Australian Curriculum v9: A Complete Guide for Parents
If you have a child in an Australian school, you may have seen the words "Australian Curriculum" on a report, a school newsletter or a subject outline — and wondered what it actually is, who decides it, and what it means for your child day to day. This guide is written to answer exactly that, in plain language, without assuming you already speak the language of schools.
The quick answer: what is Australian Curriculum v9?
The Australian Curriculum is the national set of learning expectations for students from Foundation (the first year of school) through to Year 10. It describes what young people across the country are expected to learn as they move through school, and roughly when. "v9" is shorthand for Version 9.0, the current version, which ACARA — the independent authority that develops the national curriculum — released in May 2022. It replaced the previous version, 8.4.
Importantly, the curriculum sets the learning goals. It does not hand every school an identical textbook, timetable or lesson plan. States and territories, school sectors (government, Catholic and independent) and individual schools decide how and when those goals are taught, assessed and reported. So Version 9.0 is best thought of as a shared national destination, with each state and school choosing its own route to get there.
In 60 seconds — remember 8 / 7 / 3 Version 9.0 of the Australian Curriculum, for Foundation to Year 10, is built from three dimensions: 8 learning areas (where subject content sits), 7 general capabilities (skills developed across the curriculum) and 3 cross-curriculum priorities (important themes woven through learning). It was released in May 2022, and each state and territory decides how it is put into practice.
What the Australian Curriculum is — and what it is not
A lot of confusion clears up the moment you realise that "the curriculum" is only one layer in a stack. The national curriculum sits at the top as a common reference point, and several other layers sit beneath it, each adding local detail. Here is the whole stack at a glance.
| Layer | What it does |
|---|---|
| Australian Curriculum (Version 9.0) | Sets the national Foundation–Year 10 learning expectations |
| State or territory curriculum or syllabus | Adopts and adapts those expectations and makes them official in that jurisdiction |
| School program | Organises local subject offerings, the order of teaching and assessment plans |
| Lesson | The teacher's chosen way of delivering the learning to a particular class |
| Reporting | Applies jurisdiction, sector and school rules to describe your child's progress to you |
The single most useful thing to understand is what the national curriculum does not do. It does not prescribe one national textbook, one homework policy, one grading scale, one set daily timetable or one required teaching method. Two schools can use different resources, teach topics in a different order and take different classroom approaches while still meeting the requirements that apply in their jurisdiction and sector. When you hear "the current Australian Curriculum," it means this shared set of expectations, not a uniform national lesson being delivered in the same way everywhere on the same day.
This is also why the "national" in "national curriculum" can be a little misleading. It is national in the sense that it is a shared framework agreed across the country. It is not national in the sense of a single script that every classroom reads from.
The three dimensions: 8 learning areas, 7 general capabilities, 3 priorities
ACARA describes the Foundation–Year 10 curriculum as having three dimensions. Think of them as three different lenses on your child's learning, all present at once rather than taught as separate blocks. For a parent-friendly breakdown, see our guide to the three dimensions of the Australian Curriculum.
The 8 learning areas
The learning areas are closest to what most of us think of as "subjects":
- English
- Mathematics
- Science
- Health and Physical Education
- Humanities and Social Sciences (HASS)
- The Arts
- Technologies
- Languages
Four of these are single subjects (English, Mathematics, Science, and Health and Physical Education). The other four contain several subjects within them. HASS includes History, Geography, Civics and Citizenship, and Economics and Business. The Arts includes Dance, Drama, Media Arts, Music and Visual Arts. Technologies includes Design and Technologies and Digital Technologies. Languages covers a range of individual languages plus frameworks for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Languages. How these areas are named, combined and timetabled depends on the year level, jurisdiction and school. A primary school may integrate several areas rather than present each one as a separate timetabled subject.
The 7 general capabilities
The general capabilities are broad skills and ways of thinking developed across the curriculum where they are relevant:
- Literacy
- Numeracy
- Digital Literacy
- Critical and Creative Thinking
- Personal and Social Capability
- Ethical Understanding
- Intercultural Understanding
The key thing to know is that these are not separate classes on the timetable. There is no standalone "Critical and Creative Thinking" subject. Instead, capabilities are developed inside the learning areas — a child builds literacy while writing in English, numeracy while measuring in Science, digital literacy while using technology in almost any subject. (If the phrase "Digital Literacy" looks new, that is one of the Version 9.0 updates; it was previously called "Information and Communication Technology Capability".)
The 3 cross-curriculum priorities
The cross-curriculum priorities are three important themes that Australian young people benefit from engaging with across their schooling:
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures
- Asia and Australia's Engagement with Asia
- Sustainability
Like the capabilities, these are not subjects in their own right. They are woven into learning-area content wherever it is genuine and relevant to do so — for example, exploring sustainability within Science or Geography rather than in a separate "Sustainability" period.
If you take one idea from this section, let it be this: the "subjects" (learning areas) are where content lives, and the capabilities and priorities are threads running through those subjects, not extra classes bolted on.
How to read an Australian Curriculum page
If you ever open the curriculum website and click into a subject and year level, you will meet a few specific terms. Knowing what each one is for makes the whole thing far less intimidating. ACARA sets out these curriculum elements as follows.
A year level or band description is the short overview at the top — the plain-English summary of what learning looks like at that stage.
Content descriptions are the essential knowledge, understanding and skills students are expected to learn. These are the core of what is taught. They are the "what" of the curriculum.
If the wording and codes look unfamiliar, our plain-English guide to Australian Curriculum content descriptions shows how to read them without turning the curriculum into a checklist.
An achievement standard describes the expected quality of learning by the end of a year or band of years — in other words, what a student should typically understand and be able to do by that point. This is genuinely useful for parents, but it is easy to misread, so it is worth being clear: an achievement standard is a description of expected learning, not a single test score or a tick-box checklist. It supports teachers to judge the quality of learning students demonstrate; it is not a pass/fail gate applied to one task.
Content elaborations are optional illustrations — suggested examples of how a content description could be taught. This is a common source of unnecessary worry. Elaborations are there to help teachers picture possibilities; they are not additional required content, and a child is not "behind" because they have not done every elaboration. Teachers choose which, if any, to use.
Annotated work samples are real examples of student work with notes explaining how they relate to an achievement standard. They exist to help teachers make consistent judgements. A single work sample is an illustration, not a universal test that every child must reproduce.
A practical way to use all of this, if you ever want to: start with the achievement standard to see the broad destination for the year, then look at the content descriptions underneath to understand the learning that builds toward it. That order — destination first, detail second — tends to be far more reassuring than scrolling through long lists of individual points.
What changed in Version 9.0?
You do not need a technical breakdown here, but a high-level picture helps. Version 9.0 came out of a national review and was designed to refine, realign and declutter the previous version rather than reinvent it. According to ACARA's summary of the changes, the main improvements were a stronger alignment between the different curriculum elements (so that content descriptions and achievement standards fit together more clearly) and a 21% reduction in the number of content descriptions nationally, intended to give teachers room for more depth.
Some learning areas saw more specific changes. Mathematics, for example, was reorganised and streamlined, with a stronger focus on essential facts and skills. First Nations histories and cultures content was updated, including deeper treatment and greater truth-telling. Digital Technologies added content about privacy and security.
One caution worth holding onto: a 21% reduction in content descriptions is a change to the national curriculum document. It is not a promise that any particular classroom's workload dropped by 21%, because — as always — what happens in schools is shaped by state requirements and local decisions. For a clearer comparison of the two versions, see our parent guide to what changed from Australian Curriculum v8.4 to Version 9.
Why your child's curriculum may look different by state or school
This is the section that resolves the most parent confusion, so it deserves real attention rather than a footnote.
ACARA develops the national curriculum, but it does not run schools. As the Australian Government explains, states, territories and school sectors are responsible for how and when the curriculum is implemented. That is why the same Version 9.0 can appear under different names, in different formats and on slightly different timelines depending on where you live. Here are four states as examples.
Queensland. The Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority (QCAA) provides a dedicated hub, Australian Curriculum Version 9.0 in Queensland, which sets out how the national curriculum is implemented in Queensland schools. It is a clear example of a state translating the national expectations into its own guidance.
Victoria. Victoria uses its own Victorian Curriculum F–10, developed by the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA). Version 2.0 is now being taught and assessed, although some elements still use earlier materials during the transition. It incorporates national learning expectations alongside Victoria's own structure and priorities. It is not simply the ACARA website with a Victorian logo — it has its own organisation and terminology, so a Victorian parent should work from the Victorian Curriculum rather than assuming the national site matches word for word.
New South Wales. NSW adopts and adapts Australian Curriculum content into its own NSW syllabuses, developed by the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA). In practice, a NSW parent will most often be looking at a NESA syllabus for a subject, not the ACARA interface. NSW has also been rolling out new syllabuses in phases, so it is worth checking NESA's current information for your child's subject and year.
Western Australia. WA adopts and adapts Version 9.0 through the WA Curriculum and Assessment Outline, overseen by the School Curriculum and Standards Authority (SCSA), and has been transitioning in phases. As with the other states, the safest approach is to confirm the current SCSA guidance for the specific subject and year your child is in.
The practical takeaway is simple. If the wording on your child's report card, on the school website or on a subject outline does not match what you see on the national curriculum site, that is usually not a mistake. It is the national curriculum being expressed through your state's system and your school's program. When in doubt, your child's school and your state's authority are the right sources for what applies to your child.
What this means for you as a parent
You do not need to become a curriculum expert to use any of this well. A few calm habits go a long way.
Use the curriculum to understand the broad destination, not to audit every lesson. Knowing roughly what your child is working toward this year is genuinely helpful; trying to check off every individual content point is not, and it usually creates stress for everyone.
If a report is unclear, the achievement standard is a good thing to bring to a conversation with the teacher. Something like, "The report mentioned working toward the Year 5 achievement standard in writing — could you help me understand what that looks like and how my child is tracking?" is a warm, specific opener that respects the teacher's judgement.
Ask how the school sequences and assesses the learning, rather than assuming it must match another school or another child. Schools legitimately teach topics in different orders.
At home, you are aiming to support curiosity and practice, not to recreate school. Reading together, talking about ideas, cooking and measuring, noticing the world — these connect naturally to learning areas and capabilities without any need for a home syllabus.
And look for patterns over time rather than reacting to a single task or one work sample. A curriculum is a multi-year journey, and one wobbly week is rarely the whole story.
What about dyslexia, dysgraphia, ADHD and other learning needs?
Many parents arrive at the curriculum with a specific question: what does this mean for my child, who learns differently? This deserves a careful answer, and a short one here, because it is a topic that warrants its own dedicated guides.
The curriculum is designed to be taught flexibly. ACARA's guidance on planning for diversity recognises that students can engage with, access and demonstrate learning in different ways. Its CASE model also allows teachers, where appropriate, to adjust the scope of content and consider expectations above or below a student's enrolled year level as part of personalised planning. ACARA includes dysgraphia among its examples of diverse learning needs. Achievement standards remain an important reference point for assessment and reporting, while the curriculum content, learning activities and ways a student demonstrates learning may all be adjusted to support fair access.
Two honest boundaries are important here. First, the curriculum is not a diagnosis and does not diagnose or describe conditions such as dyslexia, dysgraphia or ADHD; understanding a child's needs is a matter for the family and appropriate professionals, not a curriculum document. Second, curriculum flexibility is not the same as a guaranteed individual adjustment. Formal adjustments and support are arranged through your school's and your state's support processes — for example, a school learning support team and any relevant plans — rather than being automatically granted by the curriculum itself. If your child has additional needs, the most reliable path is a conversation with the school about the specific support available to them.
Find your child's year and subjects
This guide is the front door to a growing library of KeirEd curriculum guides. Start here for the big picture, then use the linked guides for the question that matters to your family. Explore our Year 7 Australian Curriculum guide, Year 7 English guide and Year 7 Mathematics guide. The library also covers:
- By year level — Foundation to Year 6, and Years 7 to 10
- By learning area — English, Mathematics, Science, HASS, Health and Physical Education, The Arts, Technologies and Languages
- By theme — the general capabilities, and a closer look at what changed in Version 9.0
- By location — how the Australian Curriculum is implemented in each state and territory
Some of these companion guides are still being written. Where a guide is not yet live, the official links in the sources section below will take you straight to the authoritative page in the meantime.
Frequently asked questions
Is Australian Curriculum v9 used in every state and territory? Version 9.0 is the national curriculum agreed across the country, but each state and territory decides how and when to implement it, and some use their own curriculum built on the national expectations. So the learning goals are shared nationally, while the exact form, name and timing differ by jurisdiction. Your state's curriculum authority is the definitive source for what applies where you live.
Is Australian Curriculum v9 the same as my state's syllabus? Not exactly. Your state's syllabus or curriculum adopts and adapts the national curriculum into an official local version — sometimes with a different name (such as the Victorian Curriculum) and its own structure. For what your child is actually taught and assessed on, the state syllabus is the document that applies.
Does the curriculum tell teachers exactly how to teach? No. The curriculum sets out what students are expected to learn. It does not prescribe a single teaching method, textbook, timetable or homework policy. Teachers and schools choose how to deliver the learning, which is why classrooms can look different while working toward the same goals.
What is an achievement standard? An achievement standard describes the quality of learning a student is typically expected to demonstrate by the end of a year or band of years. Teachers use it to make an overall judgement across a range of a student's work. It is a description of expected learning, not a single exam mark or a checklist.
Are content elaborations compulsory? No. Elaborations are optional examples that illustrate ways the required content might be taught. They are there to support teachers, not to add extra mandatory content, and your child is not behind for not having covered every one.
Does Australian Curriculum v9 cover Year 11 and Year 12? This guide, and the main F–10 curriculum, cover Foundation to Year 10. Senior secondary (Years 11 and 12), the ATAR, the International Baccalaureate and university prerequisites are separate systems, generally run by state authorities. Start with our guide to choosing Year 11 and Year 12 subjects, then confirm the current rules with your state authority.
Why is the first year of school called Foundation, Prep, Kindergarten or something else? The national curriculum calls the first year "Foundation," while states and territories use local names such as Prep, Kindergarten, Reception and Pre-primary. In curriculum terms, these labels generally refer to the Foundation year, but local terminology and enrolment ages are set by each state or territory.
How does the curriculum support students with disability or different learning needs? The curriculum allows teachers to adjust how learning is presented, how students demonstrate learning and, where appropriate, the scope of content. That flexibility supports inclusive teaching, but it is not a diagnosis and does not guarantee a particular individual adjustment. Formal support is arranged through your school's and state's processes, and a conversation with the school is the best starting point.
Is NAPLAN part of the Australian Curriculum? NAPLAN is a national assessment of literacy and numeracy, not a learning area and not the curriculum itself. Its tests are aligned with literacy and numeracy skills in the Australian Curriculum, but NAPLAN remains a separate assessment program.
Where can I see official work samples? ACARA publishes annotated work samples that show examples of student work alongside notes about how they relate to achievement standards. They are useful for seeing what quality can look like, keeping in mind that any single sample is an illustration rather than a required task.
Sources and further reading
This article was last reviewed on 15 July 2026. Because states and territories update their implementation over time, we check it periodically. For anything specific to your child, your school and your state or territory authority are always the most current source.
Official national sources:
- ACARA — Information for parents and carers
- Australian Government, Department of Education — Australian Curriculum
- ACARA — F–10 curriculum overview
- ACARA — Learning areas
- ACARA — General capabilities
- ACARA — Cross-curriculum priorities
- ACARA — About the curriculum content elements
- ACARA — What's changed in the new Australian Curriculum
- ACARA — Implementation of the Australian Curriculum
- ACARA — Planning for diversity (student diversity)
- ACARA — Work samples
- National Assessment Program — NAPLAN
State and territory examples:
- QCAA — Australian Curriculum Version 9.0 in Queensland
- VCAA — Victorian Curriculum F–10
- NESA — NSW Curriculum
- SCSA — WA Curriculum and Assessment Outline
A gentle next step
Most parents come to the curriculum with one child in mind. The best next move is usually to find the guide that matches your child's year or subject above, or to head straight to your state's authority for the local detail. And if you would like a hand turning all of this into practical support for your child, you are welcome to explore KeirEd's online tutoring programs across Australia or start with our short read, Does my child need a tutor? — no pressure, just a next step if and when you want one.