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NSW Syllabus Access on Essential Assessment
If you’re using our NSW Assessments on Essential Assessment, it’s important to be aware of a small change we have made on the platform concerning the Previous Syllabus.
In this article:
Context
The NSW Syllabus documents for Mathematics and English (2023-) were mandated for use in NSW schools from 2023 onwards. On Essential Assessment, we offered Numeracy and Literacy assessments for both the current NSW Syllabus (2023-), as well as the previous 2012 syllabus.
Flexi and Units of Work are two other ways to assess based on the current NSW Syllabus.
What has changed?
We have removed assessments aligned to the older syllabus, leaving only the current NSW Syllabus remaining on Essential Assessment.
FAQ
Why did you make this change?
The ‘new’ Syllabus has been mandatory since last year, and we want to ensure we are compliant with DoE guidelines by only offering assessment materials linked with the mandated curriculums.
We want to make it easier for our NSW teachers to find the right assessments quickly. Having two curriculums in our system, when one is now out of date, is unnecessary for the majority and confusing for some.
The vast majority of our NSW schools (97%) are only using the New Syllabus. As a result, we expect this change to have minimal impact for most schools.
What about my students’ data, linked to the previous Syllabus? Has it disappeared?
Don’t worry! You will still be able to access your students’ historic data from the 2012 Syllabus as normal - you just won’t be able to assign new assessments for it.
You can view our guide on how to view historical class results here.
I’ve noticed that some content for the New Syllabus is incomplete - when will it be coming?
Some of our lesser-used assessment content will be released steadily over 2025-26. This includes:
- Numeracy Paper-based assessments - Topics (Stages 4 and 5) - Coming in 2025
- Numeracy Worksheets (Stage 4) - Coming in 2025
- My Numeracy and Worksheets (Stage 5) - Coming in 2026
- Literacy Paper-based assessments - Topics (Stages: 2, 3, 4, 5) - Coming in 2026
- My Literacy and Worksheets (Stage 5) - Coming in 2026
This change is part of our commitment to continually improve Essential Assessment for our users. If you have any further questions or feedback about this change, or would like to suggest any others, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our friendly team at info@essentialassessment.com.au.
Can I access the Learning Library for the Previous Syllabus?
Yes! The Learning Library is still available at the top:
