Years 1 and 2 Statement Mandated Materials

The Years 1 and 2 Statement sets out the standards for high-quality, child-centred early childhood education in Western Australia that builds on each child’s funds of knowledge to foster learning, development and wellbeing.

All children engage in learning that promotes confident individuals and successful lifelong learners. All children are active and informed members of their communities with knowledge of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives. – Vision, Early Years Learning Framework V2.0

All Western Australian children have a fundamental right to high-quality early childhood education informed by approved frameworks tailored to community contexts.

Collaboration and a shared understanding among educators and school leaders play a vital role in delivering high-quality early childhood education. Educators are responsive and draw on their professional knowledge using a blend of developmentally appropriate intentional approaches, including play-based learning, inquiry and explicit teaching. These methods are designed to develop curriculum experiences that integrate knowledge, understandings, skills, and values and attitudes across the learning areas.

Educators and school leaders maintain high expectations, emphasising culturally responsive, relational and place-based pedagogies to develop meaningful teaching and learning experiences. They use insights from contemporary early childhood research and engage in critical reflection, analysis of holistic data and participate in ongoing professional learning.

School initiatives and plans reflect the community context and enact the Vision, Principles, Practices and Pedagogy of the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF). Additionally, they align with the Western Australian Curriculum and Assessment Outline (the Outline), including the Principles of Teaching, Learning and Assessment.

Years 1 and 2 children continue to develop effective learning and life skills through high-quality early childhood teaching, learning and assessment practices.

Each child is unique and viewed as competent, capable and agentic. Rich learning occurs through responsive and thoughtful interactions between educators, children and the learning community, in a range of planned and spontaneous experiences. Educators teach specific skills, concepts and knowledge through a combination of child-initiated, adult-led and shared approaches. They build connections across learning areas to make learning meaningful, engaging and relevant. They cultivate opportunities for children to transfer and adapt what they have learned from one context to another as they connect with and contribute to their world.

Children exercise their agency to initiate and inform learning, engage in a range of multimodal literacies, and contribute to the learning of others. Learning experiences foster critical and creative thinking through independent and collaborative tasks. Thinking and learning are interrelated and developed through engagement in integrated programs, interactions and experiences with people, places, materials, objects and technologies.

Well planned and intentionally designed physical, temporal, social and intellectual indoor and outdoor learning environments enhance learning and reflect each child’s identity, culture and community. Resources, including technologies, provoke interest, engagement, and more complex and increasingly abstract thinking. Daily rituals foster a sense of predictability and belonging, while flexible routines allow for sustained periods of time indoors and outdoors and maximise opportunities for optimal learning.

Assessment and evaluation practices acknowledge each child’s strengths and abilities and support progress for setting learning goals. Collecting information about, and with, children, their families and other educators is vital in assessment and evaluation. Using strategies such as observation, documentation, reflection, conferences and everyday work samples provide authentic information for assessment and evaluation. Children’s self-assessment, reflection, insights and goal setting are integral to this process.

Years 1 and 2 children have a positive sense of identity and wellbeing

As children transition through early childhood and beyond, they continue to build a positive sense of identity as knowledgeable and confident learners across the breadth of the curriculum, with belonging, being and becoming evident. Educators intentionally foster wellbeing and dispositions for learning, including curiosity, cooperation, confidence, creativity, commitment, enthusiasm, persistence, imagination and reflexivity. A sense of achievement, fun, happiness and optimism are significant to children’s emotional and mental wellbeing and resilience. Personal and social capabilities enable children to be successful learners, improve their academic learning, and reach their full potential as confident individuals and active, informed members of their communities.

Collaborative partnerships and effective relationships in Years 1 and 2 make significant contributions to children's learning and development

When educators work together in partnership with children, their families, school leaders, other professionals and community members, children thrive in their learning, development and wellbeing. Educators respect families’ practices and aspirations for their children. They nurture relationships through culturally safe environments and responsive approaches. Non-judgemental, open, respectful and two-way communication between educators and families builds a shared understanding of children’s learning and engagement. Effective partnerships and relationships acknowledge, value and respect the diversity of families and the holistic nature of each child, with collaborative decision-making ensuring learning experiences are meaningful, inclusive and equitable. Each child’s unique educational journey is recognised and celebrated.

Acknowledgements
Adapted from: Australian Government Department of Education [AGDE]. (2022). Belonging, Being and Becoming: The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia (V2.0). Australian Government Department of Education for the Ministerial Council. Retrieved March, 2026, from https://www.acecqa.gov.au/belonging-being-becoming-early-years-learning-framework
Used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.