Early Years Curriculum Guidelines (2006)
The Early Years Curriculum Guidelines (EYCG) provide teachers with a framework for interacting with children, and planning, assessing and reflecting on an effective Preparatory Year curriculum.
The guidelines are based on active learning for children through real-life situations, investigation and play. They incorporate descriptions of 4 early learning and development phases to help teachers to monitor children's progress and preparedness for Year 1.
For an introduction to the guidelines, please read about the Preparatory Year and the:
The guidelines can be downloaded below, or purchased from us in print format.
- Early Years Curriculum Guidelines (PDF, 2572 kB)
- Early Years Curriculum Guidelines (text only version) (PDF, 465 kB)
Support materials
The following resources support the EYCG.
Teachers Pack, professional development DVD and posters
The Teachers Pack includes print and electronic versions of the EYCG, the phase descriptor booklet, posters, and a CD of curriculum materials. A professional development DVD and poster set are also available. See the publications section for ordering information.
Phase descriptors
This booklet helps teachers use the EYCG to make judgements about children's learning. The phase descriptors are available to download or in print as part of the Teachers Pack (see above).
- Phase descriptors (PDF, 433 kB) (DOC, 349 kB)
- Phase descriptors linked to Level 2 (A3 format) (DOC, 347 kB)
Curriculum materials
The following support materials are also available as part of the Teachers Pack CD-ROM.
Some of these documents are formatted for A3: you may need to print to a different page size
Case studies
- The birthday party (PDF, 813 kB)
- The circus (PDF, 1016 kB)
- Developing an early years philosophy (PDF, 686 kB)
- Developing technology understandings (PDF, 736 kB)
- Encouraging social and personal learning (PDF, 670 kB)
- Fathers' night (PDF, 929 kB)
- Following play (PDF, 1207 kB)
- Friendly Street (PDF, 648 kB)
- Happy Valley (PDF, 1717 kB)
- Introducing Prep to Ubobo State School (PDF, 635 kB)
- Looking at art and becoming artists (PDF, 568 kB)
- Making and using digital folios (PDF, 533 kB)
- Media literacies (PDF, 146 kB)
- Using blocks (PDF, 1294 kB)
- A week on Badu Island (PDF, 1097 kB)
Information for parents and staff
- QSA Parent brochure (greyscale) (PDF, 1141 kB)
- QSA Parent brochure (colour, A3 format) (PDF, 1485 kB)
- Parent brochure template (DOC, 364 kB)
- Welcome to Prep -- brochure for parents and carers of Indigenous children (PDF, 527 kB)
- Welcome to Prep -- brochure for parents and carers of Indigenous children template (DOC, 1934 kB)
- Presentation for parents (PPT, 929 kB)
- Presentation for staff (PPT, 2275 kB)
Learning and teaching
- A day in the life of a Prep class (PDF, 345 kB)
- A day in the life of a multi-age class (PDF, 346 kB)
- Developing early mathematical understandings (PDF, 356 kB)
- Health and physical learning (PDF, 2498 kB)
- Language learning and communication (PDF, 323 kB)
- Learning about technology (PDF, 256 kB)
- Multi-age learning and teaching (PDF, 210 kB)
- Negotiating curriculum (PDF, 223 kB)
- Reflecting on my teaching practices (PDF, 266 kB)
Monitoring and assessing
- Checklist of learning statements (A3 format) (DOC, 79 kB)
- Early learning record (ELR) template 1 (DOC, 84 kB)
- Early learning record (ELR) template 2 (DOC, 86 kB)
- Early learning record (ELR) ESL version template (DOC, 90 kB)
- Early learning record (ELR) optional cover (DOC, 43 kB)
- Folio shell (PPT, 998 kB)
- Folio shell (DOC, 304 kB)
- Learning statement rubrics (DOC, 76 kB)
- Learning statement rubrics (ESL) (DOC, 91 kB)
- Learning statement rubrics linked to Level 2 (DOC, 97 kB)
Planning and organising
Annotated bibliography
Last reviewed: 22 December 2009

