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Curriculum priorities and the stages of schooling

Attitudes and values

Many schools include in their charters and statements of goals a commitment to the personal and social development of each of their students. The Board recognises the value and significance of these goals. The CSF relates to them by providing the framework for the underlying knowledge and skills associated with this development. The CSF does not comprehensively describe all that is valued in education. It is neither appropriate nor desirable for such broad goals to be expressed in terms of the structure of the CSF. Schools are best placed to ensure that, in the delivery of their whole programs and in their individual reporting to parents, the broader aspirations of their community are appropriately expressed.

The CSF is based upon a commitment to the educational values of rational enquiry and openness to evidence.

It is developed within the National Goals which describe social justice in schooling in the following terms:

3. Schooling should be socially just so that: 3.1 students' outcomes from schooling are free from the effects of negative forms of discrimination based on sex, language, culture and ethnicity, religion or disability; and of differences arising from students' socio-economic background or geographic location 3.2 the learning outcomes of educationally disadvantaged students improve and, over time, match those of other students 3.3 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students have equitable access to, and opportunities in, schooling so that their learning outcomes improve and, over time, match those of other students 3.4 all students understand and acknowledge the value of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures to Australian society and possess the knowledge, skills and understanding to contribute to and benefit from reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians 3.5 all students understand and acknowledge the value of cultural and linguistic diversity, and possess the knowledge, skills and understanding to contribute to, and benefit from, such diversity in the Australian community and internationally 3.6 all students have access to the high quality education necessary to enable the completion of school education to Year 12 or its vocational equivalent and that provides clear and recognised pathways to employment and further education and training. - The Adelaide Declaration on National Goals for Schooling in the Twenty-First Century, Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs, 1999.