Curriculum Alignment Guidelines
Sport Australia is determined to have more Australians participating and excelling in sport, from grass-roots right up to the pinnacle of elite competition.
Curriculum Alignment Guidelines
The Curriculum Alignment Guidelines assist sports in understanding how to design or adapt school-based products and resources to align with the Australian Curriculum.
The guidelines provide an overview on the benefits and key considerations of alignment as well as step-by-step instructions that sports can follow when developing or adapting their resources.
Why align?
Aligning with the Australian Curriculum, opens in a new tab increases the relevance and credibility of your products and resources, supporting teachers to deliver quality Health and Physical Education (HPE) and sport programs.
When designing or adapting products to the curriculum, consider the following:
Content
To make your resources accessible and relevant to teachers ensure that they:
- use clear and simple instructions
- include illustrations to explain activities
- limit sport-specific language
- keep the end user/s front of mind
Engage an education consultant
Education consultants can provide professional guidance and support to help ensure your resource is relevant and effective for teachers and their students through:
- reviewing existing products and resources and providing recommendations for alignment;
- supporting the design of new products and resources; and
- providing strategic advice on promoting and marketing to schools.
Publication
Offering the flexibility of print and digital options increases your reach and opportunity for adoption with teachers. Each format requires different considerations.
- Print (hard copy) resources need to be easy-to-navigate, include images to illustrate skills and durable to support regular use.
- Digital (online) resources should include hyperlinks to related sections, videos to illustrate skills and a layout that supports both phone and tablet use.
Promotion
Promotion of your resources affects sport uptake in schools. When promoting your products and resources to schools, consider the following options:
- Online publication
- Social Media
- Industry events
- Education journals
- Education networks
How do I align to the curriculum?
There are four steps you must follow when aligning your products and resources to the curriculum.
Determine learning intentions
The first step is to identify what you want students to learn about your sport. These are what are referred to within the curriculum as learning intentions and should be used as a reference point throughout the resource development.
When deciding on learning intentions for your product or resource, consider:
- What do you want students to know?
- What do you want students to understand?
- What do you want students to be able to do?
If a planned activity in a resource does not focus on identified learning intentions, then it should not be included:
Learning intention | Examples in sport |
|---|---|
Students practice and refine specialised skills |
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Students understand the rules of the game and how to officiate |
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Students understand the history and cultural significance of your sport |
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Students understand key concepts and strategies to enhance performance in your sport |
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For more learning intention examples, visit the Australian Curriculum website, opens in a new tab
Link to the curriculum
Once learning intentions are identified, you must explore where the learning is covered in the curriculum. This information can be found in the Achievement Standards and Content Descriptors for the band/s your product or resource is targeted towards.
Band | Year/s | Focus |
|---|---|---|
Band 1 Band 2 Band 3 | Foundation Years 1 and 2 Years 3 and 4 | Development of Fundamental Movement Skills (FMS) |
Band 4 | Years 5 and 6 | Refinement of FMS skills in modified games |
Band 5 | Years 7 and 8 | Development of specialised movement skills in sport specific games |
Band 6 | Years 9 and 10 | Development of more specialised and complex movement skills in sport specific games |
Achievement Standards
Achievement standards describe the understanding and skill a students should be able to demonstrate at the end of each band level.
It is not possible to address the entire achievement standard in one product or resource. It is recommend that you identify two to three elements from the achievement standard that link to what you want students to learn.
Band 4 ( Years 5 and 6) Achievement Standard |
|---|
Students demonstrate fair play and skills to work collaboratively. They access and interpret health information and apply decision-making and problem-solving skills to enhance their own and others’ health, safety and wellbeing. They perform specialised movement skills and sequences and propose and combine movement concepts and strategies to achieve movement outcomes and solve movement challenges. They apply the elements of movement when composing and performing movement sequences. |
Identified Achievement Standard Element
Demonstrate fair play and skills to work collaboratively
Identified Achievement Standard Element
Perform specialised movement skills and sequences
Identified Achievement Standard Element
Combine movement concepts and strategies to achieve movement outcome and solve movement challenges
For more information, check out the Achievement Standards at the Australian Curriculum Website, opens in a new tab
Content Descriptors
Content descriptors specify what teachers should teach and what students should learn within each band. They describe the knowledge, skills and understanding that students should complete as they progress through their schooling.
Content descriptions include elaborations or sample ideas that provide a deeper understanding of how to teach the content.
Content Description |
|---|
Demonstrate ethical behaviour and fair play that aligns with rules when participating in a range of physical activities. |
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For more information, check out the Content Descriptors at the Australian Curriculum Website, opens in a new tab
Planning for assessment
When developing activities think about how teachers might assess students. It is important to include cues for teachers to understand what good performance looks like and include key teaching points for how to adjust incorrect technique or performance.
Consider what students should understand and be able to do at the end of each session.
Selecting learning activities
Learning activities provide the direction to teachers about what they can teach to students for them to achieve the identified learning intentions of the resource.
Reflect on the identified learning intentions to help you select appropriate activities to support this learning. For example:
Learning Intention | Sport-specific example | Learning activities |
|---|---|---|
Students understand key concepts and strategies to enhance performance in your sport. | In basketball there are a number of strategies that can be used to stop players scoring inside the key. |
|
Key Elements
Do not forget the key elements that ensure your resource is appropriate for the school environment.
Session duration | Sessions should fit into an 45-60 minute lesson |
|---|---|
No more than 6-8 sessions for each year group | |
Access to age appropriate and modified equipment is critical to success | |
Design activities that could be played in a range of facilities available to schools | |
Ensure programs are flexible, inclusive and provide options that to cater for varying abilities | |
Select activities that are challenging and fun to participate in |
For further information or to download the 34777_Curriculum_Alignment_Guidelines_FAweb_V2.pdf
Curriculum Alignment Guidelines for the Sport Sector
The Australian Sports Commission (ASC) has a strong focus on building the sport sector’s capacity and capability to increase access and participation in sport for all Australians, in particular children and young people. Schools are a great marketplace for sports to gain exposure and increase participation through positive experiences. However, this market is competitive and each school’s core concern is for their student’s learning and wellbeing. As a result, it is important to apply relevant customer insights to the development of programs and resources to ensure that sports are remaining relevant by meeting the needs of teachers and students. Subsequently, one of the best ways to be successful in the education market is through the alignment of programs and resources to the Australian Curriculum.The ASC’s Curriculum Alignment Guidelines aim to assist sports in understanding how to develop or adapt resources to align with the Australian Curriculum. The guidelines provide an overview on what is involved, the benefits of alignment, and the key considerations for this process. It also includes a step-by-step process that sports can follow when developing or adapting resources.
