Art
Engaging in quality arts experiences enriches our social and emotional well-being, develops imagination and creativity, and allows us to reach our intellectual potential. Each arts subject in the Australian Curriculum offers learners unique languages, knowledge, and practices to explore, question, collaborate, and communicate ideas, emotions, and experiences. Arts learning promotes understanding of cultural diversity, strengthens critical intercultural understandings, and encourages communication of meaningful ideas through conventional and innovative art forms. The Arts foster creative, confident, compassionate, and resilient individuals capable of making a difference in sustaining and reimagining their communities' futures. Students explore drama through various stimuli and connect with the community’s creators and performers to develop aesthetic knowledge across cognitive, sensory, emotive, and physical domains.
In this band, the focus is on students:
- works and experiences that showcase where, why and how drama is created, performed and used across cultures, times, places and/or other contexts; for example, participating in drama events as performer and audience
- examples of drama created and/or performed by First Nations Australians that communicate connection to and responsibility for Country/Place
- creative practices for creating and performing drama using elements of drama such as role, situation, language, place, movement, character, relationships, voice and time
- creating drama in improvised and devised forms such as dramatic play, process drama, puppetry, improvisation, Readers’ Theatre, mime and movement, and/or basic play-building
performing drama in informal settings such as spaces within the school.
Students explore media arts at home, school, and events, connecting with local media artists through in-person or online screenings and exhibitions. They use stimulus materials for inspiration, developing aesthetic knowledge across domains and valuing diverse cultural practices.
English
The English curriculum exposes students to literature from diverse cultural, historical and social contexts, allowing them to engage critically and imaginatively with literature and appreciate its aesthetic qualities. This helps them understand themselves and their place in the world. The curriculum is built around three interrelated strands of language, literature and literacy that focus on developing listening, reading, viewing, speaking, writing and creating skills.
In Year 3, students use various forms of communication for a purpose, engage with a range of texts for enjoyment and to develop as independent readers. These texts include informative and literary texts that use varied sentence structures, unfamiliar vocabulary, a significant number of high-frequency words, various punctuation conventions, and illustrations and diagrams that extend the printed text. By studying English, students become informed, ethical, perceptive, innovative, and active members of society, ready to take responsibility for Australia’s future.
Year 3 students create imaginative, informative and persuasive types of texts, which may include narratives, procedures, performances, reports, reviews, poetry and argument for particular purposes and audiences.
Humanities
HASS in Year 3 covers History, Geography, Civics and Citizenship, and Economics and Business. It encourages students to appreciate diversity and their contribution to their community. Students learn to think critically, consider perspectives, and communicate effectively. They explore the causes, events, and people involved in change in their community over time. They investigate the significance of different events, symbols, and emblems in Australia, and learn about Australia’s neighbouring countries. Students also develop an understanding of the importance of rules and how individuals participate in and contribute to their community. By connecting to key knowledge and understandings outlined in the curriculum, students develop a range of skills and apply these when investigating historical, geographical, civic, and economic and business contexts relevant to their lives. Through this, they gain a deep understanding of the world they live in, past and present.
Inquiry questions provide a framework for developing students’ knowledge, understanding and skills. They allow for connections to be made within and across the HASS sub-strands or with other learning areas. The following inquiry questions are examples only and may be used or adapted to suit local contexts.
- How do symbols, events, individuals and places in my community make it unique?
- How do people contribute to their communities, past and present?
- How are people in Australia connected to places, and what are the similarities and differences between those places?
Mathematics
Mathematics is a crucial subject that provides students with essential knowledge, skills and processes in number, algebra, measurement, space, statistics, and probability. It develops students' numeracy capabilities and provides the foundation for mathematical specialties and applications. The curriculum provides students with opportunities to develop mathematical proficiency, fluency with concepts, skills, and processes, and an appreciation for mathematical reasoning. Mathematics plays an important role in building students' pattern recognition, spatial reasoning, and logical thinking. It is integral to developing STEM competencies such as design and computational thinking, problem-solving, and collaboration skills. Through practice, inquiry, and active participation, teachers can help students become confident, self-motivated learners.
Students further develop proficiency and positive dispositions towards mathematics and they:
- become increasingly aware of the usefulness of mathematics to model situations and solve practical problems
- recognise that mathematics has conventions and language enabling the unambiguous communication of ideas
- experience the power of being able to manipulate numbers using a range of strategies that are based on proficiency with single-digit addition facts and their understanding of place value in the base-10 number system, partitioning and regrouping
- begin to apply their understanding of algorithms and technology to experiment with numbers and recognise patterns
- develop, extend and apply their addition and multiplication facts and related facts for subtraction and division through recognising connections between operations develop automaticity for 3, 4, 5, and 10 multiplication facts through games and meaningful practice
- learn to formulate, choose and use calculation strategies, communicating their solutions within a modelling context. Use metric units to measure and compare objects and events
- recognise the relationship between dollars and cents and learn to represent money values in different ways
- determine key features of objects and spaces, and use these when they build models and spatial representations
- develop a qualitative understanding of chance and use the language of chance to describe and compare the outcomes of familiar chance events
- become increasingly able to understand that different outcomes can be the results of random processes.
Year 3 mathematics builds on prior learning and experiences, enabling students to respond to familiar and unfamiliar situations by employing mathematical strategies to make informed decisions and solve problems efficiently.
Science
In Year 3 students explore the value of grouping and classifying objects and events based on similarities and differences. In classifying things as living or non-living they begin to recognise that classifications are not always easy to define or apply. Students contrast patterns of growth and change in living things; compare characteristics of soils, rocks and minerals; and classify states of matter. They learn that key processes such as heat transfer can cause predictable change in simple systems. They recognise that change is described and measured in terms of differences over time and begin to quantify their observations to enable comparison. They learn more-sophisticated ways of identifying and representing relationships, including the use of tables and graphs to identify patterns and relationships. They appreciate that science involves conducting fair tests to answer questions or test predictions, and that scientific explanations are based on data.
Inquiry questions can help excite students’ curiosity and challenge their thinking. Following are examples of inquiry questions that could be used to prompt discussion and exploration:
- Do plants, birds and frogs grow up too?
- Is soil alive?
- Is jelly a liquid or a solid?
- Why is a spoon hot in soup and cold in ice cream?
- Can you do science without a fair test?
Science education develops students' knowledge, skills, and curiosity to engage with scientific concepts and make informed decisions about societal issues. It also enhances their problem-solving and collaboration abilities, leading to a diverse and capable STEM workforce and access to careers within or outside STEM fields.
Tarbiyah
The educational philosophy of the year 3 Tarbiyah program is based on the authentic guidance from the Quran and Sunnah. The curriculum is sequenced in a manner that best suits children growing up in the context of Western culture. Dedicated to the integrative element of Allah sawt’s attributes, the syllabus allows students to understand the profound connection between the Creator and the creation. Students’ moral, social, spiritual, and intellectual development takes place through daily Tarbiyah practices related to Islamic etiquettes, cleanliness, and respecting others. A critical analysis of the story of Habil and Qabil aims to highlight the importance of self-correction, and purification thus enabling students to distinguish evil from righteousness. The opportunity to establish regular prayer is achieved by exploring this vital pillar of Islam in good length and facilitating students’ understanding towards the rewards and punishment associated with prayer. Incorporating the story of the companions of the cave (derived from the Quran) helps students realise that youth in worship is highly favoured by Allah swt. Through the inclusion of the biography of the Prophet Muhammad PBUH, students learn about the iconic events such as the Boycott, Isra & Mairaj, and some great military accomplishments of Islamic history. It motivates them to internalise the significance of strategic thinking, organisational reformation, heroic stance amidst tough circumstances and having a revolutionary mindset.
The Year level 3 Tarbiyah curriculum involves the transmission of values, knowledge, and personality development based on the guidance from the Quran and Sunnah. The topics sequenced in this year’s level highlight the modelling of Islamic values such as upholding cleanliness, establishing prayer, respect for others, obedience towards parents and elders, etiquette of eating and drinking, and socialising etc. To awaken a sense of balance between the worldly life and the Hereafter, a comparison between deeds that lead to paradise and hell is highlighted so that students are empowered to make conscious choices in life. Keeping in perspective the moral training of the students, the topic of TV, games and the internet is integrated in the syllabus so that students achieve an accentuated sense of responsibility and God consciousness. In addition, the sacred Seerah of the Prophet Muhammad PBUH is centred on extended discussion with peers and the teacher to build meaningful connections between the knowledge acquired and its application outside the classroom.
Technologies
The Technologies curriculum provides students with knowledge and skills in traditional, contemporary, and emerging technologies to create innovative solutions while considering the impact of technological solutions on equity, ethics, and social values. Students engage in critical and creative thinking through experimentation, problem-solving, prototyping, and evaluation, instilling the value of planning and reviewing processes to transform ideas into solutions. This practical nature of the curriculum contributes to sustainable patterns of living and preferred futures for themselves and others. Additionally, learning in Technologies is crucial for a diverse and capable STEM workforce, and a trans disciplinary approach enhances students' scientific and mathematical literacy, design and computational thinking, problem-solving, and collaboration skills. Developing STEM competencies enables students to develop, model, analyse and improve solutions to real-world problems and supports access to further study and a variety of careers and jobs.
Health and Physical Education
Health and Physical Education teaches students to positively influence their own and their community’s health and wellbeing. It is crucial for young Australians to be healthy, safe, active, and informed citizens. The curriculum covers movement skills, concepts, and strategies across various physical activity contexts, helping students participate confidently and competently. Movement is a powerful medium for learning, enabling students to acquire personal, social, and cognitive skills that support lifelong physical activity and enhanced movement performance. Health and Physical Education also helps students develop personal and social skills and address factors that affect health, safety, relationships, wellbeing, and physical activity patterns. Students learn to challenge discrimination, assumptions, and stereotypes and take positive action regarding diversity, inclusion, consent, and respect in various social contexts.
Health and Physical Education is presented in 2-year band levels from Year 3 to Year 4.
Content in Health and Physical Education is organised under 2 strands that are interrelated and inform and support each other:
- Personal, social and community health
- Movement and physical activity
Excursions
Excursions are part of quality teaching and learning programs. School excursions are structured learning experiences provided or managed by the school, conducted on or external to the school site, as determined by the principal. Incursions are a type of excursion, conducted on the school site. Excursions provide educational value by supporting curriculum outcomes, in consideration of the needs and resources of the school, the needs of the students and the total learning program. Year level teams organise excursions to facilitate students’ learning about diverse topics under study during the term.
Excursions are inclusive. All students within a specific learning group are given the opportunity to participate, unless exceptional circumstances exist. Identifying and assessing risk needs are integrated into excursion planning to ensure appropriate risk management strategies are developed. An approved risk management plan is implemented at all stages of an excursion. Parents are informed through letters detailing the excursion schedule and are required to provide permission for students to participate in excursions, including activities during an excursion a medical information form and consent form.
