Video transcript
Welcome to the Familiarisation and planning series of online sessions designed to introduce curriculum leaders and teachers to Australian Curriculum Version 9.0. In this final session in the series, we will be focusing on planning considerations for Australian Curriculum Version 9.0. The first and second sessions in the series focused on learning area-specific changes for the Understand this learning area and Curriculum elements sections of the curriculum.
Acknowledgment of Country
QCAA acknowledges the Traditional Owners and Traditional Custodians of the lands on which we meet today. We pay our respects to their Elders and their descendants, who continue cultural and spiritual connections to Country, and we extend that respect to Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islander people here today. We thank them for sharing their cultures and spiritualities and recognise the important contribution of this knowledge to our understanding of this place we call home.
Learning goal and success criteria
Our learning goal today is to understand implications of change to the Australian Curriculum Version 9.0 to plan for the transition in your own context.
You will know you have been successful if you can apply your knowledge about the Australian Curriculum Version 9.0 to your whole school, year level and unit planning, and can identify actions for planning in your school.
Session 3 outline
This recording is accompanied by a worksheet for you to record your responses to the activities and reflection points throughout the presentation.
If you have not already done so, please take some time now to download or print the Session 3 outline resource.
Outline for Session 3
There are three parts to this session.
We will begin with an introduction to Australian Curriculum Version 9.0.
Then you will consider planning for your particular context.
Finally, you will finish the session by considering the next steps that could be taken now that you are familiar with the changes in Australian Curriculum Version 9.0
Introduction to Australian Curriculum v9.0
We began Sessions 1 and 2 in the series by orienting ourselves to a process we can use to engage with the changes in Australian Curriculum Version 9.0.
Let’s briefly review that process.
Identifying actions for planning in your context
In each session in this series, we have used the process outlined on screen to help organise our thinking around how to prepare for the Australian Curriculum Version 9.0.
We began by reflecting on our current programs to evaluate what is working well and where we are looking for opportunities to refresh our teaching and learning, and assessment.
Then, as you worked through the Understand this learning area and Curriculum elements sections in Sessions 1 and 2, you noted the similarities and differences in Version 9.0 to identify where that work in the move to Version 9.0 in your context may need to begin.
In that review and audit phase, you may have started to make some decisions about how much you may need to refine, realign, reimagine or remove aspects of your current programs.
In this session, will consider the changes to the curriculum and how you can use that new knowledge base to inform your planning for Version 9.0.
Planning in your context
In this session, we will now turn our focus to planning considerations and what you need to do in your own context to prepare for the transition to Version 9.0.
We will also explore some of the QCAA resources that will assist you with the development of teaching and learning programs and units that align to Version 9.0.Planning in your context: Three levels of planning
The first step in turning the Version 9.0 curriculum into units, is to begin by considering the wider context of your school.
When there is a curriculum refresh, it gives you the opportunity to re-evaluate your programs across the three levels of planning to ensure you continue to meet the needs of the learners in your context.
As we know, curriculum and assessment planning within schools occurs at three levels:
- whole school curriculum and assessment planning
- year level curriculum and assessment planning
- unit overviews.
Each level of planning is informed by the level above. As a result, your unit and year level plans will be responsive to the focus in your school and context.
Initially, consider what is happening at the whole school level and the implications this has for planning in your classroom. How do you need to account for your local context and its strategic priorities in your planning?
Australian Curriculum: In context
We need to consider continuity of learning. Knowledge, understanding and skills increase in depth and breadth across the years of schooling as students engage with the Australian Curriculum.
For Queensland students who have participated in an approved kindergarten learning program, the Foundation or Prep to Year 6 Australian Curriculum Mathematics and English build on the Early years learning framework and Queensland kindergarten learning guidelines. Students come to Prep with a range of learning experiences, on which Prep builds. In primary school students engage in rich foundational learning experiences prior to secondary schooling.
Pause and reflect: Whole school curriculum and assessment planning
Take a moment now to reflect on your whole school context. The phases of schooling influence what we do in our planning as we have just noted, alongside our school’s strategic priorities.
For example, if your context has prioritised literacy improvement, then this will have a significant influence on the way you plan your teaching and learning, and assessment in your learning area or subject.
Pause the session recording at this point and take some time to record at least two considerations at the whole school level that influence how you plan teaching and learning programs for your students in Prep–Year 6.
Year level curriculum and assessment planning
Now that you have dedicated some time to thinking through your whole school context and the factors that would be influencing your planning, we shift focus to consider more specifically the year level or year levels you are working with in the primary years.
Here is where you start to consider the specific needs of learners at this stage of their learning.
Sequence of achievement and content
One of the first steps we can take in considering the specific needs of learners in this phase of schooling is to look at the curriculum that they have already experienced and the curriculum you are then preparing them for in the next year level or band of years.
The sequencing resources on screen show each achievement standard or set of content descriptions in a learning area or subject for every year level or band side by side. They are available across Prep to Year 6.
These sequencing documents can also be useful in supporting diverse learners. You may be teaching the Year 6 program but have students who have a mutually agreed upon modified curriculum plan and are operating at Year 3 level. This document allows you to view the curriculum across all year levels in one glance to support these decisions you need to make for learners in your context.
For your reference, these sequencing documents also exist for the Years 7–10 curriculum for all learning areas and subjects.
Planning for primary years learners
When developing year level curriculum and assessment planning across Prep‒Year 6, we do so reminding ourselves of our learners.
Let’s think about who that is and what they need from their learning experiences.
As teachers of primary years learners, you know that they have unique strengths and qualities.
What you can see on screen are some considerations of the qualities of our primary years learners, that may influence your planning.
Pause now and reflect on the qualities of learners and the influence these qualities have on planning for a Year 1 student compared to planning for a Year 6 student.
Pause and reflect: Planning for primary years learners
Now that we have refreshed our understanding of the strengths and qualities of our primary years learners, let’s take a moment to reflect on how we plan for primary learners in our year level curriculum and assessment planning.
The opportunity presented by a curriculum refresh also provides a wonderful opportunity to reflect on how we are enacting the curriculum to meet the needs of our learners — in this case, students in the primary years.
Perhaps consider a particular year level at this point, or your plans across Prep–Year 6:
- Which qualities of primary learners have been reflected in your plans?
- Where are there opportunities to enhance your plans to reflect the qualities of primary learners?
Pause the session recording at this point and take some time to record some ideas about how you can plan for primary learners in your context.
Unit planning
Finally, after having considered both whole school and year level curriculum and assessment planning, you can begin to develop specific units aligned to the Australian Curriculum Version 9.0.
Making decisions based on the ‘Elements for effective planning’
The image and resource indicated on screen are available on the QCAA website and may assist you with the development of your plans for Version 9.0.
It is the Elements for effective planning advice that outlines six interdependent elements, represented in the diagram.
You can see here that the primary years learner in your context is central to effective planning,
The elements of the QCAA’s effective planning model can be used in any sequence and are considered when planning to ensure:
- what is taught (curriculum) informs how it is taught (pedagogy)
- how and when students are given advice about how to progress (feedback)
- how students are assessed
- what next steps are required
- and how the learning is reported.
For now though, we are going to focus on the Identify curriculum element of the diagram to discern how to align the Australian Curriculum Version 9.0 with teaching and learning activities and assessment.
The Australian Curriculum achievement standards, content descriptions, general capabilities and cross-curriculum priorities form the basis for planning teaching, learning and assessment.
Then, teachers identify relevant aspects of the achievement standard to assess student understanding and skills, and the content descriptions that will support students to develop these understandings and skills.
Achievement standard aligned to content descriptions
The QCAA has developed a resource to support teachers in identifying these aspects of the curriculum for teaching and learning, and assessment.
On screen, you can see a Prep English example of the Achievement standard aligned to content descriptions resource, and where it can be found on the QCAA website.
These resources are available for each year level in all learning areas or subjects of the Australian Curriculum Version 9.0.
Take a moment to locate this resource for yourself for a learning area or subject, and year level/band you would like to work with.
Pause and reflect: Achievement standards aligned to content descriptions
I’ll now give you some time to explore this resource.
What do you notice about how the content descriptions align to aspects of the achievement standard for your learning area or subject?
Take a moment to record some notes about how the alignment you see will affect your planning for teaching and learning, and assessment, or how you might use these resources with your colleagues.
QCAA Planning App
Another resource that will support you as you plan for the transition to the Australian Curriculum Version 9.0 in your context is the recently released P‒10 Planning App.
You can access the app via the QCAA portal, remembering that you will need to be registered for access by the appropriate person in your school.
The P–10 planning app has a number of great features to support your planning.
Firstly, it promotes alignment between the Australian Curriculum Version 9.0, including the general capabilities and cross-curriculum priorities, and what is taught and what is assessed as it directly maps to the Australian Curriculum Version 9.0 content descriptions and achievement standards. Once your data has been entered into the app, it then provides a summary of the curriculum and assessment plan’s coverage of the achievement standard and content descriptions to help you check that you are meeting the requirements of the Version 9.0 curriculum.
Another advantage of using the P–10 planning app is that it prompts teachers to consider the principles and attributes of quality assessment by linking to quality-assured QCAA resources to support good practice. For example, the Elements for effective planning and Techniques and conditions
And finally, it provides a repository for schools to save their year level/band plans and assessments in one place and supports efficient practices for teaching teams.
What does the app do?
Let’s explain a little bit more about how the app works and how it can support you as you plan for Australian Curriculum Version 9.0.
Using the elements for effective planning as the guide, the app supports teachers by identifying the relevant aspects of the Australian Curriculum and guiding teachers through a process to create a year level or band plan. Templates for the associated assessment tasks, examinations and marking guides are then automatically created, ready for editing by the teacher.
Aligning teaching, learning and assessment
Some of the features of the P–10 Planning app that will support teachers to plan efficiently include:
- pre-population of the relevant level description, achievement standard and content descriptions when a learning area/subject and year/band is selected
- automatic selection of relevant content descriptions when aspects of the achievement standards are highlighted
- the ability to select general capabilities, cross-curriculum priorities and focus areas (which is specific to Health and Physical Education), aligned to units
- pre-population of assessment tasks, drawing relevant information from a completed level plan (with a separate task will be generated for each assessment created in the level plan)
- marking guides will also be pre-populated, drawing relevant information from the level plan, assessment task sheet and QCAA Standards elaborations and Techniques and conditions.
- auto saving to ensure work is not lost
- the ability to copy and edit an existing plan
- the ability to review and seek feedback from colleagues, and finally
- a summary page is generated that tracks coverage of achievement standards and content descriptions, general capabilities, cross-curriculum priorities and focus areas for HPE across the year or band.
Supported by existing QCAA advice and resources
Planning in the app is underpinned by a number of QCAA resources and advice documents, including Standards elaborations and Techniques and conditions.
We have provided links within the app to allow teachers to easily access these resources.
Pause and reflect: Planning in your context
Now that we have discussed the three levels of planning and thought about the needs of our primary years’ learners, let’s take a moment to consider what this means for a particular learning area and context.
Pause the session recording at this point and reflect on your own school’s planning based on what you’ve heard about the various influences on planning in Prep–Year 6.
Ask yourself:
- What are we doing now?
- What opportunities will the refresh of the curriculum give you a chance to think about and do with the teaching of a learning area or subject in your context?
Formulating next steps
Let’s pause and recap what we have achieved in this series of sessions on Familiarisation and planning.
Hopefully, you have some ideas in mind about how to plan for Australian Curriculum Version 9.0.
As we conclude today, let’s consider QCAA’s support through resources and ongoing professional learning and examine your own steps and actions in the short and long-term as you prepare for Australian Curriculum Version 9.0.
Next steps for you
It is time to think about your next steps.
After completing this series of sessions, ask yourself: Where to now for planning in my context? You may be thinking about:
- steps to take with your curriculum and year level planning
- action plans for your staff
- action plans for the management and resourcing of the Version 9.0 curriculum.
Examples of possible actions
We’ve identified some possible actions for you to take now that you have familiarised yourself with the Version 9.0 curriculum.
You may wish to:
- conduct a SWOT analysis of current units
- identify and plan professional development needed for teachers
- investigate budget requirements for new resources, e.g. additional texts
- develop a plan to create your year plans, units and assessment tasks
- nominate staff within the school to take responsibility for each year level/unit — as a year level ‘champion’
- form a cluster of like-schools to share learning and resources.
Pause and reflect: Examples of possible actions
Consider if any of these possible actions might be a good place for you to start
In your Session 3 outline resource, you will find these options listed. Tick the ones that you feel will be useful to you in your school context.
Next steps with QCAA
Now that you have considered some next steps in your context, let’s consider how the QCAA can continue to support you.
We’ll outline some of the resources and advice available on the QCAA website that demonstrate how we can help you as you plan for the Australian Curriculum Version 9.0.
Australian Curriculum in Queensland (ACiQ) v9.0 webpages
The Familiarisation and planning resources that have been used throughout this series of sessions are available on the QCAA website.
Be mindful that when you enter the Australian Curriculum section, you will have a choice of the two versions of the curriculum.
You can select Curriculum Version 9.0 in Queensland or Curriculum Version 8.4 in Queensland. These pages will continue to house all the resources that are currently available for Version 8.4.
Resources to support the Australian Curriculum Version 9.0 can be found within the new Version 9.0 webpages. Version 9.0 webpages will only include resources that have been created or updated to align with Version 9.0.
Tour of ACiQ v9.0 webpages
The Version 9.0 webpages support familiarisation with all three dimensions of the curriculum.
Teachers can access advice and resources for their learning area and /or subject, or the general capabilities or the cross-curriculum priorities.
Examples of QCAA Resources
On screen now, is a snapshot of some of the resources available to support teachers.
These include:
- The comparison resources referred to in Session 2 of this series.
- Two sequencing documents that outline either the achievement standards or content descriptions from Prep to Year 6 in one document.
- An Achievement standard aligned to content descriptions resource, one for each learning area or subject, which we accessed and used earlier in this session.
- Prepopulated curriculum and assessment planning templates including P–6 Year level and band plans, and multi-age plans.
- Techniques and conditions advice documents to support your development of assessment for Version 9.0.
- Standards elaborations and accompanying glossaries for each learning area and/or subject in Version 9.0 of the Australian Curriculum.
Also make sure that you continue to access the Version 9.0 webpages as resources are always being updated and added to support teachers in their planning for Australian Curriculum Version 9.0.
Learning goal and success criteria
As we conclude the final session, let’s revisit our goals and success criteria.
In this session, we have applied our new knowledge of the Australian Curriculum gleaned from Sessions 1 and 2, to consider how it will affect our whole school, year level and unit planning.
We have also identified actions we can take to plan ahead and considered the resources and advice available from the QCAA to support our planning.
Contact
If you have any queries regarding the information from this session, please reach out to the K–10 Curriculum and Assessment Branch with the contact details noted on screen.
We thank you for your time in completing the Familiarisation and planning series, for Australian Curriculum Version 9.0 and wish you and your colleagues all the best as you plan for the change.
References
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and reporting Authority 2013, ‘The Shape of the Australian Curriculum Version 4.0’, https://docs.acara.edu.au/resources/The_Shape_of_the_Australian_Curriculum_v4.pdf
Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership 2017, ‘Australian Professional Standards for Teachers Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership’, https://www.aitsl.edu.au/standards.
Mulcahy, 2015, ‘Changing scenarios for teaching and learning in the primary years, in Groundwater-Smith and Mockler (eds) Big Fish, Little Fish: Teaching and learning in the primary years, Cambridge University Press, Victoria.
- Last updated:
- 11 July 2024
