NSW Department of Education and Communities:
NSW Curriculum and Learning Innovation Centre

The Australian, State and Territory governments agreed in 2008 that an Australian curriculum should be developed to provide a common curriculum entitlement for all young Australians.
The Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians (December 2008) commits "to supporting all young Australians to become successful learners, confident and creative individuals, and active and informed citizens", and to promoting equity and excellence in education.
The Australian Curriculum is intended to be accessible to all young Australians, regardless of their social or economic background or the school they attend.

The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) is responsible for the development of the Australian curriculum from Kindergarten to Year 12. ACARA is also responsible for:

• A national assessment program aligned to the national curriculum that measures students’ progress
• A national data collection and reporting program that supports
• analysis, evaluation, research and resource allocation; and
• accountability and reporting on schools and broader national achievement.

The Australian Curriculum is being developed by ACARA in three phases:

• Phase 1 involves English, mathematics, science and history
• Phase 2 involves languages, geography and the arts
• Phase 3 includes design and technology, health and physical education, ICT, economics, business and civics and citizenship.

ACARA has four stages in the development of the curriculum:

• Curriculum Shaping Stage involves drafting, consulting on and modifying a paper that presents a broad outline of the curriculum K-12 and curriculum design advice for the learning area.
• Curriculum Writing Stage involves teams of writers, supported by expert advisory panels and ACARA curriculum staff, developing the Australian curriculum. This includes content descriptions and achievement standards K-12. The draft curriculum is released for public consultation with subsequent modification in the light of feedback and publication.
• Implementation Stage involves the Australian Curriculum being made available in an online environment for school authorities, schools and teachers for implementation. State and Territory curriculum and school authorities will manage implementation for their schools.
• Evaluation and Review Stage involves monitoring and reviewing the Australian curriculum based on implementation feedback.

There are a number of ways that you can do this.

• The NSW Department of Education and Training will be running a series of consultations on draft curriculum documents. Information is provided in SchoolBiz and on these pages.
• The Board of Studies will also be consulting on the draft materials.
• You can provide feedback to ACARA by visiting the consultation page of the Australian Curriculum Online website to view the draft curriculum.

Any subject area not included in the Australian Curriculum will continue to be the responsibility of state and territory education authorities.

The Australian Curriculum will be published on the Australian Curriculum Online website, allowing links to be embedded in each document and to provide flexibility in how the curriculum can be read, organised and accessed.
Detailed information about the Australian curriculum is published on the ACARA website where you can also subscribe to regular automatic updates.
New curriculum documents published by the Board of Studies will be published on their website.

NSW has joined with the Australian Government and all other states and territories in a joint endeavour to develop an Australian curriculum. Information about the development of the Australian Curriculum for Phase 1 and 2 is available.