The Victorian Essential Learning Standards include standards at six levels. The levels broadly associated with schooling from Years 5 to 8 are as follows:

Level 4
Level 4 is broadly associated with Years 5 and 6 of schooling.

Level 5
Level 5 is broadly associated with Years 7 and 8 of schooling.

Building breadth and depth

During Years 5 to 8 most young people experience the move from primary to secondary school. In this sense, the middle years of schooling tend to cover two distinct phases, Years 5 to 6 and Years 7 to 8. During Years 5 to 6 some young people will experience the onset of adolescence (begin puberty), while others will remain in late childhood. Differences in emotional, behavioural and cognitive development among students may be significant.

Young people increasingly differentiate themselves in terms of their peers, physical attributes and competence. They begin to associate achievement less with effort, and more with skill and cognitive ability. While they may give the appearance of being engaged by novelty, to hold their interest through to achievement, young people increasingly require content that is perceived as valuable, is consistent with personal goals, and/or leads to an important outcome. In other words, during Years 5 to 8 young people increasingly come to view content as a choice, rather than an imperative.

In Years 5 to 8 young people become more complex thinkers. They begin to understand more abstract cognitive processes such as how to apply logical reasoning to both ideas and concrete objects. In other words, they begin learning how to apply many of the practical skills they have mastered in earlier years.