Years 11 and 12 Assessment Advice

Contact
Adriana Douglas (08) 9273 6784
Adriana .Douglas@scsa.wa.edu.au

Graeme Quelch (08) 9273 6758
Graeme.Quelch@scsa.wa.edu.au.au

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

At its November 2019 meeting, the School Curriculum and Standards Authority (the Authority) Board supported an in-principle position that as WACE course syllabuses are presented for review, current assessment requirements be examined and reduced.

Subsequent to the Board’s decision:

• the Curriculum Advisory Committees continue to reduce assessment requirements as part of the review of Years 11 and 12 syllabuses
• an Assessment Task Review (ATR) trial was conducted by the Authority in 2021 and will be expanded for selected courses in 2022. The purpose of the ATR is for the Authority to review the quality of assessment tasks and marking keys submitted by schools for selected courses and to provide feedback to support teachers to develop assessment tasks and marking keys that reflect the appropriate pitch and demand of the course, and to meet the syllabus requirements
• Years 11 and 12 Consensus Moderation meetings have been extended from half a day to a full day to focus on assessment practice.

As outlined in the WACE Manual 2022, assessment should not generate workload and/or stress that unduly diminishes the performance of students under fair and reasonable circumstances (p. 16).

Schools should continue to review the number of assessments administered to students above the minimum requirements published within the Authority’s Years 11 and 12 syllabuses.

Teachers must continue to ensure that they implement the assessment requirements of the current syllabus for their course/s.

Syllabus Review Information Meetings for ATAR Music

Contact
Nick Fielding (08) 9273 6756
Nick.Fielding@scsa.wa.edu.au

Teachers and stakeholders of the Music ATAR course are invited to attend the ATAR Years 11 and 12 Music syllabus review information meetings.

Consultation is an important part of the School Curriculum and Standards Authority’s curriculum and assessment development and review process.

Teachers and stakeholders are invited to register to attend a face-to-face meeting or a Webex meeting to:

• analyse the feedback received via the 2021 survey on the ATAR Music course
• identify the main changes between the current and the draft course syllabuses
• learn about the draft revised syllabuses
• ask clarifying questions
• provide feedback through an online survey.

Teachers and stakeholders are requested to access the draft materials prior to attending the information meetings. These materials can be found under ‘syllabus review’ on the music page of the Authority website, from 17 January 2022: https://senior-secondary.scsa.wa.edu.au/syllabus-and-support-materials/arts/music.

Following the information meeting, teachers and stakeholders are encouraged to complete the online syllabus review consultation survey.

The information meetings are free to attend, but schools are responsible for teacher relief and any travel and accommodation expenses.

Teachers are advised that the dates for these events are:

• Tuesday, 15 February 2022, 3.30 pm – 5.30 pm, online via the Webex platform
• Wednesday, 16 February 2022, 1.30 pm – 3.30 pm, Seminar Room 2, Technology Park Function Centre, 2 Brodie Hall Drive, Bentley.

Registrations are now open at https://scsa.wa.edu.au/events/music-atar-syllabus-review-information-sessions-2022.

2022 Small Group Moderation Seminars

Contact
Adriana Douglas (08) 9273 6784
Adriana.Douglas@scsa.wa.edu.au

Schools are advised that the School Curriculum and Standards Authority (the Authority) is offering Small Group Moderation seminars in February to assist senior secondary teachers who are delivering Year 12 ATAR courses that require their school to take part in the small group moderation process.

Registration and further information can be located on the Authority website using the link below:

https://scsa.wa.edu.au/events/small-group-moderation-seminar-2022.

2022 Meeting WACE Requirements Seminars

Contact
Adriana Douglas (08) 9273 6784
Adriana.Douglas@scsa.wa.edu.au

Schools are advised that the School Curriculum and Standards Authority (the Authority) is offering Meeting WACE Requirements learning area specific seminars in February.

Meeting WACE Requirements seminars are designed for teachers in:

• schools that are offering a course for the first time in 2022
• schools that are reintroducing a course for the first time since 2015
• teachers delivering one or more WACE courses for the first time in 2022 (e.g. graduate teachers, teachers who have not previously taught Year 11 or Year 12, teachers whose past experience has been interstate or overseas)
• new school leaders (e.g. Heads of Learning Area) and those leaders who would benefit from being made aware of the Authority’s current requirements for delivering senior secondary courses.

The purpose of these seminars is to provide teachers with information on the Authority’s assessment and moderation requirements that teachers need to follow when delivering senior secondary courses.

An online generic seminar will be conducted for teachers in regional, remote or international schools.

Registration and further information can be located on the Authority’s website using the link below:

https://www.scsa.wa.edu.au/events/meeting-wace-requirements-2022.

2022 Syllabus Delivery Audit of selected Years 11 and 12 Foundation, General and ATAR courses

Contact
Graeme Quelch (08) 9273 6758
Graeme.Quelch@scsa.wa.edu.au

Schools are advised that in 2022 the School Curriculum and Standards Authority (the Authority) will conduct a syllabus delivery audit (SDA) for selected Years 11 and 12 Foundation, General and ATAR courses (see table below). This moderation activity is designed to ensure that all schools are teaching and assessing the current syllabus in line with the requirements of the WACE Manual 2022, available on the Authority website.

Schools should note the list of courses has been updated from that sent to schools previously. Year 11 General Physical Education Studies has been removed from the list for 2022.

Schools are required to submit a separate course outline and assessment outline for each listed course delivered. Schools are reminded that for Year 12 courses, the course outline and the assessment outline must cover both Unit 3 and Unit 4 (year-long).

The process will require the upload of documents to SIRS2.

The Syllabus Delivery Audit 2022 School Coordinator Handbook and the Syllabus Delivery Audit 2022 Teacher and Head of Learning Area (HoLA) Handbook will be sent to all Principals Thursday, 18 November 2021 via the Student Information and Records System (SIRS). The handbooks are now available on the Authority website at https://senior-secondary.scsa.wa.edu.au/moderation/syllabus-delivery-audit. Schools are required to complete the task of uploading documents between 9.00 am Monday, 17 January 2022 and 4.00 pm Friday, 18 February 2022. The documents can be either in Microsoft Word or PDF format.

Following the Authority’s review of the documents in 2022, a report for each course will be available to schools. Schools will be informed if a document does not meet the requirements of the syllabus and/or the WACE Manual 2022. The report will specify the action/s that the school needs to take to ensure the document meets the requirements of the Authority.

Courses selected for the 2022 SDA – Years 11 and 12 Foundation, General and ATAR courses

2022 Consensus Moderation

Contact
Adriana Douglas (08) 9273 6784
Adriana.Douglas@scsa.wa.edu.au

Schools are advised that the Board of the School Curriculum and Standards Authority has endorsed consensus moderation processes for Year 11 and Year 12 ATAR Languages courses and Year 11 and 12 General courses in 2022.

Participation in this moderation process is compulsory for all schools delivering a course in the table below. In 2022, consensus moderation meetings will again be full day meetings conducted in two parts. Part A will be the review of student assessment files and a focus on applying the grade descriptions in a course to determine a grade, while Part B will focus on assessment practice as outlined in the WACE Manual 2022 in Section 2.4. A key aspect to achieving comparability in standards is the development and implementation of valid and appropriate school-based assessment tasks that provide for a comprehensive sampling of the syllabus content, and provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate the full range of achievements.

Teachers participating are required to provide a student assessment file for three students (one at each grade from A to C), including all assessment types and all marked assessments up to the time of providing the file. Additionally, schools will be required to provide a proposed grade distribution for the course at the time of the meeting. Further, course specific, information will be provided to schools early in Term 1.

In the Perth metropolitan area and larger regional centres consensus moderation occurs at meetings of typically 10 – 15 teachers. Schools more than 100 km from the nearest scheduled meeting venue will participate in an online meeting following the same process as the face-to-face meetings where all assessment files are reviewed independently, twice by other teachers participating in the meeting.

For each assessment file, feedback is provided by the reviewing teacher in the form of a grade and a supporting comment for that judgement based on the grade descriptions for the course. Teachers reflect on the feedback received from their colleagues, to help determine any adjustments that may be required, so that the school’s marking and grading is comparable with the standard of their colleagues in the group. The process will be conducted in Term 2 and Term 3.

Courses in Consensus Moderation in 2022

During Term 1 2022, each school will be required to register one teacher for each of the courses above that the school is delivering. Information regarding registration of teachers and specific requirements will be sent to Principals early in Term 1.

Teachers are reminded that they need to have procedures in place to ensure that all marked student work is retained for moderation purposes. This includes evidence collected for courses with portfolios and/or practical requirements. Please see the WACE Manual 2022 (Section 2.8) for further details.

WACE Manual 2022 is now available

Contact
Jo Merrey (08) 9273 6348
Jo.Merrey@scsa.wa.edu.au

The WACE Manual 2022 is available on the School Curriculum and Standards Authority website at https://www.scsa.wa.edu.au/publications/wace-manual and via the Years 11 and 12 Further Resources tab at https://senior-secondary.scsa.wa.edu.au/further-resources/wace-manual.

It is essential that Principals ensure that school policy documents for students who are in Year 11 and Year 12 in 2022 are consistent with information in the WACE Manual 2022. Teachers should ensure that their teaching and assessment practices reflect those presented in the WACE Manual 2022.

The overall structure and content of the WACE Manual 2022 continues from 2021. In this edition of the WACE Manual 2022:

• alert to a particular process is indicated by a box

  

• updates made during the year will be marked with double lines and/or a document icon that includes the date of the change.

New Curriculum Support Materials – Kindergarten to Year 10

Contact
Mandy Hudson (08) 9273 6755
Mandy.Hudson@scsa.wa.edu.au

Schools are advised that further new curriculum support materials for Kindergarten to 10 have been published on the School Curriculum and Standards Authority’s website. These include Year 4 Mathematics, Year 7 Chinese: Second Language; Year 9 Health and Physical Education, Technologies (Digital Technologies) and The Arts (Visual Arts); and Year 10 The Arts (Visual Arts). There are currently 147 teaching and learning exemplars published, and more will be progressively published to assist teachers to implement the Western Australian Curriculum and Assessment Outline.

The materials are accessible on the new Year Level (Kindergarten to Year 6) and Learning Areas (Years 7 to 10) pages of the Authority’s website by clicking the buttons on the K–10 homepage at https://k10outline.scsa.wa.edu.au and then following the link to the Curriculum Support materials as shown below.

Access to the curriculum support materials require teachers to login or register for an Extranet account at https://www.scsa.wa.edu.au/extranet/login.

Recently published is the suite of Early Childhood materials, including the revised Kindergarten Curriculum Guidelines and Teaching and Learning Exemplars for Pre-primary, Year 1 and Year 2. Teachers are encouraged to view the short introductory presentations that explain the planning considerations which underpin each exemplar, their structure, and how they can be used flexibly.

More materials are in development and will be available online, highlighted by a ‘new’ tag, as these are completed. These include early childhood materials (Kindergarten to Year 2), Years 3 to 10 teaching and learning sequences and assessment exemplars for each learning area.

The materials provide examples of approaches to teaching, learning and assessment using the Western Australian Curriculum and Achievement Standards and are reflective of the Principles of Teaching, Learning and Assessment.

It is the classroom teacher who is best placed to consider and respond to (accommodate) the diversity of their students. Reflecting on the learning experiences offered in the curriculum support materials will enable teachers to make appropriate adjustments (where applicable) to better cater for their students.

2022 Pre-primary to Year 10 Moderation

Contact
Mandy Hudson (08) 9273 6755
Mandy.Hudson@scsa.wa.edu.au

Schools are advised that the School Curriculum and Standards Authority Board has approved moderation activities for Pre-primary to Year 10 for 2022. This will take two forms: Moderation Workshops to develop a comprehensive and shared understanding of the Achievement Standards and Curriculum and Assessment Seminars to develop a comprehensive and shared understanding of the mandated Principles of Teaching, Learning and Assessment in the Western Australian Curriculum and Assessment Outline.

Please see the table below for the year-level and learning area/subject involved in moderation in 2022.

To facilitate teacher planning for next year the content for the 2022 common assessment task for the Moderation Workshop is accessible from the link below under Pre-primary to Year 10 Moderation – Moderation Workshops 2022 for each learning area:

https://k10outline.scsa.wa.edu.au/home/assessment/moderation.

Participating schools in 2022 will have the responsibility to consider the curriculum content that will be covered in the moderation task to plan and sequence their teaching and learning accordingly. This will ensure that the relevant prior learning has taken place before the moderation task is administered.

Online registration for participation in the moderation and/or seminars will be open to schools in February 2022. The link below provides access to the common assessment tasks used in the moderation process in 2017, 2018 and 2019 and 2021. Note: The moderation process was cancelled in 2020 due to circumstances relating to COVID-19:

https://k10outline.scsa.wa.edu.au/home/assessment/moderation.