ACARA recognition for the Australian Steiner Curriculum Framework
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Great News!
Last night we received the official notification from ACARA that the submission for our Australian Steiner Curriculum Framework to be recognized as an alternate curriculum is now included for the Phase 1 subjects, English, Maths, History and Science on ACARA’s Recognition Register.
We have clearly shown that our framework meets the Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians and the Shape of the Australian Curriculum v3 paper, as well as comparable educational outcomes for students by the end of Year 10.
The Recognition Process was established to determine the extent to which a well-established alternative national curriculum framework can deliver comparable educational outcomes for students as those based on the Australian Curriculum.
After months of scrutiny, many meetings, conversations, emails and negotiations, ACARA recognise that in all four subjects we have comparable educational outcomes for students by the end of Year 10. In Science there were three areas which we place in Year 11 and these are noted.
In addition to the general statement as stated in the attached letter from Dr Peter Hill, there will be a link on the ACARA website which qualifies the areas where we address outcomes at different times. Most of these are of course in the digital and communication technologies aspects of the curriculum and ACARA have stated “Digital aspects of the Australian Curriculum content descriptions are addressed at a later stage by the Australian Steiner Curriculum Framework with all comparable by Year 8”.
It has been a privilege to work with Virginia Moller, our Curriculum Project Manager and Peggy Day, our Lead Writer. They have worked above and beyond all expectations with incredible dedication and professionalism. So many thanks and much appreciation also goes to the incredible writing team, Peter Glasby, Elizabeth Baxendale, John Stewart, Andrew Hill, Bronwen Haralambous, advisers and all the teachers who supported and engaged in the consultation processes around the country. I would also like to acknowledge the enormous effort from June Cunningham for putting the final documents together with the beautiful photos (and having to redo things several times as ACARA’s requirements or needs became more evident). Everyone involved had to work within ever tightening and changing timelines and their flexibility and ability to fit long hours into full time work loads is a tribute to them all.
I would also like to thank Robert Randall and Wendy Engliss from ACARA, for their ability to listen, to understand the essential elements of our curriculum and for communicating with us at every stage of the process, right down to the last minute!
Of course, there are more subjects; there is negotiation with the state and territory registration authorities; there are information workshops to hold early next year to support schools to work through the curriculum documentation. However, we can take a breath, stop and reflect on this great opportunity for Steiner education in Australia and celebrate!
Congratulations! This great result is due to the fact that schools worked together, through association and collegiality.
Tracey Puckeridge
CEO
Steiner Education Australia