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The Photography, Film and Digital Media 7–10 Syllabus (2025):

• has been streamlined through a reduction in the number of outcomes and content
• replaces the conceptual framework with artworld concepts – photomedia artist, photomedia artworks, world, and audience
• replaces the frames with viewpoints, retaining subjective, structural, cultural, and replacing postmodern with contemporary
• retains practice as essential learning which has been updated to photomedia practice, focusing on the roles, intentions, choices and actions of photomedia practitioners
• provides an updated and expanded definition of photomedia practitioners that includes: photographers, film makers, digital and/or media artists, interactive designers, advertising and film/screen production companies and curators, critics and historians, digital media producers, content creators, publicists, directors, screen producers and writers, animators, designers and set producers
• removes the ‘Photographic and Digital Media portfolio’ and introduces the body of work as a requirement in Stage 5 Art making as a way for students to establish their intentions as photomedia artists, and is developed and monitored as a demonstration of a student’s evolving practice, rather than an end product
• replaces the terminology ‘Photographic and Digital Media journal’ with ‘photomedia diary’ and provides updated implementation advice
• provides updated advice on Photomedia practice: photomedia forms, moving from ‘still, interactive and moving’ to ‘still image, moving image and emerging forms’, with teachers selecting one or more forms that are relevant to their context
• updates course requirements to include a class time allocation approximately 60% making and 40% critical and historical studies
• contains explicit content points and advice related to working with Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Communities and Cultural material
• Life Skills outcomes have been mapped to Stage 5 outcomes to facilitate integrated delivery.

The organisation of the outcomes and content for Photography, Film and Digital Media 7–10 Syllabus images is from the © NSW ÌÇÐÄvlog¹ÙÍø Standards Authority (NESA), for and on behalf of the Crown in right of the State of New South Wales, 2025.

Prior to implementing the Photography, Film and Digital Media Syllabus 7–10 (2025), leaders will need to consider the following:

• The course requirement for students to complete the mandatory Visual Arts course (Stage 4 outcomes and content) before starting this elective course.
• The complexities for staff teaching and engaging with current and new syllabuses in Photographic and Digital Media 7–10 Syllabus (2004) and Photography, Film and Digital Media 7–10 (2025).
• The implications of multiple syllabus release dates across subjects within creative arts, and implementation structures staggered across multiple cohorts and subjects.
• The complexities of staff working with the Photography, Film and Digital Media (2025), the Visual Arts 7–10 (2024) and Visual and Motion Design 7–10 (2025) syllabuses, with subject-specific content of artworld concepts, viewpoints and practice being updated across all 3 syllabuses with some strong alignment and some points of difference in content and key terminology.
• Building teacher understanding about working with Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Cultural content, and capacity to collaborate with local communities where appropriate to design and deliver photography, film and digital media learning activities and assessment.
• Developing school processes and systems for effective task design and valid assessment of reduced outcomes (6 outcomes in the new syllabus for Stage 5).
• Supporting teachers’ understanding of the principles of inclusive education, adjustments and access to the photography, film and digital media curriculum for all learners.
• Advice published by NESA on adjusting Stage 5 outcomes for implementation as a Stage 4 elective.
• Building teacher understanding of how subject-specific writing is defined in photography, film and digital media, including written, oral and multimodal forms.
• Resource and budget implications, including:
  • providing time for staff to engage with syllabus expectations and build their skills and understanding to effectively teach and plan for syllabus requirements across photography, film and digital media to implement in 2028
  • determining what resources and equipment are currently available to address new course requirements, including making in , and , and the potential need to purchase additional resources and/or equipment to address areas of need
  • providing time for staff to review the Chemical safety in schools (CSIS) support resource on 3.1.4: Handling chemicals in visual arts (staff only) (j) Photographic chemicals to support darkroom and/or alternative photographic practices
  • equipment that enhances learning and supports all students to access the curriculum, such as screen readers, digital and audiovisual material, and other inclusive learning tools.
• All decisions about curriculum options for a student with disability should be made through the process.
• Suitability of a pattern of study for students.

The Photography, Film and Digital Media 7–10 Syllabus (2024) is based on evidence summarised in the published by NESA. The evidence base highlights that:

• the value of arts and photomedia education in supporting students’ academic and social development
• established and contemporary theories in visual arts education, and in photography, filmmaking and media arts education, that represent an updated body of discipline specific knowledge
• the impact of an interrelated study of the function and relationships between photomedia artist, photomedia artworks, world and audience
• the value of:
  • alternative perspectives such as structural, subjective, cultural and contemporary to scaffold students’ knowledge of the world and their skills as photomedia artists
  • practice, including the study of a diverse range of photomedia practitioners, and the role of the body of work in developing students’ own practice
  • opportunities to develop and involve all the senses through the development of visual, multisensory and multimodal languages
• the relevance of emerging technologies, practices and theories in photography, film making and digital media
• the role of:
  • curatorial judgement in student photomedia practice
  • Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Cultural Protocols, Knowledges and Practices in Creative Arts and photomedia
  • art education in supporting inclusivity for learners with disabilities.

• To what extent do staff understand the syllabus and the evidence underpinning the new syllabus? How has this been fostered and understanding evaluated?
• How will the new syllabus affect classroom practice? What is in place to support and evaluate this practice?
• What school practices and systems are in place to support teacher professional learning? How are these evaluated to maximise support for teachers?
• Which communities of practice does the school collaborate with to enhance teacher curriculum knowledge and pedagogy?
• What else might be required for this syllabus? 
• What resources are required to commence syllabus implementation and meet planning, programming, assessing, and reporting requirements?

• Planning, programming and assessing Creative Arts 7–10 NSW Department of ÌÇÐÄvlog¹ÙÍø
• Creative Arts K–12 curriculum NSW Department of ÌÇÐÄvlog¹ÙÍø
• © NSW ÌÇÐÄvlog¹ÙÍø Standards Authority (NESA) for and on behalf of the Crown in right of the State of New South Wales, 2025.
• NESA