Head of Curriculum
Reading and Viewing in Australian Curriculum V9 and English Reporting
In 2025, we have fully implemented Version 9 of the Australian Curriculum in English and Mathematics.
The structure of the English learning area Achievement Standard differs significantly from previous versions of the Australian Curriculum. The Achievement Standard has been reorganised into a three-paragraph structure relating to the assessable elements of Speaking and Listening, Reading and Viewing and Writing and Creating. Previously, the Achievement Standard was organised into Receptive and Productive Modes which incorporated Speaking, Listening, Reading, Viewing, Writing and Creating together.
This restructuring means a change to how we approach determining a student’s achievement of the assessable element of Reading and Viewing.
When undertaking Reading and Viewing assessment tasks in English, the expectation is that students independently read age-appropriate texts to demonstrate their knowledge, understanding and skills against the assessable element of Reading and Viewing.
Independently reading a text requires a student to both decode the words in a text and make meaning from printed text as illustrated in the Simple View of Reading.
Students who are unable to read age-appropriate texts independently may have reasonable adjustments to access texts in alternate formats made to support them to access curriculum and assessment (for example, text to speech; audio; text read aloud). This form of adjustment alters the task to a listening task, therefore changing the intent and assessable element of the task to Listening. Students with these adjustments may not achieve a ‘C’ or above in the assessable element of Reading and Viewing.
When reporting, teachers make an on-balance judgement about a folio of student work to determine and overall level of achievement for English. A folio of English tasks over a semester includes all three assessable elements: Speaking and Listening, Reading and Viewing and Writing and Creating. Summative assessment tasks that relate to the Reading and Viewing assessable element form one part of a student’s assessment folio.