Principals/Directors should note the advice below regarding implementation of the Australian Curriculum and consider participation in the trial of the new curriculum.
Implementation of Australian Curriculum
This Memorandum provides updated advice to all Victorian primary and secondary schools and providers about the development and implementation of the new Australian Curriculum in Victoria.
This updates the information provided to schools in the VCAA Memorandum to Schools 185/2010 and 129/2009.
The Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA), the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD), the Catholic Education Commission Victoria (CECV) and Independent Schools Victoria continue to collaborate on a common implementation timeline to ensure all Victorian schools have access to and are able to benefit from shared professional development activities and implementation resources to support the implementation of the Australian Curriculum.
This timeline is based on an assumption that implementation of the Australian Curriculum is defined as the use of the new achievement standards to report student achievement in English, Mathematics, Science and History in 2013. It is expected that schools will complete an audit of their current teaching and learning programs in these four subjects during 2012 and make any necessary adjustments to the curriculum to ensure that all students have the opportunity to demonstrate achievement against the standards. Resources to assist such audit processes and to map the differences between the new content descriptions and achievement standards and the corresponding domains in the Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS) will be available shortly on the new F-10 Curriculum website. The link to the new website will be available on the current VELS website shortly (http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/prep10/vels/index.html).
Implementation timelines
The following previously published implementation timelines continue to apply:
|
2011 |
Initial professional development |
|
2012 |
Professional development and opt-in trialling |
|
2013 |
Reporting against new achievement standards for English, Mathematics, History and Science |
F-10 Curriculum website
The new F-10 Curriculum website will be available on Monday 24 October 2011.
It provides three points of access. The first is an introduction to the new curriculum structure in Victoria, AusVELS, and a set of planning and implementation resources.
The second is a link to the current VELS curriculum that will continue to be the curriculum for Victorian government and Catholic schools in 2011-2012.
The third is a link to the new AusVELS curriculum. The AusVELS curriculum will be the single mandated curriculum for Victorian government and Catholic schools from 2013 on. AusVELS will also be available to all independent schools as a model and resource for the effective implementation of the Australian Curriculum.
The first version of AusVELS will be the current VELS curriculum with the Learning Focus and Standards for English, Mathematics, Science and History replaced by the respective Australian Curriculum Content Descriptions and Achievement Standards.
The AusVELS website will be available from Monday 14 November 2011. AusVELS will be an on-line publication. No hard copies will be published.
Future versions of AusVELS will incorporate further areas of the Australian Curriculum as they are developed. Further information will be available through the new F-10 Curriculum website.
Registration for participation in trial of new Australian Curriculum achievement standards
Schools and providers can register interest in participation in a trial of the new Australian Curriculum achievement standards that will take place in 2012. This trial program will be managed by the VCAA in partnership with DEECD, CECV and Independent Schools Victoria.
The trial will involve interested schools nominating subject areas and/or levels from the new Australian Curriculum for English, Mathematics, Science and History that they would trial during 2012.
Schools are free to nominate areas of interest that can range from single units of work to term or semester length curriculum plans.
A particular focus of this trial activity will be the identification and collation of student work samples annotated to indicate assessment against the new achievement standards. An associated additional focus of the trial will be identification of new resources that may assist schools and teachers in implementing the new curriculum and in evaluating the achievement standards for both formative and summative assessment purposes.
Schools are encouraged to participate in this activity as part of their normal curriculum planning cycle. The VCAA will support participating schools through an initial regionally-based meeting, on-line professional development and network programs and a final regionally-based meeting.
Interested schools should register their initial interest by Friday 11 November 2011 at http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/natcurric/trialschools.html. Confirmation of participation and details of the initial regional meetings will be provided to schools by Friday 2 December 2011.
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