“Parents should be able to clearly understand what their children are learning at school in each year. The new syllabuses make it clearer for parents.”

In PDHPE,key changes include teaching respectful relationships and age-appropriate consent from kindergarten,and more explicit teaching of fundamental movement skills.

Detailed civics and citizenship content is in the human society and its environment (HSIE) syllabus,including the origins of the parliamentary system,the rule of law and the purpose of the constitution.

More specific content about earth,space and gravity is included in science.

The new curriculum,which schools can plan for from next year,will become mandatory in 2027. Last year,NSW Education Minister Prue Cardelayed the release of multiple syllabuses to bring the schedule in line with the 10-year timeframe outlined in the Masters-led review.

Car called the new syllabuses a significant milestone. “For the first time,primary school teachers have a set of syllabuses that make sense together and will ensure students have a strong foundation upon which to build their knowledge,” she said.

Primary schools are already teaching updated English and maths syllabuses. TheEnglish syllabuses included a focus on phonics and more explicit teaching of grammar,punctuation and sentence structure in primary and high school.

Critics previously warned that the national curriculum and state-based syllabuses were too vague and ambiguous,contributing to teacher workloads.

Ben Jensen,who last yearstudied the nation’s science curriculum and found Australia was setting students up for failure against top-performing countries,welcomed the changes.

“High-performing systems that have greater equity are more specific about what is taught in school classrooms,” he said.

“When you pick up the new NSW syllabuses,it looks a lot more like a high-quality curriculum from a top-performing country like Hong Kong,Japan or Singapore.”

However,he warned that teachers also need access to high-quality curriculum resources,directions on which lesson plans to use and professional development.

Martin said the syllabuses were carefully sequenced and knowledge-based. “They outline what teachers should teach and what students are expected to know,” he said.

He explained that NESA drew on cognitive science research of educational experts Professor John Sweller,Daniel Willingham and American education guru ED Hirsch,who emphasised a knowledge-rich curriculum was key in closing the vast achievement gap.

“It’s probably common sense to a lot of parents. The intention is that when students enter year 7,it is not this massive jump from year 6. We have to teach kids sequentially and explicitly. It is not acceptable to be finishing primary school not able to read,” Martin said.

Assistant principal curriculum and instruction at Windsor South Public Kerryn Carter said the syllabuses have been developed together for the first time in 50 years.

“Ambiguous content has been taken out,so there is less room for guessing. Content and student outcomes when learning about Aboriginal culture,history and peoples is much clearer,” she said.

“Explicit writing content,which focuses on vocabulary and sentence construction,means students will have more writing practice and will in turn help build more knowledge.”

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