The Australian Curriculum was developed by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), with state and territory educational jurisdictions being responsible for its implementation.
The Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) is responsible for the development and provision of the curriculum for Victorian government and Catholic schools. The VCAA provides the Victorian Curriculum F–10, which incorporates the Australian Curriculum and reflects Victorian priorities and standards. Independent schools may use the Victorian Curriculum F–10 as a model and resource for the effective implementation of the Australian Curriculum.
The Victorian Curriculum F–10 incorporates and reflects much of the Australian Curriculum, but differs in some important respects, most notably the:
- Representation of the curriculum as a continuum of learning represented as levels of learning not years of schooling. This enables the development of targeted learning programs for all students, where the curriculum is used to plan to the actual learning level of each student rather than their assumed level of learning based on age or years of schooling
- Inclusion of both learning areas and capabilities. The capabilities in Victorian Curriculum F–10 are structured in the same way as the learning areas, with content descriptions and achievement standards. The capabilities are a set of discrete knowledge and skills that can and should be taught explicitly in and through the learning areas but are not fully defined by any of the learning areas or disciplines.
The distinction between the Victorian Curriculum F–10 and the Australian Curriculum is described in more detail on the
Overview pages on the Victorian Curriculum F–10 website.
While schools must assess and report against the achievement standards from the Victorian Curriculum F–10, schools have flexibility in the organisation and structure of the learning program. For example, schools can use the five outcomes from the Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework (VEYLDF) as the curriculum organisers for the early years teaching and learning program. To assist schools that wish to pursue this option, see the
linked table that illustrates the connections between VEYLDF outcomes and relevant Victorian curriculum F–10 curriculum areas.
The VCAA maintains two websites with information about the Victorian Curriculum F–10.
- To access and download the curriculum, visit the
Victorian Curriculum F–10 website.
- For an array of resources to support schools to implement the curriculum, including curriculum-area-specific resources, whole-school curriculum resources and professional learning opportunities, visit the
VCAA website.
The Victorian Curriculum F–10 includes four capabilities: Critical and Creative Thinking, Ethical Capability, Intercultural Capability, and Personal and Social Capability. A key distinction between the Australian Curriculum and the Victorian Curriculum F–10 is the provision of content descriptions and achievement standards for these four capabilities. The design of the Victorian Curriculum F–10 acknowledges that capabilities are a set of discrete knowledge and skills that can and should be taught explicitly in and through the learning areas but are not fully defined by any of the learning areas or disciplines.
More information on the Capabilities is published on the Victorian Curriculum F–10 website in the
Curriculum Design section.
The VCAA remains committed to the enduring importance of these 'lenses' through which to view the curriculum and develop teaching and learning programs. The learning about the cross-curriculum priorities of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures, Asia and Australia's engagement with Asia and Sustainability is embedded in the curriculum areas of the Victorian Curriculum F–10, and are not a separate curriculum.
The VCAA has undertaken a mapping of the curriculum to produce companion documents that highlight the location of cross-curriculum priorities content. See Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures, Asia and Australia's engagement with Asia and Sustainability.
The primary function of the codes used on the Victorian Curriculum website is to support the delivery of the curriculum in a digital format. When using filters to browse the curriculum documents, the codes establish the parts of the curriculum you may be looking for.
The following example outlines the code components:
- VC: name of the curriculum (i.e., the Victorian Curriculum)
- CCT: name of the curriculum area (for this example, Critical and Creative Thinking)
- M: name of the strand (in this case, 'M' stands for the Critical and Creative Thinking strand Meta-Cognition)
- 001: unique numerical identifier.
In this example, the concatenated code is VCCCTM001, which can be unpacked to read Victorian Curriculum/Critical and Creative Thinking/ Meta-Cognition/001 (unique numerical identifier).
All government and Catholic sector schools must provide access to the content set out in the Victorian Curriculum F–10, and report against the achievement standards.
This approach should not be interpreted as meaning schools should be required to provide these curriculum areas as discrete timetabled subjects. The focus should be on ensuring that the teaching and learning program as a whole provides the content set out in the Victorian Curriculum F–10 and enables reporting progress against the achievement standards. The way the school curriculum is structured and delivered is a matter for an individual school or network of schools.
For further information, including advice on the provision of the curriculum at each stage, please refer to
Victorian Curriculum F-10 Revised Curriculum Planning and Reporting Guidelines.
The VCAA does not mandate times for any curriculum area, and, as with previous Victorian curricula, the organisation of the school teaching and learning program for Prep to Year 10 remains the responsibility of individual schools.
Government, Catholic and Independent schools may set their own requirements. For example, the physical education requirements for government schools, as prescribed by DET are:
- Years F–3: 20-30 minutes a day of physical education.
- Years 4–6: 3 hours per week of physical education and sport with a minimum provision of 50 per cent for physical education.
- Years 7–10: 100 minutes per week for physical education and 100 minutes per week for sport.
The VCAA does provide general advice on time allocations in the context of whole-school curriculum planning. See the
Curriculum Planning Resource website, especially the
frequently asked questions section.
There is an expectation that all students will have access to the content defined by the curriculum across the years F–10 and that, for most students, their program of learning will include assessment of their learning.
Decisions about the teaching and learning program within that structure and individual student learning programs are the responsibility of the school principal and teachers. If a school proposes for any student an individual learning program that departs from the provision model set out in the whole-school curriculum plan, that decision should be made in conjunction with the student and the student's parents/carers, and must be approved by the school principal.
Exceptions might include students who are following individual learning plans, students undertaking school-based apprenticeships, students accessing applied learning through the
VCE Vocational Major or the
Victorian Pathways Certificate available from 2023, or students undertaking VCE studies in Year 10. For further information, see the VCAA's
Victorian Curriculum F-10 Revised Curriculum Planning and Reporting Guidelines.
The objectives of the Victorian Curriculum are the same for all students. The curriculum offers flexibility for teachers to tailor their teaching in ways that provide rigorous, relevant and engaging learning and assessment opportunities for students with disabilities.
Most students with disabilities can engage with the curriculum provided the necessary adjustments are made to the complexity of the curriculum content and to the means through which students demonstrate their knowledge, skills and understanding.
For some learners, making adjustments to instructional processes and assessment strategies enables students to achieve educational standards commensurate with their peers.
For other students, teachers will need to make appropriate adjustments to the complexity of the curriculum content, focusing instruction on content different from that taught to others in their age group. It follows that adjustments will also need to be made to how the student's progress is monitored, assessed and reported.
For a small percentage of students with disabilities, their learning will be well below the Victorian Curriculum Foundation standards. Most of these students have a significant intellectual disability. 'Towards Foundation Level Victorian Curriculum' provides this cohort of students with access to curriculum content and standards that enable students to move toward the learning described at Foundation level.
The 'Towards Foundation Level Victorian Curriculum' is integrated directly into the curriculum and is referred to as 'Levels A to D'.
For general advice concerning curriculum provision and students with disabilities, please see the
Guidelines for Students with Disabilities.
Additional advice and support are also available from the DET website
Abilities Based Learning and Education Support (ABLES).
All Victorian government and Catholic schools are required to provide written reports on student achievement against the Victorian Curriculum F-10 achievement standards for every student at least twice per year.
Specific sectoral requirements related to curriculum provision and reporting, including software reporting packages, CASES21 and so on, are the responsibility of the relevant sectoral authorities, and not the VCAA. For specific information on reporting, please contact your relevant school sector.
The VCAA does provide curriculum planning and reporting guidelines to assist Victorian schools in developing whole-school curriculum plans and reporting student learning achievement based on the Victorian Curriculum F–10.
Government schools can find general reporting and assessment advice on the Department of Education and Training's
Student Reporting advice page.