The School Curriculum and Standards Authority is committed to the development of a high-quality curriculum for all Australian students that promotes excellence and equity in education.

All students are entitled to rigorous, relevant and engaging learning programs drawn from the Western Australian Curriculum: Science. Teachers take account of the range of their students' current levels of learning, strengths, goals and interests and make adjustments where necessary. The three-dimensional design of the Western Australian Curriculum, comprising learning areas, general capabilities and cross-curriculum priorities, provides teachers with flexibility to cater for the diverse needs of students across Australia and to personalise their learning.

More detailed advice has been developed for schools and teachers on using the Western Australian Curriculum to meet diverse learning needs and is available under Student Diversity on the Western Australian Curriculum website.

Students with disability

The Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and the Disability Standards for Education 2009 require education and training service providers to support the rights of students with disability to access the curriculum on the same basis as students without disability.

Many students with disability are able to achieve educational standards commensurate with their peers, as long as the necessary adjustments are made to the way in which they are taught and to the means through which they demonstrate their learning.

In some cases curriculum adjustments are necessary to provide equitable opportunities for students to access age-equivalent content in the Western Australian Curriculum: Science. Teachers can draw from content at different levels along the Pre-primary to Year 10 sequence. Teachers can also use the extended general capabilities learning continua in Literacy, Numeracy and Personal and social capability to adjust the focus of learning according to individual student need.

Gifted and talented students

Teachers can use the Western Australian Curriculum: Science flexibly to meet the individual learning needs of gifted and talented students.

Teachers can enrich student learning by providing students with opportunities to work with learning area content in more depth or breadth; emphasising specific aspects of the general capabilities learning continua (for example, the higher order cognitive skills of the Critical and creative thinking capability); and/or focusing on cross-curriculum priorities. Teachers can also accelerate student learning by drawing on content from later levels in the Western Australian Curriculum: Science and/or from local state and territory teaching and learning materials.

Teachers can also develop depth and breadth using the Western Australian Curriculum: Science overarching ideas as a frame. Learning in science emphasises the ability to make connections between diverse concepts and across contexts. The overarching ideas provide a valuable frame to support students to make these connections and to develop a scientific view of the world.

English as an additional language or dialect

Students for whom English is an additional language or dialect (EAL/D) enter Australian schools at different ages and at different stages of English language learning and have various educational backgrounds in their first languages. Whilst many EAL/D students bring already highly developed literacy (and numeracy) skills in their own language to their learning of Standard Australian English, there is a significant number of students who are not literate in their first language, and have had little or no formal schooling.

While the aims of the Western Australian Curriculum: Science are the same for all students, EAL/D students must achieve these aims while simultaneously learning a new language and learning content and skills through that new language. These students may require additional time and support, along with teaching that explicitly addresses their language needs. Students who have had no formal schooling will need additional time and support in order to acquire skills for effective learning in formal settings