The Australian Curriculum
Overview
The Australian Curriculum is designed to help all young Australians to become successful learners, confident and creative individuals, and active and informed citizens. Presented as a developmental sequence of learning from Foundation – Year 10, the Australian Curriculum describes to teachers, parents, students and others in the wider community what is to be taught and the quality of learning expected of young people as they progress through school.
The three-dimensional design of the Foundation – Year 10 Australian Curriculum recognises the importance of disciplinary knowledge, skills and understanding alongside general capabilities and cross-curriculum priorities.
Disciplinary knowledge, skills and understanding are described in the eight learning areas of the Australian Curriculum: English, Mathematics, Science, Health and Physical Education, Humanities and Social Sciences, The Arts, Technologies and Languages. The latter four learning areas have been written to include multiple subjects, reflecting custom and practice in the discipline. In each learning area or subject, content descriptions specify what young people will learn, and achievement standards describe the depth of understanding and the sophistication of knowledge and skill expected of students at the end of each year level or band of years.
At McLaren Vale Primary School our teachers provide students with rich learning opportunities aligned to the Australian Curriculum. Teachers assess to the Achievement Standards at their year level and integrate the general capabilities of literacy, numeracy, information and communication technology, critical and creative thinking, ethical behaviour, personal and social competence and intercultural understanding, and cross-curriculum priorities – Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures, Asia & Australia’s Engagement with Asia and Sustainability, into each of the eight curriculum areas.
Our emphasis is on the development of core knowledge, skills and understandings in eight required areas of study, which includes;
English
The Australian Curriculum in English includes:
- The Foundation to Year 10 Australian Curriculum: English
- The senior secondary subjects of English, English as an Additional Language or Dialect, Essential English and Literature.
The study of English is central to the learning and development of all young Australians. It helps create confident communicators, imaginative thinkers and informed citizens. It is through the study of English that individuals learn to analyse, understand, communicate and build relationships with others and with the world around them.
The study of English plays a key role in the development of reading and literacy skills which help young people develop the knowledge and skills needed for education, training and the workplace. It helps them become ethical, thoughtful, informed and active members of society.
To learn more about the English Curriculum and how it works click here.
At McLaren Vale Primary School our students are taught reading, writing, spelling, grammar, handwriting, speaking and listening through the three focus areas of the English Curriculum: Literacy, Literature and Language.
Enter a classroom at McLaren Vale Primary School and you will see a diverse range of learning. These may include students:
- Developing skills in comprehension, accuracy, fluency and vocabulary
- Recognising and writing texts that persuade, explain and entertain
- Using correct grammar, including simple and compound sentences
- Using accurate spelling and punctuation and editing their own writing
- Planning and making presentations to the class
- Engaging in discussions to share ideas and information and communicating clearly with others
Mathematics
The Australian Curriculum in Mathematics includes:
- The Foundation to Year 10 Australian Curriculum: Mathematics
- The senior secondary subjects of Essential Mathematics, General Mathematics, Mathematical Methods, Specialist Mathematics.
The F-10 Australian Curriculum: Mathematics provides students with essential mathematical skills and knowledge in Number and Algebra, Measurement and Geometry, and Statistics and Probability.
It develops the numeracy capabilities that all students need in their personal, work and civic life, and provides the fundamentals on which mathematical specialties and professional applications of mathematics are built.
To learn more about the Mathematics Curriculum and how it works click here.
Learning mathematics creates opportunities for and enriches the lives of every student.
Mathematics provides students with essential mathematical skills and knowledge in number and algebra, measurement and geometry and statistics and probability.
It develops the numeracy capabilities that will help students to problem solve in their personal, work and civic life. Students are encouraged to become self-motivated, confident learners through inquiry and active participation in challenging and engaging experiences.
Our students are provided with opportunities to apply their learning in everyday situations. Building on from what learners know and guiding them from using concrete objects to representing their ideas in an abstract way is how we manage the mathematics journey from Reception to Year 6.
A typical lesson is based on a four-part framework including a tune in/warm up activity to activate mathematical thinking, explicit teaching of concepts, guided practice and reflection/sharing.
You may see students:
- Working individually or as part of a group to solve a problem or investigation
- Undertaking problems that may have multiple answers
- Using various strategies within their work
- Engaging in learning conversations with their teacher and with each other
- Using mathematical language to reflect on what they have learnt
- Playing games to consolidate learning
The Arts
The Arts have the capacity to engage, inspire and enrich all students, exciting the imagination and encouraging them to reach their creative and expressive potential.
The Australian Curriculum: The Arts offers students the opportunity to study all five subjects in the primary years of schooling, and to specialise in secondary school.
The five subjects enable students to learn how to create, design, represent, communicate and share their imagined and conceptual ideas, emotions, observations and experiences.
- Dance
- Drama
- Media Arts
- Music
- Visual Arts
To learn more about The Arts Curriculum and how it works click here.
At McLaren Vale Primary School our program includes using knowledge, skills, techniques, processes, materials and technologies to explore arts practices and make artworks that communicate ideas and intentions.
Students are given opportunities for exploring, responding to, analysing and interpreting artworks.
Typically, students will:
- In Dance, create dances to tell a story, mood or emotion
- In Drama, choreograph and develop performances from stories or picture books
- In Media arts, use technologies to change images, add words and record sounds
- In Music, sing and explore beat and rhythm using instruments to create music
- In Visual arts, look at an artist’s work and create their own, experimenting with materials
In all five areas of The Arts, students are given opportunities to understand Australia’s histories and traditions through engaging with the artworks, both traditional and contemporary of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.
Celebrating our students’ talents whether they are performing, painting or playing is a big part of our school and community life.
A specialist Performing Arts teacher incorporates music, dance, drama and media arts into the specialist program.
Classroom teachers incorporate Visual Arts into the classroom learning program.
Science
The Australian Curriculum in Science includes:
- The Foundation to Year 10 Australian Curriculum: Science
- The senior secondary subjects of Biology, Chemistry, Earth and Environmental Science and Physics.
The F-10 Australian Curriculum:
Science provides opportunities for students to develop an understanding of important science concepts and processes, the practices used to develop scientific knowledge, of science’s contribution to our culture and society, and its applications in our lives.
It provides an understanding of scientific inquiry methods, a foundation of knowledge across the disciplines of science, and develops an ability to communicate scientific understanding and use evidence to solve problems and make evidence-based decisions.
The curriculum supports students to develop the scientific knowledge, understandings and skills to make informed decisions about local, national and global issues and to participate, if they so wish, in science-related careers.
To learn more about the Science Curriculum and how it works click here.
At McLaren Vale Primary School our students are taught Science by a specialist Science teacher in weekly lessons.
You may see students:
- Conducting ‘fair test’ experiments to answer a question or hypothesis
- Recording their findings in multimodal ways (computer, iPad, photos, aurally or written as an explanation, procedure or in a report)
- Exploring the action of forces
- Realising that living things form parts of ecosystems
- Understanding that actions of humans can have an effect on their world
Languages – Japanese
The Australian Curriculum: Languages is designed to enable all students in Australia to learn a language in addition to English.
The Australian Curriculum: Languages recognises that students bring their own linguistic and cultural background to their learning, whether this is English or the target language or various combinations of languages.
The organisation of the curriculum addresses learner background in the target language by providing a number of pathways and entry points of study to cater for background language learners, first language learners and second language learners.
The Australian Curriculum: Languages includes language-specific curricula for world languages and two frameworks.
The Languages included are Arabic, Auslan, Chinese, The Framework for Aboriginal Languages and Torres Strait Islander Languages, The Framework for Classical Languages, French, German, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Modern Greek, Spanish, Turkish and Vietnamese.
To learn more about the Languages Curriculum and how it works click here.
At McLaren Vale Primary School our specialist language is Japanese which children having weekly lessons.
Health and Physical Education
Health and Physical Education offers experiential learning, with a curriculum that is relevant, engaging, contemporary, physically active, enjoyable and developmentally appropriate.
Integral to Health and Physical Education is the acquisition of movement skills, concepts and strategies that enable students to participate in a range of physical activities confidently and competently.
In Health and Physical Education, students develop the knowledge, understanding and skills to support them to be resilient, to develop a strong sense of self, to build and maintain satisfying relationships, to make health-enhancing decisions in relation to their health and physical activity participation, and to develop health literacy competencies in order to enhance their own and others’ health and wellbeing.
To learn more about the HPE Curriculum and how it works click here.
Students at McLaren Vale Primary School have a weekly lesson with a specialist Physical Education teacher in our gymnasium or oval and classroom teachers provide additional fitness and skills lessons.
Health lessons are taught by classroom teachers as part of the classroom learning program.
Students also learn about changes they experience as they grow up, valuing difference in others.
Typically, students will be:
- Talking about challenge, risk, success and failure and how these affect the way they see themselves
- Keeping themselves and others safe and healthy in and out of the classroom
- Building positive relationships and become more aware of emotions
- Understanding their own family background and valuing all people and cultures including their own
- Playing games in a range of outdoor places
- Improving their skills in different activities
- Using rules, scoring, tactics, fair play and teamwork
Technologies - Digital and Design
The Australian Curriculum: Technologies draws together the distinct but related subjects of Design and Technologies, and Digital Technologies. It ensures that all students benefit from learning about, and working with, traditional, contemporary and emerging technologies that shape the world in which we live. In creating solutions, as well as responding to the designed world, students will contribute to sustainable patterns of living for themselves and others.
To learn more about the Technologies Curriculum and how it works click here.
By students applying their knowledge, practical skills and processes when using technologies and other devices to create innovative solutions, independently and collaboratively, they are able to apply their learning to respond creatively to current and future needs.
Typically, students will be:
In Design and Technologies
- Drawing, labelling and modelling ideas when designing and producing solutions such as creating a toy that moves
- Re-evaluating and assessing what worked and what didn’t and making changes
- Planning steps to produce solutions and learning to manage their time
In Digital Technologies
- Identifying and learning how to follow safety rules when working online
- Identifying problems and solving them, for example, identifying stages of a game and decisions that a player must make to win
- Learning about the language of coding and how to use it without technology (directional games and hands on activities) and with technology (code.org, scratch, b-bots)
- Creating a range of digital solutions, such as coding simple interactive games
- Using the design thinking process to design and create solutions to real life problems
Humanities and Social Sciences
The Australian Curriculum: Humanities and Social Sciences includes five subjects:
- Foundation-6/7 HASS
- Years 7-10 Civics and Citizenship
- Years 7-10 Economics and Business
- Years 7-10 Geography and
- Years 7-10 History.
To learn more about the HASS Curriculum and how it works click here.
Awareness of the characteristics of people and places that make up our world and have shaped humanity from the earliest times are features of the Humanities and Social Sciences learning area.
Students are taught history and geography from Reception to Year 6 with Civics and Citizenship introduced at Year 3 and Economics and Business introduced at Year 5.
Our rich and diverse local environment is the springboard for our students to explore society, events, movements and developments in an effort to better understand themselves and others with the focus broadening from a regional to global perspective through the years of schooling.
Typically, students will investigate:
- Diverse people, cultures and environments in Australia and neighboring countries; how different individuals and groups have contributed to their communities, past and present
- Significant days in Australia’s history, such as Australia Day, Anzac Day and Sorry Day
- Early explorers and British colonisation of Australia
- Diverse cultures of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, and those who live and lived in the local area
- Geographic characteristics of Africa, South America and Australia, and how natural resources are used and managed
- Rules and laws, and how the local government makes decisions and serves their community
- Groupings they belong to, and how people contribute to the community and the environment through responsible actions