VELS - Jells Park Primary School

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The Victorian Essential Learnings (VELS) provides the basis for curriculum planning in Victorian schools from Preparatory-Year 10 (age 5-16) and for reporting on student achievement. It sets out the major areas of learning to be covered and describes learning outcomes to be achieved by students. Its content is organised into the following domains agreed nationally:

Strand	Domain	Dimension
Physical, Personal and Social Learning	Health and Physical Education	Movement and physical activity Health knowledge and promotion
Physical, Personal and Social Learning	Interpersonal Development	Building social relationships Working in teams
Physical, Personal and Social Learning	Personal Learning	The individual learner Managing personal learning
Physical, Personal and Social Learning	Civics and Citizenship	Civics knowledge and understanding Community engagement
Discipline-based Learning	The Arts	Creating and making Exploring and responding
Discipline-based Learning	English	Reading Writing Speaking and listening
Discipline-based Learning	The Humanities
Discipline-based Learning	The Humanities � Economics	Economics knowledge and understanding Economics reasoning and interpretation
Discipline-based Learning	The Humanities � Geography	Geographical knowledge and understanding Geospatial skills
Discipline-based Learning	The Humanities � History	Historical knowledge and understanding Historical reasoning and interpretation
Discipline-based Learning	Languages Other Than English (LOTE)	Communicating in a language other than English Intercultural knowledge and language awareness
Discipline-based Learning	Mathematics	Number Space Measurement, chance and data Structure Working mathematically
Discipline-based Learning	Science	Science knowledge and understanding Science at work
Interdisciplinary Learning	Communication	Listening, viewing and responding Presenting
Interdisciplinary Learning	Design, Creativity and Technology	Investigating and designing Producing Analysing and evaluating
Interdisciplinary Learning	Information and Communications Technology (ICT)	ICT for visualising thinking ICT for creating ICT for communicating
Interdisciplinary Learning	Thinking Processes	Reasoning, processing and inquiry Creativity

The VELS are used by Victorian schools to plan their curriculum and to refine their assessment and reporting procedures. It aims to provide sufficient detail for schools and the community to be clear about the major elements of curriculum and the steps towards achieving them without dictating to schools and teachers how they are to exercise their responsibilities. Schools continue to have responsibilities for decisions about:

course planning
curriculum organisation
classroom practice
the amount of time allocated to key learning areas
the range of subjects offered
specific issues related to school culture such as the development of attitudes, values and beliefs.

The schools will decide how best to organise their curriculum provision. The VELS are amenable to horizontal age-related classes and multi-age vertically integrated classes. It can be delivered through a wide range of integrated approaches and by individual discipline-based courses.