What are the implications for schools using the VELS?
The Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS) are designed to be used for whole school curriculum planning. School teams will decide how best to meet the standards. For some standards this may be through explicit teaching focused on a particular standard and for others it may be by creating units of work which address standards in a number of domains at the same time. The Essential Learning Standards do not provide an organisational template for school structures or timetables. What is important is that all domains are mapped and included appropriately in a whole school curriculum plan. In individual classrooms, teachers will use the whole school plan to incorporate the strands and domains into their teaching areas to ensure the relevant standards are addressed. Schools can make decisions about innovations they wish to adopt in keeping with current policies and educational research. Specific programs, such as the Early Years and the Middle Years, are important teaching and learning
