Using the Standards
The Victorian Essential Learning Standards (also known as the VELS or the Standards) are designed to be used for whole school curriculum planning. The implementation of the new Standards requires an holistic, whole school response. In addition, the focus on what is essential for students to achieve by the time they complete the compulsory years of school, provides an opportunity for schools to go further and construct programs which really extend students in ways that capitalise on the essentials they gain.
School teams will decide how best to meet the Standards. For some standards this may be through explicit teaching focused on a particular standard and for others it will be by creating units of work which address a number of standards at the same time. The key to using the Standards successfully will be the development of a whole school plan. The diagram below illustrates this approach.
There are many ways in which schools can structure programs based on the Standards to best meet the expectations of their communities and local students' needs, while maximising the effectiveness of staff expertise.
Some schools may, for instance, choose to incorporate the Interdisciplinary and Physical, Personal and Social strands of the Standards into existing discipline-based subjects and broaden their focus in this way. Other schools may choose to use a more integrated approach where one or more disciplines are combined and addressed through key questions or themes. Still others may seek to combine all three strands in the context of extended projects that students are to complete.
There is no right or wrong approach and it is up to each school to construct an educational program for all of its students which ensures that they can achieve the standards expected at different stages of learning in all three strands, and which meets local community expectations and needs. Achieving this depends as much on how classes are taught and assessed as it does on the Standards. The work of the Victorian school sector authorities, aimed at improving pedagogy, assessment and reporting in schools through the guidelines and support they provide, supports the aims of the Standards. The Standards are complemented by Department of Education and Training materials developed as part of the Student Learning strategy and available on the Blueprint website. These include the Curriculum Planning Guidelines, Principles of Learning and Teaching P-12, Assessment and Reporting Advice and the Knowledge Bank, each of which is available to all sectors.
Much of what is in the Standards is not new to schools. Many schools already are doing valuable work in relation to building students' discipline, interdisciplinary and/or physical, personal and social capacities through the programs they provide. What is new, however, is ensuring that all three strands are addressed in every school throughout the state in overt, systematic and interrelated ways, through a whole school planning approach.
The VCAA will work with the Department of Education and Training's Office of Learning and Teaching and the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria to develop planning tools which schools can use and adapt.
CSF II, with its rich array of documentation and support materials, will remain an important resource on which schools can draw as they structure schooling and formulate programs to best meet community expectations and student needs.
