Australian Curriculum
The Australian Curriculum is designed to help all young Australians to become successful learners, confident and creative individuals, and active and informed citizens. Presented as a developmental sequence of learning from Foundation - Year 10, the Australian Curriculum describes to teachers, parents, students and others in the wider community what is to be taught and the quality of learning expected of young people as they progress through school.
The Australian Curriculum ensures the same high standard curriculum content is available to every student, regardless of where they live. It reflects the priorities and expectations we hold for our young people, and was recently endorsed following an extensive review.
Australian Curriculum - Version 9.0 endorsed
An updated Australian Curriculum has been endorsed by education ministers.
The Australian Curriculum, Version 9.0, is more manageable for teachers and clearly identifies the essential content our children should learn.
It is the result of the 2020–21
Australian Curriculum Review.
The review included an extensive consultation process that ensured the curriculum reflects the evidence-base and the plurality of views expressed by teachers, education jurisdictions and the community.
This was the first time the whole curriculum has been released for public comment since its creation in 2010. The updated curriculum is now available on a
new Australian Curriculum website.
It will be implemented by states and territories according to their own timelines and ACARA will source and develop a range of work samples, illustrations of practice and other resources for teachers.
The Australian Curriculum is moving from Version 8.4 to Version 9.0
The updated Australian Curriculum is now published on the new
website and subsequent releases will continue to add extra features, support resources and work samples as they become available.
The new website includes key features to improve teachers’ ability to visualise and explore the curriculum. They can view multiple learning areas side by side and see the alignment of achievement standards to content descriptions.
There is an inline glossary with inbuilt definitions and the website has been designed so teachers can clearly see the connections between the 3 dimensions of the curriculum - the learning areas, general capabilities and the cross-curriculum priorities.
Teachers can easily access all areas of the curriculum through a selector tool and the website includes advice about planning and implementation, exploring the different dimensions, and how to access various resources.
ACARA will maintain the current Australian Curriculum website with Version 8.4 curriculum and both websites will remain live until such time as there is no need for schools to access Version 8.4 of the Australian Curriculum.
Visit the new website and take a web tour.
Timeline of the Australian Curriculum
In 2008, all governments agreed a national curriculum was needed to deliver an equitable, quality education for all young Australians and the national curriculum was developed over a number of years.
Over the years new learning areas and subjects were progressively added to the Australian Curriculum (F-10).
2008
- All governments agreed to a national curriculum
2010
- Australian Curriculum released with English, Mathematics, Science and History Foundation to Year 10 (Version 1.0)
2011 - 2012
- English, Mathematics, Science and History subjects updated (Versions 2.0 and 3.0)
2012
- Addition of senior secondary (Years 11-12) curriculum in these four subject areas (Version 4.0)
2013
- Geography added (Version 5.0)
2014
- Health and Physical Education, Technologies, The Arts and some subjects in Humanities and Social Sciences added (Version 6.0) as well as some Languages (Version 7.0)
2015
- All eight learning areas revised as an outcome of the 2014 Australian Government Review of the Australian Curriculum (Version 8.0)
- Ministers also agreed, following a separate review of ACARA in 2015, that the Australian Curriculum should be reviewed by ACARA every six years, with the first cycle to commence in 2020-2021
2015-2020
- Minor updates and editorial adjustments to the curriculum (Version 8.4, the current curriculum in use today)
2020
- Ministers agreed the Terms of Reference for the current review of the Australian Curriculum
Post 2020
- Extensive consultation by ACARA on proposed revisions, including an open public consultation process during April-July 2021
1 April 2022
- Version 9.0 Australian Curriculum approved