Subject renewal is one of the key initiatives of Passport to Thrive – the SACE Board’s Strategic Plan for 2024-2027 – and a comprehensive program to review and enhance SACE subjects has started. 

Revising the number of assessments, and sharpening the content of subjects and how they are designed, will ensure the SACE is a modern and responsive qualification for a changing world. 

For students, subject renewal will enable deeper, real-world learning, develop disciplinary knowledge and embed capabilities. 

In line with the Strategic Plan’s focus on capabilities, it will incorporate a fuller appreciation of what students know and can do – not merely their performance in class, their knowledge and recall of facts and figures, or their test and exam results. 

Subject renewal recognises the vital role that teachers play in student learning – understanding where each student is at in their development, knowing when to provide support, and when to step back and allow them to flourish. 

The subject renewal program will focus on five areas that have emerged in recent years as the most important, and that were highlighted during the recent series of Curriculum Forums: 

• Agency – the renewed subjects will have space for student agency 
• Deep authentic learning – students can engage in real-life learning 
• Natural evidence of learning – students will require a broader range of evidence of learning 
• Metacognition – students will be required to evaluate their thinking to regulate the way they learn 
• Capabilities – the renewed subjects will intentionally support the development of student capabilities. 

Approximately 3,000 teachers and leaders registered for the Curriculum Forums, which explored: 

• Straightforward subject improvements to be implemented in 2025 
• The introduction of Subject Renewal Groups to guide the longer-term, more innovative change.