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:
- Mathematics including retrieval resources
- English (including Phonics Plus)
- Science
- Design and Technologies
- Digital Technologies
- Supporting resources for Foundation levels A–D.
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
What’s happening in our classrooms: understanding the new ways teachers are teaching
From 2025, Victorian government schools are updating their teaching and learning programs to align with contemporary evidence about how students learn. This includes refreshing teaching practices, to provide the most effective support for student learning.
The department worked with the Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO) to develop the revised Victorian Teaching and Learning Model 2.0 (VTLM 2.0), which sets out these evidence-based practices.
Why are things changing?
We are taking this step because contemporary evidence provides a better understanding of student learning. While students enter classrooms with different life experiences and prior knowledge and may learn at different speeds, the learning process is consistent. Research and insights from across the teaching profession have demonstrated that some teaching practices are more effective than others in supporting the learning process.
The Victorian Teaching and Learning Model 2.0 (VTLM 2.0) sets out these insights. The VTLM 2.0’s refreshed teaching practices will be in place in all Victorian government school classrooms by the start of 2028.
What will this look like for your child/young person?
Your child / young person may tell you that they are:
- experiencing whole-school approaches to routines and initiatives that support positive, culturally responsive classrooms where all students feel safe, included, and ready to learn
- clearer about the learning objectives for each lesson and how each lesson builds on the last
- finding it easier to access new information, concepts and techniques, because teachers are introducing them in small pieces and showing students how they work
- experiencing more learning success, with teachers supporting them as they practise new skills and develop confidence and competence
- enjoying applying what they have learned as teachers offer them opportunities to use it increasingly independently, in different contexts, and become more critical and creative thinkers.
Why is this good for your child/young person?
Research shows that the teaching methods set out in the VTLM 2.0 are the most effective approaches for all students, including high achievers and those needing additional support, to:
- set their own learning goals
- understand new things efficiently
- remember what they have learned
- use what they learn with confidence.
As students experience learning success, they become more confident and can learn even more. This helps them become lifelong learners who are ready for whatever the future holds.
How will this happen at your child/young person’s school?
Every school is a little different, so the order and way these changes are introduced might look slightly different from one school to another. With the support of departmental staff and materials such as Victorian Lesson Plans, school leaders and teachers will plan carefully based on what’s best for their students and school community, with all schools working to activate all practices by 2028.
Find out more about the Victorian Teaching and Learning Model.
Supporting teachers with high-quality classroom resources
Bringing together the updated Victorian Curriculum 2.0 and Victorian Teaching and Learning Model 2.0, the department is providing teachers with Victorian Lesson Plans. These high-quality classroom resources have been developed to improve learning outcomes for all students. They lift the burden of duplicative lesson preparation for teachers, giving them more time on the individual needs of their students by helping teachers to focus on what they do best – teach.
Over 4,000 lesson plans for Mathematics, English (including Phonics Plus), Science, Design and Technologies, and Digital Technologies (Foundation levels A to D) will be published for teachers to use.
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:
- Victoria's approach to teaching reading F–2
- How to build your child's literacy skills from birth to Grade 2.
Victorian teaching and learning in mathematics
In Mathematics, Victorian government schools will embed evidence-based practices aligned with the Victorian Teaching and Learning Model 2.0 (VTLM 2.0).
The Victorian Lesson Plans support quality mathematics teaching in every classroom, aligned to the Victorian Curriculum: Mathematics 2.0 and the VTLM 2.0. These high-quality lesson plans support consistent and precise use of mathematical language by teachers and students.
Key ideas in mathematics become more complex over the years of schooling. This means strong early foundations are important to build confidence with mathematics. It is a myth that some people are good at mathematics, and some are not – everyone has the capability to learn and achieve well in mathematics.
Alongside teachers, parents and carers have a key role to play in supporting children and students to develop confidence in their capacity to learn and use mathematics. This is particularly important for girls and students with disabilities, who are more likely to report they feel anxious about mathematics.
Parents and carers can play an active role in developing their child’s early numeracy at home through activities like measuring and weighing when cooking, planning a journey together or scoring a sports match.
Find out more information using this resource: Mathematics Site | Mathematics Resources | Arc
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