Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Year 6

Civics and Communities
Citizenship Communities make decisions in different ways
and voting is a way that groups make decisions
democratically
Who makes rules, why rules are important, and
the consequences of rules not being followed
Why people participate in community groups,
such as a school or community project, and how
students can actively participate and contribute
to their local community
Government and society
The purpose of government and some familiar
services provided by local government
(e.g. libraries, health, arts, parks, environment
and waste, pools and sporting facilities, pet
management)
The differences between ‘rules’ and ‘laws’
The importance and purpose of laws (e.g. to
maintain social cohesion, to reflect society’s
values)
People belong to diverse groups, such as
cultural, religious and/or social groups, and this
can shape identity
Roles, responsibilities, and participation
The key values that underpin Australia’s
democracy, including freedom, equality,
fairness, and justice
The roles and responsibilities of electors (e.g.
enrolling to vote, being informed) and
representatives
(e.g. representing their electorate’s interests,
participating in the parliamentary process) in
Australia’s democracy
The key features of the electoral process in
Australia, such as compulsory voting, secret
ballot, preferential voting
How regulations and laws affect the lives of
citizens (e.g. the different types of laws, how
laws protect human rights)
Australia’s system of government and
citizenship
The key institutions of Australia’s democratic
system of government based on the
Westminster system, including the monarchy,
parliaments, and courts
The roles and responsibilities of the three levels
of government, including the shared roles and
responsibilities within Australia’s federal system
How laws are initiated and passed through the
Federal parliament
Who can be an Australian citizen, the formal
rights and responsibilities, and shared values of
Australian citizenship

The roles and responsibilities of key personnel

in law enforcement
(e.g. customs officials, police) and in the legal
system (e.g. lawyers, judges)

Why people work in groups to achieve their

aims and functions, and exercise influence, such
as volunteers who work in community groups
(e.g. rural fire services, emergency services,
youth groups)
Year 5 Year 6
Economics Wants, resources and choices Trade-offs and impacts of consumer and financial decisions
and The difference between needs and wants, and how they may differ between individuals Choices about the use of resources result from the imbalance of limited resources and unlimited
Business wants (i.e. the concept of scarcity)
Resources can be natural (e.g. oil), human
(e.g. workers), or capital (e.g. machinery), and how these are used to make goods and services to Decisions about the alternative use of resources result in the need to consider
satisfy the needs and wants of present and future generations trade-offs (e.g. using the land to grow crops or to graze cattle)

Due to scarcity, choices need to be made about how limited resources are used (e.g. using the land
to grow crops or to graze cattle)
The factors that influence purchase decisions (e.g. age, gender, advertising, price) and how these
decisions affect resource use
Strategies for making informed consumer and financial decisions
(e.g. budgeting, comparing prices, saving for the future)
The impact consumer purchasing decisions can have on a family, the broader community
(e.g. purchasing from the local growers’ market or a supermarket chain) and the environment
(e.g. pollution, waste)
Businesses provide goods and services in different ways
(e.g. shopping centres, local markets, online stores, small independent stores, remote community
stores) to earn revenue
 Pre-primary
Geography People live in places
The globe as a
representation of the
Earth on which Australia
and other familiar
countries can be located
The representation of
familiar places, such as
schools, parks, and lakes
on a pictorial map
The places people live in
and belong to
(e.g. neighbourhood,
suburb, town, rural
locality), the familiar
features in the local area
and why places are
important to people
(e.g. provides basic needs)
The reasons some places
are special to people and
how they can be looked
after, including Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander
Peoples’ places of
significance
Year 1
Places have distinctive
features
The location of the equator
and the northern and
southern hemispheres,
including the poles
The natural, managed, and
constructed features of
places, their location on a
pictorial map, how they
may change over time (e.g.
erosion, revegetated areas,
planted crops, new
buildings) and how they
can be cared for
How weather
(e.g. rainfall, temperature,
sunshine, wind) and
seasons vary between
places, and the terms used
to describe them
The activities
(e.g. retailing, recreational,
farming, manufacturing,
medical, policing,
educational, religious) that
take place in the local
community which create
its distinctive features
Year 2
The past in the present
The history of a significant
person, building, site, or
part of the natural
environment in the local
community and what it
reveals about the past
The importance today of
an historical site
(e.g. community building,
landmark, war memorial,
rock painting, engraving)
and why it has heritage
significance and cultural
value for present
generations
(e.g. a record of a
significant historical event,
aesthetic value, reflects
the community’s identity)
The impact of changing
technology on people’s
lives (e.g. at home, work,
travel, communication,
leisure, toys) and how the
technology of the past
differs from what is used
today
The connections of people
in Australia to other places
in Australia, in the Asia
region, and across the
world
(e.g. family connections,
trade, travel, special
events, natural disasters)
The influence of purpose
(e.g. shopping, recreation),
distance
(e.g. location) and
accessibility
(e.g. technology, transport)
on the frequency with
Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Year 6
Language groups of Aboriginal and Torres The way people alter the The world’s cultural
Australia’s Aboriginal and Strait Islander Peoples’ environmental diversity, including that of
Torres Strait Islander ways of living were characteristics of its indigenous peoples
Peoples divides their adapted to available Australian places who live in different
Country/Place and differs resources and their (e.g. vegetation clearance, regions in the world, such
from the surveyed connection to fencing, urban as the Maori of Aotearoa
boundaries of Australian Country/Place has development, drainage, (New Zealand), and the
states and territories influenced their views on irrigation, farming, forest Orang Asli of Malaysia and
the sustainable use of plantations, mining) Indonesia
The location of Australia’s these resources, before
neighbouring countries and after colonisation Features of environments Australia’s connections
and their diverse natural (e.g. climate, landforms, with countries
characteristics and human The natural resources (e.g. vegetation) influence (e.g. trade, migration,
characteristics water, timber, minerals) human activities and the tourism, aid, education,
provided by the built features of places defence, sport) and how
The difference between environment and different these connections change
climate and weather, the views on how they can be The impact of bushfires or people and places
main climatic zones of the used sustainably floods on environments
world and communities, and
(e.g. equatorial, tropical, how people can respond
arid, temperate) and the
similarities and
differences between the
climates of different
places
The similarities and
differences between
places in terms of their
type of settlement, the
diversity of people
(e.g. age, birthplace,
language, family
composition), the lives of
the people who live there,
and feelings and
perceptions about places
 which people visit places

Pre-primary Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Year 6

History Personal and family Present and past family The past in the present Community and First contacts The Australian Colonies Australia as a nation
histories life The history of a significant remembrance The diversity and longevity of The economic, political, and Key figures (e.g. Henry
Who the people in their Differences in family person, building, site, or One important example of Australia’s first peoples and social reasons for Parkes, Edmund Barton,
family are, where they sizes, structures, and part of the natural change and one important the ways they are connected establishing British colonies George Reid, John Quick),
were born and raised roles today (e.g. work environment in the local example of continuity over to Country/Place in Australia after 1800 (e.g. ideas and events (e.g. the
and showing how they outside the home, community and what it time in the local community, (e.g. land, sea, waterways, the establishment of penal Tenterfield Oration, the
are related to each domestic chores, reveals about the past region, or state/territory (e.g. skies) and their pre-contact colonies) Corowa Conference, the
other, using simple childcare), and how in relation to the areas of ways of life referendums) that led to
family trees these have changed or The importance today of transport, work, education, The patterns of colonial Australia’s Federation and
remained the same an historical site natural and built The journey(s) of at least one development and settlement Constitution, including
The different structures over time (e.g. community building, environments, world navigator, explorer, or (e.g. geographical features, British and American
of families and family landmark, war memorial, entertainment, daily life) trader up to the late climate, water resources, influences on Australia’s
groups today How the present, past rock painting, engraving) eighteenth century transport, discovery of gold) system of law and
(e.g. nuclear, only child, and future are signified and why it has heritage The role that different (e.g. Christopher Columbus, and how this impacted upon government
large, single parent, by terms indicating time significance and cultural cultural groups have played Vasco de Gama, Ferdinand the environment (e.g. Magna Carta,
extended, blended, (e.g. ‘a long time ago’; value for present in the development and Magellan), including their (e.g. introduced species) and federalism, constitutional
adoptive parent, ‘then and now’; ‘now generations character of the local contacts and exchanges with the daily lives of the different monarchy, the
grandparent) and what and then’; ‘old and (e.g. a record of a community (e.g. as reflected societies in Africa, the inhabitants Westminster system, the
they have in common new’; ‘tomorrow’) as significant historical in architecture, commercial Americas, Asia and Oceania, (e.g. convicts, free settlers, Houses of Parliament)
well as by dates and event, aesthetic value, outlets, religious buildings), and the impact on one Aboriginal and Torres Strait
How they, their family changes that may have reflects the community’s compared with development society Islander Peoples) Experiences of Australia’s
and friends personal significance identity) in another community democracy and citizenship,
commemorate past (e.g. birthdays, Stories of the First Fleet, The economic, social and including the status and
events that are holidays, celebrations, The impact of changing The historical origins and including reasons for the political impact of one rights of Aboriginal people
important to them (e.g. seasons) technology on people’s significance of the days and journey, who travelled to significant development or and/or Torres Strait
birthdays, religious lives (e.g. at home, work, weeks celebrated or Australia, and their event on a colony and the Islander Peoples, migrants,
festivals, family The differences and travel, communication, commemorated in Australia experiences following arrival potential outcomes created women, and children
reunions, community similarities between leisure, toys) and how the (e.g. Australia Day, ANZAC (e.g. treatment of convicts, by ‘what if …?’ scenarios (e.g.
commemorations) students' daily lives and technology of the past Day, National Sorry Day) and daily lives, social order) frontier conflict; the gold Stories of groups of people
life during their parents’ differs from what is used the importance of symbols rushes; the Eureka Stockade; who migrated to Australia
How the stories of and grandparents’ today and emblems The nature of contact the Pinjarra Massacre; the (including from one Asian
families and the past childhoods (e.g. family between Aboriginal and/or advent of rail; the expansion country), the reasons they
can be communicated traditions, leisure time, The historical origins and Torres Strait Islander Peoples of farming; drought) migrated
and passed down from communications) and significance of celebrations and others (e.g., the (e.g. push-pull factors) and
generation to how daily lives have and commemorations in Macassans, Europeans) and The contribution or their contributions to
generation (e.g. changed other places around the the impact that these significance of one individual society
photographs, artefacts, world (e.g. Bastille Day in interactions and colonisation or group in shaping the Swan
books, oral histories, France, Independence Day in had on the environment and River Colony, including their
digital media, the USA; and those observed people’s lives motivations and actions (e.g.
museums) and how the in Australia, such as Chinese (e.g. dispossession, groups such as explorers,
stories may differ, New Year, Christmas Day, dislocation, the loss of lives farmers, pastoralists,
depending on who is Diwali, Easter, Hanukkah, the through conflict, disease, loss convicts, or individuals such
telling them Moon Festival, Ramadan) of food sources and as James Stirling, John
medicines Septimus Roe, Thomas Peel)