Multi-age or composite classes in NSW government schools (2014-2024)

Multi-age classes are made up of students drawn from different year levels. They may be established because of the uneven pattern of enrolment in the school, because of the small size of the school or where it’s considered that mixing students of different ages is academically and socially advantageous.

Data Notes:

Multi-age or composite class data for individual schools was not published for 2020. The collection took place in March 2020 when school operations were severely impacted by COVID-19, so the department did not follow up potential errors in class size or class structure with numerous schools.
The 2024 class size factsheet with state level aggregate data has been published and is available here: https://data.nsw.gov.au/data/dataset/nsw-education-average-government-primary-school-class-sizes-by-school-size
Multi-age classes are often designed to match the organisation of the syllabus, which is based on ‘stages’ running over two years.
From 2017, school size is based on primary enrolment rather than school classification.
Historical data displays the data that was correct in that year.

Research suggests that:

Class organisation "...will not determine either educational advantage or disadvantage..." (NSW DET 1997).
The most important factors in determining student success are the quality of the teacher and his or her teaching. (Hattie, 2003)

Multi-age classes may benefit students both socially and emotionally. NSW consistently performs above the national average in NAPLAN testing.

Data source: Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation. NSW Department of Education.

Data Source:

Data.NSW

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2024 Multi-age or composite classes in NSW government schools

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CKAN Data API

Access resource data via a web API with powerful query support. Further information in the main CKAN Data API and DataStore documentation.

Code examples:

curl JavaScript PowerShell Python R

Querying

Get 5 results containing "jones" in any field:

curl https://data.nsw.gov.au/data/en/api/action/datastore_search \
  -H"Authorization:$API_TOKEN" -d '
{
  "resource_id": "1ab43d8b-5e28-40ad-9bab-cc31029b9980",
  "limit": 5,
  "q": "jones"
}'

const resp = await fetch(`https://data.nsw.gov.au/data/en/api/action/datastore_search`, {
    method: 'POST',
    headers: {
        'content-type': 'application/json',
        authorization: API_TOKEN
    },
    body: JSON.stringify({
        resource_id: '1ab43d8b-5e28-40ad-9bab-cc31029b9980',
        limit: 5,
        q: 'jones'
    })
})
await resp.json()

$json = @'
{
  "resource_id": "1ab43d8b-5e28-40ad-9bab-cc31029b9980",
  "limit": 5,
  "q": "jones"
}
'@
$response = Invoke-RestMethod https://data.nsw.gov.au/data/en/api/action/datastore_search`
  -Method Post -Body $json -Headers @{"Authorization"="$API_TOKEN"}
$response.result.records

(using the ckanapi client library)

from ckanapi import RemoteCKAN

rc = RemoteCKAN('https://data.nsw.gov.au/data/en/', apikey=API_TOKEN)
result = rc.action.datastore_search(
    resource_id="1ab43d8b-5e28-40ad-9bab-cc31029b9980",
    limit=5,
    q="jones",
)
print(result['records'])

library(httr2)

req <- request("https://data.nsw.gov.au/data/en/api/action/datastore_search")
result <- req %>% 
    req_headers(Authorization = API_TOKEN) %>% 
    req_body_json(list(
        resource_id = '1ab43d8b-5e28-40ad-9bab-cc31029b9980',
        limit = 5,
        q = 'jones'))
    req_perform %>% 
    resp_body_json

Get results with either "watershed" or "survey" as subject and "active" as its stage:

curl https://data.nsw.gov.au/data/en/api/action/datastore_search \
-H"Authorization:$API_TOKEN" -d '
{
"resource_id": "1ab43d8b-5e28-40ad-9bab-cc31029b9980",
  "filters": {
    "subject": ["watershed", "survey"],
    "stage": "active"
  }
}'

const resp = await fetch(`https://data.nsw.gov.au/data/en/api/action/datastore_search`, {
    method: 'POST',
    headers: {
        'content-type': 'application/json',
        authorization: API_TOKEN
    },
    body: JSON.stringify({resource_id: '1ab43d8b-5e28-40ad-9bab-cc31029b9980', filters: {
        subject: ['watershed', 'survey'],
        stage: 'active'
    }})})
await resp.json()

$json = @'
{
  "resource_id": "1ab43d8b-5e28-40ad-9bab-cc31029b9980",
  "filters": {
    "subject": ["watershed", "survey"],
    "stage": "active"
  }
}
'@
$response = Invoke-RestMethod https://data.nsw.gov.au/data/en/api/action/datastore_search`
  -Method Post -Body $json -Headers @{"Authorization"="$API_TOKEN"}
$response.result.records

from ckanapi import RemoteCKAN

rc = RemoteCKAN('https://data.nsw.gov.au/data/en/', apikey=API_TOKEN)
result = rc.action.datastore_search(
    resource_id="1ab43d8b-5e28-40ad-9bab-cc31029b9980",
    filters={
      "subject": ["watershed", "survey"],
      "stage": "active",
    },
)
print(result['records'])

library(httr2)

req <- request("https://data.nsw.gov.au/data/en/api/action/datastore_search")
result <- req %>% 
    req_headers(Authorization = API_TOKEN) %>% 
    req_body_json(list(
        resource_id='1ab43d8b-5e28-40ad-9bab-cc31029b9980', 
        filters = list(
            subject = list("watershed", "survey"), 
            stage = "active")))
    req_perform %>% 
    resp_body_json

Using the API with this Web Browser

Some API endpoints may be accessed using a GET query string.

Query example (first 5 results)

https://data.nsw.gov.au/data/en/api/action/datastore_search?resource_id=1ab43d8b-5e28-40ad-9bab-cc31029b9980&limit=5

Query example (results containing 'jones')

https://data.nsw.gov.au/data/en/api/action/datastore_search?resource_id=1ab43d8b-5e28-40ad-9bab-cc31029b9980&q=jones

Data Preview: 2024 Multi-age or composite classes in NSW government schools

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Additional Information

Field	Value
Title	Multi-age or composite classes in NSW government schools (2014-2024)
Date Published	21/02/2017
Last Updated	14/10/2025
Publisher/Agency	NSW Department of Education
Licence	Creative Commons Attribution
Update Frequency	Annually
Contact Point	NSW Department of Education Data Services <data.services@det.nsw.edu.au>
Temporal Coverage	01/01/2014 - 31/12/2024
Geospatial Coverage
Data Portal	Data.NSW