Senior Years Band - SACSA Framework

South Australian Curriculum, Standards and Accountability Framework
Organisation of learning in the senior years
In the Senior Years Band the organisation of learning is increasingly diversified. It includes
Year 10 curriculum, generally constructed by schools, with Standard 5 representing the level of
performance of students towards the end of Year 10. It is described through the integration of
the Key Ideas in each Learning Area and the Essential Learnings.
In addition, the organisation of learning in the Senior Years Band comprises externally
constructed and increasingly specialised Years 11 and 12 curriculum, such as the South
Australian Certificate of Education (SACE), Vocational Education and Training (VET), and other
curriculum, quality assured at this level by the accrediting authority under the Australian
Qualifications Framework or equivalent. The dovetailing of the SACSA Framework and external
curricula is achieved in two ways. First, the concepts and processes central to both individual
Learning Areas and to whole-of-curriculum learning experiences continue to be developed in
increasing sophistication through the curriculum offerings accredited by external agencies.
Second, teachers continue to develop the Essential Learnings in all of the varied curriculum
taken by students in Years 11 and 12. This latter process is represented in the SACSA
Framework by the Year 12 Standards, which describe the Essential Learnings as qualities of
students at the end of Year 12, developed within students’ learning programs whether they be
SACE, VET or other appropriate Year 12 level curriculum.
Integrating the Essential Learnings throughout the curriculum
to assist with curriculum planning
The Essential Learnings are integrated with concepts and processes across the whole
curriculum, including all of the Learning Areas. The Essential Learnings depict the knowledge,
capabilities and dispositions which students develop through learning in this Band. They are
overarching qualities which continue to be developed in increasingly complex ways, through
each Band and beyond schooling through lifelong learning. Teachers in the Senior Years Band
integrate the Essential Learnings into learning tasks in ways which are appropriate to their
students and contexts. Literacy, numeracy and information and communication technologies
are key dimensions used. In the Senior Years Band some specific kinds of learnings related to
each Essential Learning are as follows:
1. FUTURES: developing perspectives to critically reflect upon and contribute to creating
preferred futures, including:
● understanding the fundamental aspects of change and using this political awareness to
effect change
● transferring and transforming knowledge and building future scenarios based on insights of
the past and present
● identifying, researching and analysing challenges for the future through a diverse range of
world views
● acting in ways that show an understanding of the impact of those views for the future.
6 Senior Years Band — Introduction