From Foundation to Level 2, the curriculum focuses on developing the knowledge, skills and understanding to express reasoning and to problem solve and learn more effectively. Students become familiar with key vocabulary and simple strategies to structure and improve thinking. Students develop an understanding that thinking can be made explicit.
By the end of Level 2, students use and give examples of different kinds of questions. Students generate ideas that are new to them and make choices after considering personal preferences.
Students identify words that indicate components of a point of view. They use reasons and examples for different purposes.
Students express and describe thinking activity. They practise some learning strategies. Students demonstrate and articulate some problem-solving approaches.
In Levels 1 and 2, students continue their exploration of how dance can communicate ideas about themselves and their world and they make dances to express their ideas. They share their dance with...
In Levels 1 and 2, students continue their exploration of how dance can communicate ideas about themselves and their world and they make dances to express their ideas. They share their dance with peers and in informal settings, learn about safe dance practice and experience dance as audiences.
As in Foundation, the starting point for Levels 1 and 2 Dance is ‘everyday movements’. Students increase their awareness of the movements their bodies can create and further explore the elements of dance (space, time, dynamics and relationships) as they make and observe dances. They extend their learning about how to make dances and respond to feedback as part of their dance-making process
Students are introduced to dances from a range of cultures, times and locations, beginning with dance from cultures in their local community.
By the end of Level 2 students use the elements of dance and fundamental movement skills to make and perform safely, dance sequences that express ideas.
Students communicate about dances they make, perform and view, and discuss where and why people dance.
In Foundation to Level 2 students explore and investigate technologies, including their purpose and how they meet personal and social needs within local settings. Students develop an understanding...
In Foundation to Level 2 students explore and investigate technologies, including their purpose and how they meet personal and social needs within local settings. Students develop an understanding of how society and environmental sustainability factors influence design and technologies decisions. They begin to consider the impact of their decisions and of technologies on others and the environment including in relation to preferred futures.
Students reflect on their participation in a design process. This involves students developing new perspectives, and engaging in different forms of evaluating and critiquing designed solutions based on personal preferences.
Using a range of technologies including a variety of graphical representation techniques to communicate, students draw, model and explain design ideas; label drawings; draw objects as two-dimensional images from different views; draw products and simple environments and verbalise design ideas.
With teacher support, they plan simple steps and follow directions to complete their own or group design ideas or projects, and manage their own role within team projects. Students are aware of others around them and the need to work safely and collaboratively when creating designed solutions.
Students will have the opportunity to create designed solutions at least once in each of the following technologies contexts:
By the end of Level 2, students describe the purpose of familiar designed solutions and how they meet the needs of users and affect others and environments. They identify the features and uses of some technologies for each of the prescribed technologies contexts.
With guidance, students create designed solutions for each of the prescribed technologies contexts. They describe given needs or opportunities. Students create and evaluate their ideas and designed solutions based on personal preferences. They communicate design ideas for their designed solutions, using modelling and simple drawings. Following sequenced steps, students demonstrate safe use of tools and equipment when producing designed solutions.
In Foundation to Level 2, students are introduced to common digital systems and patterns that exist within data they collect. Students organise, manipulate and present this data, including numerical...
In Foundation to Level 2, students are introduced to common digital systems and patterns that exist within data they collect. Students organise, manipulate and present this data, including numerical, categorical, text, image, audio and video data, in creative ways to create meaning.
Students use the concept of abstraction when defining problems, to identify the most important information. They begin to develop their design thinking skills by conceptualising algorithms as a sequence of steps for carrying out instructions, such as identifying steps in a process or controlling robotic devices. Students describe how information systems meet information, communication and recreation needs.
Through discussion with teachers, students learn to apply safe practices to protect themselves and others as they interact online for learning and communicating.
Across the band, students will have had the opportunity to create a range of digital solutions through guided play and integrated learning, such as using robotic toys to navigate a map or recording science data with software applications.
By the end of Level 2, students identify how common digital systems are used to meet specific purposes.
Students use digital systems to represent simple patterns in data in different ways and collect familiar data and display them to convey meaning.
Students design solutions to simple problems using a sequence of steps and decisions. They create and organise ideas and information using information systems and share these in safe online environments.
In Levels 1 and 2, students continue their exploration and learning about how ideas and stories can be imagined and communicated through drama. They improvise and create roles, characters and situations...
In Levels 1 and 2, students continue their exploration and learning about how ideas and stories can be imagined and communicated through drama. They improvise and create roles, characters and situations and learn about focus and identifying the main idea of the drama. They share their drama with peers and experience drama as audiences.
Drama in the local community is the focus for learning. Students also draw on drama from other cultures, times and locations. As they make and respond to drama, students explore meaning and interpretation, forms and elements and social and cultural contexts of drama. They make simple evaluations of drama expressing what they enjoy and why.
Students learn about safety in dramatic play and in interaction with other actors.
By the end of Level 2, students make and present drama using the elements of role, situation and focus in dramatic play and improvisation.
Students describe what happens in drama they make, perform and view. They identify some elements in drama and describe where and why there is drama.
In Level 2, students communicate with peers, teachers, students from other classes, and community members.
Students engage with a variety of texts for enjoyment. They listen to, read, view and interpret...
In Level 2, students communicate with peers, teachers, students from other classes, and community members.
Students engage with a variety of texts for enjoyment. They listen to, read, view and interpret spoken, written and multimodal texts in which the primary purpose is to entertain, as well as texts designed to inform and persuade. These encompass traditional oral texts, picture books, various types of print and digital stories, simple chapter books, rhyming verse, poetry, non-fiction, film, multimodal texts, dramatic performances, and texts used by students as models for constructing their own work.
Literary texts that support and extend Level 2 students as independent readers involve sequences of events that span several pages and present unusual happenings within a framework of familiar experiences. Informative texts present new content about topics of interest and topics being studied in other areas of the curriculum. These texts include language features such as varied sentence structures, some unfamiliar vocabulary, a significant number of high-frequency sight words and words that need to be decoded phonically, and a range of punctuation conventions, as well as illustrations and diagrams that both support and extend the printed text.
Students create a range of imaginative, informative and persuasive texts including imaginative retellings, reports, performances, poetry and expositions.
By the end of Level 2, students understand how similar texts share characteristics by identifying text structures and language features used to describe characters, settings and events or communicate factual information. They recognise all Standard Australian English phonemes, and most letter–sound matches. They read texts that contain varied sentence structures, some unfamiliar vocabulary, a significant number of high-frequency sight words and images that provide additional information. They monitor meaning and self-correct using context, prior knowledge, punctuation, language and phonic knowledge. They identify literal and implied meaning, main ideas and supporting detail. Students make connections between texts by comparing content.
Students create texts...
By the end of Level 2, students understand how similar texts share characteristics by identifying text structures and language features used to describe characters, settings and events or communicate factual information. They recognise all Standard Australian English phonemes, and most letter–sound matches. They read texts that contain varied sentence structures, some unfamiliar vocabulary, a significant number of high-frequency sight words and images that provide additional information. They monitor meaning and self-correct using context, prior knowledge, punctuation, language and phonic knowledge. They identify literal and implied meaning, main ideas and supporting detail. Students make connections between texts by comparing content.
Students create texts that show how images support the meaning of the text. They accurately spell words with regular spelling patterns and can write words with less common long vowels, trigraphs and silent letters. They use some punctuation accurately, and can write words and sentences legibly using unjoined upper- and lower-case letters.
Students listen for particular purposes. They listen for and manipulate sound combinations and rhythmic sound patterns. When discussing their ideas and experiences, students use everyday language features and topic-specific vocabulary. They explain their preferences for aspects of texts using other texts as comparisons. They create texts that show how images support the meaning of the text. Students create texts, drawing on their own experiences, their imagination and information they have learned. Students use a variety of strategies to engage in group and class discussions and make presentations.
From Foundation to Level 2, the curriculum focuses on developing the knowledge, skills and understandings to approach ethical problems and evaluate outcomes. Students develop a vocabulary to engage with ethical problems and an understanding that personal feelings can effect decision-making and actions.
By the end of Level 2, students identify and describe ethical concepts using illustrative examples from familiar situations and a basic vocabulary about ethical problems and their outcomes.
Students identify and explain acts and situations that have ethical dimensions, using illustrative examples. They explain that personal feelings may influence the way people behave in situations where ethical issues are involved.
From Foundation to Level 2, the curriculum develops the concept of place through a study of what places are like over time and how they are defined. The emphasis in F-2 is on the places in which...
From Foundation to Level 2, the curriculum develops the concept of place through a study of what places are like over time and how they are defined. The emphasis in F-2 is on the places in which students live, but they also start to investigate other places of similar size that are familiar to them or that they are curious about.
Examining the influence of distance and accessibility on the frequency of visits to places starts students thinking about the concept of space. This is further developed through an introduction to location, including exploring where activities are located and the reasons for this.
The idea of active citizenship is developed as students start to explore their feelings about special places, and the wider importance of places to people and how places can be cared for.
The concept of environment is introduced as students study the daily and seasonal weather patterns and natural features of their place and of other places, including how seasonal change is perceived by different cultures.
Students are introduced to the concept of scale as they learn about the hierarchy of scale by which places are defined - from the personal scale of their home to the national scale of their country. Students’ understanding of the concept of interconnection is developed by investigating the links people have with places locally and globally.
Key questions:
By the end of Level 2, students define place and identify and describe features of places and changes in these, at a local scale. They identify how people are connected to different places and explain the value of places to people. They describe different ways that places can be cared for.
They collect and record geographical data and information. They represent data and information in tables, plans and labelled maps and interpret it to draw conclusions.
They describe and explain location and distance using geographical terms, and describe the location of the major geographical divisions of the world.
The curriculum for Levels 1 and 2 builds on the learning from Foundation Level and supports students to make decisions to enhance their health, safety and participation in physical activity. The...
The curriculum for Levels 1 and 2 builds on the learning from Foundation Level and supports students to make decisions to enhance their health, safety and participation in physical activity. The content enables students to explore their own sense of self and the factors that contribute to and influence their identities. Students learn about emotions, how to enhance their interactions with others, and the physical and social changes they go through as they grow older.
The content explores health messages and how they relate to health decisions and behaviours, and examines strategies students can use when they need help. The content also provides opportunities for students to learn through movement. It supports them in broadening the range and complexity of fundamental movement skills they are able to perform in a range of settings, including indoor, outdoor and aquatic. They learn how to select, transfer and apply simple movement skills and sequences individually, in groups and in teams.
Students also further develop their knowledge, understanding and skills in relation to movement by exploring simple rule systems and safe use of equipment in a variety of physical activities and games. Through active participation, they investigate the body’s response to different types of physical activities. In addition, students develop personal and social skills such as cooperation, decision making, problem-solving and persistence during movement activities.
The focus areas to be addressed in Levels 1 and 2 include, but are not limited to:
By the end of Level 2, students describe changes that occur as they grow older. They recognise how strengths and achievements contribute to identities. They understand how emotional responses impact on others’ feelings. They examine messages related to health decisions and describe how to help keep themselves and others healthy, safe and physically active. They identify areas where they can be active and how the body reacts to different physical activities.
Students demonstrate positive ways to interact with others. They select strategies at home and/or school to keep themselves healthy and safe and are able to ask for help with tasks or problems. They demonstrate fundamental movement skills in different movement situations and test alternatives to solve movement challenges. They perform movement sequences that incorporate the elements of movement.
Personal and Community Histories
In Foundation to Level 2, students study personal, family and local history. Students learn about their own history and that of their family, including stories from...
Personal and Community Histories
In Foundation to Level 2, students study personal, family and local history. Students learn about their own history and that of their family, including stories from different cultures and other parts of the world. As participants in their own history, students develop their knowledge and understanding of how the past is different from the present. Students also learn about continuity and change in family life by comparing the present with the past. They begin to explore the links, and the changes that occur, over time. Students explore, recognise and appreciate the history of their local area by examining remains of the past and considering why they should be preserved.
In this band, students will apply the following historical concepts and skills to the historical knowledge: sequencing chronology, using historical sources as evidence, identifying continuity and change, and determining historical significance.
Key questions:
• What is my personal and family history?
• How has family life changed or remained the same over time?
• What remains of the past are important to the local community? Why?
• How have changes in technology shaped our daily life?
By the end of Level 2, students explain aspects of daily life to identify how some aspects have changed over time, while others have remained the same. They describe personal and family life, a person, a site, or an event of significance in the local community.
Students use sources (physical, visual, oral) including the perspectives of others (parents, grandparents) to describe changes to daily life and the significance of people, places or events. They compare objects from the past and present. Students create a narrative about the past using terms and a range of sources.
From Foundation to Level 2, the curriculum focus is on developing the knowledge, skills and understandings to enable students to learn about cultures in their immediate world. For students at Foundation...
From Foundation to Level 2, the curriculum focus is on developing the knowledge, skills and understandings to enable students to learn about cultures in their immediate world. For students at Foundation to level 2, learning typically focuses on their immediate family, home, school and friends. This includes cultural practices relevant to their lived experiences such as choice of food, clothing or housing, cultural celebrations and language.
The curriculum provides the opportunity for students to begin to explore similarities and difference in cultural practices. They begin to understand the concept of cultural diversity.
By the end of Level 2, students begin to distinguish what is familiar and different in the ways culturally diverse individuals and families live. They describe their experiences of intercultural encounters, and identify cultural diversity in their school and/or community.
Students explain how they might respond in different cultural situations.
In Level 2, students use grouping partitioning and re-arrangement to apply place value and extend the range of numbers they use and apply to thousands.
Students recognise, model and order numbers...
In Level 2, students use grouping partitioning and re-arrangement to apply place value and extend the range of numbers they use and apply to thousands.
Students recognise, model and order numbers to at least 1000 and use a variety of strategies to count efficiently, including skip counting forwards and backwards by twos threes, fives and tens, with and without the use of technology. They explore the relationship between addition and subtraction, and use a variety of strategies to solve problems, including missing number problems. Students use groups and arrays to represent multiplication and division and solve simple problems, including finding halves, quarters and eighths of sets and shapes. They count and order by value, small collections of Australian coins and notes.
Students compare and order sets of shapes and objects based on length, area, volume and capacity using uniform informal units. They compare masses using balance scales, tell the time to the quarter hour, and use months and seasons to describe sequences of events over a longer time frame. Students describe sets of shapes and objects defined in terms of properties, and draw examples of these with and without the use of technology. They use simple maps and identify relative locations, and investigate the effect of simple transformations of slides, flips, half and quarter turns, both by hand and using technology.
Students use questions of interest to gather and display data for a single categorical variable and interpret it. They identify chance in a range of activities and describe related outcomes as ‘likely’ or ‘unlikely’.
Number and Algebra
Students count to and from, and order numbers up to 1000. They perform simple addition and subtraction calculations, using a range of strategies. They find the total value of simple collections of Australian notes and coins. Students represent multiplication and division by grouping into sets and divide collections and shapes into halves, quarters and eighths. They recognise increasing and decreasing number sequences involving 2s, 3s, 5s and 10s, identify the missing element in a number sequence, and use digital technology to produce sequences by constant addition.
Measurement and Geometry
Students order shapes and objects, using informal units for a range of measures. They tell time to the quarter hour and use a calendar to identify the date, days, weeks and months included in seasons and other events. Students draw two-dimensional shapes, specify their features and explain the effects of one-step transformations. They recognise the features of three-dimensional objects. They interpret simple maps of familiar locations.
Statistics and Probability
Students collect data from relevant questions to create lists, tables and picture graphs with and without the use of digital technology. They interpret data in context. Students use everyday language to describe outcomes of familiar events.
In Levels 1 and 2, students explore media arts and experiment with story and elements of media arts. They develop an understanding of a range of media artworks. They make and share their media artworks...
In Levels 1 and 2, students explore media arts and experiment with story and elements of media arts. They develop an understanding of a range of media artworks. They make and share their media artworks as artists and audience.
Students become aware of structure, intent, character and settings as they explore ideas, and plan and construct stories. They learn about the elements of media arts and about different audience groups. They experience media arts from a range of cultures, times and locations.
Students learn how to safely use media technologies in media arts practice. They develop their role as an artist in their media artworks, and ways to respond to media artworks as an audience.
By the end of Level 2, students describe the media artworks that they make and view, and describe where and why media artworks are made.
Students use the story principles of structure, character, intent and setting, media technologies and the elements of media arts to make and share media artworks.
In Levels 1 and 2, students listen to and experiment with a range of sounds. They develop skills in imagining and creating and performing music which explores their ideas about the world. Students...
In Levels 1 and 2, students listen to and experiment with a range of sounds. They develop skills in imagining and creating and performing music which explores their ideas about the world. Students share their music with peers. They present music for school events and experience diverse music as members of an audience.
Students select and make choices about their use of the elements of music as they improvise, compose and perform. They build on their ability to discriminate between different qualities of rhythm, pitch, dynamics and expression, form and structure, timbre and texture as they listen to and make music. They develop the range and expressiveness of their vocal and instrumental technique and continue learning to use their voice and other instruments appropriately and safely.
Students become aware of the different reasons for the use of music in a range of contexts. They develop their understanding of the varying features of music from different cultures, times and locations and how it can be used for different purposes. They talk about why they have preferences for particular music.
By the end of Level 2 students use imagination, their voices and instruments to improvise, compose, arrange and perform music. They explore and make decisions about ways of organising sounds to communicate ideas. They achieve intended effects and demonstrate accuracy when performing and composing.
They describe ways contrasts and effects can be created in music they listen to, compose and perform and their understanding of the purposes of music in different social and cultural contexts.
In Levels 1 and 2, the curriculum focuses on enabling students to learn about making and keeping friends and understanding the effects that their actions have on others. Students extend their vocabulary...
In Levels 1 and 2, the curriculum focuses on enabling students to learn about making and keeping friends and understanding the effects that their actions have on others. Students extend their vocabulary to describe the emotions they experience when interacting with others. Students develop an understanding that others can have different opinions and they learn to identify appropriate ways to respond to these differences. The curriculum provides opportunities for students to use skills required for participation in group tasks. Students practise the skills to solve simple problems and suggest actions that could be taken to resolve conflict.
By the end of Level 2, students show an awareness of the feelings and needs of others. They identify and describe personal interests, skills and achievements and reflect on how these might contribute to school or family life. They recognise the importance of persisting when faced with new and challenging tasks.
Students recognise the diversity of families and communities. They describe similarities and differences in points of view between themselves and others. They demonstrate ways to interact with and care for others. They describe their contribution to group tasks. They practise solving simple problems, recognising there are many ways to resolve conflict.
In Foundation to Level 2, the curriculum focus is on awareness of self and the local world. Students observe changes that can be large or small and happen quickly or slowly. They explore the properties...
In Foundation to Level 2, the curriculum focus is on awareness of self and the local world. Students observe changes that can be large or small and happen quickly or slowly. They explore the properties of familiar objects and phenomena, identifying similarities and differences. Students observe patterns of growth and change in the world around them, including weather and living things. They explore the use of resources from Earth and are introduced to the idea of the flow of matter when considering how water is used. Students describe the components of simple systems, such as stationary objects subjected to pushes or pulls, or combinations of materials, and show how objects and materials interact through direct manipulation. They learn that seeking answers to questions and making observations is a core part of science and use their senses to gather different types of information. They infer simple cause and effect relationships from their observations and experiences, and link events and phenomena with observable effects. Students use counting and informal measurements to make and compare observations and begin to recognise that organising these observations, including in pictograms and in tables, makes it easier to show and describe patterns. They use patterns to make predictions about phenomena.
By the end of Level 2, students describe examples of how people use science in their daily lives. They identify and describe examples of the external features and basic needs of living things. They describe how different places meet the needs of living things. They describe the properties, behaviour, uses and the effects of interacting with familiar materials and objects. They discuss how light and sound can be produced and sensed. They identify and describe the changes to objects, materials, resources, living things and things in their local environment. They suggest how the environment affects them and other living things.
Students pose and respond to questions about familiar objects and events and predict outcomes of investigations. They use their senses to explore the world around them and record informal measurements to make and compare observations. They record, sort and represent their observations and communicate their ideas to others.
In Levels 1 and 2, students develop their awareness of how and why artists, craftspeople and designers express their ideas through different art forms. They enhance their perception skills as they...
In Levels 1 and 2, students develop their awareness of how and why artists, craftspeople and designers express their ideas through different art forms. They enhance their perception skills as they examine and express familiar and new objects and events in their lives. They explore how and why artworks are created. They develop and apply safe and sustainable practices when experimenting with different materials, techniques and technologies
As they make and respond to visual artworks, students explore meaning, forms and styles in different social, cultural and historical contexts. They experience the role of artist and audience in their visual arts making.
By the end of Level 2, students make artworks using different materials, techniques and processes to express their ideas, observations and imagination.
Students describe artworks they make and view, including where and why artworks are made and viewed.
