Curriculum review: where was NESA's consultation?

Debra Batley

By Debra Batley
Community contribution / January 27, 2021

NESA’s announcement on Monday 15th January that its curriculum overhaul was powering on into 2021 by cutting over 80 elective school developed courses not deemed “core” had several disturbing aspects to it.

There was next to no consultation in this decision and it was particularly unsettling given that it followed closely on ...

Somerville House South Brisbane QLD

An exciting opportunity to join an Early Learning Centre as an Educator on a part time, fixed term basis.

Childcare & Outside School Hours Care / Feb 27, 2026

Visual Arts Teacher 7-12 -

Richmond Christian College Ballina

As our school continues to grow and create more opportunities for students in our region, we are excited to offer opportunities for a full time Visual Arts teacher to ...

Teaching - Secondary / Feb 27, 2026

Science Teacher - Until the end of the Academic year

Veritas Rossendale

Teaching - Secondary / Feb 27, 2026

By Debra Batley

Community

Debra Batley is a high school music teacher in North Western NSW. She is a current doctoral student at UNSW and her research area is in educational equity and its interaction with creative arts curriculum. In 2017-2019 with funding from AIS NSW she completed a 2 year long school based research project, examining the impact school based music tuition could have as a remediation tool for older readers who were not meeting stage outcomes. Debra is also the Chair of ASME NSW and is a passionate advocate for high quality music education for all students.

Similar news

School news / NSW reforms will create "clean air" in the curriculum: NESA head Opinion / Code of silence: Where was the public consultation on NAPLAN 2021? Opinion / The Australian Curriculum Review: The Arts and HASS are far from basic

Latest comments

And if we wait for a child who is entering Foundation in 2026 and don't approach climate change as a topic until they...

— Anne Vize on Our Tokenistic Sustainability Education Is Missing The Mark: Peak Science Associations

Top events

School news / Helping schools on the frontline of dealing with childhood trauma: new book

Authored by several internationally recognised trauma-informed researchers from here and overeseas, a new book argues that traditional approaches to discipline and behaviour management are often ill-suited to the reality many students face today.

School news / The world-leading primary mental health program having an extraordinary impact

A whole-school approach to wellbeing that has been producing phenomenal results in helping teachers better identify and support students and creating referral pathways to local mental health services, will be rolled out to every public primary sch...

School news / The digital delusion: teacher’s shift to tech-free lessons shows promising results

Before trialling a tech-free approach in her Year 12 Legal Studies classroom, Nicole Horton was seeing fractured attention, a sea of glazed over faces and eyes fixated on screens – the digital distraction was real, she says.

School news / Kids as young as 10 to be fitted with ankle bracelets, Qld police not impressed

Police and youth advocates are querying whether new state laws that will see children as young as 10 fitted with ankle bracelets are workable.

School news / Embed literacy instruction into PDHPE for incredible results: leading educator

Literacy and the explicit teaching of writing skills ought to be a focus of all PDHPE teachers’ practice and not left solely to English departments to handle, a leading educator has said.

School news / Gift to help educators teach maths with ‘confidence, clarity and impact’

A Melbourne university has received a $2.5 million gift to “use its foundations in evidence-based learning to help address Australia’s mathematics crisis”.

School news / Identifying children at risk of speech disorders to be made easier: new resource

A new tool for identifying children at risk of speech disorders has been developed by Melbourne researchers, reducing unnecessary treatment for common speech errors that often resolve on their own.

School news / ‘Improved behaviour across the board’: student leadership program sees huge results

Primary school children given the chance to teach their younger peers are showing remarkable improvements in their confidence, class work and mental health.

School news / ‘Let’s get on with it’: induction policies still ignoring substitute teachers

Inequitable induction arrangements for substitute teachers come at a professional, emotional and career development cost, new research has flagged.

School news / Award-winning Vic school reveals what it takes to extend gifted students

High-ability students can expect to be thoroughly challenged in their learning when they come to Heathmont East Primary School.

Comments