Introduction on NSW/Sydney Public School K-6 (Part 2)

Most of public schools in NSW are comprehensive which goes from Kindergarten to year 6. However there are eighteen infants school which only go from Kindergarten to year 2, once the students in those school finish year 2, they will need to move on to a comprehensive public school in their local catchment.

Enrolment is fairly complex subject depending on the school you are trying to enrol your children into, some are very easy and some are very competitive and require a ton of documents. I will cover that in more detail in a different post later.

There are also a number of special needs public school sprinkled throughout the state; they are generally smaller in size compare to the other schools. Normal public schools can also have special needs children attending, I know situation where there are dedicated resource for those children. However I do not know how common that is and what the standard procedure for those types of situations in the public schools.

From year 5 to 6 there is also something called opportunity class. Quoting directly from department of education of NSW, they supposed to achieve the following purpose.

Opportunity classes cater for highly achieving Year 5 and 6 academically gifted students who may otherwise be without classmates at their own academic and social level. These classes help gifted and talented students to learn by grouping them with other gifted and talented students, teaching them in specialised ways and providing educational materials at the appropriate level.

It is a two year placement and application happens in year 4, there are 75 schools in NSW with opportunity classes. Depending on which part of Sydney, the application and test process for this can get very competitive.

The application and placement test for year 7 selective high schools happens in year 6. This again can be very competitive in parts of Sydney and NSW.

Again according to the department of education the curriculum for K-6 looks like following.

Learning in Kindergarten to Year 6 focuses on six key learning areas (KLAs):

• English 
• Mathematics
• Science and Technology
• Personal Development, Health and Physical Education
• Human Society and Its Environment
• Creative Arts

 

Each syllabus has a set of aims, objectives and outcomes, organised as knowledge and understanding, skills, values and attitudes.

More information about Sydney/NSW public school and curriculum can be found at http://www.schools.nsw.edu.au/.