Schools plan curriculum in accordance with the Western Australian Curriculum and Assessment Outline (the Outline), accessible via the School Curriculum and Standards Authority website (www.scsa.wa.edu.au).

Curriculum planning accounts for the needs of all students. This includes the enrolment of students with disability in regular classes, education support classes and education support schools.

In planning the delivery of the Pre-primary to Year 10 Western Australian curriculum, schools ensure they meet the requirements outlined in:

• Table 1: Western Australian Curriculum and Assessment Outline: curriculum requirements and available options
• Table 2: Implementation timeline requirements.

Schools use discretion in regard to the use of the Notional Time Allocation Guidelines: Pre-primary to Year 10 provided in the Outline.

1.1. Modified curriculum

For some students, differentiation of the curriculum is required to cater for their individual learning needs.

If there is a legitimate reason for a student to be following a modified curriculum (for example, gifted and talented students, students with disability and additional learning needs, and students for whom English is an additional language/dialect), schools negotiate any variation to the Western Australian curriculum with the student and her/his parents/carers, and document the decisions made (for example, a documented individual education plan and documented learning plan).

Schools use discretion in regard to the use of Stages A, B, C and D Western Australian curriculum content (Abilities Based Learning and Education, Western Australia [ABLEWA]), detailed in the Outline, for planning for teaching students with disability and additional learning needs.

Schools use discretion in regard to the use of the EAL/D Progress Map when planning for teaching and monitoring the progress of students for whom English is an additional language/dialect.

1.2. Recognition of an alternative curriculum

In order to ensure that a well-established alternative curriculum (for example, The International Baccalaureate, the Montessori National Curriculum Framework and the Australian Steiner Curriculum Framework) aligns with the Outline, schools must obtain approval from the Authority. The alignment will be assessed in terms of the Authority’s alternative curriculum/reporting on student achievement process, detailed in the Outline.

1.3. Curriculum requirements and available options

Table 1: Western Australian Curriculum and Assessment Outline: curriculum requirements and available options

R = required                            O = optional

R* = Humanities and Social Sciences: this learning area incorporates History; Geography; Economics and Business; and, Civics and Citizenship. Civics and Citizenship is introduced at Year 3 and Economics and Business is introduced from Year 5.

R** = The Arts: this learning area consists of five subjects: Dance, Drama, Media Arts, Music and Visual Arts.

• All students will study at least two of the five Arts subjects (including at least one performance arts subject [Dance, Drama or Music] and one visual arts subject [Media Arts or Visual Arts]) from Pre-primary to the end of Year 8.
• It is desirable that schools provide students with the opportunity to engage with all five Arts subjects across Pre-primary to Year 10.
• In Years 9 and 10 the study of The Arts is optional.

R*** = Technologies: this learning area consists of two subjects: Digital Technologies and Design and Technologies.

• All students will study both Technologies subjects from Pre-primary to the end of Year 8 (within Design and Technologies: Engineering principles and systems; Food and fibre production; Food specialisations; Materials and technologies specialisations). Students have the opportunity to study at least one of the contexts.
• Because Design and Technologies has contexts, it is desirable that schools provide students with the opportunity to engage with a range of contexts in Design and Technologies across Pre-primary to Year 10.
• In Years 9 and 10 the study of Technologies is optional.

R**** = Where possible, schools should provide Languages education from Pre-primary to Year 10. As a minimum, schools must offer:

• in Years 3, 4, 5 and 6, compulsory Languages education in a minimum of one language, commencing with Year 3 in 2018 (extending to Year 4 in 2019, Year 5 in 2020 and Year 6 in 2021)
• in both Years 7 and 8, compulsory Languages education in a minimum of one language, commencing with Year 7 in 2022 (and Year 8 in 2023).

In Years 9 and 10 the study of Languages is optional.

The study of one of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages is acceptable.

Recently arrived migrants, for whom English is not their first language, may substitute English as a Second Language or further studies in English for the study of a foreign or Indigenous language.

Auslan is an acceptable alternative to the study of a language other than English.

Schools may offer a different language from those for which syllabuses are provided in the Western Australian Curriculum and Assessment Outline (e.g. Arabic, Hebrew, Hindi, Korean, Modern Greek, Vietnamese, first or background language Chinese). Where schools offer a different language (or curriculum at a different level) from those for which syllabuses are provided in the Western Australian Curriculum and Assessment Outline teachers will need to exercise their professional judgement in the adaptation of the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority’s (ACARA) curriculum or alternative syllabuses.