All schools including Sydney Catholic Schools follow the same Kindergarten to Year 12 curriculum, with our Catholic values underpinning everything that we do.
With a focus on the development of the whole person, courses offered at the school cover the NESA syllabus requirements – developing the core skills of literacy and numeracy – and our Archdiocesan Religious Education curriculum.
Our teachers extend and challenge students to be the best they can be, while recognising that every student is unique and learns differently.
The Creative Arts syllabus encompasses learning in Dance, Drama, Music and Visual Arts. Each arts focus area has a distinct body of knowledge, creative and critical practices, and individual ways of understanding the world. Each arts focus area is acknowledged for its unique contribution to the creative arts.
Through our Amadeus Music Education Program, every student will receive quality instruction from a specialist music teacher. Since 2022, children in Years 3–6 receive tuition in small-group lessons on an orchestral instrument, as well as ensemble lessons.
Religious Education is at the heart of Catholic education. It informs all aspects of school life and supports the evangelising and catechising mission of the Catholic Church. Through Religious Education, young people come to know and love the person of Jesus Christ.
All students are expected to participate in the religious life of the school. This includes their participation in Religious Education classes, their study of the SCS Religious Education curriculum and their use of the To Know, Worship and Love textbooks and resources.
The organisation of outcomes and content for English K–10 highlights the role and connection that Understanding Texts and Creating Texts have across all areas of English. The organisation of outcomes and content reflects the essential knowledge, understanding and skills that students are expected to learn, including the study of a wide range of literature.
The knowledge, understanding and skills described in the outcomes and content of each focus area provide a basis for students to successfully progress to the next stage of learning. Focus areas should not be interpreted as hierarchical or time bound, as instructional priorities will be informed by learner needs.
K–2 focus areas
The focus areas for each stage support students’ growing knowledge and understanding in the areas of:
- Oral language and communication
- Vocabulary
- Phonological awareness
- Print conventions
- Phonic knowledge
- Reading fluency
- Reading comprehension
- Creating written texts
- Spelling
- Handwriting
- Understanding and responding to literature
3–6 focus areas
The focus areas for each stage support students’ growing knowledge and understanding in the areas of:
- Oral language and communication
- Vocabulary
- Reading fluency
- Reading comprehension
- Creating written texts
- Spelling
- Handwriting and digital transcription
- Understanding and responding to literature
The syllabus structure illustrates the important role Working mathematically plays across all areas of mathematics and reflects the strengthened connections between concepts. Working mathematically has been embedded in the outcomes, content and examples of the syllabus.
Mathematics K–10 outcomes and their related content are organised in:
- Number and algebra
- Measurement and space
- Statistics and probability
- Working mathematically
Working mathematically
The Working mathematically processes present in the Mathematics K–10 syllabus are:
- communicating
- understanding and fluency
- reasoning
- problem solving.
Students learn to work mathematically by using these processes in an interconnected way. The coordinated development of these processes results in students becoming mathematically proficient.
The study of Science and Technology in K–6 fosters a student’s sense of wonder about the world around them and knowledge of how it works. Scientific and technological knowledge is revised, refined and advanced as new evidence arises. Learning about science and technology provides a framework for students to know, understand and make sense of the world. This study encourages students to embrace new concepts and learn to observe, develop testable questions, and test and evaluate ideas to refine their understanding.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples have used scientific and technological methods to understand and make connections with and between People and their land, sea and sky for tens of thousands of years. Linking traditional and contemporary knowledge enables students to make meaningful connections with everyday lives and develop cultural competence.
Understanding the abundant and increasingly accessible information in the world is foundational to becoming informed and active citizens. In responding to dynamic environments, students are required to understand and evaluate ever-increasing amounts of information gathered from varied sources. Students are provided with opportunities to develop technological literacy skills through the use of digital technologies and the design and production of creative solutions.
The syllabus intends to build on students’ natural curiosity and inventiveness, providing opportunities to explore the natural and designed world, test ideas, and make decisions based on data and evidence.
Human Society and its Environment (HSIE) incorporates the study of people, places and environments, as well as how people and events from the past have shaped societies over time. Through the foundational knowledge, understanding and skills of geography and history, HSIE introduces students to the complex interconnections between people and places, past and present so they can become active, confident, engaged and valued members of Australia’s diverse community.
The HSIE syllabus acts as a mirror to reflect a student’s personal experiences and a window through which to view the world at different times and places. By engaging with stories, images, objects and sites as evidence of the past and with geographical information presented in maps, globes and graphs students learn the essential schema by which people locate and understand themselves, the environment and others in the world and in time. Students explore what it means to be Australian, and through civics and citizenship learn the roles and responsibilities which form the basis for Australia’s free, democratic and egalitarian society.
Students learn about Aboriginal Cultures and Histories, providing opportunities to broaden every student’s knowledge about Aboriginal Peoples by engaging with the oldest living, continuous Cultures in the world. Students develop an understanding of the sustainable practices developed and implemented by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples over millennia, the diversity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, the interdependence with Country and Place, and understandings of past and present.
Human Society and its Environment helps students navigate the dynamic world in which they live and develop a sense of connection to communities and groups. They learn to value the Earth, themselves and others, by learning from past human experience. Building knowledge about diverse people, customs and practices across time and place inspires wonder and curiosity and drives the motivation to learn. This helps students to become independent, critical and creative thinkers and contribute to a socially just and sustainable future.
Personal Development, Health and Physical Education (PDHPE) equips students with the knowledge and skills to positively influence their own and others’ safety, health and wellbeing. In an increasingly complex, sedentary and rapidly changing world, it is essential that young people develop the ability to critically respond to changing health contexts and evolving physical activity options.
The study of PDHPE contributes to the knowledge and understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ ways of knowing, being and doing and how these might influence personal and community choices.
Learning in PDHPE is the foundation for lifelong engagement in physical activity. Through PDHPE, students learn to value movement through the acquisition and application of movement skills, concepts and strategies across a range of physical activities. Students practise, develop and refine the physical, cognitive, social and emotional skills that are important for engaging in movement and leading a healthy, safe and physically active life.
Through studying PDHPE, students develop, evaluate and apply a broad range of skills to build and maintain a sense of connection, identity, resilience and respectful relationships. They develop skills to take positive action regarding consent, safety, health and wellbeing in a range of offline and online environments. The learning experiences in PDHPE provide students with a range of self-management and interpersonal skills to promote and advocate for the health and wellbeing of themselves and others.
PDHPE addresses factors that influence individuals, groups and communities. Students develop health literacy skills to critique and challenge attitudes, behaviours and contextual influences and to evaluate a range of health-related resources.