The knowledge, skills and capabilities that children develop at school set them up for success in life and work.
The Education State
On 23 October 2024, the Minister for Education launched The Education State: Excellence in Every Classroom, which was developed with input from Victorian students, families, teachers and school leaders.
The Education State has 5 key priorities. The first, Excellence in teaching and learning, is about ensuring our dedicated teachers have the most effective teaching tools and support.
The department is implementing several reforms that support achievement in this priority. These include:
- working closely with the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority to guide schools in implementing the updated Victorian Curriculum (Victorian Curriculum 2.0)
- providing access to teaching practices based on the latest evidence of what works best for all students, no matter which Victorian government school they are attending (Victorian Teaching and Learning Model (VTLM) 2.0)
- Victoria's reading position, which includes systematic synthetic phonics in F-2 and explicit teaching of the 'Big 6' through a structured literacy approach
- delivering high quality Victorian Lesson Plans to support schools’ implementation of the Victorian Curriculum 2.0 and the VTLM 2.0's evidence-based teaching approaches and practices.
An updated school curriculum
The Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) is responsible for developing the curriculum for Victoria’s school aged students. The Victorian Curriculum F–10 sets out the set of knowledge and skills every Victorian student should learn during their first 11 years of schooling.
Curriculum supports include the Victorian Lesson Plans (see below), which the department is releasing across 2024-2025 in:
- English (including Phonics Plus)
- Mathematics
- Science, and
- Technologies.
Victorian Lesson Plans will be available to all Victorian teachers. The VCAA and the department are also updating assessment tools to align with Victorian Curriculum F–10 Version 2.0. These are available for schools across Victorian education sectors.
Learn more about the Victorian Curriculum F–10.
A new Victorian Teaching and Learning Model
The updated Victorian Teaching and Learning Model (VTLM 2.0) is based on scientific evidence about how students learn and evidence of the teaching practices that best support that learning process.
This method involves teachers:
- working together to develop whole school approaches to behavioural expectations, cultural responsiveness and wellbeing support, so that classrooms provide a safe, predictable, learning-focused environment
- planning learning goals for each lesson and how they will sequence their teaching of the curriculum
- breaking down new content into manageable chunks
- using clear explanations, demonstrating new content and skills, and supporting students to practise them
- providing opportunities for students to review recent learning and apply it in new situations.
Evidence demonstrates that this approach supports students effectively to grasp new content, retain it and apply it with confidence.
VTLM 2.0 approaches will also help your child:
- set personal goals
- succeed in their learning
- build confidence.
As children master new content, their ability to learn additional information and skills increases, supporting them to develop into lifelong learners who are well-equipped for future challenges.
From 2025, schools will begin to link their Annual Implementation Plans to the revised Victorian Teaching and Learning Model.
Find out more about the Victorian Teaching and Learning Model.
Supporting teachers with high-quality classroom resources
The department is providing Victorian teachers with high-quality classroom resources to improve outcomes for all students. These resources will help teachers focus on what they do best – teach – while ensuring that every student gets the support they need.
These resources will include over 4,000 lesson plans that will be used in the classroom to deliver essential Mathematics, English, Science, Design and Technologies, Digital Technologies, knowledge and skills.
Explore Victoria's lesson plans.
Victorian reading position and Phonics Plus program
From Term 1 2025, all Victorian government students from Prep to Grade 2 will be taught using a systematic synthetic phonics approach as part of their reading programs, with a minimum of 25 minutes daily explicit teaching of phonics and phonemic awareness. Systematic synthetic phonics is a structured approach that explicitly teaches the relationship between sounds and letters to read words.
The Phonics Plus has been developed to provide schools with a comprehensive foundational literacy skills program using a systematic synthetic phonics approach. Schools are not required to use this program if their teaching and learning approach is already aligned to the reading position.
Systematic synthetic phonics will be a core component of a comprehensive reading program that also includes explicit teaching of:
- oral language
- vocabulary
- reading fluency
- comprehension.
Find out more information using these resources:
Updated