Victorian Government Releases Draft Framework for Preschool Education

Media Release, The Hon. Maxine Morand, MLA, 6 August 2009; Herald Sun, 7 August 2009

The Victorian Minister for Children and Early Childhood Development, Ms Maxine Morand, has released a draft framework that outlines the expected knowledge and skills that children should acquire before they start school.

The Victorian Early Learning and Development Framework for Children from Birth to Eight Years is designed to ‘describe the key knowledge and skills children need to acquire during these years, and provides guidance for parents and others in how to support their development’.

It also aims to ‘link the learning outcomes and pedagogy from the national Early Years Learning Framework for children aged birth to five with the learning and teaching in the first stages of the…Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS) from ages five to eight years’.

The Framework includes a requirement for kindergartens to provide children with ‘transition statements’ for when they start primary school that summarise the children’s abilities, achievements and interests, as well as outlining any additional needs that would inform the development of individual support programs for children. It also outlines a requirement for kindergartens to extend four-year-old kindergarten hours from 10 hours per week to 15 from 2013.

Ms Morand indicated that it would be up to individual kindergartens to determine how they would transition to the increased hours. She also stated that kindergartens and schools would trial the framework from August to October 2009, and that the Framework would be launched in November 2009 for full implementation in 2010. She stated that ‘we want to ensure that by the time Victorian students start school, they will be ready to learn and schools will be ready for them’.

Visit the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority website to access a copy of the Framework document.

 

 

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