Foundation to Level 2 Science: Every Victorian Curriculum Code, Explained

Victorian Science does not have a Foundation year. It has a Foundation to Level 2 band, twenty content descriptions covering three years of school, and a code set whose numbering catches out almost everybody the first time. If you have been searching for VC2S0U01 or VC2S1U01 and finding nothing, this is why: the number in a Victorian Science code is the top of the band, not the level. Foundation Science in Victoria is coded VC2S2, the same as Level 1 and Level 2.

This is a working guide to all twenty codes in the band: how the numbering works, the three content descriptions that have no equivalent anywhere in the national curriculum’s first three years, the one requirement Victoria deliberately does not impose, a year-by-year split of the band, and the checks that tell you whether a child is ready for Level 3.

What is different about the Victorian version

Victoria and ACARA agree on most of the science. They disagree on three things that change how you plan.

The band replaces the year. The Australian Curriculum gives Foundation, Year 1 and Year 2 their own descriptors: nine, ten and ten, twenty-nine in total. Victoria gives you twenty for the same three years and does not say which year each belongs to. That is more freedom and more work. Nobody has decided for you that materials come before movement, so a Victorian school has to make and record that decision itself, and a Victorian homeschool has to be able to show a reviewer that the band is covered by the end of Level 2 rather than in any particular year.

Victoria writes descriptors as statements, not instructions. A national Science descriptor starts with a verb aimed at the student: observe, describe, pose, engage. A Victorian one is a proposition about the world, phrased as something that is the case. The practical effect is that the Victorian descriptor tells you what has to be true by the end and leaves the classroom verb to you. Do not read that as a lower bar. It means the evidence you collect has to be chosen by you rather than handed to you, which is a real planning task and the reason two Victorian programs covering the same code can look nothing alike.

Three ideas appear in Victoria that are not in the national curriculum until much later. The detail is in the comparison section below, and it is the single most useful thing on this page for anyone moving between the two frameworks. Our full comparison of the Victorian and Australian curricula covers the structural differences across all learning areas.

The band at a glance

Reading the codes

The pattern is VC2 + S + band + strand letter + number, where the strand letter is U for Understanding, I for Inquiry and H for Human Endeavour. The band numbers are the ones that surprise people:

• VC2S2 is Foundation to Level 2
• VC2S4 is Levels 3 and 4
• VC2S6 is Levels 5 and 6
• VC2S8 is Levels 7 and 8, and VC2S10 is Levels 9 and 10

There is no VC2S1, VC2S3, VC2S5, VC2S7 or VC2S9 in Science, at all. The odd numbers do not exist. This is the opposite of Victorian English and Maths, which are coded level by level, so a teacher who is fluent in VC2M codes and VC2E codes will read a VC2S code wrongly by default. The rest of the framework is covered in our Victorian Curriculum 2.0 explainer.

Strand by strand

Science Understanding (VC2S2U01 to VC2S2U12)

Twelve descriptions across three years is about one every eight weeks, which is the right way to think about pacing. They fall into four groups that do not have to be taught in code order.

Living things (U01 to U03) runs observable features and grouping, then basic needs and how a habitat meets them, then external features and the jobs they do for survival. U03 is the load-bearing one and the one most often skipped, because it is the first time a child is asked to connect a structure to a function rather than just name it. It also carries a long list of plant parts, so it is where the botanical vocabulary of the band lives.

Materials (U04 to U06) runs objects made of materials with observable properties, then combining materials for a purpose (including that a mixture can behave unlike its ingredients), then physical change through actions like bending, twisting and squashing. Teach these three in order. U06 is only meaningful once a child can separate the object from the material, which is U04’s job.

Earth and space (U07 to U09) runs daily and seasonal weather change and how it affects decisions, then Earth as one of eight planets with observable patterns in the sky, then caring for Earth’s water, land and air through reducing, re-using and recycling. U09 is a genuine Victorian addition and is discussed below.

Physical sciences (U10 to U12) runs how movement depends on size, shape and material, then pushes and pulls described by strength and direction, then sound as vibration with variation in pitch and volume. U10 before U11 is the correct order and is how they are numbered: children describe what happens before they name the cause.

Science Inquiry (VC2S2I01 to VC2S2I06)

Six descriptions forming a single cycle: question and predict from experience, follow a safe procedure with sequenced steps, observe and record including informal measurements, sort data into provided tables and organisers, compare against predictions and against what others found, then share. These are not six units. They are six stages of one investigation, repeated with different content, and a program that runs the cycle a dozen times across the band has better evidence than one that teaches each code once.

Two things are worth noticing. First, VC2S2I03 includes informal measurement and the use of digital tools where appropriate, so Victorian Foundation observation is not restricted to the senses the way the national Foundation descriptor is. Second, and more importantly, VC2S2I06 asks for findings to be shared, not written. There is no requirement in this band to produce a written scientific text. The national curriculum introduces exactly that at AC9S1I06, in Year 1. A Victorian Level 1 or 2 class doing science writing is doing good literacy work, and it may well be discharging a VC2E code, but it is going beyond what VC2S2I06 asks for.

Science as a Human Endeavour (VC2S2H01 to VC2S2H02)

Two descriptions where the national curriculum has one per year. VC2S2H01 is about where scientific knowledge comes from: observation of the natural world, using the senses and using tools and instruments. The instruments clause is the part that needs deliberate planning, because a magnifying glass, a thermometer and a set of scales all have to appear somewhere in the band and be talked about as things that extend what the senses can do.

VC2S2H02 is about science in daily life, including asking questions and using observed patterns to predict. It attaches to work you are already doing, so the efficient way to cover it is two minutes at the end of an investigation naming who does this as a job and what they would have been looking at.

The three codes with no early national equivalent

Nine of the twelve Victorian Understanding descriptions map cleanly onto a national descriptor in Foundation, Year 1 or Year 2. Three do not, and if you are converting a national program to Victorian codes these are the three you will be missing.

• VC2S2U03, features that perform functions for survival. The national curriculum has features and grouping at AC9SFU01 and basic needs at AC9S1U01, but the idea that a particular structure does a particular job that keeps the organism alive does not appear until AC9S5U01, in Year 5. Victoria asks for a simpler version of it three to five years earlier. This is the biggest single difference in the band.
• VC2S2U05, combining materials, and mixtures behaving unlike their ingredients. Nothing in the national F–2 Science covers this. The nearest national descriptor is AC9S4U04 in Year 4, on how the properties of natural and made materials influence their use, and even that is not really the same idea.
• VC2S2U09, caring for Earth’s water, land and air. Reducing, re-using and recycling as a way of conserving resources is a content description in Victoria and a cross-curriculum priority nationally. That is the difference between something you must show evidence of and something you are encouraged to weave in.

Running the comparison the other way, the national Foundation to Year 2 sequence contains no Science content that Victoria leaves out of this band. Victoria is the larger set here, delivered with fewer codes because each one carries more.

The three hardest codes in the band

VC2S2I05: comparing results with predictions and with others

The misconception: that a prediction is a guess you are meant to get right. Children work this out quickly and respond by not committing to anything.

What you will see: the cork floats, and every hand goes up to say they knew it would. Or, asked to predict beforehand, children who say it might float or it might sink, which cannot be compared with an outcome. Either way there is nothing for the comparison step to work on, and the second half of the descriptor, comparing with what others observed, never happens because everyone has quietly agreed they were right.

The fix: make the prediction physical and irreversible before the test. Every child moves a peg onto one side of a line on the floor and nobody may move it once the test starts. Then run the comparison as counting rather than judgement: eleven of us expected it to sink, it floated, so eleven of us were surprised. Use the word surprised, not wrong. Once being surprised is the interesting outcome rather than the embarrassing one, children start predicting honestly, and the comparison with others becomes a real conversation.

VC2S2U03: structure and function

The misconception: that this code is a labelling exercise. It is the only place in the band where a child has to say what a part is for.

What you will see: a child who can label roots, stem, leaves and flower on a diagram perfectly and, asked what the roots do, says that they are at the bottom. Labelling is VC2S2U01 territory. Function is what U03 adds, and a correct label with no function is not evidence of it.

The fix: teach every part as an answer to a survival question rather than as a name on a diagram. How does it drink, how does it stay up, how does it eat, how does it get away. Then use the strongest diagnostic available at this level: show an unfamiliar animal or plant and ask what a particular feature is probably for. A child working from function can reason about a creature they have never seen. A child working from memorised labels cannot start.

VC2S2U04 and VC2S2U06: object, material and change

The misconception: that an object and the material it is made of are the same thing. This sounds trivial to an adult and is genuinely hard at five.

What you will see: asked what a wooden spoon is made of, the child says a spoon. Later, at U06, the same child says that a squashed ball of foil has turned into something else, because for them there was never a material underneath the object to stay the same.

The fix: always present the same object in two materials and the same material as two objects. A wooden spoon and a metal spoon; a wooden spoon and a wooden block. Then, when you reach physical change, ask the question in material terms every time: it is a different shape, but is it still foil? The point of the bending, twisting and squashing in U06 is that the answer is always yes, and the child cannot get there without U04 being secure first.

What students need to arrive with

Foundation is the start of the band, so there are no prior Science codes. What matters developmentally is the ability to attend to something without touching it, enough expressive language to describe an event after it has happened, and a sense that an adult’s question can have an answer other than yes or no. The useful cross-links are into Maths rather than backwards: the sorting and comparing work in the Foundation Maths band is doing much of the same cognitive work as VC2S2U01, and the direct comparison vocabulary (longer, heavier, holds more) is what Science observation runs on. The Victorian Capabilities also attach here more naturally than in most learning areas: Critical and Creative Thinking sits underneath the whole inquiry strand, and Ethical Understanding attaches to VC2S2U09.

What this band sets up

• Living things (U01 to U03) become VC2S4U01 and VC2S4U02, where living, non-living and once-living are distinguished and life cycles arrive, with offspring resembling but not matching their parents.
• Materials (U04 to U06) become VC2S4U04 and VC2S4U05, where solids, liquids and gases are named as states and heat energy causes change of state. The step from physical change to change of state is the largest single jump out of this band.
• Earth and space (U07 to U09) become VC2S4U06, VC2S4U07 and VC2S4U08, on rocks and soils, the water cycle, and the impact of weather and human activity.
• Forces (U10, U11) become VC2S4U10, where friction, gravity, electrostatic and magnetic forces are named, including forces acting without contact.
• The inquiry cycle keeps its six-code shape at VC2S4I01 to VC2S4I06, but three qualifiers change: measurement becomes formal rather than informal, fair testing appears at VC2S4I05, and VC2S4I06 asks for communication to an identified purpose and audience. That last one is where written scientific texts effectively become unavoidable, having been optional across the whole F–2 band.

Splitting the band across three years

Victoria does not do this for you, and the VCAA site will not tell you which level a code belongs to, because officially none of them belong to one. This is a workable split that keeps the inquiry cycle running every year and puts each Understanding code where the language demand is manageable.

1. Foundation: observe and group. VC2S2U01 (features and grouping), VC2S2U04 (objects and materials), VC2S2U10 (how things move). Inquiry at VC2S2I01, I02 and I06 only, kept oral and concrete. VC2S2H01 named informally each time a magnifying glass comes out. Three Understanding codes in a year is the right load when most of the effort is going into the routine rather than the content.
2. Level 1: needs, weather and forces. VC2S2U02 (basic needs and habitats), VC2S2U07 (daily and seasonal change), VC2S2U11 (pushes and pulls). Add VC2S2I03 recording with informal measurement and VC2S2I05 comparing with predictions, which is the year’s main new skill and pairs naturally with forces because ramps produce surprises. Weather sits here because it needs a full year of repeated observation to show a pattern at all.
3. Level 2: function, change and the sky. VC2S2U03 (features and their functions), VC2S2U05 (combining materials), VC2S2U06 (physical change), VC2S2U08 (the solar system), VC2S2U09 (caring for Earth’s resources), VC2S2U12 (sound). Add VC2S2I04, sorting data into provided organisers, and VC2S2H02. This is the heavy year by design: six Understanding codes, all of which need the vocabulary and the inquiry routine built in the two years before.

The two decisions worth defending if a reviewer asks. VC2S2U03 sits at Level 2 rather than alongside U01 because structure and function needs the causal language that a five-year-old mostly does not have yet, and pairing it with U01 tempts everyone into treating it as labelling. VC2S2U09 sits at Level 2 because reducing and re-using is empty without VC2S2U04 and U06 giving a child some sense of what a material is and what happens to it.

Five checks before Level 3

• Give a mixed set of animal pictures, ask for two groups, then ask why. A rule about something visible means VC2S2U01 is secure. “Because these ones live on a farm” means the child is sorting by prior knowledge, not by observed features.
• Point at a feature on an unfamiliar animal and ask what it is probably for. Any reasonable survival answer is VC2S2U03. A name with no function means it is still labelling.
• Squash a ball of foil and ask whether it is still foil. A confident yes covers both VC2S2U04 and VC2S2U06. Hesitation means the object and material distinction has not landed and Level 3’s change of state work will not have a foundation.
• Before a test, ask what will happen; afterwards, ask whether that is what they said. Honest recall of a wrong prediction is VC2S2I05, and rewriting history is a teaching problem rather than a child problem.
• Ask them to explain a result to somebody who was not there. Two or three connected sentences using the words from the investigation is VC2S2I06 at band level, and it is the direct prerequisite for the audience-aware communication that VC2S4I06 requires.

Records and evidence

Banded codes make record keeping harder, not easier, because the obligation is to show the whole band covered by the end of Level 2 rather than a tidy year’s worth. For a VRQA registration portfolio this means keeping a running band map: twenty codes down one side, and the date and activity against each. Science at this level also produces very little paper, so photographs of the sort, the ramp and the materials collection, captioned with the code and the date, are worth more than a worksheet. “Science: floating and sinking” tells a reviewer nothing. “VC2S2I01 and VC2S2I05, predicted and compared, ramp investigation, 14 August” answers the question before it is asked. Our Victorian homeschooling resources guide and state-by-state registration requirements cover what VRQA reviewers actually ask for. If you are working to the national codes instead, the equivalent is our guide to the Foundation Science AC9 codes, and which curriculum your state uses settles which set applies to you.

The band is also where the wrapper matters most, because a five-year-old will spend twenty minutes grouping dinosaurs by their observable features and about four minutes grouping generic animal cards. The code is identical either way, and using an interest as the way in costs nothing in curriculum terms. Sprout Lessons builds an interactive lesson from any of these twenty codes, pitched at Foundation, Level 1 or Level 2, and wrapped in whatever the child is currently obsessed with, with the VC2 code recorded in the footer. Try it free.

Curriculum codes reference the Victorian Curriculum F–10 Version 2.0 © VCAA. The curriculum can be accessed directly at f10.vcaa.vic.edu.au. The VCAA does not endorse this product. Always verify against the current content descriptions and achievement standards.

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