Welcome, what you actually have here
Foundation – Grade 2 is the largest curriculum in The School of Play library: 40 weekly bundles plus a dedicated Respectful Relationships specials track. Every week runs the same five-lesson shape, Overview, Play, Written, Exercise, Gratitude, designed to slot into your literacy block, HPE rotation or wellbeing time without rewriting your timetable.
This age band is where the rhythm becomes habit. By week 6 your class will line up for Friday gratitude on their own. That is the program working.
Victorian Curriculum F–10, Respectful Relationships and ACARA mapping
Every lesson is dual-mapped against the Victorian Curriculum F–10 and the ACARA Australian Curriculum, with explicit alignment to the Victorian DET Respectful Relationships (RR) Topics 1–4 (Emotional Literacy, Personal Strengths, Positive Coping, Problem Solving). The Standards Mapping page (linked from this curriculum’s home) prints every code per week.
- Victorian Curriculum, Personal & Social Capability (Foundation–Level 2), Health & Physical Education (HPE), Critical & Creative Thinking, English: Speaking & Listening.
- ACARA HPE 2.0, Movement and Physical Activity, Personal, Social & Community Health.
- Respectful Relationships, Topics 1 to 4 are explicitly delivered across the year, with Topic 5 (Gender & Identity) introduced in age-appropriate language in the back half of the program.
- CASEL Framework, every lesson maps to one of the five SEL competencies in age-appropriate language.
- AITSL Standards 1.1, 1.3, 4.1 and 6.4 are supported for your annual reflection portfolio.
Your first week, a real timetable that works
Run a single bundle in week one before scaling up. The simplest delivery slots into a standard primary timetable:
- Monday morning, first session, Overview video (3 min) + Play game (15–20 min). Best on the mat, then move to a larger space for the game.
- Tuesday literacy block, drop the Written game into a 15-minute warm-up slot. Most have a writing or speaking deliverable that suits the F–2 English curriculum.
- Wednesday brain break, Exercise game between subjects. 5–10 minutes.
- Thursday HPE, re-run the Play game (Foundation kids especially love repetition) and link it to a Movement & Physical Activity outcome.
- Friday end-of-day, Gratitude ritual. Five minutes. Print the term-long ritual card for your wellbeing wall.
The Respectful Relationships specials
In addition to the 40 weekly bundles, the program ships with eight Respectful Relationships specials, standalone lessons for moments where you want explicit RR teaching (start of term, anti-bullying week, harmony week). Each special is dual-mapped to RR Topics and provides a teacher prompt sheet, a child-facing video and a Take-Home note for families.
F vs Year 2, and the multi-age room
Foundation children are still learning the shape of a school day. Expect to run the same Play game twice in week one. Year 2 children can hold the rhythm and start to want responsibility, let them lead the gratitude bell or set up the Play game equipment. In a composite class, run the same game with different rule sets per group, the Year 2s love teaching the Foundations the variation.
When a game does not land
Three almost-always fixes:
- Drop the words. Run the game with no spoken instructions, just the video and the model.
- Run it twice. First round is learning the rules; the second is play.
- Stick with the rhythm. A flat week is normal, the next week will land. The program is forgiving.
Print once, file forever
Every weekly page has a "Download all PDFs for this week" button. It bundles every printable into a single zip, neatly named. Print Monday of week 1, file in a plastic sleeve, and you have a term-ready resource pack.
Questions about the curriculum
Email support@theschoolofplay.co or open the chat. The team can help with anything to do with running the program, lesson sequencing, integrating it into a planning cycle, or scaling it across multiple classes.
