Your+views+Eve+03

Your Views
What do **//you//** think should be in the curriculum?

Please use your name as a subheading and ensure you include a justification of your view.

My views Lisa Hitchcock

I think the content in the curriculum should remain, but as is the case with what we do in schools there can be continuous improvement of the curriculum. Schools should have an input into the curriculum at a local level and should be able to have relevant local content to best suit their students and community. This would be beneficial not only to the students but the community as they would be exposed to what is relevant to their locale.

More financial literacy and life skills should be included to allow students to leave school and be able to function in the community in regards to their banking, insurance, taxation, government/community organisations and housing. Giving them the knowledge or how and where to go for assistance. I believe this would be beneficial for students and the community to have students prepared for what they need to not only survive but thrive in society.


 * My Opinion Rosemary White **

I believe that we are on the right track with what is being taught in schools at the moment. A good blend of literacy, numeracy, and life skills should be a priority; things like Art and ICT can provide life skills like problem solving and communication. I think as teachers we need to keep a balance of traditional information so our students have respect for the past and up to date topics to maintain children’s interest.


 * __MY VIEWS - Jess Beer__**

I think that the curriculum is pretty broad and covers a lot of vital and interesting areas. I believe that if teachers stick to the basic curriculum standards and then try to broaden it to the individual needs of their classroom it can work really well as a frame to work within. I agree that literacy is the most important area of the curriculum, because we cannot teach anything without basic literacy abilities. Numeracy is also very important and I think that after doing the student interviews, teachers can incorporate both literacy and numeracy into the curriculum in a way that isn't so old school and a way that is not boring to the class. From my experience, science is an area that is sometimes left behind, I have seen many schools who don't incorporate direct science classes into their regular curriculum, my primary school was one of these, and when I got to high school I had no grasp on any sort of science. This means that students interested in a science based career are left behind from a young age. I also believe science can be incorporated into varied lessons. Overall I think that the curriculum needs to be a diverse one and teachers need to be ever learning how to mix it up and make it interesting for the students.

**An understanding of our history is important. We have come a long way in a short time. We have earned a significant place in the world and children should know this and be proud of who we are. A knowledge of world history will assist students to understand our place in the world society and hopefully to be tolerant of other cultures. ** **Science and technology are also essential in a world that moves forward with great speed every day. The world runs on technology which changes and evolves constantly and our children need to have at the very least a basic understanding of how. ** **The arts – visual art, drama, dance, and music will allow our children to express themselves in very individual ways. It will give them the opportunity to create something unique to them. **
 * My Views – Mahala Pirpiris 26/7/2010 **
 * I believe our curriculum needs to reflect our past and keep its eye on the future. Literacy, numeracy and grammar are critical skills for Australian children if they are to be ready for and able to function in, our future world. **
 * I believe we owe it to children to give them these opportunities. A curriculum with diversity will allow us to teach them to learn, to explore and question so they will be ready and equipped to make decisions and live in a modern world. Not to be frightened of failure. For my part, I want to show my students how wonderful it is to learn something new and hopefully spark a lifelong love of learning in one of these areas. **

Part3: What do you think should be in the curriculum? I think we should include nutrition/health in the curriculum; which is inclusive of food preparation and cooking. There are a large number of people in the population who now suffer illness as a result of poor eating practices. Many families consume take-away, and as a result of this, our population is becoming over-weight and ill. By incorporating this into the curriculum, children will learn life skills, which they can take into the adult world. I believe if we create opportunities in our curriculum to educate students on this topic; in the future we will have a healthier population of people; who have a better quality of life. Driver education - I am a strong believer of making this compulsory in the curriculum. I think students need to be exposed to a range of road surfaces, including gravel. If students and the population in general learn how to drive on gravel roads, I feel there would be fewer accidents. Many of us get used to driving on bitumen surfaces, and trouble can occur when we are forced to leave the bitumen and go into the gravel, lots of people panic; I see this time and time again on The Great Ocean Road. Don’t worry, I have also been guilty of this, it is very daunting when you are faced with an oncoming log truck and you are forced off the road. So I believe if we include this in the curriculum, the benefits would be fantastic for not only our students but all road users. Finance education should be included in the curriculum. Students should be exposed to a large range of financial scenarios, they should be taught about interest, loans, higher purchase, credit cards and the interest which they entail. Debt is a huge problem in our society. I believe if we educate our students about finances when they are at school, it may save them from misfortune in the future. I believe students should have the opportunity to learn the arts and music regardless of cost. I feel if a student wishes to learn a musical instrument, and their family cannot afford it, they should not be deprived of the opportunity to learn. The same can be said for dance and sporting opportunities. I still believe it important to include the domains which are in the current curriculum. I feel these are great foundations, which create cross curriculum learning opportunities, to further enhance students learning. (Leeanne Marriner)

Part 3- My views I think the Australian curriculum should be well balanced, including subjects that provide and cover the needs and abilities of all individual students. A focus on literacy skills is very important because it can positively affect so many different areas of one's life. A lot of aspects in life rely on this ability. Apart from the academic subjects, I think Health/Nutrition education is vital and should be included in the curriculum. It would be extremely beneficial to educate students about healthy eating, nutrition and regular exercise. If schools expose students to these things it may help them make healthy choices. Life skills is also a critical aspect of society and if incorporated it would be extremely beneficial as it will educate student about social skills, communicating skills, the importance of working as a team, problem solving skills and general living skills. Some children need extra modelling for these skills in order to understand and make meaning of them. (Hawraa Al Mosawy)


 * MY VIEWS **

Really hard question to answer, what is good for one person, may not be for the next. I think the curriculum needs to have a solid foundation of core subjects, but also have flexibility for change in society. ICT was not a subject when I was at school; however with such a fast moving world, it is now an essential part of our learning and communicating. A mother from the school my children attend believes typing should be taught, Children need to learn to touch type and have better posture. Because of the problem of obesity in today’s society I think nutrition could be focused on more. I have seen in my experiences with kinder and early primary years, teacher touch on this subject but it does not even scratch the surface. Programs such as ‘Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program’, where the students are taught to grow the produce, take it into class, cook it and sample their creations together. If children are exposed to fresh produce, and have a chance to explore it, then this will engage them to look for the healthy choice and give them the opportunity to sample good food that they may not get a chance to try at home. I personally am quite happy with the curriculum, my children are engaged and interested in what they learning and I have no doubt that it comes down to effective teaching. ( Narelle Pitts )


 * My Views (Erin Sell)**

I think that the curriculum that has been developed in various states in Australia contains a large variety of learning areas and contains important learning outcomes for each subject area. I feel that literacy is such an important area that needs to be covered and where time needs to be spent, as literacy skills are used by students in all areas of the curriculum. After undertaking weekly placement in a school, I am aware of what teachers are teaching within their classrooms, and believe that they are doing a fantastic job at trying to ensure that all students are learning new skills to the best of their ability. I feel that areas such as science and art are missing within the classroom, and feel that these subjets can have great benefits for students to be creative and also use lteracy skills when writing about and discussing what they have made or discovered and what they have learned. After also asking students questions, it also made me more aware of what they are interested in, and this could assist teachers when thinking about creative ways to teach important skills such as within literacy and numeracy.

Part 3: Your views I think that literacy and numeracy should be core to the curriculum as they are subjects that will provide the foundations for being able to make meaning of, participate and communicate in society. I also believe that art, science and history should be included in the curriculum. Art as it helps us to understand self, science as it helps us to understand the world around us, and history as it helps us to understand where we have come from. I believe that all of these subjects should be taught from a global perspective so that students become aware of the role that they play as global citizens. -Kim Rae

My View - Thomasina Ramsden
====Literacy and numeracy are an integral part in Australia's curriculum. Each subject that is integrated into the curriculum needs to work in conjunction with the skills and levels obtained in other learning areas. I think students would benefit from more Art, drama, dance lessons, this would enable some students to express themselves in different ways. It would also be beneficial to provide students with life skills such as, personal finance, time management skills, social skills and appropriate communication skills - these would help lay the foundations for students now and in the future, providing them with a holistic educational experience. ==== What do I think should be in the curriculum and my reasons? I don’t think that anyone would try and say that literacy or numeracy aren’t important parts of a school curriculum but there are lots of important subjects. I think that the curriculum should be well rounded including bits of everything that is relevant to the age of the children. For example preps and grade 1 children would benefit from more arts subjects so they can express themselves fully because they are less likely to be able to do this through writing like older children can. Older children would probably benefit more from computer science than preps would because they usually understand more about how they work, computer programs, and the internet. We need to include bits of all subjects to offer children the opportunity to realise their full potential in every subject. But as we have an already cramped curriculum I think we (the teachers of the next generation) need to find ways of interconnecting a few subjects into the one lesson. Rachelle Collins

What do I think should be in the curriculum? Jenni Hogan Yes, like most others Literacy is an absolute must. When children start in Prep heaps of different strategies must be used to engage the kids and find out what learning style suits who. The strategies they learn in Literacy helps in so many other parts of the curriculum. It is a vital tool that is used worldwide and essential for good communication skills. Mathematics also to a certain extent but I would not include it as a compulsory subject at Year 12 level as with English. Science, Geography, History and Art are also important subjects to be part of the curriculum. I think the big ask is on the teachers to be creative. Use strategies and their knowledge to engage their students and make all their activities worthwhile. Link many ideas with their local community so it has more meaning. Even if a child has not been exposed to these areas previously a good teacher could make all the difference to open up new areas for these kids. Starting in the early years lifeskills should be taught. Many students come to school today expected to be engaged in activities when they haven't eaten breakfast, have been watching television before school, haven't bathed and are suffering from the lack of sleep. Nutrition, hygiene, health and even garden, such as the Stephanie Alexander Garden program should be part of the curriculum. As different subject matter can have such varying significance in individual needs and interests there should be many electives in Secondary Schools to cater for all.

**My Views- Emily Oliver **
I think the National Curriculum gives an overview of essential learning skills that students need to be taught to function effectively in today's society. However teachers need to be creative in engaging students to learn based on their individual learning needs, and adapt programs in the classroom that cater for the diversity of personality types and the like. In this way a teacher can be a more effective educator.

My Views - Natalie Lonsdale
I believe the basics literacy, maths, science and history etc should continue to be taught. I would like to see other languages being offered earlier, even in early childhood. I think as students advance into the older grades, more practical lessons should be taught. Things like finance - how to budget and even invest, and a bigger emphasis on healthy eating and cooking - we could have Masterchef activities in the classroom! I also think that it would be great if the arts were promoted more and opportunities for children to actually participate in activities such as film/documentary making, photography and even writing with opportunities to be published. Activities that offer students entry into these areas that they might otherwise never know exist or believe they can do. I would also like to see multiple intelligences being recognised and catered for in every subject.