Overview
Syllabus overview
Organisation of Human Society and its Environment K–6
Figure 1 shows the organisation of Human Society and its Environment (HSIE) K–6.
Image long description: There are 2 vertical boxes, one labelled Geography and the other History. Inside the Geography box there are 4 horizontal boxes showing the focus areas of People are connected to places; People are connected to places and groups; Geographical information is used to understand the world; and Geographical information is used to plan for sustainable futures. Inside the History box there are 4 horizontal boxes showing the focus areas of People have lived in the past; People learn about the past by engaging with stories, images, objects and sites; History uses sources to construct narratives of the past; and Historical sources present perspectives on the past. Surrounding the whole diagram is a line labelled ‘Applying knowledge, understanding and skills through interrelated practices’.
Protocols for collaborating with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities and engaging with Cultural and heritage 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 Human Society and its Environment learning experiences that focus on Aboriginal Cultures and histories and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and Cultures.
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.
Access content points
Access content points have been developed to support students with significant intellectual disability who are working towards Early Stage 1 outcomes. These students may communicate using verbal and/or nonverbal forms.
For each of the Early Stage 1 outcomes, access content points are provided to indicate content that students with significant intellectual disability may access as they work towards the outcomes. Teachers will use the access content points on their own, or in combination with the content for each outcome.
Decisions regarding curriculum options for students with disability should be made in the context of collaborative curriculum planning.
The importance of vocabulary and knowledge in the primary curriculum
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.
Creating written texts supports learning
The HSIE 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)’.