What’s New in the Victorian Visual Arts Curriculum? A Teacher-Friendly Breakdown
If you’ve been working with the Victorian Curriculum F–10 Visual Arts, you’ll be aware of the new Version 2.0. But what’s actually different, and how will it impact your teaching? Let’s break it down so you can focus on what really matters: delivering engaging, meaningful art lessons!
A Clearer Structure for Teaching
The old curriculum had broad learning areas, which sometimes made planning lessons a bit tricky. The new Version 2.0 introduces four distinct strands:
Exploring: Students engage with artworks as artists and audiences.
Developing Practices: Focuses on techniques, materials, and processes.
Creating: Students apply visual conventions to produce artworks.
Presenting: Covers exhibition design and curation (great for linking to VCE Art Making and Exhibiting).
This structure was designed to make it much easier to scaffold learning across different year levels while keeping the focus on both making and responding which is the core of creative practice.
Stronger Connection to Senior Secondary Pathways
Previously, the F–10 curriculum didn’t always feel connected to VCE Visual Arts. That’s changed. Now, achievement standards and content descriptions explicitly link to VCE Visual Arts, VCE Vocational Major (VM), and the Victorian Pathways Certificate (VPC).
There’s also a greater focus on folio development and documentation, which means students can start building the skills they’ll need for senior art studies earlier on.
If you’ve ever had students struggle with folio expectations in VCE, this update helps bridge that gap.
More Support for Teachers
Let’s be real, sometimes curriculum changes add extra workload. But this update includes more elaborations and teaching examples, hopefully, making it easier to plan lessons.
The refined Visual Arts glossary helps maintain consistent terminology across F–10 and VCE. The glossary can be found here: Visual Arts – Victorian Curriculum F–10
Want to dive deeper into the details? Head over to the official Victorian Curriculum F–10 website here.
