Abilities Based Learning and Education Support (ABLES) Assessment Tool – Ruby platform

Contact
Maureen Lorimer (08) 9273 6397 [Tuesday, Wednesday & Friday]
Maureen.Lorimer@scsa.wa.edu.au

School leaders and teachers are reminded that the ABLES assessment tool is available  to all schools who deliver the Western Australian Curriculum and may be accessed via the School Curriculum and Standards Authority website at
https://k10outline.scsa.wa.edu.au/home/resources/ablewa/getting-started-with-ablewa.

The ABLES assessment tool supports teachers to assess students on the basis of their abilities and provides explicit guidance material and resources that will assist teachers to effectively plan and teach students based on their individual learning needs. The assessments have been designed to describe skills and abilities that teachers can observe in everyday school and classroom contexts and interactions with students. The assessments cover seven learning domains.

Administrators are advised of the following recommended protocols when using the ABLES assessment tool:

• Record the password for the generic school email user name for ongoing access by users, e.g. when a school leader leaves the school.
• When creating a teacher listing, use their education email address as the user name.
• When creating classes, use year groups rather than room numbers, e.g. Year 1, Year 2.
• When adding a student, include their legal given name and surname and their Western Australian Student Number (WASN).

(Note: generally, the WASN will match the year group, e.g. in 2025 the WASN for Kindergarten is 44, Pre-primary is 43, Year 1 is 42.)

• Do not add the calendar year to the naming protocol as this will result in a large number of classes over time, as well as the possible duplication of student names.

These protocols allow for easy transfer of teachers and students from one school to another. If you require assistance in transferring a teacher or student to your school, email ablewa@scsa.wa.edu.au with the relevant information.

As the functionality of the assessment tool does not currently allow for automatic rollover of student data to the next year group, a manual update is required either at the end or beginning of the school year. The recommended procedure is:

• Mark the students in the highest year group as Graduated, e.g. the Year 6 students in primary schools.
• When all students have been moved, Delete this empty class.
• The Year 5 class is then edited to become Year 6, the Year 4 class to become Year 5 etc.
• Add a new Kindergarten class at the conclusion when the current Kindergarten class has been edited to become Pre-primary.

Similarly for secondary schools, commence with the Year 12 students as Graduated and edit backwards to the Year 7 class.

Contact ablewa@scsa.wa.edu.au if you have any questions regarding this process.

Introduction to Student Information Records System (SIRS)

Contact
Tim Colliander (08) 9273 6386
Timothy.Colliander@scsa.wa.edu.au

The School Curriculum and Standards Authority will be conducting Introduction to Student Information Records Systems (SIRS) information/training sessions which are aimed at new and existing SIRS users in schools.

The sessions will cover the basic operations and functions of SIRS, including SIRS administration, managing SIRS user accounts and provider member information.

Focus topics include:

• logging into SIRS
• administering SIRS – including managing SIRS user accounts and provider member information
• uploading of various files – including checking and verifying data transfers
• understanding common errors
• generating and finding commonly used reports
• accessing assistance with local databases
• requesting assistance from the Programs and Data team.

Ideally, two staff members should attend: the clerical staff member who will be responsible for maintaining the changes on the school database and the deputy or associate principal.

There will be four sessions conducted onsite and four online. These are repeated sessions; participants only need to attend once). It is recommended that those attending the onsite, who have a SIRS login account, bring their own device to log in to their school’s SIRS account during the session.

Dates and times for the onsite sessions

Dates and times for the online sessions to be conducted via Teams

Register your interest to attend one of these sessions at
https://scsa.wa.edu.au/events/sirs-information-and-training. Further details will be supplied to participants once registered.

2025 Registration of students in SIRS for students in Years K, PP, 1, 2, 4, 6 and 8

Contact
Data Services (08) 9273 6352
dataservices@scsa.wa.edu.au

Student registrations

Schools and other education providers are reminded that registration and demographic information for all outstanding Kindergarten–Year 8 students (via SRGDG file) is required by Thursday, 3 April 2025.

Details of how to register students are provided in the provided in the Data Procedures Manual 2025 with links to assist schools using various school databases.

Western Australian student numbers

All students are required to have a Western Australian student number (WASN) and be registered in SIRS.

If you require new numbers, send a request to numbers@scsa.wa.edu.au.  Remember to include the following information for each student:

• family name
• given name
• date of birth
• academic year the student is being registered in at the school.

Note: we do not issue numbers for pre-Kindergarten students.

Regular updates to registration and demographic information

Updates to student registration and demographic information should be uploaded into SIRS on a regular basis via the SRGDG for the remainder of the year.

At minimum, it is recommended that schools update and upload their student registration file (SRGDG) at the beginning of each term to record any student/s who may transfer from and/or to a school.

Schools are requested to include their school code in any correspondence.

Schools participating in Brightpath

Contact
Data Services (08) 9273 6352
dataservices@scsa.wa.edu.au

Maureen Lorimer (08) 9273 6397 [Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday]
Maureen.Lorimer@scsa.wa.edu.au

Schools participating in Brightpath must be registered with the School Curriculum and Standards Authority (the Authority.

Schools not currently registered for Brightpath, can register their interest by emailing Maureen Lorimer with the following information:

• name of school, school address and telephone number
• school code
• name and email address of principal
• name and email address of Brightpath contact.

If schools decide to discontinue this program, they should email Maureen Lorimer for the Authority’s records to be updated accordingly.

Uploading a teacher registration file

To have data imported to Brightpath, a successful upload of the student registration file (SRGDG) and a successful upload of the teacher registration file (THREG) are required.

The teacher registration file (THREG) must be uploaded to SIRS. Please note that the THREG file must be uploaded only after the student registration file (SRGDG) has been successfully processed without any warnings or errors.

Further details may be found in section 5 of the Data Procedures Manual 2025 with links to assist schools using various school databases.

The remaining dates for transferring data to Brightpath in Term 1 are:

• Friday, 7 March 2025
• Friday, 28 March 2025.

Schools are requested to include their school code in any correspondence.

Request to change academic year Pre-primary to Year 10

Contact
Kerry Tarrant (08) 9273 6770
Kerry.Tarrant@scsa.wa.edu.au
dataservices@scsa.wa.edu.au

Schools are reminded of the online form Request to change academic year Pre-Primary to Year 10, when requesting a change to a student’s academic year.

At times, schools may assess a student to be at a higher level than their current academic year and may request a change to a student’s academic year.

The Request to change academic year Pre-primary to Year 10 and detailed information can be found on the School Curriculum and Standards Authority (the Authority) website at https://www.scsa.wa.edu.au/forms/forms under Registrations.

Before submitting an application, refer to the Pre-primary to Year 10: Teaching, Assessing and Reporting Policy and Policy Standards (https://k10outline.scsa.wa.edu.au/home/policy/policy-standards), which set out the mandatory requirements for teaching the Western Australian curriculum and for assessing and reporting on student achievement.

P–10 students transferring between schools in Western Australia

Schools are reminded that students in Western Australia transferring between schools partway through the calendar year must remain enrolled in their current academic year.

Upon registration, schools should search SIRS for the student’s details to confirm their academic year. This ensures students continue with their current year-level studies within the Western Australian Curriculum and Assessment Outline.

Any queries please email dataservices@scsa.wa.edu.au.

Brightpath 2025

Contact
Maureen Lorimer (08) 9273 6397 [Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday]
Maureen.Lorimer@scsa.wa.edu.au

School leaders are advised that in 2025 they may register for Brightpath throughout the year by contacting Maureen Lorimer, Principal Consultant – Strategic Projects.

Regular data transfer dates allow all schools to regularly update their Brightpath student and teacher information through the registration process in SIRS throughout the year.

Data transfers to Brightpath will occur on the following dates in 2025:

• Term 1 – Friday of Weeks 2, 5 and 8 – 14 February, 7 March and 28 March
• Term 2 – Friday of Weeks 2, 5 and 8 – 9 May, 30 May and 20 June
• Term 3 – Friday of Weeks 2, 5 and 8 – 1 August, 22 August and 12 September
• Term 4 – Friday of Weeks 2, 5 and 8 – 24 October, 14 November and 5 December.

Please ensure that the relevant school officer and the Brightpath Coordinator are aware of this information and have data uploaded to SIRS the day prior to transfers.