The curriculum planning portal offers school leadership a range of resources to support planning and documenting a comprehensive school-wide curriculum.

In Victoria the school curriculum is set out in the Victorian Curriculum F–10 and defines the common and core set of knowledge and skills that are required both for life-long learning and active and informed citizenship.

The teaching and learning program is the school-based plan for delivering this common set of knowledge and skills in ways that best utilise local resources, expertise and contexts. Schools have flexibility in the design of their teaching and learning program. Flexibility enables schools to develop particular specialisations, areas of expertise and innovation, while ensuring the mandated curriculum is delivered.

The VCAA has published revised curriculum planning and reporting guidelines to provide advice for Victorian schools on the effective use of the curriculum in, among other things, developing whole-school teaching and learning plans.

The key points set out in the guidelines are:

• Defined curriculum content is the basis for student learning
• Curriculum planning will be based on two-year bands of schooling rather than each year level
• Schools should develop and publish a whole-school curriculum plan that documents their teaching and learning program
• Schools must report student learning against the achievement standards in the curriculum
• Schools will be able to report student learning to students and parents in formats that best suit local school communities rather than through a single centrally prescribed format.

Whole-school curriculum planning plays a key role in enabling schools to deliver the curriculum for all students and reflects the decisions, resources and priorities of the school.

Whole-school curriculum planning involves four interrelated layers:

• By School – a high-level summary of the coverage of all the curriculum areas, reflecting the school’s goals, vision and any particular areas of specialisation or innovation
• By Curriculum Area – the sequencing of key knowledge and skills across the years of schooling to support a progression of learning
• By Year Level – a coherent program from a student perspective that enables effective connections across curriculum areas
• By Unit / Lessons – specifying Victorian Curriculum F–10 content descriptions and achievement standards, activities and resources to ensure students of all achievement levels are able to progress

This resource uses the Victorian Curriculum F–10 terminology, so the term 'Curriculum Area' refers to the learning areas and capabilities. The VCAA will add more examples as they become available, to demonstrate how the Victorian Curriculum F–10 can be used to design a teaching and learning program.

Additional information to assist schools with their curriculum planning is available in Hints and Tips and Resources.

The VCAA would like to acknowledge the many schools that have been involved in supporting the development of these curriculum planning materials.