EDUCATION 2016 - communication to schools

Contact
Vanessa Peters(08) 9273 6779
vanessa.peters@scsa.wa.edu.au

On 28 January 2016 the Minister for Education, the Honourable Peter Collier MLC, wrote to all principals for the commencement of the 2016 school year.

A copy of the Minister’s letter to principals can be found via: www.scsa.wa.edu.au

On 28 January 2016 Emeritus Professor Patrick Garnett, Board Chair and Allan Blagaich, Chief Executive Officer, School Curriculum and Standards Authority wrote to all schools regarding key activities and messages considered crucial for all schools and teachers as the 2016 school year commences.

A copy of the letter and brochure can be found via: www.scsa.wa.edu.au

On 25 January 2016 Allan Blagaich, Chief Executive Officer, School Curriculum and Standards Authority notified principals that the Authority had released the Guidelines for disability adjustments for timed assessments. The Guidelines have can be accessed on our website via: www.scsa.wa.edu.au

On 29 January 2016, the revised 2015-16 WACE Manual was published on our website. This edition has been revised for use in 2016. New and clarified content is marked with a star in the margin. The revised edition can be accessed on our website via: http://www.scsa.wa.edu.au/internet/Publications/WACE_Manual

P-10 Health and Physical Education

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

Beginning to work with the new P-10 Health and Physical Education Syllabuses
Within the Western Australian and Curriculum and Assessment Outline Health and Physical Education is presented as a coherent learning area consisting of Health Education and Physical Education. These subjects provide students with the knowledge, understanding and skills to make decisions and take action to strengthen their sense of personal identity and autonomy, build resilience, manage risk and develop satisfying, respectful relationships. The Learning Area Overview under the Organisation section contains a graphic that will assist teachers in planning their teaching and learning programs and could also provide the focus for teacher professional learning.

Propositions
The five interrelated propositions as outlined by ACARA, have been used to design the Western Australian Curriculum: Health and Physical Education. Numerous opportunities are provided throughout the Health and Physical Education syllabuses to deliver content associated with these propositions with some examples outlined below:

1. Focus on educative purposes
The curriculum focuses on the development of disciplinary knowledge, understanding and skills, which underpin Health and Physical Education. The priority for the curriculum is to provide ongoing, developmentally appropriate and explicit teaching and learning experiences about health and movement.

Pre-primary: Protective behaviours to keep safe and healthy
Year 1: Strategies to use when help is needed, such as dialling 000 in an emergency
Year 2: Strategies to use when help is needed: locating safety houses and trusted networks in the local community
Year 3: Assertive behaviours and communication skills to respond to unsafe situations
Year 4: Personal behaviours and strategies to remain safe in uncomfortable or unsafe situations
Year 5: Strategies that promote a safe, healthy lifestyle such as comparing food labels on products
Year 6: Strategies that promote a healthy lifestyle, such as refusing medicines, tobacco, alcohol or other drugs

2. Take a strengths-based approach
A strengths-based approach is characterised by focusing on supporting students to develop knowledge, understanding and skills required to make healthy, safe and active choices. This approach affirms that students and their communities have particular strengths which can be nurtured to improve health.

Year 3: Actions in daily routines that promote health, safety and wellbeing
Year 6: Preventive health measures that can promote and maintain community health, safety and wellbeing
Year 9: Skills to deal with challenging or unsafe situations

3. Value movement
The curriculum focuses on the explicit development of movement skills and concepts required for students to participate in a range of physical activities with competence and confidence. This supports ongoing participation across the lifespan, and positive health outcomes.

Year 2: Fundamental movement skills involving the control of objects and simple games
Year 5: Fundamental movement skills demonstrating adjustment of force and speed to improve accuracy and control
Year 8: Movement skills and sequences within different physical activity contexts with a focus on increased accuracy and efficiency in skill performance

4. Develop health literacy
The development of health literacy skills is essential for people to increase control over their health and for better management of disease and risk, at both an individual and population level. The curriculum focuses on developing knowledge, understanding and skills related to the following health literacy dimensions: functional; interactive; and, critical.

Year 5: Reliable sources of information that inform health, safety and wellbeing
Year 7: Strategies to make informed choices to promote health, safety and wellbeing, such as researching nutritious meals that offer value for money
Year 10: Critical health literacy skills and strategies

5. Include a critical inquiry approach
The curriculum engages students in critical inquiry processes that develop research skills and the ability to appraise health and physical activity knowledge, and the way this influences decision-making and health-related behaviours.

Year 5: Preventive health measures that promote and maintain an individual’s health, safety and wellbeing
Year 8: Personal, social and cultural factors influencing emotional responses and behaviour
Year 10: Social, economic and environmental factors that influence health
The diagram which outlines the position of the propositions in relation to the teaching/learning program can be located within the Ways of Teaching section of the Health and Physical Education Learning Area Overview. The link is provided below:

http://k10outline.scsa.wa.edu.au/home/p-10-curriculum/curriculum-browser/health-and-physical-education/health-and-physical-education-overview/ways-of-teaching

‘Ways of teaching’
The 'ways of teaching' aims to support teachers with planning for curriculum delivery across the years of school, with the teaching in each year extending learning in previous years.

The 'ways of teaching' complement the principles of teaching and learning in the Western Australian Curriculum and Assessment Outline (http://k10outline.scsa.wa.edu.au/). The principles assist whole-school planning and individual classroom practice.

In Health and Physical Education, the two strands of Personal, social and community health; and Movement and physical activity, are closely interrelated. Consistent with a strengths-based approach, a successful Health and Physical Education program is one where teachers select ongoing contexts that are accessible and meaningful to students as a focus for building on their particular strengths and interests.

The Health and Physical Education ‘ways of teaching’ diagram and examples of how to engage students in Health and Physical Education can be located within the Ways of Teaching section of the Health and Physical Education Learning Area Overview. The link is provided below:

Teacher Support Materials
To assist teachers and schools during the transition to full implementation of the Western Australian Curriculum for Health and Physical Education in 2017, the following information will be available in the Western Australian Curriculum and Assessment Outline in 2016:

• A learning area video exploring the ‘ways of teaching’
• Sample assessment activities illustrating assessment strategies from the ‘ways of assessing’ (http://k10outline.scsa.wa.edu.au/home/p-10-curriculum/curriculum-browser/health-and-physical-education/health-and-physical-education-overview/ways-of-assessing) for Pre-primary to Year 10
• Judging Standards Materials to support teacher judgements for reporting, including annotated student work samples and assessment pointers for Pre-primary to Year 10.

Introduction to SIRS – Secondary Schools

Contact
Lynn Galbraith(08) 9273 6702
lynn.galbraith@scsa.wa.edu.au

Limited places are available for school staff, using the Student Information Records System (SIRS), to attend a familiarisation seminar at the School Curriculum and Standards Authority. The seminar is aimed at new and existing secondary school users who have not previously attended a seminar.

Ideally, two staff members should attend; the clerical staff member who may be responsible for maintaining the changes on the school database and the deputy or associate principal who is responsible for timetable changes for students.

The seminar will cover the basic operations and functions of SIRS. This includes data transfer and the generation of reports which enable the information transferred to SIRS to be checked.

The seminar will be two hours duration. This hands-on seminar will allow participants will log into SIRS using their own school login and password.

There will be four sessions available prior to school commencing in 2016, which may be preferable for staff in remote and country Western Australia.

Seminar dates and times (2016)

More sessions may be provided if these sessions are fully booked.

Registrations can be made online at
www.scsa.wa.edu.au/internet/Events_and_Forms/Registrations_and_Logins/SIRS_intro.

The seminars will be held in the Mason Bird Building Training Room 1 at 303 Sevenoaks Street, Cannington.  Further details will be supplied to participants once registered.

Some interest has already been expressed for two sessions to be held in Bunbury for South West participants, and if we have enough interest for 2016, it may be possible to conduct sessions there again.  Please contactLynn.Galbraith@scsa.wa.edu.au if you would be interested in attending SIRS familiarisation seminar in Bunbury.

Requests for SCSA student numbers

Contact
Lynn Galbraith(08) 9273 6702
lynn.galbraith@scsa.wa.edu.au

SCSA student numbers info line (08) 9273 6344
numbers@scsa.wa.edu.au

Schools can request School Curriculum and Standards Authority (SCSA) student numbers automatically through the student information record system (SIRS) for Year 7 students starting in 2016. Details of how to request SCSA student numbers are in Section 3.2 of the Data Procedures Manual 2016 -http://www.scsa.wa.edu.au/internet/_Documents/Publications/2016%20Data%20Procedures%20Manual.pdf .

For students other than Year 7, schools are encouraged to do an initial search in SIRS for student numbers via Enrolment > Student Enrolment > Find Student Number. (See separate instructions in this eCircular). If no record is found, schools can email numbers@scsa.wa.edu.au and advise the following:

• your school code
• student first name
• student surname
• date of birth
• academic year
• if the student has arrived in Western Australia from overseas or interstate.

This will enable already allocated student numbers to be found prior to the undertaking of a more comprehensive search by the Authority before a new number is issued.

Looking for SCSA student numbers

Contact
Lynn Galbraith(08) 9273 6702
lynn.galbraith@scsa.wa.edu.au

If a student arrives at your school from another school in Western Australia, or even from overseas/interstate – you have the ability to search in the Student Information Records System (SIRS) for that School Curriculum and Standards Authority (SCSA) student number.  All you need is a surname, given name and date of birth:

Go to Enrolments > Student Enrolment > Student Maintenance > Find Student Number

Enter year range up to 2015 until all registrations are completed, when you can enter up to 2016.

Enter the student’s Family Name, Given Name and date of birth.

Click on Search

If the information you have entered exactly matches the information in SIRS, you will find a result even if the student is not at your school. If you have entered 2015 for example the following will appear:

If you left the year field blank, you will see the following:

If there are any differences in your information to the information in SIRS (e.g. date of birth is different, Smith is spelt as Smiths etc, then there will be no information found.

In this instance, please send an email to numbers@scsa.wa.edu.au and request the information by typing

The information given above for Jack also shows who his Main Provider is (Department of Education). This would mean that he is probably under a Notice of Arrangements – or may be on the Whereabouts Unknown List (more likely with Years 8, 9 and 10).

Using this facility also gives you the student’s previous school so you will know where to send the transfer note.

Registration of secondary students and early registration of Year 10, 11 and 12 students in 2016

Contact
Lynn Galbraith(08) 9273 6702
lynn.galbraith@scsa.wa.edu.au

Schools and other education providers will be required to register their Year 10, Year 11 and Year 12 students with the Authority by Thursday, 18 February 2016.  All other students in Years 7, 8, and 9 must be registered by Friday, 18 March 2016.

It is critical that Year 10, Year 11 and Year 12 students are registered by 18 February to ensure their inclusion in the compulsory Online Literacy and Numeracy Assessment in March (unless pre-qualified through Year 9 NAPLAN performance or their achievement of the standard in Year 10 or Year 11). Demonstrating the minimum standard in the three components of the assessment (reading, writing and numeracy) is a requirement for students to achieve the WACE in 2016.

Details of how to register students are provided in Section 3 of the updated Data Procedures Manual 2016 -http://www.scsa.wa.edu.au/internet/Publications/Data_Procedures_Manual. There are also links to assist schools using Reporting to Parents, MAZE, Synergetic and SEQTA as well as Excel instructions.

School Curriculum and Standards Authority (SCSA) student numbers
For information about SCSA student numbers, see the relevant item in this eCircular.

Warning messages
When uploading the SRGDG to SIRS, schools need to note the warning messages that may be received. These warnings may become errors when you upload your enrolments to SIRS and schools should contact the Authority to fix any issues and avoid errors when uploading their enrolments.

The following warning message may be displayed:

Warning occurred on record: 24 (Student: 12345678: Smith, Sally Ann Of Birth 08/09/1995). The following errors were found in the record:
- This record has been ignored as you are not defined in SIRS as the Main Provider of the Student. Only the Main Provider can update Student Registration details. If you are the Main Provider of the Student, you will need to contact the School Curriculum and Standards Authority to get this changed.

This signifies that the student is either registered at another school or is under a Notice of Arrangements and should be on your former roll.

If the student is currently attending your school, please contact the Data Services team at the Authority by email dataservices@scsa.wa.edu.au and request the student be transferred to your school.

The following warning message may also be displayed:
Warning occurred on record: 95 (Student: 12345678: Smith, Sally Ann Of Birth 08/09/1995). The following errors were found in the record:
-             This record has been ignored as the academic year of student with student number 12345678 does not match with the current record. Please contact the School Curriculum and Standards Authority for further assistance.

This message may signify the following:

• The student has come to you from another school where he/she was enrolled in a different academic year.
• You are attempting to move the student into a different academic year at your own school.
• The student has left your school and moved into a different academic year at another school. The new school has already requested a transfer and academic year change.

Please contact the Authority’s Data Services team on 9273 6344 or dataservices@scsa.wa.edu.au for advice on how this warning can be fixed.

Please contact Lynn.Galbraith@scsa.wa.edu.au if you require any further information or assistance with your student registrations.

Abilities Based Learning Education, Western Australia (ABLEWA)

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

The School Curriculum and Standards Authority is committed to providing a curriculum that is inclusive of students’ individual strengths and needs in order for every child in Western Australian schools to achieve their full potential.

Students with disability and additional learning needs are central to this commitment, and the introduction of Abilities Based Learning Education, Western Australia (ABLEWA) will provide a suite of resources available to schools and teachers to support these students.

ABLEWA supports teachers to assess students on the basis of their abilities and provides explicit guidance material and resources to assist teachers to effectively plan and teach students based on their individual learning needs.

The ABLEWA curriculum has been integrated within the Western Australian Curriculum and Assessment Outlineas Stages A to D, for English, History, Mathematics and Science. It is expected that the other learning areas (except Languages) will be made available online during Term 1, 2016.

The assessment and reporting resources and professional learning modules will become available progressively over the course of Term 1 and will be found in ‘Resources’ on the Authority’s website.

If you have any questions about ABLEWA, please contact Maureen Lorimer, Principal Consultant at maureen.lorimer@scsa.wa.edu.au, or call 9273 6397.

Brightpath assessment software

Contact
Maureen Lorimer(08) 9273 6397
maureen.lorimer@scsa.wa.edu.au

The School Curriculum and Standards Authority has recently purchased the licence for Brightpath Assessment software with the intent of providing all schools in Western Australia with access to the support that Brightpath affords to classroom teachers and administrators.

Brightpath is assessment and reporting software that allows teachers to make reliable assessments of student achievements in a range of areas based on classroom assessment tasks.  It facilitates the efficient and systematic collection of school-wide data to support rigorous evaluation both of teaching and learning.

The software records the results of assessments and reports a range of formative and summative information to teachers and principals.  This provides an informed basis for developing teaching programs targeting the needs of individual students.

The Authority will commence a trial of Brightpath with primary schools in March 2016 and will work closely with the Department of Education, Catholic Education WA, and the Association of Independent Schools WA, in coordinating a range of schools across the state to take part in the trial.  The 144 schools currently using Brightpath will have continued access to the program.

The Authority will meet the cost of access to the Brightpath package for all existing Brightpath schools and new schools participating in the trial.  Face to face information sessions and an on-line course will be available to support school leaders in training their teachers.

Recording of enrolment and achievement in ATAR units – Year 10 students, 2016

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

Permission must be obtained from the School Curriculum and Standards Authority for Year 10 students to enrol and have achievements in ATAR course units contribute towards the Western Australian Certificate of Education.

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

• either gifted and talented; or
• accelerated language students.

An application form for permission to record enrolment and achievement in ATAR units for Year 10 students, 2016 is available on the Authority website at
http://www.scsa.wa.edu.au/internet/Events_and_Forms/Application_Order_Forms.

The completed application form is to be returned to the Authority by Thursday, 24 March 2016.

Recording of enrolment and achievement of VET units of competency (delivered through VET credit transfer)/VET qualifications –Year 8 and Year 9 students, 2016

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

Permission must be obtained from the School Curriculum and Standards Authority for Year 8 and/or 9 students to enrol and have achievements in VET units of competency (achieved through VET credit transfer)/VET qualifications contribute towards the Western Australian Certificate of Education.

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

• students are in remote community schools where learning programs relate directly to the local industry, or
• students are accessing VET as part of an individual education program (IEP), or
• a valid opportunity has been presented which supports an ongoing and coherent training pathway.

An application form for permission of recording of enrolment and achievement of VET units of competency (delivered through VET credit transfer)/VET qualifications – Year 8 and Year 9 students, 2016 is available on the Authority website at http://www.scsa.wa.edu.au/internet/Events_and_Forms/Application_Order_Forms.

The completed application form is to be returned to the Authority by Thursday, 24 March 2016.