“In such cases,additional support through extra study sessions … or external tutoring may be beneficial.”

The school’s head of mathematics Phoebe Guirguis said the new curriculum design would mean students mastered core content and the extra pathways would “extend students as far along the continuum of learning as possible by tailoring their learning to their ability”.

At San Clemente High School near Newcastle,year 9 mathematics classes in 2024 will be offered in three tiers:core,standard and advanced levels. The school said students in the standard tier will be able to attempt advanced mathematics in the HSC but will require additional support,such as through its after-school maths program,or an external tutor.

On the Central Coast,Green Point Christian College has told parents that a child’s performance in year 8 will determine which class they are put into.

Eddie Woo,who leads the NSW Department of Education’s mathematics growth team,said the core section of the new curriculum had more content than the minimum students must cover in the current syllabus,known as the 5.1 course.

Woo said the core and pathways structure as designed by the curriculum authority seemed to discourage streaming. However,he said grouping students by ability was an effective way to teach.

“I don’t feel bad about schools doing it that way despite quite clearly,the intent from NESA was not to have that structure,” he said.

Under the new syllabus,Woo said there would be greater emphasis on the connections between concepts rather than learning mathematical skills in isolation. New topics including one on networks like those found in nature,such as a food chain,would be introduced for years 9 and 10.

“There is stuff in those syllabuses people have never taught,” he said.

“It is a fairly reasonable thing to say we’re going to phase in the syllabus by retaining the basic structure of how we’ve done classes with three tiers.

“It isn’t simple or straightforward to implement the new curriculum,and there is going to be a lot of experimentation around it.”

University of Sydney mathematics education lecturer Dr Ben Zunica said the majority of schools streamed years 9 and 10 maths classes.

When it came to the pathways in the new syllabus,he said it was possible to extend certain students,while helping those who were struggling in one classroom was trickier than it looked.

“I have seen teachers do it well – it is extra planning. We all know teachers face huge time pressures. Is it reasonable to ask them to do that? Maybe not,” he said.

The kindergarten to year 2 maths syllabus has already been rolled out in schools.

The implementation of some other syllabuseshas been delayed,but the years 3 to 10 maths curriculum will begin next year.

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