Ausdance welcomes the launch of the draft of The Australian Curriculum: The Arts for public consultation, announced yesterday by The Federal Minister for School Education, the Hon. Peter Garrett. The consultation period will be for three months, until 23 September.
The new curriculum will, for the first time, entitle all young people to learning in dance at school, a major breakthrough for students and dance educators. The four other subjects in the arts curriculum are drama, media arts, music and visual arts.
Ausdance has played a strong lobbying role in having dance included in The Australian Curriculum: The Arts, and has supported ACARA—the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority—in the development of the dance curriculum.
We encourage you, as dance teachers in schools, students and parents, to continue having your say throughout this next consultation stage.
From Foundation to Year 6, all students will have opportunities to experience and enjoy learning in, through and about all five arts subjects.
From the beginning of secondary school (Year 7 or 8) students will continue to learn in one or more of the arts subjects, with the opportunity to specialise in one or more subjects in Years 9 and 10.
The Australian Curriculum: The Arts is presented through two interrelated strands in each arts subject:
- Making—using processes, techniques, knowledge and skills to make art works.
- Responding—exploring, responding to, analysing and interpreting art works.
ACARA has not prescribed a number of hours in arts learning, but instead given curriculum writers indicative hours as a guide.
The five subjects in the draft curriculum contain similar content to courses in Australian states and territories, with some variations in scope, sequencing and emphasis.
Once the consultation period is over, the curriculum will be refined, and it is anticipated that it will be ready for publication in the middle of 2013, following federal, state and territory Ministerial endorsement.