Mount View Primary School

Victorian Essential Learning Standards

Mount View Primary School’s curriculum is aligned to the Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS). The VELS define what students should know and be able to do at different stages of learning from Prep to Year 10. They are also used to plan student learning, assess student progress and report to parents.

The VELS identify three core and interrelated strands for the Prep to Year 10 curriculum. They provide a sequence of development a student should progress through at school in terms of the essential physical, personal and social, discipline-based and interdisciplinary knowledge and skills.

	Physical, Personal and Social Learning Knowledge, skills and behaviours in Health and Physical Education; Personal Learning; Interpersonal Development; Civics and Citizenship
	Discipline-based Learning Knowledge, skills and behaviours in The Arts; English and Languages Other Than English;The Humanities; Mathematics; Science
	Interdisciplinary learning Knowledge, skills and behaviours in Communication; Design, Design, Creativity and Technology; Information and Communications Technology; Thinking

Each of the three strands has a number of domains which describe the essential knowledge, skills and behaviours students need to prepare for further education, work and life. An English as a Second Language (ESL) Companion and Students with Disabilities Guidelines provide program support for these students. The implementation of the VELS is being phased in over the next 3 years (2006-2008).

The new VELS are designed to provide children with the capacities to prepare them for success in education, work and life. To succeed in life, we need to have the capacities to:

Manage ourselves as individuals and in relation to others
Understand the world in which we live and
Act effectively in our world.

Prep, Year 1 and Year 2 focus largely on foundational literacy and numeracy skills and development of physical, personal and social capacities. At Prep standards are written for English, Mathematics, Health and Physical Education, The Arts and Interpersonal Development. At Year 1-2, standards are introduced for Information and Communication Technology.

At Year 3 and Year 4 students are expected to also achieve standards in Science, the Humanities, Thinking Processes, Design, Design, Creativity and Technology, Personal Learning and Civics and Citizenship.

At Year 5 and Year 6 standards are introduced in the remaining domains of Languages Other than English (LOTE), History, Geography, Economics and Communication. From this level, it is developmentally appropriate for students to be supported in and expected to achieve the full range of knowledge and skills in each of the three strands.