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Community – Children are connected with and contribute to their world

Introduction to this Outcome

From birth, children learn to see themselves as individuals, accepting their uniqueness and the uniqueness of others. Children strive for connection and seek belonging - to people, country, place and communities that help them to learn about local ways of being. They learn about sharing common values, traditions and practices. As children experience settings beyond the home and kinship groups in which they live, their experiences, relationships and connections broaden. Across the period from birth to eight years, through the support of family and others, children learn more ways to connect and contribute. Contributing in social settings strengthens children’s sense of identity, wellbeing and belonging. Children’s wellbeing is linked closely to the wellbeing of their community.

Children increasingly enjoy being in groups and contributing to family and social life from birth. Children who are strongly connected to their world participate in shared everyday routines, events and experiences, and use opportunities to contribute to decisions. They help and show concern for others, learn to respect those who are different from them and practise peaceful and inclusive ways of resolving conflicts. They come to understand fair play and how to make a contribution to a group. Children who are strongly connected establish friendships with other children. They test their responsibilities and rights - and those of others - in familiar settings, such as their family, playgroups, early childhood settings, classrooms and playgrounds, friendship groups and in communities.

Children become aware of the impact of the local environment, both physical and social, on their lives. They learn ways to care for the environment and contribute to a sustainable future.

Children are citizens with equal rights and are consulted meaningfully, with families and communities, about issues that affect them. Consulting with families and children in order to understand their cultural and everyday traditions and routines informs practice. Providing equitable opportunities for children with diverse capabilities and life circumstances supports engagement and connection, enabling them to contribute positively to their world.

Some children require carefully constructed experiences to affirm their belonging and connection with the group and to facilitate their participation in local community experiences. Some may require explicit direction and support to help them to feel safe and to belong. Observing closely and taking cues from the child can show adults how best to help a child connect with and contribute effectively to their world.

 

VEYLDF Victorian Curriculum: Levels F – 2
Children develop a sense of belonging to groups and communities and an understanding of the reciprocal rights and responsibilities necessary for active civic participation

This is evident, for example, when children:

  • begin to recognise that they have a right to belong to many communities
  • cooperate with others and negotiate roles and relationships in play episodes and group experiences
  • take action to assist other children to participate in social groups
  • broaden their understanding of the world in which they live
  • express an opinion in matters that affect them
  • build on their own social experiences to explore other ways of being
  • participate in reciprocal relationships
  • gradually learn to ‘read’ the behaviours of others and respond appropriately
  • understand different ways of contributing through play and projects
  • demonstrate a sense of belonging and comfort in their environments
  • are playful and respond positively to others, reaching out for company and friendship
  • contribute to democratic decision-making about matters that affect them.

This develops, for example, when students:

Identify what is familiar and what is different in the ways culturally diverse individuals and families live. Intercultural Capability: Cultural Practices (F–L2)
VCICCB001

Describe their experiences of intercultural encounters in which they have been involved. Intercultural Capability: Cultural Practices (F–L2)
VCICCB002

Describe ways to include others to make them feel that they belong. Health and Physical Education: Personal, Social and Community Health (L1–L2)
VCHPEP075

Identify personal strengths. Health and Physical Education: Personal, Social and Community Health (F)
VCHPEP057

Identify a range of groups to which they, their family and members of their class belong. Personal and Social Capability: Social Awareness and Management (F)
VCPSCSO004

Name and practise basic skills required to work collaboratively with peers. Personal and Social Capability: Social Awareness and Management (F)
VCPSCSO006

Use appropriate language to describe what happens and how they feel when experiencing positive interactions or conflict. Personal and Social Capability: Social Awareness and Management (F)
VCPSCSO007

Participate in play that promotes engagement with outdoor settings including aquatic and the natural environment. Health and Physical Education: Personal, Social and Community Health (F)
VCHPEP063

Cooperate with others when participating in physical activities. Health and Physical Education: Movement and Physical Activity (F)
VCHPEM068

Describe physical and social changes that occur as children grow older and discuss how family and community acknowledge these. Health and Physical Education: Personal, Social and Community Health (L1–L2)
VCHPEP072

Create and present media artworks that communicate ideas and stories to an audience. Media Arts: Present and Perform (L1–L2)
VCAMAP023

Children respond to diversity with respect

This is evident, for example, when children:

  • begin to show concern for others
  • explore the diversity of culture, heritage, background and tradition and that diversity presents opportunities for choices and new understandings
  • become aware of connections, similarities and differences between people
  • listen to others’ ideas and respect different ways of being and doing
  • practise inclusive ways of achieving coexistence
  • notice and react in positive ways to similarities and differences among people.

This develops, for example, when students:

Identify and discuss cultural diversity in the school and/or community. Intercultural Capability: Cultural Diversity (F–L2)
VCICCD003

Imagine and explain what their responses might be if they were placed in a different cultural situation or setting. Intercultural Capability: Cultural Diversity (F–L2)
VCICCD004

Recognise differences and similarities between students' daily lives and perspectives of life during their parents’ and grandparents’ childhoods, including family traditions, leisure time and communications. History: Historical Knowledge (F–L2)
VCHHK061

Investigate the history of a significant person, building, site or part of the natural environment in the local community and what it reveals about the past. History: Historical Knowledge (F–L2)
VCHHK063

Recognise that the languages people use reflect their culture, such as who they are, where and how they live, and find examples of similarities and differences between the language being studied and their own ways of communicating. Non Roman Alphabet Languages: Understanding (F–L2)
VCNRU017

Respond to visual artworks and consider where and why people make visual artworks. Visual Arts: Respond and Interpret (F)
VCACAR020

Children become aware of fairness

This is evident, for example, when children:

  • discover and explore some connections amongst people
  • become aware of ways in which people are included or excluded from physical and social environments
  • develop the ability to recognise unfairness and bias and the capacity to act with compassion and kindness
  • are empowered to make choices and problem-solve to meet their needs in particular contexts
  • begin to think critically about fair and unfair behaviour
  • begin to understand and evaluate ways in which texts construct identities and create stereotypes.

This develops, for example, when students:

Explore the meaning of right and wrong, good and bad, as concepts concerned with the outcomes of acts. Ethical Capability: Understanding Concepts (F–L2)
VCECU001

Understand the use of vocabulary in familiar contexts related to everyday experiences, personal interests and topics taught at school. English: Language (F)
VCELA167

Independently and with others create and organise ideas and information using information systems, and share these with known people in safe online environments. Digital Technologies: Data and Information (F–L2)
VCDTDI016

Children become socially responsible and show respect for the environment

This is evident, for example, when children:

  • use play to investigate, project and explore new ideas
  • participate with others to solve problems and contribute to group outcomes
  • demonstrate an increasing knowledge of and respect for natural and constructed environments
  • explore, infer, predict and hypothesise in order to develop an increased understanding of the interdependence between land, people, plants and animals
  • show growing appreciation and care for natural and constructed environments
  • explore relationships with other living and non-living things and observe, notice and respond to change
  • develop an awareness of the impact of human activity on environments and the interdependence of living things.

This develops, for example, when students:

Explore how materials can be physically changed or combined with other materials in a variety of ways for particular purposes. Science: Science Understanding (F–L2)
VCSSU045

Understand the definition of places as parts of the Earth’s surface that have been given meaning by people, and how places can be defined at a variety of scales. Geography: Geographical Knowledge (F–L2)
VCGGK064

Describe natural, managed and constructed features of places, their location and how they change. Geography: Geographical Knowledge (F–L2)
VCGGK068

Identify how people create familiar designed solutions and consider sustainability to meet personal and local community needs. Design and Technologies: Technologies and Society (F–L2)
VCDSTS013

Describe how living things have a variety of external features and live in different places where their basic needs, including food, water and shelter, are met. Science: Science Understanding (F–L2)
VCSSU042

Observe and describe changes which occur in the sky and landscape; daily and seasonal changes affect everyday life. Science: Science Understanding (F–L2)
VCSSU046

Use informal measurements in the collection and recording of observations. Science: Science Inquiry Skills (F–L2)
VCSIS052