Diversity of learners
The Victorian Curriculum F–10 has been developed to ensure that curriculum content and achievement standards enable continuous learning for all students, including:
- students with disabilities and additional learning needs
- students who are learning English as an additional language
- gifted and talented students.
Students with disabilities and additional learning needs
The Victorian Curriculum F–10 offers flexibility for teachers to tailor their teaching in ways that provide rigorous, relevant and engaging learning and assessment opportunities for students with disabilities.
Most students with disabilities and additional learning needs can engage with the curriculum, provided the necessary adjustments are made to the complexity of the curriculum content, the instructional processes, the assessment strategies and/or the means through which students demonstrate their knowledge, skills and understanding.
For some learners, adjustments like these enable them to achieve educational standards commensurate with their peers.
For other students, teachers will need to focus instruction on content different from that taught to others in their class. In these cases, adjustments to how student progress is monitored, assessed and reported is also required.
A small percentage of students are learning below the Victorian Curriculum F–10 Foundation standards. Many of these students have an intellectual disability or cognitive delay. Levels A to D (Towards Foundation) of the Victorian Curriculum F–10 provide a scaffolded, developmentally-sequenced curriculum for teachers to support these learners as they progress towards Foundation.
The VCAA is currently reviewing the Levels A to D (Towards Foundation) curriculums. Schools should continue to use the current Levels A to D (Towards Foundation) curriculums available on the Victorian Curriculum F–10 websiteuntil further advised. Please see the familiarisation and implementation timelinefor further information.
For more advice on curriculum provision and students with disabilities, please see the Students with Disabilities Guidelines.Additional advice and resources are available from the DE website – Abilities Based Learning and Education Support (ABLES).
Students who are learning English as an additional language
The current EAL curriculum (Version 1.0) can be viewed on the Victorian Curriculum F–10 website.
Advice regarding students learning English as an additional language can be found in the English as an Additional Language (EAL) curriculum introduction for the English as an Additional Language (EAL) curriculum area.
The VCAA is reviewing the EAL curriculum in 2024. Please see the familiarisation and implementation timelinefor further information.
Gifted and talented students
The Victorian Curriculum F–10 structure enables teachers to appropriately target the learning level of each individual student in a class. This includes high-ability students who are working well above the nominally age-expected level of achievement.