Victorian Curriculum vs the Australian Curriculum: What’s the Difference?

If you teach or homeschool in Victoria, one question comes up constantly: is the Victorian Curriculum the same as the Australian Curriculum, and does it matter which one you plan from? The short answer is that they are closely related but not identical, and for a Victorian classroom or a VRQA registration the Victorian Curriculum is the one that counts. This guide explains what the Victorian Curriculum F–10 (version 2.0) is, how it differs from the national Australian Curriculum, and how to make sure the lessons you use are aligned to the right one.

What is the Victorian Curriculum F–10?

The Victorian Curriculum F–10 is the mandated curriculum for every government and Catholic school in Victoria, set by the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA). Version 2.0 is the current update, rolled out so that schools teach the revised English and Mathematics content, with other learning areas following. It is built on the national Australian Curriculum, but the VCAA adapts it for Victorian schools rather than adopting it word for word. For a full tour of how the framework itself is organised, see the Victorian Curriculum F–10 explained.

It covers the eight learning areas — English, Mathematics, Science, The Humanities, Health and Physical Education, The Arts, Technologies and Languages — plus a set of Capabilities (Critical and Creative Thinking, Ethical, Intercultural, and Personal and Social) that are taught across subjects rather than as standalone classes.

How the Victorian Curriculum differs from the Australian Curriculum

Most of the content is recognisably the same, because Victoria starts from the national document. The differences are structural, and they are exactly the things that trip up a resource built for the wrong framework:

• Levels, not year levels. The Victorian Curriculum describes achievement in “Levels” from Foundation to Level 10 (with a “Level 10A” for optional Mathematics extension). In practice a Level maps to a year, but the language and the achievement standards are Victoria’s own.
• Banded subjects. Subjects like The Arts and Technologies place their content on two-year bands — Foundation–2, 3–4, 5–6, 7–8 and 9–10 — while English, Mathematics and Science sit on single levels. A resource that assumes a single year level for every subject will not line up cleanly.
• Capabilities are first-class. The four Capabilities have their own content and are assessed, which is a heavier emphasis than the national version’s general capabilities.
• Different codes. Victorian content descriptions carry VCAA codes (for example VCMNA107 in Mathematics), not the national AC9 codes. If you are keeping records for a Victorian audience, those are the codes that belong in your documentation.

Which one should you plan from in Victoria?

For a Victorian school, the Victorian Curriculum, because it is the mandated framework and your reporting uses its Levels and achievement standards. For a Victorian homeschooling family, your VRQA learning plan is written against the eight learning areas as Victoria defines them — we cover the practical side of that in our guide to homeschool resources in Victoria. The Australian Curriculum is still a useful reference, but it is not the document you are formally accountable to here.

This is where generic, imported resources quietly cost you time. A worksheet built for the national curriculum — or worse, a US grade level — needs cross-checking against the Victorian Levels before you can trust it, and the checking often eats the time the resource was meant to save. It is the same problem we describe in the case against generic worksheets: material that almost fits is its own kind of work.

Making lessons that are actually aligned to the Victorian Curriculum

The cleanest fix is to generate lessons against the Victorian Curriculum directly rather than adapting something built for elsewhere. Sprout Lessons now lets you pick your framework — the Australian Curriculum v9, the Victorian Curriculum F–10 (v2.0) or the NSW syllabuses — before it generates. Choose Victorian Curriculum, set the Level and learning area, and the lesson is grounded in the matching VCAA outcomes, with the specific codes recorded in the footer for your records.

Because Sprout also builds the lesson around what the student loves, you get curriculum fit and engagement in the same step. A Level 5 Melbourne student obsessed with the AFL can cover the Victorian Curriculum’s data strand through real-looking ladder and player statistics — the approach we describe in teaching maths through what students love — while the alignment stays exactly on the Victorian standard.

In short: the Victorian Curriculum is the Australian Curriculum reshaped for Victoria, with its own Levels, bands, Capabilities and codes, and it is the one that governs classrooms and home-education plans in the state. Anchor your planning to it, check that any resource is genuinely Victorian rather than merely Australian or American, and let a tool that supports the framework do the alignment for you. If you want to see a lesson built to the Victorian Curriculum around your own student’s interests, try Sprout free — new accounts start with free lessons.

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