Learning Areas and Capabilities:
The Victorian Curriculum includes both knowledge and skills. These are defined by learning areas and capabilities. This curriculum design assumes that knowledge and skills are transferable across the curriculum and therefore are not duplicated. For example, where skills and knowledge such as asking questions, evaluating evidence and drawing conclusions are defined in Critical and Creative Thinking, these are not duplicated in other learning areas. It is expected that the skills and knowledge defined in the capabilities will be developed, practiced, deployed and demonstrated by students in and through their learning across the curriculum.
At PLSC we report against the Victorian Curriculum for English and Mathematics only. We provide:
| LEARNING AREAS | CAPABILITIES |
| English | While much of the explicit teaching of literacy occurs in the English learning area, it is strengthened, made specific and extended in other learning areas as students engage in a range of learning activities with significant literacy demands. |
| Mathematics | In the Victorian Curriculum, the knowledge and skills that underpin numeracy are explicitly taught in the Mathematics strands Number and Algebra, Measurement and Geometry and Statistics and Probability and reinforced and further exemplified in and across other curriculum areas. Through this process, students recognize that mathematics is widely used both in and outside school and learn to apply mathematical knowledge and skills in a wide range of familiar and unfamiliar situations. |
Standards and Levels:
The Victorian Curriculum F–10 is structured as a continuum across levels of learning achievement not years of schooling. This enables the development of targeted learning programs for all students, where the curriculum is used to plan in relation to the actual learning level of each student rather than their assumed level of learning based on age.
Each curriculum area includes content descriptions explaining what is to be taught and achievement standards describing what students are able to understand and do. The achievement standards are provided in 11 levels for English and Mathematics or in five or six bands for all the other learning areas and capabilities.