Assessment workshop for the new 2025 Year 12 Agribusiness ATAR syllabus

Contact
David Johnson (08) 9273 6708
david.johnson@scsa.wa.edu.au

Schools are advised that the School Curriculum and Standards Authority (the Authority) will be conducting a workshop to provide teachers with information on the Authority’s assessment requirements for the new Year 12 Agribusiness ATAR syllabus. The syllabus is available for implementation in schools in 2025.

The workshop is intended for schools that are offering the Year 12 Agribusiness ATAR syllabus in 2025.

The workshops will focus on:

• developing a shared understanding of the assessment requirements
• unpacking sample support material provided by the Authority.

The date for the workshop is as follows:

Online, via Webex
Thursday, 17 October 2024, from 1.00 pm to 3.00 pm

The Year 12 Agribusiness ATAR syllabus for teaching in 2025 is available on the Agribusiness course page.

The workshop is not compulsory and is free to attend. Schools are responsible for any costs incurred (for example, teacher relief) by attending the workshop.

Register for the workshop on the Authority website:
https://www.scsa.wa.edu.au/events/assessment-workshop-for-the-new-2025-atar-year-12-agribusiness-syllabus

New Year 11 and Year 12 Dance ATAR syllabuses

Contact
Max Leech (08) 9273 6740
max.leech@scsa.wa.edu.au

School leaders, Heads of Learning Area – The Arts – and teachers of Dance ATAR are requested to note that the new syllabuses for Year 11 and 12 Dance ATAR have now been endorsed for teaching by the Board of the School Curriculum and Standards Authority (the Authority). The Year 11 syllabus is endorsed ‘For teaching from 2025’ and the Year 12 syllabus is endorsed ‘For teaching from 2026’.

The syllabus documents, along with a summary of changes document, are available on the Dance page of the Authority website
https://senior-secondary.scsa.wa.edu.au/syllabus-and-support-materials/arts/dance.

Teachers are informed that support materials will be published prior to the end of 2024.

The samples will include:

• a course outline
• an assessment outline
• tasks and marking keys.

Professional development sessions, examining the structure and content of the new syllabuses, will be offered in Term 4, 2024. These sessions will be available in both face-to-face and online format. Schools will be advised of the timing of these sessions through the Authority’s 11to12 Circular.

New Year 12 Religion and Life Foundation syllabus

David Byrne (08) 9273 6711
david.byrne@scsa.wa.edu.au

The syllabus for Year 12 Religion and Life Foundation has been endorsed for teaching from 2025, by the Board of the School Curriculum and Standards Authority (the Authority).

The syllabus is available on the Religion and Life page of the Authority website:
https://senior-secondary.scsa.wa.edu.au/syllabus-and-support-materials/humanities-and-social-sciences/religion-and-life

Implementation workshop for the new Year 12 Religion and Life Foundation syllabus – face to face and online via Webex

Contact
David Byrne (08) 9273 6711
david.byrne@scsa.wa.edu.au

School leaders, heads of learning and all teachers of the Religion and Life course are advised that the School Curriculum and Standards Authority (the Authority) will be conducting an implementation workshop in Term 4. The purpose of the workshop is to introduce the details of the course and the Authority’s assessment requirements for the new Year 12 Religion and Life Foundation syllabus to be implemented in 2025.

The Year 12 Religion and Life Foundation syllabus for teaching in 2025 is available on the Religion and Life course page of the Authority website:
https://senior-secondary.scsa.wa.edu.au/syllabus-and-support-materials/humanities-and-social-sciences/religion-and-life.

The workshop is intended for schools that are considering offering the Year 12 Religion and Life Foundation syllabus in 2025 and will focus on:

• unpacking the syllabus
• developing a shared understanding of assessment requirements
• exploring sample support material provided by the Authority.

The workshop is not compulsory and is free to attend. Schools are responsible for any costs incurred (for example, teacher relief) by attendance at the workshop.

The date for the workshop is Wednesday, 30 October 2024, from 12.30 pm to 3.00 pm.

The workshop will be conducted both in person and online via Webex to cater for all schools.

For those registered to attend in person, the venue for the workshop is the Authority’s office (Second floor), 303 Sevenoaks Street, Cannington, WA, 6107.

Register for the workshop on the Authority website:
https://www.scsa.wa.edu.au/events/implementation-workshop-for-the-new-religion-and-life-foundation-year-12-syllabus.

Retirement of courses

Contact
Mandy Hudson (08) 9273 6310
mandy.hudson@scsa.wa.edu.au

The Chair of the School Curriculum and Standards Authority, in a letter to Principals, dated 21 March 2024, advised schools of the retirement of three ATAR and seven General courses.

ATAR courses to be retired

The three ATAR courses being retired that will be available for teaching to current Year 11 students in 2024 and Year 12 students in 2025 are:

• Career and Enterprise
• Children, Family and the Community
• Integrated Science.

Students will continue to have access to General courses related to these subjects. A new Careers and Employability General course will be implemented and available in 2025 for Year 11 students and in 2026 for Year 12 students. The current Children, Family and the Community General course will continue. Implementation of the new Year 11 Science in Practice General course commenced this year, providing an opportunity for students who prefer to study a range of science disciplines in one course.

General courses to be retired

The seven General courses being retired that will be available for teaching to current Year 11 students in 2024 and Year 12 students in 2025 are:

• Biology
• Earth and Environmental Science
• Economics
• Literature
• Philosophy and Ethics
• Physics
• Politics and Law.

Students will continue to have access to ATAR courses related to these subjects. Additionally, two new General courses have been developed for the Science and Humanities and Social Sciences learning areas:

• General Science in Practice course is already available for Year 11 in 2024 and for Year 12 in 2025
• General Humanities and Social Sciences in Action course will be available for Year 11 in 2025 and for Year 12 in 2026.

Applications for the development of the 2025 ATAR course examinations

Contact
Lisa Honczarenko (08) 9273 6763
Lisa.Honczarenko@scsa.wa.edu.au

Vanessa Mitchell (08) 9273 6360
Vanessa.Mitchell@scsa.wa.edu.au

The School Curriculum and Standards Authority (the Authority) invites applications from current and retired teachers, Technical and Further Education (TAFE) and University lecturers to participate in the development of the 2025 ATAR course examinations.

Positions that may be available for all examination panels are:

• Chief examiner
• Examiner
• Independent reviewer
• Paper checker.

The Authority is seeking applicants with at least three years’ experience in teaching and assessment, an excellent understanding of examination-setting techniques and familiarity with the syllabus to be examined in 2025 in the relevant course.

The Authority may offer a panel position different from those selected on the original application form.

All Examination panel members must have a current Nationally Coordinated Criminal History Check (NCCHC) and a Screening Clearance Number (SCN), which is issued by the Department of Education. You will be informed if your NCCHC is current if you are appointed to the 2025 ATAR examination panel. If it is not current, you will have to obtain an NCCHC before commencing.

Applications for positions are to be made online at the Authority website:
https://scsa.wa.edu.au/about-us/employment.

Further information about these positions, including Terms of Reference, Duties of Members, the Code of Conduct and an Indicative Timeline for members of the examination panels is available online.

Applications must be received no later than 5 pm on Friday, 18 October 2024. Successful applicants will be contacted and appointments to positions finalised by Friday, 8 November 2024.

2025 COAT contexts for Year 12 EAL/D ATAR

Contact
Lisa Honczarenko (08) 9273 6763
Lisa.Honczarenko@scsa.wa.edu.au

John Newman (08) 9273 6757
John.Newman@scsa.wa.edu.au

The Common oral assessment task (COAT) is administered in schools during Weeks 3, 4, 5 and 6 of Term 2, 2025. All students enrolled in the Year 12 English as an Additional Language or Dialect (EAL/D) ATAR course are required to complete the COAT.

The COAT is based on Unit 3 syllabus contexts and schools are advised that the syllabus contexts, highlighted within the document, will be available from Friday, 20 September 2024, on the EAL/D ATAR course page https://senior-secondary.scsa.wa.edu.au/syllabus-and-support-materials/english/english-as-an-additional-language-or-dialect.

The Authority will publish the Common oral assessment task handbook 2025 in January 2025.

2025 EST content for all Year 12 General and Foundation courses

Contact
Lisa Honczarenko (08) 9273 6763
Lisa.Honczarenko@scsa.wa.edu.au

Nick Ognenis (08) 9273 6354
Nick.Ognenis@scsa.wa.edu.au

The externally set task (EST) is administered in schools during Weeks 3, 4 and 5 of Term 2, 2025. All students enrolled in a Year 12 General or Year 12 Foundation course are required to complete the EST for that course.

The EST is based on Unit 3 syllabus content and schools are advised that the syllabus content, highlighted within the document, will be available from Friday, 20 September 2024 in the Assessment section of the School Curriculum and Standards Authority (the Authority) website under Years 11 and 12  
https://senior-secondary.scsa.wa.edu.au/assessment/externally-set-tasks/externally-set-task-materials.

All Foundation course ESTs will include the skills of literacy and numeracy in association with the identified 2025 EST Unit 3 content.

The Authority will publish the Externally Set Tasks Handbook 2025 in January 2025.

Applications for permission to enrol in a WACE Language course Year 11 or 12 2025

Contact
Nadia Civa (08) 9273 6355
Nadia.Civa@scsa.wa.edu.au

Schools are advised that the last date for commencing an Application for permission to enrol in a WACE Languages course (for enrolment in a WACE language course in 2025) has passed.

Students who have started an application but have not submitted it, and have decided not to continue their study of a language in senior secondary Year 11 (or 12), are encouraged to cancel the application in the Student Portal.

Students who intend to continue with their application are advised to complete it as soon as possible and submit in the Student Portal.

Any application that has not been submitted by Friday, 18 October 2024 will be deleted from the system.

If you require any further information, please email languagesenrolment@scsa.wa.edu.au.

Applications for recording of enrolment and achievement in ATAR Units 1 and 2 for students in Year 10 in 2026 (Year 8, 2024)

Contact
Buddhini Daluwatta (08) 9273 6315
Buddhini.Daluwatta@scsa.wa.edu.au

Principals are advised that Applications for recording of enrolment and achievement in ATAR Units 1 and 2 for students in Year 10 in 2026 (Year 8, 2024) must be received by the School Curriculum and Standards Authority (the Authority) no later than Thursday, 14 November 2024. The completed application form is to be emailed to certification@scsa.wa.edu.au.

An application form can be downloaded from the Authority website https://scsa.wa.edu.au/forms/forms under the Enrolments tab.

Schools should only apply if the studies are part of a longer-term program for students who are:

• gifted and talented, or
• accelerated language students.

For further information, please refer to Section 7 in the WACE Manual 2024. This publication is available on the Authority website
https://scsa.wa.edu.au/publications/wace-manual.

2024 collection of Year 12 students’ achievement data

Contact
Buddhini Daluwatta (08) 9273 6315
Buddhini.Daluwatta@scsa.wa.edu.au

This is a reminder that the Year 12 achievement data is due to the School Curriculum and Standards Authority by Thursday, 24 October 2024 as per the 2024 Activities Schedule.

Information about collecting achievement data will be received by schools by Monday, 7 October 2024.

Schools will need to provide the achievement data for:

• Year 12 students for courses (ATAR, General, Foundation, Preliminary and VET industry specific), VET qualifications, VET units of competency, Department of Training and Workforce Development funded VET skill sets and endorsed programs
• non-Year 12 students sitting one or more ATAR course examinations.

The importance of uploading the RSQUAL file for WACE certification

Contact
Buddhini Daluwatta (08) 9273 6315
Buddhini.Daluwatta@scsa.wa.edu.au

Schools are reminded of the importance of ensuring the VET Qualification Results (RSQUAL) file is uploaded to the Student Information Records System (SIRS) database at the end of each calendar year. The information in the RSQUAL file is used to allocate unit equivalents towards the Western Australian Certificate of Education (WACE) and to determine that a student has met the Certificate II or higher requirement.

Please note: The RSQUAL file must only be uploaded once the school has received written verification from the registered training organisation (RTO) that the student has achieved the qualification.

It is also important for schools to ensure that the RSQUAL file processes successfully to SIRS and any error messages are resolved before the due dates. If a student does not have the correct number of units of competency linked to a qualification in SIRS, the RSQUAL file will not upload successfully.

Failure to upload this file may result in students not achieving their WACE and they may be considered ineligible for first round offers for entry into university and Technical and Further Education (TAFE) courses.

If there are errors in student achievement data after the deadlines that are a result of the school providing incorrect or incomplete data, the school will be charged a fee for updating the data.

Schools are also reminded that if the RSQUAL file is not uploaded at the end of that year for Year 11 students who have completed a qualification this may also prevent students from achieving their WACE in the following year.

The RSQUAL file should be uploaded at the conclusion of the year that the student completes the full qualification (whether that be Year 10, Year 11 or Year 12).

Schools should check that the qualification has been recorded correctly by running the report
CSE007 – VET qualifications achieved in full. The pathway to this report is:
Reports > Other Reports > Report type: Achievements > Report: CSE007.

More detailed information about the RSQUAL file is provided in Section 9.6.6 of the Data Procedures Manual 2024, which is available on the School Curriculum and Standards Authority website https://www.scsa.wa.edu.au/publications/data-procedures-manual.

Links are provided to database-specific software programs in Section 13 of the Data Procedures Manual 2024 https://www.scsa.wa.edu.au/publications/data-procedures-manual.

Folio of achievement in 2024

Contact
Perpetua Joseph (08) 9273 6771
Perpetua.Joseph@scsa.wa.edu.au

Schools are reminded that students will be able to download digital copies of their folio of achievement in mid-January 2025.

To download digital copies of their documents and certificates, students will need to log in to the student portal at https://studentportal.scsa.wa.edu.au. To log in to the student portal, students will need their eight-digit Western Australian student number (WASN) and password.

Year 12 students who have satisfactorily completed any Western Australian Certificate of Education (WACE) course unit, Preliminary unit, VET unit of competency (including Department of Training and Workforce Development funded VET skill sets) or endorsed program will have a folio of achievement. This folio of achievement will include one or more of the following:

• Western Australian Statement of Student Achievement (WASSA)
• WACE
• ATAR course report
• selected award certificates.

Details relating to this year’s folio of achievement can be found in The WACE 2024 – Your guide to the Western Australian Statement of Student Achievement, Western Australian Certificate of Education and ATAR Course Report. This information guide is available on the Authority website at https://senior-secondary.scsa.wa.edu.au/the-wace/wace-requirements. You may wish to bring this to the attention of your students.

Since 2020, the School Curriculum and Standards Authority (the Authority) no longer provides paper copies of the documents and certificates in the folio of achievement.

WACE Authentication
The Authority has made available a facility whereby education institutions can verify if a student has achieved the WACE. The WACE Authentication link is available on the Home page of the Authority website at https://waceauthentication.scsa.wa.edu.au.

Year 12 results
Year 12 students, as well as the Year 11 students, who sat the 2024 ATAR course examinations will be able to access their results in mid-December 2024 via the student portal at https://studentportal.scsa.wa.edu.au.