Overview
Syllabus overview
Some students with intellectual disability may find Years 11–12 Life Skills outcomes and content the most appropriate option to follow in Stage 6. Before deciding that a student should undertake a course based on Life Skills outcomes and content, consideration should be given to other ways of assisting the student to engage with the outcomes of the equivalent Stage 6 course. Students with disability can access syllabus outcomes and content in a range of ways, including through a range of adjustments to teaching, learning and assessment activities. Decisions regarding curriculum options should be made in the context of collaborative curriculum planning.
Life Skills outcomes cannot be taught in combination with other outcomes from the equivalent Stage 6 course. Teachers select specific Life Skills outcomes to teach based on the needs, strengths, goals, interests and prior learning of each student. Students are required to demonstrate achievement of one or more Life Skills outcomes. Students may access or demonstrate learning in a range of ways, including using aspects of their home languages and dialects, or using their preferred communication form(s).
The Visual Arts Life Skills 11–12 Syllabus aligns with the Visual Arts 11–12 Syllabus to provide opportunities for integrated delivery.
Organisation of Visual Arts Life Skills 11–12
The organisation of Visual Arts Life Skills 11–12 illustrates the central role of and relationships between Practice, Artworld concepts and Viewpoints, and how they are integrated into the focus areas Art making, Art criticism and art history, and Art making: Artwork series. Students use Practice, Artworld concepts and Viewpoints to develop their own informed points of view and create meaning and interest through their art making, in their artworks and in art criticism and art history.
Figure 1 shows the organisation of Visual Arts Life Skills 11–12.
Image long description: The 3 focus areas Art making, Art criticism and art history, and Art making: Artwork series are shown in boxes in the middle of the diagram. At the top of the diagram there is a box labelled Practice, Artworld concepts and Viewpoints. A line comes out of this box and surrounds the focus areas.
Practice, Artworld concepts and Viewpoints
Students develop an understanding of Practice, Artworld concepts and Viewpoints to build conceptual and technical skills across the focus areas in Visual Arts Life Skills 11–12.
Practice is about what practitioners know and do. It refers to the intentional artistic activity, agency and roles of practitioners such as artists, designers, curators, critics and historians. Their choices, roles and intentions shape how art is made, understood and experienced over time.
The nature of practice involves the positions practitioners adopt, the processes they follow, the judgements they make, and the perspectives and ways of working that guide how they develop and communicate their ideas. These ideas establish both what practitioners do and how they work.
The Artworld concepts of Artist, Artwork, World and Audience provide a foundation for understanding the relationships that shape artistic practice. These concepts are distinct yet interconnected ways of thinking about the visual arts and are considered in relation to the contexts in which artworks are made and viewed, and how audiences’ interpretations change over time. Students develop knowledge, understanding and skills by engaging with and applying these concepts in the focus areas Art making, Art criticism and history, and Art making: Artwork series.
Students use the Structural, Subjective, Cultural and Contemporary Viewpoints to guide their intentions, choices and actions when making art and to support their interpretations of art. Viewpoints help students understand meaning by considering an artwork in relation to how and why it was made, the context in which it is viewed and the ways interpretations can change over time.
Protocols for collaborating with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities and engaging with Cultural works
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 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 to respect Elders and the roles of men and women. Local Aboriginal Peoples should be invited to share their Cultural Knowledges with students and staff when engaging with Aboriginal histories and Cultural Practices.