Rationale
In a world that is increasingly culturally diverse and dynamically interconnected, it is important that students come to understand their world, past and present, and develop a capacity to respond to challenges, now and in the future, in innovative, informed, personal and collective ways.Aims
The F–6/7 Australian Curriculum for Humanities and Social Sciences aims to ensure that students develop:a sense of wonder, curiosity and respect about places, people, cultures and systems throughout the world, past and present, and an interest in and enjoyment of the study of these phenomena
Structure
The Australian Curriculum: Humanities and Social Sciences may be implemented as a combined F–6 program or as an F–7 program. The F–6/7 curriculum is organised into two interrelated strands: knowledge and understanding and inquiry and skills.PDF documents
Resources and support materials for the Australian Curriculum: Humanities and Social Sciences F-6/7 are available as PDF documents.F-6/7 HASS - Combined Sequence of Content
F-6/7 HASS - Combined Sequence of Achievement
Glossary
Foundation Year
Foundation Year Level Description
My personal world
The Foundation curriculum focuses on developing students’ understanding of their personal worlds, including their personal and family histories and the places they and their families live in and belong to. The emphasis is on the student’s own history and their own place. They explore why places are special to them and others. As students explore the people and features of their social and physical worlds, they examine representations of place and sources, which may include stories from family members and from different cultures. They may also study places of similar size that are familiar to them or that they are curious about, coming to see how people feel about and look after places. Learning about their own heritage and their own place contributes to students’ sense of identity and belonging, beginning the idea of active citizenship.
The content provides opportunities for students to begin to develop humanities and social sciences understanding through key concepts including significance, continuity and change, place and space and perspectives. These concepts may provide a focus for inquiries and be investigated across sub-strands or within a particular sub-strand context.
The content at this year level is organised into two strands: knowledge and understanding, and inquiry and skills. The knowledge and understanding strand draws from two sub-strands: history and geography. These strands (knowledge and understanding, and inquiry and skills) are interrelated and have been developed to be taught in an integrated way, which may include integrating with content from the sub-strands and from other learning areas, and in ways that are appropriate to specific local contexts. The order and detail in which they are taught are programming decisions.
Inquiry Questions
A framework for developing students’ knowledge, understanding and skills is provided by inquiry questions. The following inquiry questions allow for connections to be made across the sub-strands and may be used or adapted to suit local contexts: inquiry questions are also provided for each sub-strand that may enable connections within the humanities and social sciences learning area or across other learning areas.
- Who am I, where do I live and who came before me?
- Why are some places and events special and how do we know?
Foundation Year Content Descriptions
Questioning
Researching
Analysing
Evaluating and reflecting
Communicating
History
Concepts for developing understanding
The content in the history sub-strand in this year gives students opportunities to develop historical understanding through key concepts including continuity and change, perspectives, empathy and significance. Through studies of their family, familiar people and their own history, students look at evidence of the past, exposing them to an early understanding that the past is different from the present (continuity and change). They come to understand why some events are important in their own and others’ lives (significance), and how different people commemorate events that are important to them (empathy, perspectives).
Inquiry Questions
- What is my history and how do I know?
- What stories do other people tell about the past?
- How can stories of the past be told and shared?
Geography
Concepts for developing understanding
The content in the geography sub-strand provides ways of developing students’ understanding of place, space and environment. Students explore the place they live in and belong to, and learn to observe and describe its features, and why it is important to them. They explore their own special places, how they feel about them, what makes them special, and how they can care for them (place, environment). They learn that their place is also the place of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Peoples (place). The idea of location is introduced through learning about representations on which places can be located and drawing story maps and creating models to show where familiar places and features are located (space).
Inquiry Questions
- What are places like?
- What makes a place special?
- How can we look after the places we live in?
Foundation Year Achievement Standards
By the end of Foundation Year, students identify important events in their own lives and recognise why some places are special to people. They describe the features of familiar places and recognise that places can be represented on maps and models. They identify how they, their families and friends know about their past and commemorate events that are important to them.
Students respond to questions about their own past and places they belong to. They sequence familiar events in order. They observe the familiar features of places and represent these features and their location on pictorial maps and models. They reflect on their learning to suggest ways they can care for a familiar place. Students relate stories about their past and share and compare observations about familiar places.
By the end of the Foundation year, students identify important events in their own lives. They identify how they, their families and friends know about their past and commemorate events that are important to them.
Students sequence familiar events in order. They respond to questions about their own past. Students relate a story about their past using a range of texts.
By the end of Foundation Year, students describe the features of familiar places and recognise why some places are special to people. They recognise that places can be represented on maps and a globe and why places are important to people.
Students observe the familiar features of places and represent these features and their location on pictorial maps and models. They share and compare observations in a range of texts and use everyday language to describe direction and location. Students reflect on their learning to suggest ways they can care for a familiar place.
Foundation Year Work Sample Portfolios
Year 1
Year 1 Level Description
How my world is different from the past and can change in the future
The Year 1 curriculum provides a study of the recent past, the present and the near future within the context of the student’s own world. Students are given opportunities to explore how changes occur over time in relation to themselves, their own families, and the places they and others belong to. They examine their daily family life and how it is the same as and different to previous generations. They investigate their place and other places, their natural, managed and constructed features, and the activities located in them. They explore daily and seasonal weather patterns and how different groups describe them. They anticipate near future events such as personal milestones and seasons. The idea of active citizenship is introduced as students explore family roles and responsibilities and ways people care for places.
The content provides opportunities for students to develop humanities and social sciences understanding through key concepts including significance; continuity and change; place and space; roles, rights and responsibilities; and perspectives and action. These concepts may provide a focus for inquiries and be investigated across sub-strands or within a particular sub-strand context.
The content at this year level is organised into two strands: knowledge and understanding, and inquiry and skills. The knowledge and understanding strand draws from two sub-strands: history and geography. These strands (knowledge and understanding, and inquiry and skills) are interrelated and have been developed to be taught in an integrated way, which may include integrating with content from the sub-strands and from other learning areas, and in ways that are appropriate to specific local contexts. The order and detail in which they are taught are programming decisions.
Inquiry Questions
A framework for developing students’ knowledge, understanding and skills is provided by inquiry questions. The following inquiry questions allow for connections to be made across the sub-strands and may be used or adapted to suit local contexts: inquiry questions are also provided for each sub-strand that may enable connections within the humanities and social sciences learning area or across other learning areas.
- How has family life and the place we live in changed over time?
- What events, activities and places do I care about? Why?
Year 1 Content Descriptions
Questioning
Researching
Analysing
Evaluating and reflecting
Communicating
History
Concepts for developing understanding
The content in the history sub-strand provides opportunities for students to develop historical understanding through key concepts including continuity and change, perspectives, empathy and significance. The content for this year focuses on similarities and differences in family life over recent time (continuity and change, perspectives) and how people may have lived differently in the past (empathy). Students’ understanding is further developed as they consider dates and changes that have personal significance (significance). As students continue to explore the past and the present, they begin to speculate about the future (continuity and change).
Inquiry Questions
- How has family life changed or remained the same over time?
- How can we show that the present is different from or similar to the past?
- How do we describe the sequence of time?
Geography
Concepts for developing understanding
The content in the geography sub-strand provides opportunities to develop students’ understanding of place, space, environment and change. Students learn about the natural, managed and constructed features of places and how these features provide evidence of change (place, environment, change). Students understand that important activities are located in places and explore where they are located, and why (space). Students study the daily and seasonal weather patterns of their place and of other places, including how seasonal change is perceived by different cultures (place, environment). They come to understand how places are cared for (environment).
Inquiry Questions
- What are the different features of places?
- How can we care for places?
- How have the features of places changed?
Year 1 Achievement Standards
By the end of Year 1, students identify and describe important dates and changes in their own lives. They explain how some aspects of daily life have changed over recent time while others have remained the same. They identify and describe the features of places and their location at a local scale and identify changes to the features of places. They recognise that people describe the features of places differently and describe how places can be cared for.
Students respond to questions about the recent past and familiar and unfamiliar places by collecting and interpreting information and data from observations and from sources provided. They sequence personal and family events in order and represent the location of different places and their features on labelled maps. They reflect on their learning to suggest ways they can care for places. They share stories about the past, and present observations and findings using everyday terms to denote the passing of time and to describe direction and location.
By the end of Year 1, students identify and describe important dates and changes in their own lives. They explain how some aspects of daily life have changed over recent time while others have remained the same.
Students sequence personal and family events in order, using everyday terms about the passing of time. They respond to questions about the past using sources provided. Students relate stories about life in the past, using a range of texts.
By the end of Year 1, students identify and describe the natural, managed and constructed features of places at a local scale and identify where features of places are located. They recognise that people describe the features of places differently. Students identify changes in features and describe how to care for places.
Students respond to questions about familiar and unfamiliar places by locating and interpreting information from sources provided. They represent the location of different places and their features on labelled maps and present findings in a range of texts and use everyday language to describe direction and location. They reflect on their learning to suggest ways that places can be cared for.
Year 1 Work Sample Portfolios
Year 2
Year 2 Level Description
Our past and present connections to people and places
The Year 2 curriculum extends contexts for study beyond the personal to the community and to near and distant places that students are familiar with or aware of, exploring connections between the past and present and between people and places. Students examine remains of the past in their local area, coming to understand how connections have changed the lives of people over time and space and how their community values and preserves connections to the past. They study where they are located in the world and how the world is represented on maps and through place names that reveal the history and value of these places. Students explore other cultures’ connections to their local place and their own connections to distant places. Through a study of technological change, students see how they are both similar and different to people in the past and how they are connected to places near and far. The idea of citizenship is introduced as students think about how people are connected.
The content provides opportunities for students to develop humanities and social sciences understanding through key concepts including significance, continuity and change, cause and effect, place and space, interconnections and perspectives and action. These concepts may provide a focus for inquiries and be investigated across sub-strands or within a particular sub-strand context.
The content at this year level is organised into two strands: knowledge and understanding, and inquiry and skills. The knowledge and understanding strand draws from two sub-strands: history and geography. These strands (knowledge and understanding, and inquiry and skills) are interrelated and have been developed to be taught in an integrated way, which may include integrating with content from the sub-strands and from other learning areas, and in ways that are appropriate to specific local contexts. The order and detail in which they are taught are programming decisions.
Inquiry Questions
A framework for developing students’ knowledge, understanding and skills is provided by inquiry questions. The following inquiry questions allow for connections to be made across the sub-strands and may be used or adapted to suit local contexts: inquiry questions are also provided for each sub-strand that may enable connections within the humanities and social sciences learning area or across other learning areas.
- What does my place tell me about the past and present?
- How are people connected to their place and other places, past or present?
- How has technology affected daily life over time and the connections between people in different places?
Year 2 Content Descriptions
Questioning
Researching
Analysing
Evaluating and reflecting
Communicating
History
Concepts for developing understanding
The content in the history sub-strand provides opportunities for students to develop historical understanding through key concepts including continuity and change, cause and effect, perspectives, empathy and significance. Through studies of their local area, students explore, recognise and appreciate the history of their community. Students examine remains of the past and consider why they should be preserved (significance, cause and effect, perspectives). They examine the impact of technology of people’s lives (continuity and change, cause and effect), and speculate about people’s lives in the past to further develop their understanding that people lived differently in the past (continuity and change, perspectives, empathy).
Inquiry Questions
- What aspects of the past can you see today? What do they tell us?
- What remains of the past are important to the local community? Why?
- How have changes in technology shaped our daily life?
Geography
Concepts for developing understanding
The content in the geography sub-strand provides opportunities to develop students’ understanding of place, space, environment and interconnection. Students develop a mental map of the world by learning the major geographical divisions on Earth (place, space, environment) and where they are located in relation to Australia (space). Students learn about the hierarchy of scale by which places are defined – from the personal scale of their home to the national scale of their country (scale). Students explore how distance and accessibility influence how often they visit places, and for what purpose (space, interconnection) and investigate their links with places locally and throughout the world (interconnection). They see how places have meaning to people and the connection Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples have with Country/Place (place, environment, interconnection).
Inquiry Questions
- What is a place?
- How are people connected to their place and other places?
- What factors affect my connection to places?
Year 2 Achievement Standards
By the end of Year 2, students describe a person, site and/or event of significance in the local community and explain why places are important to people. They identify how and why the lives of people have changed over time while others have remained the same. They recognise that the world is divided into geographic divisions and that places can be described at different scales. Students describe how people in different places are connected to each other and identify factors that influence these connections. They recognise that places have different meaning for different people and why the significant features of places should be preserved.
Students pose questions about the past and familiar and unfamiliar objects and places. They locate information from observations and from sources provided. They compare objects from the past and present and interpret information and data to identify a point of view and draw simple conclusions. They sequence familiar objects and events in order and sort and record data in tables, plans and on labelled maps. They reflect on their learning to suggest ways to care for places and sites of significance. Students develop narratives about the past and communicate findings in a range of texts using language to describe direction, location and the passing of time.
By the end of Year 2, students describe a person, site and/or event of significance in the local community. They identify how and why the lives of people have changed over time while others have remained the same.
Students sequence events in order, using a range of terms related to time. They pose questions about the past and use sources provided to answer these questions and to identify a point of view. They compare objects from the past and present. Students develop a narrative about the past using a range of texts.
By the end of Year 2, students identify the features that define places and recognise that places can be described at different scales. Students recognise that the world can be divided into major geographical divisions. They describe how people in different places are connected to each other and identify factors that influence these connections. They explain why places are important to people, recognising that places have meaning.
Students pose questions about familiar and unfamiliar places and answer them by locating information from observations and from sources provided. They represent data and the location of places and their features in tables, plans and on labelled maps. They interpret geographical information to draw conclusions. Students present findings in a range of texts and use simple geographical terms to describe the direction and location of places. They suggest action in response to the findings of their inquiry.