The Australian Curriculum is presented as a progression of learning from Foundation to Year 10 that makes clear what is to be taught and the quality of learning expected of young people in 8 discipline-based learning areas.
Overview
The F–10 Australian Curriculum identifies and organises the essential knowledge, understandings and skills that students should learn in 8 learning areas. The learning areas of English, Mathematics, Science, and Health and Physical Education comprise a single subject. The learning areas of Humanities and Social Sciences (HASS), The Arts, Technologies and Languages each comprise multiple subjects.
- English
- Mathematics
- Science
- Health and Physical Education
- Humanities and Social Sciences (HASS) – comprising the subjects of Civics and Citizenship, Economics and Business, Geography and History
- The Arts – comprising the subjects of Dance, Drama, Media Arts, Music and Visual Arts
- Technologies – comprising the subjects of Design and Technologies, and Digital Technologies
- Languages – comprising the subjects of Arabic, Auslan, Chinese, French, German, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Modern Greek, Spanish, Turkish and Vietnamese, as well as the Framework for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Languages, and Framework for Classical Languages including Classical Greek and Latin.
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Learning area FAQs
The study of English helps to create confident communicators and creative and critical thinkers. Students appreciate and engage imaginatively and critically with literature from a range of historical, cultural and social contexts. The English curriculum plays a key role in developing literacy, which helps young people develop the knowledge and skills needed for education, training and the workplace. See English Rationale.
The Australian Curriculum: English is taught each year from Foundation to Year 10.
- Revised content descriptions to provide greater clarity to teachers about what to teach.
- Reduced content to avoid repetition within English or with other learning areas.
- Moved some content to a different sub-strand.
- Refined achievement standards to reflect the language and demands of the curriculum at each year level.
- Refined achievement standards into a consistent 3-paragraph structure reflecting the modes of English.
- Cognitive alignment between content descriptions and achievement standards has been strengthened and made explicit.
- The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cross-curriculum priority has been authentically reflected in the content descriptions and content elaborations .
- Content elaborations have been improved to ensure that there is a clear relationship to the content and to the general capabilities and cross-curriculum priorities.
In the English curriculum, students are provided with opportunities to engage with a wide range of texts. They explore the ways in which language has been used for particular purposes and audiences. They can read and view texts examining how they have been created to engage or influence audiences and they may also examine how ideas have been represented.
Each learning area, has its own distinctive literacy demands but all require students to read, compose and discuss content. Students learn literacy and language skills in English but apply, develop and refine these skills to interpret and compose a range of texts in each learning area.
ACARA does not develop text lists. States and territories may guide schools in the selection of texts, appropriate to their context. Schools may select texts according to the needs of their students.
The use of software content has been removed from the literacy strand because some content has been integrated into existing content.
The use language variation and change content has been removed from the language strand because the content has been integrated into existing content.
Analysing and evaluating texts content has been removed from the literacy strand in Years 6-9 to eliminate duplication with similar content descriptions in the analysing, interpreting and evaluating sub-strand in the literacy strand.
The oral presentations content descriptions have been moved from the interacting with others sub-strand to the creating texts sub-strand in the literacy strand to fit logically with the content descriptions related to the creation of texts.
The punctuation content descriptions have been moved from the text structure and organisation sub-strand to the expressing and developing ideas sub-strand in the language strand. This is a more appropriate position in the curriculum to reflect the processes of expressing and developing ideas in written texts.
Twelve content descriptions have been consolidated to six in the literature strand to remove repetition. In the engaging with and responding to literature sub-strand, the content descriptions related to 'personal responses to the ideas, characters and viewpoints in texts' and 'expressing preferences and evaluating texts' have been combined to remove repetition.
Twenty content descriptions have been consolidated to 10 in the literature strand to remove repetition. In the engaging with literature sub-strand, the content descriptions related to experimentation and adaptation duplicated skills and understanding in the creating texts sub-strand.
Twenty content descriptions have been consolidated to ten in the literacy strand to remove repetition. The current interacting with others sub-strand had two threads of content descriptions named ‘listening and speaking interactions’. These have been consolidated into the one thread of content descriptions to ensure students develop the core skills and understanding while removing content duplication.
This sub-strand has been moved to integrate more seamlessly with the language and learning of other sub strands in the Literacy strand.
The English curriculum builds on concepts, skills and processes developed in earlier years. Content is re-visited, consolidated and developed using more complex texts and more abstract concepts as students progress through each year of schooling.
Health and Physical Education is an important part of the school curriculum as it provides opportunities for students to develop knowledge, understanding and skills to advocate for, and positively influence, the health and wellbeing of themselves and the communities to which they belong. In an increasingly complex, sedentary and changing world, it is critical for students to have the understanding and skills to make informed choices about their health, safety, and physical activity participation.
Understand the Health and physical Education learning area
The Australian Curriculum is based on the assumption that school and/or curriculum authorities will provide learning opportunities in Health and Physical Education for all students in Years 9 and 10.
The Australian Curriculum for Health and Physical Education is expected to be taught each year from Foundation to Year 10. The two strands, personal, social and community health and movement and physical activity, are interrelated and inform and support each other. Both strands must be taught in each year from Foundation to Year 10.
It is expected that the key knowledge, understanding and skills will be developed through the context of the 12 focus areas addressed in the curriculum. It is expected that students will have the opportunity to participate in physical activity on a weekly basis as a minimum through the HPE curriculum.
Link to Understand Health and Physical Education
General capabilities are developed through the content of the learning areas; they are not separate learning areas or subjects. Not all general capabilities will be developed in every learning area. They will only be included in learning area content where they can be developed in authentic and meaningful ways. While Personal and Social capability is fundamental to engaging in any learning environment, it is core to Health and Physical Education.
Through the 2 content strands, Personal, social and community health and Movement and physical activity, students develop interpersonal skills such as communication, negotiation, teamwork and leadership, and an appreciation of diverse perspectives. These skills allow students to explore their identity and understand influences that form their sense of identity. They learn how to recognise, understand, validate and respond appropriately to their emotions, strengths and values.
Schools will organise and deliver learning experiences depending on local needs, resource availability and timetabling structures. In secondary settings in particular, the content from Health and Physical Education can be organised and delivered in a range of ways and through several different school subjects, such as outdoor education. Outdoor education engages students in practical and active learning experiences in natural environments and outdoor settings typically beyond the school boundary.
In these environments, students develop knowledge, understanding and skills to move safely and competently while valuing a positive relationship with and promoting the sustainable use of these environments. Learning in outdoor education draws on content from across the Australian Curriculum, including Health and Physical Education, Geography and Science. The content drawn from Health and Physical Education is primarily in the areas of outdoor recreation, challenge and adventure activities, and the influence spending time outdoors and in nature has on health and wellbeing. The Outdoor learning curriculum connection has been updated to align with the changes of the AC: HPE V 9.0. The Curriculum connection: Outdoor learning shows educators where outdoor learning education is embedded across the curriculum and connects educators to a range of resources that have been developed to support outdoor learning education.
Link to Curriculum connection: Outdoor learning
https://v9.australiancurriculum.edu.au/resources/curriculum-connections
Home Economics supports students to develop the capacity to make decisions, solve problems and respond critically and creatively to practical concerns of individuals, families and communities in local, regional and global contexts. In the Australian Curriculum elements of learning in home economics draw from content in Health and Physical Education and Design and Technologies (technologies contexts: food specialisations, materials and technologies specialisations and some aspects of food and fibre production).
Home economics-related subjects are offered in all states and territories across Australia in Years 7-10. It is a school-based decision whether to offer a holistic home economics subject, or specialisations within home economics—for example, Food for Living, Food Technology, Fashion by Design, Human Development, Early Childhood Development, Family Studies.
The Curriculum connection: Food and wellbeing shows educators where food and nutrition education is embedded across the curriculum and connects educators to a range of resources that have been developed to support food and nutrition education.
https://v9.australiancurriculum.edu.au/resources/curriculum-connections
The Digital Literacy general capability includes an element dedicated to safety and wellbeing. ‘Practising digital safety and wellbeing’ provides a sound base for learning areas and subjects, in particular Health and Physical Education and Digital Technologies, to ensure students develop the appropriate technical, social, cognitive, communicative and decision-making skills to address online risks. It provides an opportunity to recognise the content risks that students face online, such as hurtful user-generated content, and the strategies involved in dealing with them.
The Australian Curriculum addresses aspects of cyberbullying, unwanted contact and grooming, sexting and other incidents of image-based abuse as part of Health and Physical Education (HPE) in the personal, social and community health strand through the focus areas of Safety, and Relationships and Sexuality. These focus areas include content about respectful relationships and consent, such as negotiating permission to share their own and others' images online, managing relationships online and offline, dealing with relationships when there is an imbalance of power, and understanding how coercion, intimidation and manipulation can occur leading to non-consensual or inappropriate behaviour. Students also learn to develop positive strategies for managing these issues if they are being experienced by themselves or others.
The Digital Technologies curriculum, through the sub-strands of collaborating and managing, and privacy and security, allows students to create content while recognising and respecting the agreed behaviours and protocols expected when using digital tools. The Digital Technologies curriculum provides an opportunity to apply the strategies learnt through the Health and Physical Education curriculum.
Across both subjects, students access and critically evaluate online content, health information, products and services using digital tools, recognising inappropriate use of images, information and abuse. They evaluate community resources from organisations such as kidshelpline and the eSafety Commissioner to seek help for themselves and others when their own, or other’s health, safety, relationships or wellbeing may be at risk.
https://v9.australiancurriculum.edu.au/resources/curriculum-connections
Mental health related content is addressed from a strengths-based approach in the Australian Curriculum: Health and Physical Education Version 9 (AC: HPE V 9.0) and across the curriculum. The AC: HPE V 9.0 focuses on skill and capacity building, enabling students to access, evaluate and synthesise information to make informed choices and act to enhance and advocate for their own and others’ health, wellbeing, safety and physical activity participation.
Developing positive mental health and wellbeing is supported by content within both strands, explicitly through the Mental health and wellbeing focus area and additional focus areas. Throughout the AC: HPE V 9.0, students investigate a range of protective factors, preventive strategies and health issues relevant to developing positive mental health. As they do, students develop knowledge, understanding and skills (such as developing a strong sense of belonging and identity, self and emotion regulation skills, social-emotional competence, help seeking strategies, resilience, assertive behaviours and conflict resolution) to appropriately respond to a range of situations where their own or others' mental health and wellbeing may be at risk.
Link to Mental health and wellbeing
https://v9.australiancurriculum.edu.au/resources/curriculum-connections
Content and guidance related to the teaching of consent has been updated and strengthened in the AC: HPE V 9.0. The teaching of the understanding and skills required for respectfully seeking, giving, gaining and denying consent is addressed in the Personal, social and community health strand through the focus areas: Relationships and Sexuality and Safety. This content is explored at age-appropriate intervals across the school years from F-10.
Link to Consent in the Australian Curriculum
https://v9.australiancurriculum.edu.au/resources/stories/consent-in-the-australian-curriculum
Link to Australian Curriculum Version 9.0 Key changes - Health and Physical Education
Legal definitions of ‘consent’ in each jurisdiction are slightly different which presents a challenge to developing a national definition. The AC: HPE V 9.0 glossary definition of consent reflects the intent of consent in the HPE curriculum:
Consent: Informed and freely given agreement to engage in an activity, or permission for a specific thing to happen. This includes agreement and permission giving in online and offline situations.
Australian Curriculum Version 9.0 Key changes - Health and Physical Education
The AC: HPE V 9.0 has reduced content allowing teachers to spend more time on the essential content. The consent content has been strengthened across all bands to support teachers to teach it more explicitly and in greater depth.
Consent education should form part of a whole-school respectful relationships education program. The Curriculum connection: Respectful relationships shows educators where respectful relationships education is embedded across the curriculum.
It connects educators to a range of resources and training that have been developed to support respectful relationships education.
Link to Curriculum connection: Respectful relationships
https://v9.australiancurriculum.edu.au/resources/curriculum-connections
Link to Australian Curriculum Version 9.0 Key changes - Health and Physical Education
The AC: HPE V 9.0 has strengthened the visibility of protective behaviours, preventative factors and help-seeking strategies in essential content across Foundation to Year 10 through the strand: Personal, social and community health and focus areas: Mental health and wellbeing, Relationships and sexuality and Safety. From Foundation to Year 10, students identify, describe and apply protective behaviours and help seeking strategies to help keep themselves and others safe in a range of online and offline situations.
Through this content they learn about warning signs, help seeking strategies, personal, social and emotional assertive strategies and community resources available to keep themselves and others safe.
Learning about protective behaviours should form part of a whole-school respectful relationships education program. The Curriculum connection: Respectful relationships shows educators where respectful relationships education is embedded across the curriculum and connects educators to a range of resources and training that have been developed to support respectful relationships education.
Link to Curriculum connection: Respectful relationships
https://v9.australiancurriculum.edu.au/resources/curriculum-connections
Resources for HPE on the Version 9.0 website include:
Health and Physical Education learning area downloads, including HPE focus area descriptions and a glossary:
https://v9.australiancurriculum.edu.au/downloads/learning-areas#accordion-b71b085f07-item-61a8e06872
Work samples:
https://v9.australiancurriculum.edu.au/resources/work-samples
Curriculum connections for Respectful relationships, Mental health and wellbeing, Online safety, Outdoor learning, and Food and wellbeing
https://v9.australiancurriculum.edu.au/resources/curriculum-connections
Professional learning:
https://v9.australiancurriculum.edu.au/resources/professional-learning
The F–10 Australian Curriculum: Health and Physical Education Version 8.4 was published in 2015. Traditionally, Health and Physical Education is the learning area responsible for addressing many of the social issues that arise in broader society. Since 2015, there has been a considerable focus on the role of schools in addressing issues including respectful relationships, consent education, nutrition quality and physical activity participation levels.
Version 9.0 addresses these issues and strengthens the content and guidance for teachers about how to deliver learning about these areas of the curriculum. The refinements have been informed by key experts in the areas, who have provided support to translate the evidence base into curriculum content.
The Review has also drawn upon the research on the development of Health and Physical Education curriculum internationally. The curricula of Wales, Scotland and British Columbia, Canada, have been reviewed as part of the process as they are the most recently developed curricula in this learning area. The Health and Physical Education curriculum compares very well with these, but given the dynamic nature of the health and movement fields, there was a need to update the curriculum to ensure students continue to have an opportunity to develop contemporary knowledge, understanding and skills. As a result, the revisions aim to update content and ensure coverage of what is essential for all students to learn now.
Australian Curriculum Version 9.0 Key changes - Health and Physical Education
The aim of the review was to improve the current Australian Curriculum F-10 by refining, realigning and decluttering the content of the curriculum within its existing structure. As part of this process, all learning areas including HPE removed unnecessary duplication and repetition. As a result of this process, the threads were removed and sub-strands realigned and re-named.
The Australian Curriculum: Health and Physical Education, Version 9.0 includes the following key changes:
- refined achievement standards and presented as a single paragraph to better illustrate the interrelationship between understanding and skills, potential connections between strands and clearer alignment to content descriptions
- refined focus area descriptions to align with the latest evidence and included more specific advice, particularly relationships and sexuality
- refined and reduced Foundation Year content to privilege depth over breadth, remove duplication and ensure the content is manageable.
- minor changes to rationale, aims and propositions to reflect the latest evidence in health and movement fields and strengthen alignment to content changes
- strengthened the description for relationships and sexuality and the guidance on the teaching of consent education, respectful relationships and sexuality
- maintained priorities on movement skills development, participation in physical activity and the development of safe and healthy personal practices
- strengthened understanding and skills required to become lifelong physical activity participants throughout F-10
- more explicit developmental sequence for fundamental movement skills across F-4.
ACARA has not developed a senior secondary curriculum for Health and Physical Education. Education authorities in each state or territory determine the senior curriculum for senior secondary curricula.
Humanities and Social Sciences is written on the basis that all students will study Humanities and Social Sciences from Foundation to Year 6. In Years 7–10, students will study History. In Years 7–8, students will study Geography, Civics and Citizenship, and Economics and Business. In Years 9–10, students’ access to Geography, Civics and Citizenship, and Economics and Business will be determined by school authorities or individual schools.
The content descriptions in the F–6 Skills strand have been revised to ensure that the essential ways of working for each contributing discipline are developed as part of a skills progression.
In Years 7–10 subjects, the skills sub-strands become more discipline-specific to convey the nuanced differences in the skills for each discipline.
Across F–10, the skills increase in complexity to compliment the specificity and complexity of content in the knowledge and understanding strand for each subject.
The Humanities and Social Sciences are the study of human behaviour and interaction in historical, geographical, civic, economic and business contexts. The Humanities and Social Sciences have a historical and contemporary focus, from personal to global contexts, and consider challenges for the future.
Through studying Humanities and Social Sciences, students will develop the ability to question, think critically, solve problems, communicate effectively, make decisions and adapt to change.
Thinking about and responding to issues requires an understanding of the key historical, geographical, political, economic and societal factors involved, and how these different factors interrelate.
The Humanities and Social Science subjects in the Australian Curriculum provide a broad understanding of the world in which we live, and how people can participate as active and informed citizens with high-level skills needed for the 21st century.
The curriculum provides students an opportunity to study a balanced range of topics to develop an understanding of First Nations Peoples’ Histories and Cultures, the foundations of Western civilisation, Australian history and the history of our Asia-Pacific region.
For more information see Understand History:
Critical race theory is an academic framework that is not part of the Australian Curriculum.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples experiences and perspectives are part of Australia’s past and present reality, but they do not invalidate other perspectives and experiences. “Perspectives” and “Interpretation” are core concepts in the study of history, used to identify the essential content students should learn.
The Australian Curriculum: HASS V 9.0 includes the following key changes: • Refined core concepts improve content descriptions in Foundation to Year 10 and strengthen connections between F-6 HASS and Years 7-10 subjects.
- Reduced number of content descriptions (almost by half in 7–10 History, a third in F-6 HASS, and a quarter in each of 7–10 Geography and 7-10 Civics and Citizenship).
- Improved alignment between content descriptions and achievement standards.
- Improved content elaborations show suggestions for authentic and meaningful alignment to general capabilities and cross-curriculum priorities. For example, many content descriptions in HASS subjects deepen students understanding of First Nations Australian Histories and Cultures, understanding of Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia, and Sustainability.
- Developed new Foundation year content in the skills strand to better support learning in the early years.
- F–6 HASS: Removed the subject-specific achievement standards and realigned the remaining achievement standards to ensure clear connections to strands and sub-strands.
- Year 7: Removed HASS content and achievement standards because all states and territories now include Year 7 in secondary school.
- Years 7–10 HASS subjects: Structured the subjects (History, Geography, Civics and Citizenship, and Economics and Business) in a similar way and used the same terms, e.g. level description, topics, strand and sub-strand.
- Year 7–10 History: Reduced the expectations of content to be covered to 2 topics each year. This is a reduction of the number of content descriptions expected to be taught each year. Teachers have the option to teach additional sub-strands or topics and this is a school-based decision.
The quality of content descriptions has been improved by removing ambiguity and unnecessary duplication, ensuring consistency and clarity of language and progression of learning. Also, connections within learning areas, and between learning areas has been improved.
Within the Geography sub-strand, the explicit reference to specific continents in Version 8.4 content descriptions has been removed. Students continue to examine continents in the context of geographical concepts such as interconnections, which strengthens student understanding of global citizenship.
This can be seen in the following content descriptions in HASS F-6:
- In Year 4, CD AC9HS4K05 ‘the importance of environments, including natural vegetation and water sources, to people and animals in Australia and on another continent.’
- In Year 5, CD ‘the influence of people, including First Nations Australians and people in other countries, on the characteristics of a place.’
- In Year 6, CD AC9HS6K05 ‘Australia’s interconnections with other countries and how these change people and places.’ Teachers are best placed to select contexts to develop conceptual understandings and skills. Content elaborations identify where Australian or global contexts may be explored. For example, in Year 4 elaborations for AC9HS4K05 suggest a focus on Africa or South America, and in Year 5 elaborations for AC9HS5K04 suggest a focus on Europe and North America. As a result, teachers in Years 3-6 are better able to manage the volume of content and connect learning across the HASS sub-strands by selecting a context where concepts and content can be explored.
Outdated and non-essential content has been removed and new content has been added to give teachers clarity and guidance about what they are expected to teach.
Version 9.0 has a sharpened focus on technological change in business and work environments, the contribution of entrepreneurship to the prosperity of individuals and society, and the effects of economic and business decision-making on themselves, other people and communities, both now and in the future.
Terminology used in content descriptions reflects current best practice in Economics and Business education.
Revised level descriptions: There are new ‘focus of learning’ statements in each year level to provide guidance on the topic and context for teachers.
Made Economics and Business concepts explicit in the level descriptions, content descriptions and achievement standards.
Removed content descriptions in the Knowledge and Understanding strand to allow for new content related to financial literacy. The number of Knowledge and Understanding content descriptions has been maintained from Version 8.4 to Version 9.0.
The Skills sub-strand structure is consistent with other Years 7–10 HASS subjects, with a slight reduction in the number of content descriptions.
Refined the connection to the economic and business concepts in Knowledge and understanding content descriptions focussing on building understanding across Years 7–10. For example, students understanding of the concept of consumer and financial literacy is developed through learning about the factors that influence consumer choices, influences on decision-making within consumer and financial contexts, the role of Australia’s system of taxation and superannuation, and the importance of goal setting, budgeting and planning.
Refined Economics and Business skills. Content descriptions have been re-organised under broader sub-strands, with a sharper focus on interpreting and analysing information and data to identify trends and relationships, developing and evaluating actions and responses using appropriate criteria, and deciding on a course of action.
Revised level descriptions: There are new ‘focus of learning’ statements in each year level to provide guidance on the topic and context for teachers.
Made Economics and Business concepts explicit in the level descriptions, content descriptions and achievement standards.
Removed content descriptions in the Knowledge and Understanding strand to allow for new content related to financial literacy. The number of Knowledge and Understanding content descriptions has been maintained from Version 8.4 to Version 9.0.
The Skills sub-strand structure is consistent with other Years 7–10 HASS subjects, with a slight reduction in the number of content descriptions.
Refined the connection to the economic and business concepts in Knowledge and understanding content descriptions focussing on building understanding across Years 7–10. For example, students understanding of the concept of consumer and financial literacy is developed through learning about the factors that influence consumer choices, influences on decision-making within consumer and financial contexts, the role of Australia’s system of taxation and superannuation, and the importance of goal setting, budgeting and planning.
Refined Economics and Business skills. Content descriptions have been re-organised under broader sub-strands, with a sharper focus on interpreting and analysing information and data to identify trends and relationships, developing and evaluating actions and responses using appropriate criteria, and deciding on a course of action.
- Revised level descriptions to highlight 2 topics addressed each year, with suggested contexts for learning.
- Made concepts for developing geographical understanding explicit in level descriptions, content descriptions and achievement standards.
- Refined content descriptions that focus on: concepts for developing geographical understanding.
- Removed content that was repetitive or overlapped with content in other learning areas.
- Improved clarity of content descriptions. Terms used in content descriptions, particularly in the Skills strand, have been updated to reflect current best practice in Geography education.
- Consolidated Skills content descriptions into 4 sub-strands with geographical methods, such as field work or the representation of data, and the use of geographical tools, for example digital and geospatial technologies, explicit. Some examples of the application of skills are described in content elaborations. Revised content descriptions now effectively build understanding of geographical concepts and align with the achievement standard.
- Improved content elaborations help teachers frame relevant content or develop student ability to investigate geographical phenomena or challenges. They provide meaningful connections to the cross-curriculum priorities and general capabilities.
Re-organised content. The expectation of the number of topics to be studied in-depth has changed from 12 topics over Years 7–10 to 8 topics over the 4 years. This will allow students increased time to study sub-strands in more depth. This is a reduction of the number of content descriptions expected to be taught each year. Teachers have the option to teach additional topic/s in each year level, however, this is a school-based decision.
Made concepts from each discipline explicit in year level descriptions, content descriptions and achievement standards.
Reduced content descriptions by almost a half in Years 7–10 History.
Improved clarity of content descriptions. Concepts and terms used in content descriptions, particularly in the Skills strand, have been updated to reflect the application of contemporary research in historical thinking.
Improved content elaborations to help teachers frame relevant content or give ideas to develop historical inquiries. They provide meaningful connections to the cross-curriculum priorities and general capabilities.
Included new content to ensure all students study the history of Australia from its earliest communities to nationhood to a modern democratic and cohesive society, 3 new sub-strands — Deep time history of Australia in Year 7, Making and transforming the Australian nation (1750–1914) in Year 9 and Building modern Australia (post 1945) in Year 10 — have been added. For example, Deep Time History of Australia which replaced the Investigating the ancient past depth study, enables students to explicitly study the history of the people and places that have shaped our understanding of early Australia.
These changes improve the coherence and clarity of the History curriculum and give teachers more helpful direction, while retaining flexibility to meet their students’ needs. The content descriptions provide a clear set of expectations for Years 7–10 History and reduce unnecessary clutter and duplication. The elaborations for each content description illustrate and exemplify content for each historical topic. The elaborations have been strengthened to include a more detailed illustration of the historical knowledge and understanding of a topic.
The History Skills strand has been realigned to reflect the application of contemporary research in historical thinking. These concepts and skills are fundamental in giving the discipline of history its structure. This has allowed for refinement of the content descriptions that make explicit the historical thinking concepts and skills. This provides greater clarity to teachers about what skills and concepts to teach and how they relate to the Knowledge and understanding strand and the achievement standards.
This has improved the clarity, the connections to the sub-strands and an emphasis on the importance of History’s methodology.
The new sub-strand Deep time history of Australia provides students the opportunity to further their understanding of First Nations Peoples’ Histories and Cultures. Some of the content from Investigating the ancient past in Version 8.4 has been embedded into the revised Version 9.0 History Year 7.
This depth study provided opportunities for students to investigate how life changed in the late eighteenth century and nineteenth century through the study of a major development: the Industrial Revolution or Progressive ideas and movements or Movement of peoples.
Important learning from each development has been re-organised within The Industrial Revolution and the movement of peoples (1750–1900). For example, key content descriptions and elaborations from Progressive ideas and movements depth study have been included in the revised sub-strand The Industrial Revolution (1750–1914) and Movement of Peoples (1750–1901). This ensures that irrespective of which topic students’ study, they will learn about significant ideas, developments and movements that characterised this historical period.
Revised level descriptions to enhance connections across sub-strand content.
Made Civics and Citizenship concepts explicit in the level descriptions, content descriptions and achievement standards.
Reduced content descriptions by almost a quarter.
Refined Knowledge and understanding content descriptions to build understanding of Civics and Citizenship concepts and improve alignment with the achievement standard.
Re-sequenced some content descriptions to improve the progression of knowledge in each sub-strand across Years 7-10 and enhance connections between the 3 sub-strands at each year level.
Re-focused Skills content descriptions to analyse and evaluate different perspectives and interpretations and make decisions about civic participation and action. For example:
- The Analysis, evaluation and interpretation sub-strand provides opportunities for students to analyse information, data and ideas to evaluate different perspectives, beliefs and interpretations about civic, political and legal issues, systems and processes.
- The Civic participation and decision-making sub-strand provides opportunities to sharpen students ability to evaluate methods and strategies related to making decisions about civic participation or action (reflecting contemporary research in civics education on the importance of contemporary issues and active citizenship).
Students learn about cultural diversity in their community, and how belonging to different groups shapes personal identity and national identity. They also have opportunities to examine why it is important that citizens participate in and contribute to their community. They will study how the key values, institutions and features of Australia’s political and legal systems are influenced by the nation’s Christian and Western heritage and its diverse cultural origins.
The study of language(s) in the Australian Curriculum provides opportunities for students to develop: communication skills; literacy skills in their first and additional languages; intercultural capabilities; understanding of, and respect for, diversity and difference, and an openness to different experiences and perspectives; understanding and appreciation of how culture shapes language, values, beliefs and identity; critical and creative thinking.
Languages curricula are designed for either a Foundation to Year 10 sequence of learning or a Years 7 to 10 sequence of learning. Years 9 and 10 in both sequences are designed as optional years of learning. The delivery of Languages and the choice of Language(s) in schools are determined by relevant education authorities in each state or territory, or by an individual school.
The 2 strands of the Languages curriculum relate to communication in the language and understanding of the language and culture. The strands are designed to be integrated and they support each other. For example, skills in communicating are developed as students understand how language works as a system and the inter-relationship of language and culture.
The Australian Curriculum: Languages has been updated to refine and reduce the amount of content and duplication. The Review focused on improving the quality of the content descriptions and achievement standards, to be clear about what is most important for students to learn, and therefore what teachers have to teach.
- Greater coherence and alignment across Languages subjects.
- Strands and sub-strands realigned to reduce unnecessary overlap and duplication.
- Clearer focus on essential content.
- Content descriptions revised for greater clarity.
- Achievement standards refined to improve coherence with 2 strands in a 2-paragraph structure.
- Cognitive alignment between content descriptions and achievement standards strengthened. and made explicit through website functionality.
- Content elaborations improved to ensure a clear relationship with the content descriptions, general capabilities and cross-curriculum priorities.
Mathematics is a discipline of study that has evolved over centuries, grounded upon specific fundamentals and ways of thinking. Mathematics develops the numeracy capabilities that all students need in their personal, work and civic lives, and provides the fundamentals on which mathematical specialties and professional applications of mathematics are built. The content descriptions and achievement standards of the curriculum are the focus for planning, programming, teaching and assessment in relation to the learning area of Mathematics. The learning progression for the Numeracy capability is not a checklist of standalone curriculum intended to replace the Australian Curriculum: Mathematics; both the Numeracy general capability and Australian Curriculum: Mathematics support students to become proficient in mathematics and develop the necessary numeracy capability essential for all Australian students beyond the mathematics classroom.
The Australian Curriculum: Mathematics is taught each year from Foundation to Year 10.
The 6 strands of the Mathematics curriculum are Number, Algebra, Measurement, Space, Statistics and Probability. The interrelated strands are designed to be integrated so that students develop the capability to identify and use the many connections that exist within and across the strands of Mathematics. For example, skills and concepts developed in the strands of Number and Measurement are applied across all of the strands of the Mathematics curriculum when students are quantifying.
Australian Curriculum content that supports student understanding of AI includes:
- Mathematics strands: Number, Algebra, Measurement, Space, Statistics and Probability
- Technologies core concepts: Data, Computational thinking and Systems thinking
- Digital Technologies core concepts: Digital systems, Data representation, Data acquisition, Data interpretation, Abstraction, Algorithms, and Privacy and security
- Digital Technologies sub-strands: Digital systems; Data representation; Acquiring, managing and analysing data; and Privacy and security.
The general capabilities, in particular: Digital Literacy: how, where and why we use AI; Ethical Understanding: whose data we input, how and why it is used, and issues of permissions, copyright and Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP) around its use; Critical and Creative Thinking: when, where and why we could or should use AI; Numeracy: pattern recognition, abstraction and generalisation used to apply mathematics to create AI.
The Sustainability cross-curriculum priority, which helps learners understand how designing and using AI systems can positively impact energy consumption, carbon emissions and materials usage, improve productivity and profit in business and economics, and play a part in the disseminating of information that may encourage others towards more sustainable practices. Conversely, the use of servers that power AI may have a negative impact on a sustainable future.
Link to Curriculum connection: Aritifical intelligence (AI)
https://v9.australiancurriculum.edu.au/resources/curriculum-connections
The Australian Curriculum: Mathematics Version 9.0 provides the necessary mathematical knowledge and skills that underpin the processes of AI (how it works) and the logical ways of thinking and reasoning mathematically that AI mimics as an artificial intelligence. The Australian Curriculum Version 9.0 includes networks, algorithms, modelling, and experimenting with functions and probability simulations. These provide learning opportunities for all students to build the essential foundations for understanding the mathematics behind AI systems.
Link to Curriculum connection: Artificial intelligence (AI)
https://v9.australiancurriculum.edu.au/resources/curriculum-connections
In Mathematics students learn to solve real-world problems involving financial contexts. In the early years, students learn to solve problems involving simple money transactions in whole dollar amounts. In Year 3, they are introduced formally to the unit of $1 and its relationship to cents. Beyond Year 3, the mathematics they are learning across the strands can be applied to financial contexts such as budgeting, savings plans, taxation, compound interest and making sound financial decisions.
STEM is addressed across the Australian Curriculum through Science, Technologies and Mathematics, and in a dedicated content description focusing on engineering principles and systems at each band in Design and Technologies from Year 1 to Year 10.
In the Australian Curriculum: Mathematics, mathematical symbols used in equations, functions, and formulae have been constructed using LaTex code for them to render properly on the website. When using the copy feature, you will need to use a LaTeX equation editor for them to appear correctly in your document.
ACARA does not develop approved textbook lists. States and territories may guide schools in the selection of teaching and learning resources, appropriate to their context. Schools may select specific textbooks as a teaching and learning resource for their school according to the needs of their students.
The Australian Curriculum: Mathematics has been reviewed, and content refined, realigned, removed and/or added to focus on what is essential learning in mathematics. The Review focused on improving the quality of the content descriptions and achievement standards, to be clear about what is most important for students to learn, and therefore what teachers are expected to teach.
The 6 strands of the Mathematics curriculum, Number, Algebra, Measurement, Space, Statistics, and Probability, refer to substantial mathematics sub-disciplines and so reflect the ways of thinking, reasoning and working mathematically associated with their study. The change from having 3 paired content strands to a 6-strand structure was to emphasise the thinking and reasoning skills that the content draws upon and not limit the existing connections between strands to those of the original pairings.
As part of the review process for the learning area of Mathematics, content no longer determined essential, over emphasised or identified as duplication of content from other learning areas has been removed to provide room for new content that provides all students with relevant knowledge, skills and understandings applicable to contemporary society such as computer algorithms, probability simulations, networks, 3D coordinate systems, estimation, error and logarithmic scales.
Problem-solving is an essential component of what it means to do mathematics. In the Australian Curriculum: Mathematics Version 9.0, the development of mathematical thinking, reasoning, problem-solving skills and processes such as mathematical modelling, computational thinking, statistical investigation, and probability experiments and simulations is more explicit. Knowledge of these important processes will better equip students in understanding the impact of environmental disasters, making informed financial decisions and coping with global pandemics such as COVID-19.
Reading time on an analog clock is not an easy task and many students find it challenging. To read time on an analog clock with understanding requires knowledge of fractions, measures of turn and the language of time requiring the mathematical Literacy and Numeracy skills beyond what a Year 1 student can typically demonstrate.
Providing more time for students to develop strong foundational understanding of numbers and their parts before they are introduced to fractions is more consistent with many other international curriculums and assessment frameworks such as Singapore and the UK that introduce fractions later than Year 1.
See the 'Understand this learning area' for the Rationale and Aims.
Developing science inquiry practices and understanding how scientists engage in inquiry are core drivers of the Australian Curriculum: Science. The practices students develop give them the tools they need to achieve deeper understanding of science concepts and how scientific thinking applies to these understandings. Understanding the nature of science inquiry also supports students’ ability to make informed decisions, both now and in the future.
STEM is addressed across the Australian Curriculum through Science, Technologies and Mathematics, and in a dedicated content description focusing on engineering principles and systems at each band in Design and Technologies from Year 1 to Year 10.
Intercultural inquiry practices have been introduced in the Science inquiry strand, incorporating field work, use of secondary data, and cultural competency. These practices reflect contemporary scientific research on lands belonging to First Nations Australians, promoting equitable partnerships and respecting Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property. Students learn to show respect to traditional owners, adhere to regulations, and value the contributions of First Nations Australians. These changes emphasise the importance of intercultural collaboration and recognising the unique knowledge and perspectives of Indigenous communities.
The Earth and space science sub-strand highlights the dynamic and interdependent nature of Earth's systems, including the effects of climate change. In the revised Australian Curriculum: Science, Year 10 students investigate how energy flow models between Earth's spheres describe climate change patterns and predict future changes. This content aims to develop students' understanding of climate change modelling, enabling them to critically analyse media and form informed opinions on its impact. By grasping key elements and relationships within these models, students can engage with climate change discourse and its effects on the Earth system.
Introducing the particulate nature of matter in primary years is essential for understanding chemistry and everyday phenomena. Research shows that children can grasp abstract concepts like particles early on, preventing misconceptions later. Aligning with global curricula, Year 5 introduces the 'small particle model' as seen in the Next Generation Science Standards in the United States. This ensures consistency and provides a strong foundation for future scientific learning.
Students learn about energy throughout the current Science curriculum; ‘matter and energy’ is one of the key ideas that underpins the Australian Curriculum: Science. However, previously energy wasn’t named; in the proposed revisions to the Science curriculum, energy is explicitly referenced so that teachers can help students to understand the importance of energy in all aspects of science and begin to appreciate the core concept that energy exists in different forms.
The Australian Curriculum: Science has undergone changes including the development of core concepts, redesigned content descriptions for clarity, re-sequencing and consolidation of content, reduction of primary years content, refinement of science inquiry and science as a human endeavour strands, and redesigned elaborations and inquiry questions. These changes aim to provide a more focused and coherent curriculum, improved conceptual progression, and an emphasis on science communication.
This name change reflects the intention of the strand, which is to describe both the skills and the understanding underpinning those skills. Some people have interpreted the sub-strands of science inquiry as a linear inquiry process; this name change also underpins the idea that the sub-strands represent elements of inquiry rather than a linear list of skills.
Previously, the content descriptions were framed as open-ended propositions, and it was not clear what depth or breadth of coverage was required. The additional detail in the revised content descriptions provides clarity about required depth and breadth. While the revised content descriptions look longer, the curriculum has actually been streamlined with regard to concept development and focus within content descriptions.
The revised content descriptions now use 'explore' or 'investigate' to encourage active engagement with concepts through inquiry. This aligns with the integrated teaching approach of the Australian Curriculum: Science. Younger students focus on developing inquiry practices through exploration, while older students engage in more systematic investigation.
Expectations of student explorations and investigations are defined by the achievement standards and are explicitly described in the Science inquiry strand at each level. Students use science inquiry practices to engage with the concepts related to Science understanding and Science as a human endeavour.
No, they are not mandatory. They can be used as stated, adapted to local contexts, replaced with teacher- or student-determined alternatives, or not used at all. Inquiry questions can help excite students’ curiosity and challenge their thinking. They are not designed to direct or focus a unit of work, but to spark discussion.
The Science understanding content for Foundation to Year 3 has been refined and decluttered to provide opportunities to teach for greater depth and rigour. The sequence and balance of content remains developmentally appropriate and continues to support conceptual progression.
The revised content descriptions allow for in-depth exploration of connected concepts at appropriate stages of schooling. For instance, combining the understanding of observable changes in the environment and their effects on everyday life into a single content description in Year 1 provides depth without adding more content. Previously, some topics like day and night required re-teaching, but now they are integrated with the relationship between the sun and the planets, enabling students to explore cause-and-effect patterns and the complex model behind day and night in greater depth.
The achievement standards have been revised to enable teachers to more easily connect the achievement standards with the content descriptions. Previously, multiple content descriptions from different sub-strands were addressed in a single sentence, and some teachers found this challenging to report against. The revised achievement standards have been designed to address a single sub-strand in each sentence. A statement has also been added to the Foundation to Year 4 achievement standards to indicate the expected standard for the Science as a human endeavour strand.
There are many authentic opportunities for teaching about cyber security in Digital Technologies. Cyber security in the Digital Technologies curriculum involves understanding how digital systems acquire, manage, transmit and protect data, and the development and application of digital information security practices and user protocols. Through the content descriptions in multiple sub-strands including Privacy and security, students can explore this content and find practical application opportunities.
Link to Understand Technologies:
Link to General capabilities: Digital Literacy
Link to Curriculum connection: Online safety
https://v9.australiancurriculum.edu.au/resources/curriculum-connections
ACARA, in collaboration with the eSafety Commissioner, identified ‘online safety’ as the preferred term within the curriculum rather than ‘e-safety’ or ‘cyber safety’. Definitions are provided in the downloadable or inline glossary to support a shared understanding of these terms.
Glossary definitions:
- Online safety: The practice of individuals protecting themselves and others from online harms and risks, which might jeopardise their personal information, lead to unsafe communications or affect their mental health and wellbeing.
- Security: Assurances that resources such as data are protected, free from risk and reliable, e.g. data is encrypted when being transmitted.
- Cyber security: Technologies, processes and practices taken to protect digital systems and networks from theft or damage to their hardware, software, data or to the disruption of services.
- Privacy: The ability of an individual or group to control who can use or see information about themselves. Information privacy is related to how personal data and information is handled.
Link to Curriculum connection: Online safety
https://v9.australiancurriculum.edu.au/resources/curriculum-connections
Technologies impact on all of us. They can play an important role in transforming, restoring and sustaining societies and natural, managed and constructed environments. Australia needs individuals who can make discerning decisions about the development and use of technologies, and who can work independently and collaboratively to develop solutions to complex challenges and contribute to sustainable patterns of living. Students learn to explore how non-digital and digital technologies might be incorporated to create contemporary designed and digital solutions.
Link to Understand the Digital Literacy capability
Link to Understand the Technologies Learning Area - Key Connections - General capabilities - Digital Literacy
Link to Professional learning course Library: Understand this learning area Technologies
The Digital Literacy general capability is developed across all learning areas as students operate and manage digital systems and practise digital safety and wellbeing while investigating, creating and communicating. Students become discerning users of digital tools for a range of purposes.
While the Australian Curriculum: Digital Technologies explicitly supports the systematic development of digital literacy, it also provides rich opportunities for students to become productive creators, critical analysts and effective developers of digital solutions.
Link to Understand the Digital Literacy capability
Link to Understand the Technologies Learning Area - Key Connections - General capabilities - Digital Literacy
Link to Professional learning course Library: Understand this learning area Technologies
The Australian Curriculum includes the subjects of Design and Technologies, and Digital Technologies from Foundation to Year 8. The subjects are offered as electives in Years 9 and 10.
Engineering is explicitly addressed within the Design and Technologies subject through the technologies context: Engineering principles and systems. It comprises a dedicated content description from Year 1 to Year 10. It is also addressed across the Australian Curriculum through related Science and Mathematics content.
Link to Understand the Technologies Learning Area - Structure - Knowledge and understanding strand
Food and fibre production is explicitly addressed within the Design and Technologies subject through the technologies context: Food and fibre production. It comprises a dedicated content description from Year 1 to Year 10. It is also addressed across the Australian Curriculum through related Science and HASS content.
Link to Curriculum connection: Food and fibre
https://v9.australiancurriculum.edu.au/resources/curriculum-connections
Link to Understand the Technologies Learning Area - Structure - Knowledge and understanding strand
Home Economics supports students to develop the capacity to make decisions, solve problems and respond critically and creatively to practical concerns of individuals, families and communities in local, regional and global contexts. In the Australian Curriculum elements of learning in home economics draw from content in Health and Physical Education and Design and Technologies (technologies contexts: food specialisations, materials and technologies specialisations and some aspects of food and fibre production).
Home economics-related subjects are offered in all states and territories across Australia in Years 7-10. It is a school-based decision whether to offer a holistic home economics subject, or specialisations within home economics—for example, Food for Living, Food Technology, Fashion by Design, Human Development, Early Childhood Development, Family Studies.
The Curriculum connection: Food and wellbeing shows educators where food and nutrition education is embedded across the curriculum and connects educators to a range of resources that have been developed to support food and nutrition education.
Link to Curriculum connection: Food and wellbeing
https://v9.australiancurriculum.edu.au/resources/curriculum-connections
Australian Curriculum content that supports student understanding of AI includes:
- Mathematics strands: Number, Algebra, Measurement, Space, Statistics and Probability
- Technologies core concepts: Data, Computational thinking and Systems thinking
- Digital Technologies core concepts: Digital systems, Data representation, Data acquisition, Data interpretation, Abstraction, Algorithms, and Privacy and security
- Digital Technologies sub-strands: Digital systems; Data representation; Acquiring, managing and analysing data; and Privacy and security.
The general capabilities, in particular: Digital Literacy: how, where and why we use AI; Ethical Understanding: whose data we input, how and why it is used, and issues of permissions, copyright and Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP) around its use; Critical and Creative Thinking: when, where and why we could or should use AI; Numeracy: pattern recognition, abstraction and generalisation used to apply mathematics to create AI.
The Sustainability cross-curriculum priority, which helps learners understand how designing and using AI systems can positively impact energy consumption, carbon emissions and materials usage, improve productivity and profit in business and economics, and play a part in the disseminating of information that may encourage others towards more sustainable practices. Conversely, the use of servers that power AI may have a negative impact on a sustainable future.
Link to Curriculum connection: Aritifical intelligence (AI)
https://v9.australiancurriculum.edu.au/resources/curriculum-connections
There is no prescribed technologies context in Foundation Design and Technologies to provide flexibility for schools to select a context that is most relevant for their school situation.
Link to Understand Technologies:
There are many authentic opportunities for teaching about cyber security in Digital Technologies. Cyber security in the Digital Technologies curriculum involves understanding how digital systems acquire, manage, transmit and protect data, and the development and application of digital information security practices and user protocols. Through the content descriptions in multiple sub-strands including Privacy and security, students can explore this content and find practical application opportunities.
Understand this learning area: Digital Technologies
Understand this learning area: Digital Technologies - Structure - Processes and production skills strand
There are multiple opportunities in the Australian Curriculum: Digital Technologies to explore concepts of AI in Foundation–Year 10. These include understanding how data is managed, controlled, and secured in networked digital systems; and building understanding of security and privacy in relation to data. The elaborations have been strengthened to include more detailed illustrations of AI contexts and to demonstrate how the core concepts of data, systems, algorithms and abstraction support the understanding of AI today.
Link to Curriculum connection: Artificial intelligence (AI)
https://v9.australiancurriculum.edu.au/resources/curriculum-connections
The Digital Literacy general capability includes an element dedicated to safety and wellbeing. ‘Practising digital safety and wellbeing’ provides a sound base for learning areas and subjects, in particular Health and Physical Education and Digital Technologies, to ensure students develop the appropriate technical, social, cognitive, communicative and decision-making skills to address online risks. It provides an opportunity to recognise the content risks that students face online, such as hurtful user-generated content, and the strategies involved in dealing with them.
The Australian Curriculum addresses aspects of cyberbullying, unwanted contact and grooming, sexting and other incidents of image-based abuse as part of Health and Physical Education (HPE) in the personal, social and community health strand through the focus areas of Safety, and Relationships and Sexuality. These focus areas include content about respectful relationships and consent, such as negotiating permission to share their own and others' images online, managing relationships online and offline, dealing with relationships when there is an imbalance of power, and understanding how coercion, intimidation and manipulation can occur leading to non-consensual or inappropriate behaviour. Students also learn to develop positive strategies for managing these issues if they are being experienced by themselves or others.
The Digital Technologies curriculum, through the sub-strands of collaborating and managing, and privacy and security, allows students to create content while recognising and respecting the agreed behaviours and protocols expected when using digital tools. The Digital Technologies curriculum provides an opportunity to apply the strategies learnt through the Health and Physical Education curriculum.
Across both subjects, students access and critically evaluate online content, health information, products and services using digital tools, recognising inappropriate use of images, information and abuse. They evaluate community resources from organisations such as kidshelpline and the eSafety Commissioner to seek help for themselves and others when their own, or other’s health, safety, relationships or wellbeing may be at risk.
Link to Curriculum connection: Online safety
https://v9.australiancurriculum.edu.au/resources/curriculum-connections
The Australian Curriculum: Design and Technologies includes opportunities for students to gain knowledge, understanding and skills in the technologies contexts of engineering systems and principles, food and fibre production, food specialisations, materials specialisations such as working with wood, metal and textiles and technologies specialisations such as graphics technologies and electronics. Students may use digital tools as they develop designed solutions for these contexts.
ACARA, in collaboration with the eSafety Commissioner, identified ‘online safety’ as the preferred term within the curriculum rather than ‘e-safety’ or ‘cyber safety’. Definitions are provided in the downloadable or inline glossary to support a shared understanding of these terms.
STEM is addressed across the Australian Curriculum through Science, Technologies and Mathematics, and in a dedicated content description focusing on engineering principles and systems at each band in Design and Technologies from Year 1 to Year 10.
The new sub-strand Privacy and security provides students with an opportunity to explore how digital systems use algorithms and data to impact on decisions that we make in our lives. The elaborations provide specific examples, such as music streaming services predicting what songs we might be interested in.
See also AI curriculum connection
https://v9.australiancurriculum.edu.au/resources/curriculum-connections
The new sub-strand Privacy and security provides students with the skills to apply their understanding of the storage and use of personal data. They are given an opportunity to look at what data is created and kept by common digital systems they use, and the effect the permanence of this has on their digital footprint.
There are many opportunities for Technologies’ core concepts to be taught within other learning areas. Technologies provides context for Mathematics and Science core concepts to be applied, often in a STEM project; for example, the Design and Technologies context – engineering principles and systems. Science and HASS provide many contexts for working with data and applying systems thinking. HPE and Science provide connections to the Technologies context food specialisations.
Link to Understand Technologies:
https://v9.australiancurriculum.edu.au/teacher-resources/understand-this-learning-area/technologies
The Australian Curriculum: Technologies engages students in working with materials, data, systems, tools and equipment common in a school or community. In Design and Technologies core concepts such as engineering principles and systems, food and fibre production and food specialisations can be taught simply and inexpensively. For example, growing food plants in containers or school gardens. In Digital Technologies, core concepts such as computational thinking can involve learning experiences using digital tools or ‘unplugged’ (without digital tools)
Key ideas have been replaced with core concepts that underpin each subject within the Technologies curriculum: Design and Technologies, and Digital Technologies. New Foundation year content has been developed for both subjects to better support learning in the early years. Achievement standards have been refined to better highlight the relationship between the knowledge and understanding strand, and the processes and production skills strand. Cognitive alignment has been strengthened between content descriptions and achievement standards.
The number of Technologies contexts in F–4 Design and Technologies has been reduced to improve manageability of content in primary years. Content elaborations have been improved to show suggestions for authentic and meaningful alignment to general capabilities and cross-curriculum priorities.
- Refined alignment with Digital Literacy including developing the new sub-strand Privacy and security.
- Split content descriptions where they contained more than one idea to provide greater clarity to teachers about what to teach.
- Adjusted terminology to better reflect the intention, for example, when students access existing datasets or collect their own data, this is described as data acquisition.
- Moved duplicated data content to Mathematics.
Digital Technologies has a strong connection to the Mathematics learning area, in particular, a shared focus on ‘data’. To avoid duplication and provide primary teachers with authentic content links, learning about acquiring, managing and analysing data is included in content descriptions in the Mathematics curriculum under the Statistics strand.
Digital Technologies has a strong connection to the Mathematics learning area, in particular, a shared focus on ‘data’. To avoid duplication and provide primary teachers with authentic content links, learning about acquiring, managing and analysing data is included in content descriptions in the Mathematics curriculum under the Statistics strand.
An important change in Technologies is the identification of content for the Foundation year, separate from Years 1–2, in both subjects. This provides a clear set of expectations for the Foundation year, allows for improved alignment of content across all learning areas in Foundation and reduces duplication with other learning areas.
The technologies contexts for Years 1–4 have been reduced to remove duplication of materials with Science and The Arts, and to contribute to a reduced Foundation–Year 4 curriculum.
This new sub-strand has been added following the structural changes to the Digital Literacy general capability. Students learn whom they can trust with their information online. Development of these privacy and security skills can help set a strong foundation for students’ future digital lives.
The core concepts for the Technologies curriculum have been developed to ensure they provide a framework of knowledge and skills that remain relevant regardless of developments within the disciplines. The core concepts have been developed from the Australian Curriculum: Technologies V 8.4 key ideas and key concepts; they represent those big ideas, understandings, skills or processes central to the Technologies curriculum. The content elaborations provide current suggestions and illustrations of ways to teach the content descriptions.
Students learn to; explore, respond to, make, create, present, and perform arts works; and develop artistic skills and practices. Students learn, as artists and audiences, how to express ideas, perspectives, and meanings in artistic forms. They learn about the multiple purposes of art to communicate stories, knowledge, cultural understandings, and human experience. Students can develop creative and critical skills and techniques in the arts subjects of Dance, Drama, Media Arts, Music, and Visual Arts.
The content descriptions and achievement standards at each band have been refined to give teachers flexibility to adapt the breadth and depth of their programs to suit their context, the experience and capabilities of their students, and the requirements of the senior secondary curriculum in their state or territory.
The Arts curriculum is written on the basis that all students will study The Arts from Foundation to the end of Year 8. In primary, the curriculum has been developed to allow for the study of the 5 arts subjects from F-6. In Years 7-8, students can experience one or more arts subjects in depth. In Years 9-10, students can specialise in one or more arts subjects. State and territory school authorities or individual schools will determine how the curriculum is implemented.
Previously the Band of F–2 in The Arts described a wide continuum of learning. The Foundation band has been separated out to acknowledge the first full year of schooling. The new band recognises the importance of play, imagination, curiosity and wonder in early years learning. This revision establishes the basis for learning in the Arts subjects from Year 1 and allows for improved alignment of content across all learning areas in Foundation.
The four strands describe the distinct and interrelated phases of artistic process, and the role of the arts in the world that students can respond to and explore.
The four strands are:
- Exploring and responding
- Developing practices and skills
- Creating and making
- Presenting and performing
Each strand corresponds to content descriptions in each arts subject and the bands are structured in the same way. The strands describe a cyclic and flexible process where strands can be revisited or taught concurrently depending on the artistic task or activity.
The different presentation of achievement standards supports the ways schools may choose to implement The Arts curriculum. In the Arts, the learning area achievement standards provide a single standard for use in situations where the classroom program has drawn on content from more than one Arts subject. The functionality of the website clearly shows the content descriptions that teachers will refer to when planning to use both the learning area achievement standard and the subject achievement standards.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander arts and artists have always been in The Arts curriculum. The new thread of content descriptions in the Exploring and Responding strand provides a clearer relationship between First Nations content and The Arts. At each band an appropriate content description highlights aspects of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cross-curriculum priority. Students build on their knowledge, understanding and skills about contemporary, traditional, and multi-disciplinary arts works and practices unique to Australia.
Property rights refers to the legal understanding that certain things belong to certain people or communities. Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property rights refers to the rights of Indigenous people and communities over their cultural and intellectual property.
Cultural and intellectual property includes both tangible and intangible properties. Tangible cultural and intellectual property might include things such as paintings, rock art, songs, and dances. Intangible properties might include stories, knowledge, techniques, and symbols.
Culturally responsive practices are practices that acknowledge cultural authority and are based on principles of fairness, respect, and cultural awareness. The Australia Council for The Arts have published Protocols for using First Nations Cultural and Intellectual Property in the Arts to give guidance in this area.
Link to Protocols for Using First Nations Cultural and Intellectual Property in the Arts
Yes, however, to ensure that students are supported to learn in a culturally safe manner, the following should be considered and practiced. When students are exploring and responding to First Nations Australians arts practices in the Australian Curriculum: The Arts Version 9.0 it is intentionally framed as a “learning about” process. The elaborations support the idea of “learning about” using terms such as “observing/listening/researching/looking at/mapping/accessing”.
The intention behind such framing is to ensure the proper protocols and cultural authority has been put in place when using Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property which includes symbols, stories, dances, and motifs.
The only time creative and embodied exploration of practices can be undertaken is when a unit/task/activity has been co-developed with First Nations artists/educators and is approved by the relevant Language group or Elders. For example, some First Nations communities request that each time content is subsequently taught, then permission needs to be sought again. In other cases, the Elder may agree to support the practice without permission to be sought each time. To protect the cultural safety of all involved, if questioned by anyone, the teacher/student can provide the appropriate cultural authority to perform the practice. Therefore, the embodied learning of creative processes, when students are “learning through” First Nations arts content can only be done in a culturally responsive context that will require relationships, respect, and time. To undertake this approach, please discuss what is appropriate and the protocols required with local or regional First Nations community or education consultants.
In the Australian Curriculum: Music from Years 5-6 to Years 9-10, students are asked to notate, document and/or record the music that they compose.
Music notation refers to a symbolic system that can visually represent music. Notation systems such as Standard Music Notation (or staff notation) help to build upon the foundations of music knowledge including the elements of music.
Teachers ensure that their notation choices align with the music styles, instruments, and other resources they will use in their learning program.
Documentation refers to how the students either document their process or outcomes and can include notated scores. Documentation can also include recording their music in some form for reference or future use. Compositional software may assist students in documenting their work and process.
The Australian Curriculum: The Arts allows teachers, including classroom and specialist teachers, to implement the curriculum to meet the needs of their students. It also enables schools to partner with arts and cultural organisations to deliver programs that complement teacher-led learning. A glossary and examples of knowledge and skills for each subject support teachers’ planning and implementation of the curriculum.
Link to Understand The Arts
https://v9.australiancurriculum.edu.au/teacher-resources/understand-this-learning-area/the-arts
The Australian Curriculum: The Arts states that there is flexibility for schools to develop partnerships with the arts industry to complement provision of The Arts curriculum. Schools make decisions about how these partnerships will address each aspect of the achievement standards for each of The Arts subjects, and how they may support teachers to develop their capabilities in teaching The Arts.
There are many opportunities for Arts learning to be aligned with other learning areas, particularly in primary. Learning in and through the Arts provides opportunities for students to develop their creativity, think critically and appreciate multiple perspectives on themes, issues, and ideas they encounter across the curriculum. An example includes The Arts and English as they share a focus on communicating ideas in oral, aural, written, and visual modes with an awareness of purpose and audience.
Link to Understand The Arts:
https://v9.australiancurriculum.edu.au/teacher-resources/understand-this-learning-area/the-arts
- New organising strands to identify artistic and creative processes.
- New Foundation year content to better support learning in the early years.
- A clear thread of content relating to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures cross-curriculum priority from F to 10.
- Cognitive alignment has been strengthened between content descriptions and achievement standards.
- Refined and updated content descriptions, language, and terminology to provide greater clarity
Links to comparative information:
Dance comparative information https://v9.australiancurriculum.edu.au/downloads/learning-areas#accordion-ee214a7dbe-item-06b800dfa2
Drama comparative information https://v9.australiancurriculum.edu.au/downloads/learning-areas#accordion-ee214a7dbe-item-0fcc293e90
Media Arts comparative information https://v9.australiancurriculum.edu.au/downloads/learning-areas#accordion-ee214a7dbe-item-96089fab1d
Music comparative information https://v9.australiancurriculum.edu.au/downloads/learning-areas#accordion-ee214a7dbe-item-0f8e9378e0
Visual Arts comparative information https://v9.australiancurriculum.edu.au/downloads/learning-areas#accordion-ee214a7dbe-item-f954304321