage 2 and Stage 3. In the rows labelled Creative Arts and PDHPE, a box with a dotted outline spans Early Stage 1 to Stage 1. This box contains the text ‘Using vocabulary and language to communicate in Creative Arts or PDHPE respectively’. Under Stage 2 for Creative Arts and PDHPE there is a box containing the text ‘Embedded within content’. Under Stage 3 for Creative Arts and PDHPE there is a box containing the text ‘Outcome’. In the rows labelled HSIE and Science and Technology, a box containing the text ‘Content group’ is listed for each of Early Stage 1, Stage 1 and Stage 2. Under Stage 3 there is a box containing the text ‘Outcome’. In all 4 rows the text boxes are linked by arrows showing the progression from Early Stage 1 to Stage 3. Surrounding the whole diagram is a line labelled ‘“Creating written texts” content in the syllabuses aligns with the corresponding stage expectations of the English K–10 Syllabus (2022)’.