So your school has probably mentioned that either next year or in the years to come, your school will be transitioning to using the new version of the Australian Curriculum (Version 9.0)! Yey!! Everyone loves rewriting units and lessons plans to meet new curriculum requirements! – SAID NO ONE EVER!!
But don’t worry! I have read through the documents for you and am going to give you the teacher friendly summary of the content changes you need to know about – well for HASS, Health, Science, English and Maths anyway… I’m still getting through the other content areas!
If you are keen to reduce your time pouring over curriculum documents to find out what has changed and what has remained the same and spend more of your time watching Netflix… then read on!
Summary of the key curriculum changes
Firstly, let me run you through some of the basic changes to the new curriculum that make it a superior version to that of its predecessors:
- a 21% reduction in the number of content descriptions so the curriculum can be taught with depth and rigour
- the English curriculum has been given a stronger focus on phonics
- the Maths curriculum has been given an overhaul so that the content being taught is age-appropriate. The content to be taught is now more explicit in the content descriptors as well.
- content has been removed from HASS significantly and is now clearer and easier to understand what needs to be taught.
- a greater focus has been placed on the understanding of First Nations Australian histories and cultures, the impact on – and perspectives of – First Nations Australians of the arrival of British settlers as well as their contribution to the building of modern Australia
- consent and respectful relationships has been added to be explicitly taught in Health lessons
- Science has been refined so that content is more age-appropriate
So with these key changes in mind, let me run you through a few more specifics for each key learning area.
English Australian curriculum changes
Here is a summary of how I would approach teaching the various writing genres in each year level to meet the needs of the English Australian Curriculum Version 9.0:
Maths Australian curriculum changes
The first thing you will notice with the new Maths curriculum is that the content structure has been simplified to 6 strands (Number, Algebra, Measurement, Space, Statistics and Probability). They have also raised the standards for teaching some concepts by introducing them earlier.
Here is a summary of the content for each year level in Maths and how I would squeeze it all into the year:
Science Australian curriculum changes
The content for Science has had a nice shake up. I believe the content is now far more age-appropriate. Understanding how day and night works is now no longer a concept that you need to teach to Year 3 students but has been moved to Year 6 where it will be understood better. The Water Cycle has also been gifted its own content descriptor after its omission from previous versions of the curriculum. Foundation, Year 1 and Year 2 teachers can also look forward to only having to teach 3 Science units each year due to the content shuffles in Science!
Here is a summary of the content for each year level in Science:
HASS Australian curriculum changes
The biggest change you will notice to HASS is that the content has been significantly reduced and I believe the content descriptors that have remained are now much clearer with supporting elaborations that more definitively explain how each content descriptor might be approached.
Here is a quick summary of the content for each year level in HASS:
Health Australian curriculum changes
Health unit topics probably won’t change much for you but several content descriptors have actually been dropped from Health which makes the content so much easier to manage and teach. The content descriptors are clearer and a lot easier to read. New content descriptors have been included to strengthen the explicit teaching of consent and respectful relationships including content that addresses the role of gender, power, coercion and disrespect in abusive or violent relationships.
Here is a quick summary of the content for each year level in Health:
Overall, the updated version of the curriculum, in my opinion, is certainly an improvement on previous revisions. The reduction in the amount of content to be taught will hopefully simplify the teaching and learning experiences you need to provide for your students and allow room for you to explore topics in more detail and with more meaning!
But if you are still feeling overwhelmed by all these changes… never fear! Our soon to be released Ridgy Didge Membership will take all the stress out of planning for the new curriculum changes. Keep your eyes peeled over the next couple of weeks as we reveal our unique membership package to help you overcome the change of curriculum blues!
Yours in teaching,