What they learn - ages 4-9

Learning for 4-9 years | What they learn | Helping your child learn | About stages of learning |

The early years of learning often begin with preschool. The NSW government operates 100 pre-schools in NSW. Pre-schools provide educational programs for your child prior to enrolment in Kindergarten. For a comprehensive guide to preschool education use the Going to Preschool page.

Starting school

Kindergarten is the initial year of schooling in NSW. Children may enter Kindergarten in NSW government schools at the beginning of the school year in which they turn five on or before 31 July. The Going to Primary School page contains a number of useful resources about school readiness including: 

A booklet entitled Time to start school – A parent's guide to starting kindergarten (PDF 454KB) can be downloaded to help make the first days of school for your child as trouble free as possible.

Focus on literacy and numeracy

In Primary School the focus of learning is on helping your child acquire basic literacy and numeracy skills. Your child's learning plan is developed through learning outcomes across seven Learning Areas.

For those wanting detailled information, the NSW Board of Studies provides a Parent's Guide to the NSW Primary Syllabuses and an Overview of the primary curriculum explaining each of the syllabus documents in more detail.

Assessment in the early years

Best Start Kindergarten Assessment is a process that teachers use to gather information about the numeracy and literacy skills, so that they can plan and teach what their students need to learn next. For more information on the Best Start program download the following documents: Letter to parents; Literacy assessment; and Numeracy assessment.The Curriculum planning and programming, assessing and reporting to parents, K – 12 policy is on the Department of Education and Training website.

The NSW Board of Studies provides information about assessing and reporting student achievement in each KLA through the Assessment Resource Centre. It also provides a Guide to Standards-referenced Assessment in Primary Schools. The Curriculum planning and programming, assessing and reporting to parents, K – 12 policy can be found on the Department of Education and Training website.

School-based assessment and reporting

Your child’s achievement and progress in class is assessed by your child’s teacher(s). Teachers use a variety of ways to assess their students including observing their work in class and looking closely at the work they produce. They make assessments throughout the year. Speak to your child’s school for more information.

Teachers will make judgements twice a year of each student’s achievement compared with the expectations described in each KLA syllabus. Their judgements are made on an A – E grading scale and are reported to a child’s parents on the written report provided by each school twice a year.

Tests - BST and NAPLAN

In Year 3, your child’s literacy and numeracy skills are assessed through the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) tests. The NAPLAN FAQs offer further information on the National Assessment Program. For more specific information on the program in NSW, consult the NAPLAN for Parents NSW site.