The VELS Curriculum

The VELS provide a set of state-wide standards for assessment of student achievement at six levels. These VELS levels are broadly related to the school year levels as set out in the table below. Although students do not all progress at the same rate, typically students will achieve the standards by the end of the relevant school year level.

In Prep, students focus on the foundational areas of literacy and numeracy and on socialisation skills. As students move through the school years, standards are introduced from other areas of the curriculum when they become developmentally appropriate to the student. The standards steadily become more challenging as students progress through to the end of Year 10.

In levels where standards do not apply, students still learn knowledge and skills from these areas, although they may not necessarily be formally assessed. For example, while standards in Science are introduced in Level 3 (Years 3 and 4), aspects of Science knowledge and skills will generally still be taught in Years Prep, 1 and 2.

Hyperlinks in the table below will link to examples about the type of learning activities that occur at each level.

Levels where standards for assessment and reporting apply

VELS Level	1	2	3	4	5	6
School Level	Prep	Yr 1 & 2	Yr 3 & 4	Yr 5 & 6	Yr 7 & 8	Yr 9 & 10
Physical, Personal and Social Learning
Health and Physical Education	*	*	*	*	*	*
Interpersonal Development	*	*	*	*	*	*
Personal Learning			*	*	*	*
Civics and Citizenship			*	*	*	*
Discipline-based Learning
The Arts	*	*	*	*	*	*
English	*	*	*	*	*	*
The Humanities			*
- Economics				*	*	*
- Geography				*	*	*
- History				*	*	*
Languages Other Than English				*	*	*
Mathematics	*	*	*	*	*	*
Science			*	*	*	*
Interdisciplinary Learning
Communication				*	*	*
Design, Creativity and Technology			*	*	*	*
Information and Communications Technology		*	*	*	*	*
Thinking Processes			*	*	*	*