Curriculum Alignment Guidelines

The Curriculum Alignment Guidelines assist sports in understanding how to design or adapt school-based products and resources to align with the Australian curriculum.

The guidelines provide an overview on the benefits and key considerations of alignment as well as step-by-step instructions that sports can follow when developing or adapting their resources.

Why align?

Aligning with the Australian Curriculum increases the relevance and credibility of your products and resources, supporting teachers to deliver quality Health and Physical Education (HPE) and sport programs.

When designing or adapting products to the curriculum, consider the following:

Content

To make your resources accessible and relevant to teachers ensure that they:

use clear and simple instructions
include illustrations to explain activities
limit sport-specific language
keep the end user/s front of mind

Engage an education consultant

Education consultants can provide professional guidance and support to help ensure your resource is relevant and effective for teachers and their students through:

reviewing existing products and resources and providing recommendations for alignment;
supporting the design of new products and resources; and
providing strategic advice on promoting and marketing to schools.

Publication

Offering the flexibility of print and digital options increases your reach and opportunity for adoption with teachers. Each format requires different considerations.

Print (hard copy) resources need to be easy-to-navigate, include images to illustrate skills and durable to support regular use.
Digital (online) resources should include hyperlinks to related sections, videos to illustrate skills and a layout that supports both phone and tablet use.

Promotion

Promotion of your resources affects sport uptake in schools. When promoting your products and resources to schools, consider the following options:

Online publication
Social Media
Industry events
Education journals
Education networks

How do I align to the curriculum?

There are four steps you must follow when aligning your products and resources to the curriculum.

Determine Learning Intentions

Determine learning intentions

The first step is to identify what you want students to learn about your sport. These are what are referred to within the curriculum as learning intentions and should be used as a reference point throughout the resource development.

When deciding on learning intentions for your product or resource, consider:

What do you want students to know?
What do you want students to understand?
What do you want students to be able to do?

If a planned activity in a resource does not focus on identified learning intentions, then it should not be included:

Learning intention	Examples in sport
Students practice and refine specialised skills	Passing, throwing, catching and shooting in Netball Serving, forehand and backhand in Tennis
Students understand the rules of the game and how to officiate	In AFL, players can use any body part or move the ball towards their attacking goals Students understand the scoring system of Volleyball and can umpire a game
Students understand the history and cultural significance of your sport	The long jump in Athletics is one of oldest sporting events in the Olympics and was originally called the ‘broad jump’ There are similarities between the rules and tactics of modern games and traditional Indigenous games
Students understand key concepts and strategies to enhance performance in your sport	Using the corners and side walls of a squash court will make it more difficult for opponents to return the ball In basketball, a ‘zone defence’ is strategy that can be used to stop players scoring inside the key

For more learning intention examples, visit the Assessment for Learning website

Link to the curriculum

Once learning intentions are identified, you must explore where the learning is covered in the curriculum. This information can be found in the Achievement Standards and Content Descriptors for the band/s your product or resource is targeted towards.

Band	Year/s	Focus
Band 1 Band 2 Band 3	Foundation Years 1 and 2 Years 3 and 4	Development of Fundamental Movement Skills (FMS)
Band 4	Years 5 and 6	Refinement of FMS skills in modified games
Band 5	Years 7 and 8	Development of specialised movement skills in sport specific games
Band 6	Years 9 and 10	Development of more specialised and complex movement skills in sport specific games

Achievement Standards

Achievement standards describe the understanding and skill a students should be able to demonstrate at the end of each band level.

It is not possible to address the entire achievement standard in one product or resource. It is recommend that you identify two to three elements from the achievement standard that link to what you want students to learn.

Band 4 ( Years 5 and 6) Achievement Standard
Students demonstrate fair play and skills to work collaboratively. They access and interpret health information and apply decision-making and problem-solving skills to enhance their own and others’ health, safety and wellbeing. They perform specialised movement skills and sequences and propose and combine movement concepts and strategies to achieve movement outcomes and solve movement challenges. They apply the elements of movement when composing and performing movement sequences.

Band 4 ( Years 5 and 6) Achievement Standard

Students demonstrate fair play and skills to work collaboratively. They access and interpret health information and apply decision-making and problem-solving skills to enhance their own and others’ health, safety and wellbeing.

They perform specialised movement skills and sequences and propose and combine movement concepts and strategies to achieve movement outcomes and solve movement challenges. They apply the elements of movement when composing and performing movement sequences.

Identified Achievement Standard Element

Demonstrate fair play and skills to work collaboratively

Identified Achievement Standard Element

Perform specialised movement skills and sequences

Identified Achievement Standard Element

Combine movement concepts and strategies to achieve movement outcome and solve movement challenges

For more information, check out the Achievement Standards at the Australian Curriculum Website

Content Descriptors

Content descriptors specify what teachers should teach and what students should learn within each band. They describe the knowledge, skills and understanding that students should complete as they progress through their schooling.

Content descriptions include elaborations or sample ideas that provide a deeper understanding of how to teach the content.

Content Description
Demonstrate ethical behaviour and fair play that aligns with rules when participating in a range of physical activities.
Elaborations
Explain why infringements result in consequences such as a penalty or free pass. Propose changes to the rules and/or conditions to create a more inclusive game or allow for a fairer content Correctly interpret and apply rules in physical activities.

For more information, check out the Content Descriptors at the Australian Curriculum Website

Planning for assessment

When developing activities think about how teachers might assess students. It is important to include cues for teachers to understand what good performance looks like and include key teaching points for how to adjust incorrect technique or performance.

Consider what students should understand and be able to do at the end of each session.

Selecting Learning Activites

Selecting learning activities

Learning activities provide the direction to teachers about what they can teach to students for them to achieve the identified learning intentions of the resource.

Reflect on the identified learning intentions to help you select appropriate activities to support this learning. For example:

Learning Intention	Sport-specific example	Learning activities
Students understand key concepts and strategies to enhance performance in your sport.	In basketball there are a number of strategies that can be used to stop players scoring inside the key.	Turn over drill where players practise shifting from attack to defence and sprint back down the court into position (get back-get ready) Teaching player versus zone offence positions 3-on-3 small-sided games that practise tracking an attacker (tag games first, then introduce a ball)

Key Elements

Do not forget the key elements that ensure your resource is appropriate for the school environment.

Session duration	Sessions should fit into an 45-60 minute lesson
Resource length	No more than 6-8 sessions for each year group
Equipment	Access to age appropriate and modified equipment is critical to success
Facilities	Design activities that could be played in a range of facilities available to schools
Inclusive	Ensure programs are flexible, inclusive and provide options that to cater for varying abilities
Fun and engaging	Select activities that are challenging and fun to participate in

For further information or to download the Curriculum Alignment Guidelines.

Curriculum Alignment Guidelines for the Sport Sector

The Australian Sports Commission (ASC) has a strong focus on building the sport sector’s capacity and capability to increase access and participation in sport for all Australians, in particular children and young people.

Schools are a great marketplace for sports to gain exposure and increase participation through positive experiences. However, this market is competitive and each school’s core concern is for their student’s learning and wellbeing. As a result, it is important to apply relevant customer insights to the development of programs and resources to ensure that sports are remaining relevant by meeting the needs of teachers and students.

Subsequently, one of the best ways to be successful in the education market is through the alignment of programs and resources to the Australian Curriculum.The ASC’s Curriculum Alignment Guidelines aim to assist sports in understanding how to develop or adapt resources to align with the Australian Curriculum. The guidelines provide an overview on what is involved, the benefits of alignment, and the key considerations for this process. It also includes a step-by-step process that sports can follow when developing or adapting resources.

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COVID-19

SPORTS NUTRITION

HEALTH AND WELLBEING

ATHLETE DEVELOPMENT

GRANTS AND FUNDING

CAREER AND EDUCATION

HIGH PERFORMANCE SPORT

SAFE AND INCLUSIVE SPORT

RESEARCH AND INNOVATION

AWARDS AND RECOGNITION

COVID-19

SAFE AND INCLUSIVE SPORT

PARTICIPATION

GRANTS AND FUNDING

ATHLETE DEVELOPMENT

HEALTH AND WELLBEING

CAREER AND EDUCATION

AWARDS AND RECOGNITION

PARTICIPATION

HEALTH AND WELLBEING

GRANTS AND FUNDING

ATHLETE DEVELOPMENT

SAFE AND INCLUSIVE SPORT

RESEARCH AND INNOVATION

COVID-19

GOVERNANCE

SAFE AND INCLUSIVE SPORT

SPORT INDUSTRY

GRANTS AND FUNDING

HEALTH AND WELLBEING

CLUB DEVELOPMENT

CAREER AND EDUCATION

RESEARCH AND INNOVATION

NETWORKS, POLICY AND FRAMEWORKS

ATHLETE DEVELOPMENT

HIGH PERFORMANCE SPORT

SPORTS NUTRITION

AWARDS AND RECOGNITION

PARTICIPATION

COVID-19

ATHLETE DEVELOPMENT

CAREER AND EDUCATION

HEALTH AND WELLBEING

NETWORKS, POLICY AND FRAMEWORKS

SAFE AND INCLUSIVE SPORT

RESEARCH AND INNOVATION

GRANTS AND FUNDING

SPORTS NUTRITION

AWARDS AND RECOGNITION

PARTICIPATION

COVID-19

NETWORKS, POLICY AND FRAMEWORKS

HEALTH AND WELLBEING

RESEARCH AND INNOVATION

ATHLETE DEVELOPMENT

SPORTS NUTRITION

GRANTS AND FUNDING

AWARDS AND RECOGNITION

Supporting Sport in Schools

Curriculum Alignment Guidelines

Why align?

How do I align to the curriculum?

Identified Achievement Standard Element

Identified Achievement Standard Element

Identified Achievement Standard Element