A promise for the upper-primary family
Year 5 and Year 6 is the year identity, belonging and status start to dominate the social map, even when the academic surface looks calm. The Grade 5 & 6 curriculum is 39 weeks of play-based learning dual-mapped against the Victorian Curriculum and the national Respectful Relationships (RR) program, with explicit lessons on identity, peer pressure and the transition to secondary school.
This guide is for you. It explains what to expect and how to talk to your child about it as they move toward high school.
The five lessons your child does each week
Every week has the same five lessons:
- Overview, a short video watched with the class on Monday.
- Play, an active group game.
- Written, a reflective lesson, often linked to literacy.
- Exercise, a movement game.
- Gratitude, a Friday closing ritual.
About the Respectful Relationships content
In Term 3, your child’s class will work through the Respectful Relationships (RR) curriculum’s help-seeking and protective behaviours topic, what trusted adults are, and how to name them. This is part of the RR curriculum mandated by the Victorian Department of Education and is delivered by your child’s teacher. The school will send a heads-up letter home before it starts. The single best home pairing is a casual chat about your family’s trusted adults, five people your child can name.
Talking about high school
Term 4 contains an explicit transition arc, six lessons specifically on "how high school is different". This is where your child will start to ask harder questions at home. Resist the urge to over-prepare them. The most useful answer at this age is "tell me what you are wondering about", then listen.
Five questions for the car ride home
Skip "how was school?". Try:
- "What was the play game this week?", children remember games.
- "Was anyone really good at it?", surfaces friendships.
- "What was the gratitude this week?", opens a friendly door.
- "What was the thing in the video this week?", gets you the Overview content.
- "Who would be a trusted adult if you needed one?", quietly maps the network.
Three five-minute rituals you can run at home
Pick one and run for a fortnight:
- Three-things gratitude at dinner.
- A weekly screen-free play night.
- A monthly "trusted adults" check-in, who are your five right now?
Working with your child’s school
Your child’s teacher and the school’s wellbeing team are the right people for any conversation about how things are going in the classroom. They know your child, they have the program at their fingertips, and they can adjust pairings or lesson order if it helps. Open with what your child mentioned at home, that is usually the most useful starting point.
