Accessing the curriculum

A NSW curriculum for all students

All students have the right to take part in and progress through the NSW curriculum. Schools must make reasonable adjustments to teaching, learning and assessment activities for students with disability if they are needed. Adjustments are actions taken that enable a student with disability to access syllabus outcomes and content and demonstrate achievement of outcomes.

Everyone involved – teachers, parents, carers, the student, and any other key people – should work together to choose the best curriculum options and adjustments. This can be done by following the collaborative curriculum planning process. The choices should be appropriate to each student’s needs, strengths, goals, interests, and prior learning.

Types of access to syllabus outcomes and content

Students with disability can access the syllabus outcomes and content in a range of ways. They can do this with or without adjustments as appropriate.

Kindergarten to Year 10

In Kindergarten to Year 10, students with disability may engage through either:

• syllabus outcomes and content from their age-appropriate stage with adjustments to teaching, learning and/or assessment activities, or
• selected syllabus outcomes and content from their age-appropriate stage, relevant to their learning needs, or
• syllabus outcomes from an earlier stage, using age-appropriate content, or
• selected Years 7–10 Life Skills outcomes and content from one or more syllabuses (for students with intellectual disability, or imputed intellectual disability, in Years 7–10).

Years 11 and 12

In Years 11 and 12, students select courses that are appropriate to their needs, interests, and abilities. There are different types of courses to choose from including:

• Life Skills courses
• VET courses.

For each course selected, students study the outcomes and content of the syllabus and must complete all of the requirements of the course.

Supporting students with intellectual disability

In Kindergarten to Year 10, some students with intellectual disability may be working towards the Early Stage 1 outcomes. To support these students, syllabuses released on the NSW Curriculum website include access content points for teachers to use. 

Access content points provide students with syllabus content to access the curriculum based on their individual abilities and needs.

Teachers should consider that access content points:

• do not represent a developmental continuum
• can be selected to suit the needs and priorities of individual students
• can be used on their own, or combined with the accompanying Early Stage 1 content
• should be taught through age-appropriate content.

In Years 7–10, some students with intellectual disability may be best supported to access the curriculum through the Years 7–10 Life Skills outcomes and content. When using Life Skills outcomes and content, teachers should consider:

• other ways of supporting the student to access the general education course outcomes, including reasonable adjustments, before deciding that a student should access Life Skills outcomes and content
• that outcomes and content can be selected to suit the needs and priorities of individual students.