Developing your child’s literacy and numeracy skills are a key focus of the curriculum. This is because literacy and numeracy skill development form an essential platform for your child’s future success. Your child’s teachers provide a range of lesson experiences to challenge and stimulate their learning while supporting them to meet their individual needs in becoming confident learners. The learning at school builds on the learning you do together at home.
The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority’s (ACARA) Australian Curriculum has three components – Learning Areas, General Capabilities and Cross-curriculum Priorities. Literacy and Numeracy are part of the General Capabilities which wrap around all areas of learning.
Literacy
ACARA defines Literacy as being the fundamental knowledge and skills students require to access, understand, analyse and evaluate information, make meaning, express thoughts and emotions, present ideas and opinions, interact with others and participate in activities at school and in their lives beyond school.
Literacy is embedded in all Australian Curriculum Learning Areas. There is the greatest coverage in Australian Curriculum: English where the focus is on developing the ability to listen to, read, view, speak, write, create and reflect on increasingly complex and sophisticated spoken, written and multimodal texts.
Useful Literacy Resources
- Australian Curriculum: Parent Information
- Australian Curriculum: English
- Australian Curriculum General Capability: Literacy
- Australian Curriculum General Capability: Literacy Progressions
- National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN)
Numeracy
ACARA defines Numeracy as involving students in recognising and understanding the role of mathematics in the world and having the dispositions and capacities to use mathematical knowledge and skills purposefully. Numeracy is used in everyday life to solve problems, make sense of time, numbers, patterns and shapes. It is used in tasks such as cooking, reading a map, paying a bill, reading instructions and even playing sport. Numeracy is covered in Australian Curriculum Learning Areas and is most represented in Australian Curriculum: Mathematics.
Useful Numeracy Resources
- Australian Curriculum: Parent Information
- Australian Curriculum: Mathematics
- Australian Curriculum General Capability: Numeracy
- Australian Curriculum General Capability: Numeracy Progression
- National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN)
Literacy and Numeracy Assessment
Classroom teachers continually collect, analyse and interpret student assessments in order to improve the planning and delivery of their programs.
In ACT Public Schools students’ literacy and numeracy knowledge and skills are formally assessed through Performance Indicators in Primary Schools (PIPS) and National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN). For further information about these assessments see Assessment and Reporting.
Parents and carers are encouraged to contact their child’s school to find out more about the literacy and numeracy programs offered.