Information from the PrimaryConnections Professional Learning coordinator:
Multi-age (or even multi-ability classes) will always be an issue especially now that the ACARA outcomes are Year level specific. There is no easy solution, and the reality I think should be that students experience a unit of science per term. Schools just need to be careful with their scope and sequencing and avoid students repeating units if they move between composite class combinations. I suggest schools very carefully set scope and sequences within the old “stage” levels and do 4 units a year 1 from each strand.
So for example for a Year 2/3 class they might do a red and blue Year 2 book and a green and yellow Year 3 in the first year of a 2 year stage level cycle. Then in the second year of the stage they would do red and blue Year 3 book and a green and yellow Year 2. Then back to the first year of the cycle.
I also advise that all students in the class do the same science unit but that the literacy focus gets changed for the ability/ Yr level of the students. Ie a graph for a Year 1 student might be a pictograph whereas the Year 6 student might do a line graph of similar information while being taught the same science “content”. I use the old “draft literacy focusses” document as a guide for how to do this (on the website).
