Following are some key changes made to the F–10 Australian Curriculum from version 8.4 to version 9.0 following the curriculum review undertaken by ACARA in 2020–21.

Visit Learning area downloads for materials for each learning area, including more detailed views of the changes from version 8.4 to version 9.0,

Learning Areas

English F–10

• Retained the 3 strands of Language, Literature and Literacy as organisers.
• Sharpened the interrelationships of the strands through consistency of language.
• Specified the use of a wide range of literature and supported teachers to select texts with detail in the year level descriptions. Made explicit reference to the traditional and contemporary literature of First Nations Australians.
• Refined content descriptions for clarity and explicit direction – with improved connection to the Literacy general capability progressions.
• Refined and presented achievement standards in a consistent 3-paragraph structure across year levels.
• Better aligned achievement standards and content descriptions.
• Revised and wrote new content elaborations to give a range of quality suggestions for teachers.

Health and Physical Education F–10

• Retained the current strand structure and focus areas.
• Reorganised content under the 6 sub-strands and revised sub-strand titles to be clearer about their content.
• Included content to strengthen the explicit teaching of consent and respectful relationships from F–10 in age-appropriate ways, including content that addresses the role of gender, power, coercion and disrespect in abusive or violent relationships.
• Strengthened the focus on students being physically active by revising content descriptions in the Movement and physical activity strand to emphasise learning through movement application. Revised the names of sub-strands and the wording of content descriptions to emphasise the importance of students learning while moving.
• Strengthened content that supports learning about physical activity options, with a focus on activity in natural and outdoor settings.
• Improved the alignment of content descriptions to achievement standards.

Humanities and Social Sciences (HASS) F–6

• Reduced the amount of content to be taught.
• Removed the discipline-specific achievement standards.
• Revised content descriptions and elaborations in relation to Australian history to focus on “truth-telling” within the broader history of Australia as a successful democracy and prosperous society.
• Revised content descriptions for greater clarity and better aligned content descriptions and achievement standards.
• Revised content to align with content in Science to support primary teachers with integrated units.

Humanities and Social Sciences – Civics and Citizenship 7–10

• Reduced the amount of content to be taught.
• Strengthened and made explicit teaching about the origins and Christian and Western heritage of Australia's democracy, and about the diversity of the Australian communities.
• Revised the Skills sub-strands to improve alignment with HASS F–6.
• Improved the clarity of content descriptions and their alignment to achievement standards.
• Revised content to ensure concepts of active citizenship and democratic participation were explicit, especially the understandings about “civic participation”.

Humanities and Social Sciences – Economics and Business 7–10

• Reduced the amount of content to be taught.
• Revised the Skills sub-strands to improve alignment with F–6 HASS.
• Revised content descriptions to improve their clarity and to be more precise in relation to important discipline-specific terminology (e.g. trade-offs, market influences, economic decision-making, economic performance).
• Streamlined the content structure by removing the sub-strand structure from the Knowledge and understanding strand.

Humanities and Social Sciences – Geography 7–10

• Reduced the amount of content to be taught.
• Revised the Skills sub-strands to improve alignment with HASS F–6.
• Revised content descriptions to improve their clarity and include important discipline-specific language and terminology (e.g. primary research methods, including fieldwork, use of digital and spatial technologies).
• Refined achievement standards to align better with content descriptions and make geographical concepts explicit.

Humanities and Social Sciences – History 7–10

• Reduced the expectations of content to be covered from 12 depth studies to 8 sub-strands to allow for depth of study.
• Included the new sub-strand Deep time history of Australia in Year 7 and revised content descriptions and elaborations in relation to Australian history to focus on the impact of, and perceptions of – the arrival of Europeans on First Nations Australians, deepening students’ understanding of First Nations Australian histories and cultures within the broader history of Australia as a successful democracy and prosperous society
• prioritising Australian history within a global context in Years 9 and 10 with 2 new sub-strands, Making and transforming the Australian nation (1750-1914) in Year 9 and Building modern Australia (post 1945) in Year 10, that are expected to be studied by all students.
• Retained the integrity of historical thinking skills and revised the Skills sub-strands to improve alignment with HASS F–6.
• Better aligned content descriptions to achievement standards.

Languages F–10

• Improved coherence and consistency across the Australian Curriculum: Languages structure and content presentation for the 4 subjects reviewed (Chinese, Japanese, French and Italian).
• Retained the current 2 strands but renamed them as Communicating meaning in [Language] and Understanding language and culture.
• Streamlined the content structure by reducing the number of sub-strands from 8 to 5 .
• Developed separate Foundation year content from the current F–2 band of content.
• Strengthened alignment with the Literacy general capability.
• Decluttered and refined content descriptions by removing examples of topics, concepts and processes.
• Reduced the amount of content to cover in both the F–10 and 7–10 sequences.
• Refined achievement standards by removing examples and presenting them in a consistent structure across the subjects.
• Improved the alignment of achievement standards and content descriptions.
• Developed new content elaborations and improved existing elaborations to give a range of quality suggestions for teachers.

Mathematics F–10

• Simplified the content structure to 6 strands (Number, Algebra, Measurement, Space, Statistics and Probability) where content was previously organised under 3 paired strands, 13 sub-strands and 4 separate proficiency strands.
• Embedded the proficiency strands into the content descriptions.
• a stronger focus on students mastering the essential mathematical facts, skills, concepts and processes, and being introduced to these at the right time
• Strengthened the focus on students developing the mathematical processes of mathematical modelling, computational thinking, statistical investigation, probability experiments and simulations.
• Raised standards by introducing content earlier (for example lifting standards in Year 1 in relation to addition and subtraction, with additional content setting expectations about recall and proficiency with multiplication facts, beginning in Year 2) expanding depth and/or breadth of content and including new content. Content is now aligned with the assessment frameworks for PISA and TIMSS and international curriculum standards.
• Re-sequenced content to strengthen the developmental progression of key mathematical concepts, skills, procedures and processes based on evidence, a stronger focus on students
• mastering the essential mathematical facts, skills, concepts and processes, and being introduced to these at the right time
• making clear what mathematical computations need to be done without a calculator, reinforcing the importance of achieving proficiency in foundational skills
• a revision of the sequencing of content in Mathematics; in particular, telling time, introduction of fractions, recall of multiplication facts (“times tables’) and solving equations
• lifting standards for Mathematics in Year 1 in relation to addition and subtraction, with additional content setting expectations about recall and proficiency with multiplication facts, beginning in Year 2
• making clear what mathematical computations need to be done without a calculator, reinforcing the importance of achieving proficiency in foundational skills
• Better aligned the achievement standards and content descriptions.
• Refined and presented achievement standards in a consistent structure.
• Refined content descriptions for clarity of expectation.
• Strengthened the links to the Numeracy general capability progression through content descriptions and elaborations.
• Revised and wrote new content elaborations to give a range of quality suggestions for teachers.

Science F–10

• Retained key ideas and further developed core concepts for the Science understanding strand.
• Renamed the Science inquiry skills strand to Science inquiry.
• Reduced and realigned content across all strands, with a particular focus on reduction in F–6.
• Improved content alignment between strands and across to other learning areas.
• Increased emphasis on sustainability and practices of argumentation and evaluation, in line with the PISA 2024 Science Strategic Vision.
• Improved integration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures through introduction of intercultural inquiry skills from Year 5.
• Revised content descriptions to provide clarity on essential content for teachers.
• Improved alignment between content descriptions and achievement standards.
• Improved the clarity and diversity of content elaborations.

Technologies – Design and Technologies F–10

• Separated Foundation content from Years 1–2 to provide clarity about expectations for this year.
• Reduced the amount of content to be taught in F–4 in terms of the number of technologies contexts to be addressed.
• Strengthened how the iterative process is represented through the sub-strands and content descriptions.
• Improved alignment of the achievement standards and content descriptions and refined the wording of both to improve clarity and progression across bands.
• Updated content elaborations to include contemporary examples and created new content elaborations to improve and provide explicit illustrations of the content descriptions.

Technologies – Digital Technologies F–10

• Separated Foundation content from Years 1–2 to provide clarity about expectations for this year.
• Split some content descriptions into 2 to help teachers better understand the expectations of what is to be taught in what is still a relatively new subject.
• Removed duplication of content with the removal of data collection and interpretation content as this is adequately covered in Mathematics F–6.
• Refined and restructured band level descriptions to provide clarity on how computational, design and systems thinking relate to the content and what that looks like for the student in the classroom.
• Added a new sub-strand Privacy and security to align with the revised Digital Literacy continuum.
• Improved alignment of the achievement standards and content descriptions and refined the wording of both to improve clarity and progression across bands.
• Updated content elaborations to include contemporary examples and created new content elaborations to improve and provide explicit illustrations of the content descriptions.

The Arts F–10

• Used the existing content threads to develop a new 4-strand structure that reflects creative processes and provides teachers with a clearer and better organisation of content.
• Separated Foundation content from Years 1–2 to provide clarity about expectations for this year.
• Strengthened connections to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures cross-curriculum priority by repositioning content into specific content descriptions and providing elaborations that link to the organising ideas.
• Refined the use of subject-specific language in content descriptions and elaborations for improved clarity and to give teachers increased flexibility in implementation.
• Refined the alignment of content descriptions across the 5 Arts subjects.
• Refined and presented achievement standards in a consistent structure across the 5 Arts subjects.
• Improved the alignment of the learning area and subject-specific achievement standards and content descriptions.
• Revised and developed new content elaborations to give a range of quality suggestions for teachers.

Visit General Capabilities downloads for materials for each of the General Capabilities, including more detailed views of the changes from version 8.4 to version 9.0,

General Capabilities

• Retitled Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Capability to Digital Literacy to align with international developments.
• Refined the element and sub-element titles for each general capability.
• Reduced overlap and duplication across general capabilities.
• Improved sub-element descriptions for each general capability to improve clarity and progression.
• Improved the developmental sequence across the levels of each continuum.

Visit Cross-curriculum priorities downloads for materials for each of the cross-curriculum priorities, including more detailed views of the changes from version 8.4 to version 9.0.

Cross-currriculum Priorities

• Updated the descriptions of all 3 priorities to address important contemporary issues.
• Improved the organising ideas of all 3 priorities to make them clearer for teachers and better connected to learning area content.
• Included greater truth-telling in the revised organising ideas and introduced the terms “First Nations Australians” and “Australian First Nations Peoples”.
• Included concepts related to agency, global citizenship, interconnection, interdependence, diversity and inclusion in Asia and Australia’s Engagement with Asia.
• Increased the focus on design and expanded the view of environmental sustainability to include all of the earth’s systems in the Sustainability priority.