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

Thank you to all schools for uploading their Student Registration and Demographic (SRGDG) information to SIRS as requested.

To ensure accuracy of data throughout the year, it is imperative that all schools regularly upload their SRGDG to SIRS to allow for transfer of students between schools, the departure of students overseas or interstate and the allocation of student numbers and registration of any newly enrolled students.

A reminder that details of how to register students can be found in the Student Registration Procedures Manual 2017 – Primary Students found at  http://www.scsa.wa.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/349641/Student-Registration-Procedures-Manual-2017-Primary-Students-web-version....pdf with links to assist schools using Integris (RTP), Civica Maze, and Excel.  There is also a Guide to uploading Student Registration and Demographic (SRGDG) file found at http://www.scsa.wa.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/349636/GUIDE-TO-UPLOADING-STUDENT-REGISTRATION-AND-DEMOGRAPHIC-FILE.pdf and some online training videos found at http://www.scsa.wa.edu.au/sirs-info/primary-schools.

With a large number of students now registered with their Western Australian Student Number (WASN), it is imperative that this number remains with the student throughout their school life. Schools need to recognise the importance of the WASN to avoid duplication of records and maintain continuity of student data.

Schools where most students already have a WASN and new students have enrolled who require a number, please check first using the ‘Search for WASN’ process – explained in this Circular. If you cannot locate a number please contact numbers@scsa.wa.edu.au and give details of the student’s legal surname, legal first name, date of birth and academic year.  It is also useful to include your school code in any correspondence with the Authority.

If you are registering all your students for the first time, please send a spreadsheet of the student information to numbers@scsa.wa.edu.au, and include legal surname, legal first name and date of birth.  We will then check to see if any of the students have a WASN already and advise you of this number, and if not, we will issue batches of numbers which you can import into your database/system prior to uploading the SRGDG to the Authority.

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

Schools are asked to be mindful of the error and/or warning messages that may be received when uploading a Student Registration and Demographic File (SRGDG). Error message example one:

1. Error occurred on record 109 (Student: 345678912: Durham, Ailsa Ruby Date of Birth 16/04/2011). This student (Student No 345678912) has previously been identified as the same student with number 34123456. School Curriculum and Standards Authority staff merged this student on the 3/04/2017 and assigned the student the correct number (34123456). Your school would have been contacted to update its records on or soon after this date. As the record is yet to be updated at the school level, this record has failed the verification process.

With over 4000 duplicate records needing to merged in 2017, it is possible you did not receive notification from the Authority of the fact that you were required to change a student number.  The error message above is your advice to change the student number on your system to the correct number as stated in the message. Error message example two:

2. Warning occurred on record: 64 (Student: 23123456: Smith, Susan Erin Date of Birth 06/10/1999). This record has been ignored as the academic year of student with student number 23123456 does not match with the current record. Please contact the School Curriculum and Standards Authority for further assistance.

If the student was earlier this year registered in a different academic year to the one he/she is now in, you need to request the Authority to move to the correct academic year.  For Years 10, 11 and 12 students, please complete the form - Request to change academic year found at http://www.scsa.wa.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/75598/Request-to-change-academic-year_2017.pdf. For all other academic year changes, please email dataservices@scsa.wa.edu.au to request the change. Error message example three:

3. Warning occurred on record: 836 (Student: 23123456: Smith, Susan Erin Date of Birth 06/10/1999). The record of the Student with Student Number 23123456 has the student name different from the current student name, therefore your registration details for this student are ignored. Contact the School Curriculum and Standards Authority to get this changed.

This warning message occurs very regularly, especially when students move to a different school.  This student may have been known as Susan Smith-Jones or Susanne Smith at her previous school, for example.  Any name that does not match exactly what is in SIRS will come back with this warning.  Contact dataservices@scsa.wa.edu.au to request a change in SIRS, or you may need to check the name and change the name on your system. Error message example four:

4. Warning occurred on record: 345 (Student: 345678912: Durham, Ailsa Ruby Date of Birth 16/04/2011). 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 School Curriculum and Standards Authority to get this changed.

This message generally occurs when a student is registered under the code of 9000 – Department of Education.  Students under 9000 are either on a Notice of Arrangements or listed as a ‘Missing Student’.  If the student is now attending your school, please email dataservices@scsa.wa.edu.au and request the student be transferred to your school.

If you have any queries on any of the other error or warning messages received when uploading a file, please contact dataservices@scsa.wa.edu.au.  Please note emails received with auto-generated responses are not monitored and should be used to direct SIRS related inquiries.

Contact

Lynn Galbraith (08) 9273 6702
lynn.galbraith@scsa.wa.edu.au
numbers@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 student’s Western Australian Student Number (WASN) using a surname, given name and date of birth.

All student registrations are recorded in SIRS by the end of March. After this time, you will be able to search for students including the student’s previous school/s. You will know where to send a transfer note, if required.

1. Hover over Enrolments in the menu bar.
2. Click on Student Enrolment > Student Maintenance > Find Student Number (see image below).

The Find Student Number directory will appear (see image below). Enter the student’s Family Name, Given Name and Date of Birth.

3. Click 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 (see image below).

If the details you have requested are different from the information in SIRS (e.g. date of birth is different, Jackie is spelt as Jacky etc.), no information will be found. In this case, please email numbers@scsa.wa.edu.au and provide the student’s:

• Family name (Surname)
• Given Name (First name)
• Date of Birth
• Academic Year
• Previous School (if known).

Troubleshooting: Search WASN

1. What happens if the requested information does not show?Email numbers@scsa.wa.edu.au and provide student name, academic year and date of birth.
2. What happens when a single year (for example, 2012 to 2012) is entered in the date range? Only a result for that year will be returned.
3. What does it mean when the Department of Education is shown as the student’s main provider?
   
   It means the student is likely to be under a Notice of Arrangements or may have been on the Whereabouts Unknown List (more likely with Years 7, 8, 9 and 10).

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

Primary school leaders are advised that registration for the Brightpath project in Semester 2, 2017 will be accepted by email to Maureen Lorimer.  Information regarding Brightpath is available by visiting the School Curriculum and Standards Authority (the Authority’s) webpage http://k10outline.scsa.wa.edu.au/home/resources/brightpath.  The Authority will meet the cost of access to the Brightpath Basic Packagefor schools wishing to participate in the project.

You will be contacted early in Term 3 2017 with information regarding the registration and uploading of students and teachers with the Authority.

The Brightpath 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 that target the needs of individual students. It facilitates efficient and systematic collection of school-wide data to support rigorous evaluation of both teaching and learning.

Online workshop materials are available to support school leaders in up-skilling their staff.

Participation in the Brightpath project requires the following commitments:

• inclusion of all teachers and primary school students in the project
• provision by the school of appropriate support and training for all the school’s teachers
• assess all students at least once each semester.

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

School leaders and teachers are reminded that the ABLEWA resource package supports the teaching and learning of students with disability and additional needs who are unable to access the P–10 curriculum. The assessment and reporting resources and professional learning modules are available in the ‘Resources’ section of the Western Australian Curriculum and Assessment Outline on the Authority’s webpage http://k10outline.scsa.wa.edu.au/home/resources/ablewa.  

The ABLEWA Stages A to D curriculum for all learning areas other than Languages is available to teachers within the K-10 Outline and is optional for schools.  Stages A to D focus on progressing students from a pre-intentional to intentional engagement in learning. They support students to develop their independence as they explore, participate and engage in the world around them. As students’ progress through these stages, the amount of support decreases as they proceed towards becoming independent learners.

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.

If you have any questions about ABLEWA, please contact Maureen Lorimer.

Contact
Mandy Hudson (08) 9273 6755
mandy.hudson@scsa.wa.edu.au
Nicole Edwards (08) 9273 6745
nicole.edwards@scsa.wa.edu.au

Teachers are advised of the release of sample assessment tasks, across the modes, for English Pre-primary to Year 6, mapped to the Western Australian Curriculum for English.

As part of the Authority’s ongoing work in providing Teacher Support Materials, sample assessment tasks aligned to English v8.1 have been developed and are now available through the Western Australian Curriculum and Assessment Outline. The link is provided below.

http://k10outline.scsa.wa.edu.au/home/assessment/assessment-activities

The sample assessment tasks support teachers in the implementation, and assessment of students’ skills, knowledge and understandings, of the Western Australian Curriculum for English. The tasks reflect the Principles of Assessment and have been separated according to their mode, ensuring that they reflect the intended learning of the curriculum and are designed to meet their specific purpose.

The sample assessment tasks exemplify a broad range of strategies teachers employ to obtain information about their students’ achievement in Reading, Viewing, Writing and Creating, and Speaking and Listening. They exemplify the Principle of Assessment, taking into account the diverse needs of students and their different learning styles.

Sample marking keys have been included with the tasks. They relate explicitly to the description of the task and the criteria used provides teachers with detailed information about student achievement. Marking keys should be developed at the same time as the assessment and should arise naturally from the development of the task. Reflecting on student performance in each criteria can inform future teaching and learning, and may also assist teachers at the end of a teaching cycle to provide additional evidence for reporting purposes.

The sample assessment tasks provide support for teachers in developing and implementing their own assessment practices. The tasks provided can be modified and adapted by teachers to suit the specific needs and context of their students. Consideration should be given to the necessary prior learning and relevant curriculum content descriptions before assessment tasks are implemented.

Teacher Support Materials were developed to support the workshops conducted at the recent Department of Education Curriculum Forums held on 2 June 2017 (Primary Curriculum Forum) and on 6 June 2017 (Secondary Curriculum Forum).

The Curriculum Forum workshops focused on ‘Ways of teaching’ and ‘Ways of assessing’ for Humanities and Social Sciences and Health and Physical Education. English, Mathematics and Science focused on assessment practice and utilising the revised Judging Standards mapped to v8.1 of the Western Australian curriculum.

The Authority developed a ‘Teaching, learning and assessment process wheel’ based on the:

• Pre-primary to Year 10: Teaching, Assessing and Reporting Policy which sets out the mandatory requirements for teaching the Western Australian curriculum for assessing and reporting student achievement
• Policy Standards for Pre-primary to Year 10: Teaching, Assessing and Reporting which support the implementation of the Policy and sets out the mandatory minimum requirements for curriculum planning and reporting on student achievement.

The ‘wheel’ illustrates the relationship between curriculum, assessment practice, and reporting on student achievement to parents. It framed the objectives of the workshops, and is now available within the Western Australian Curriculum and Assessment Outline. The link to Presentations is provided below.

http://k10outline.scsa.wa.edu.au/home/resources/presentations

The table below highlights the location of Teacher Support Materials utilised at both forums.

Contact
Mandy Hudson (08) 9273 6755
mandy.hudson@scsa.wa.edu.au
Adriana Douglas (08) 9273 6784
adriana.douglas@scsa.wa.edu.au

Teachers are advised that the Achievement Standards for the Languages, from Pre-primary to Year 6, are now available in the year level syllabuses for each of the six languages subjects: Chinese: Second Language, French: Second Language, German: Second Language, Indonesian: Second Language, Italian: Second Language and Japanese: Second Language.

http://k10outline.scsa.wa.edu.au/home/p-10-curriculum/curriculum-browser/languages

Teachers from school systems/sector have worked with the Authority to provide assessment activities and student work samples to develop the achievement standards, assessment pointers, and the annotated work samples.

To support schools with the first year of implementation of the Year 3 syllabuses for Languages in 2018:

• assessment pointers for Pre-primary to Year 6 will be available to schools early in Term 3, 2017
• assessment activities for Pre-primary to Year 4 will be progressively uploaded over the remainder of Term 2, 2017
• annotated work samples for Pre-primary to Year 4 will be progressively uploaded during Term 3, 2017.

Assessment activities and annotated work samples for Year 5 and Year 6 will be available to schools during Term 4, 2017.

The Authority will continue to work with teachers to finalise the Year 7 to Year 10 Achievement Standards and Judging Standards materials during 2017.

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

Assessment should arise naturally out of the teaching and intended learning of the curriculum and syllabus.

As outlined in the Pre-primary to Year 10: Teaching, Assessing and Reporting Policy (http://k10outline.scsa.wa.edu.au/home/policy/teaching-assessing-and-reporting-policy), schools will:

• monitor and assess individual student achievement
• develop and administer assessments in relation to the content of the Pre-primary to Year 10 Western Australian Curriculum
• ensure that assessments enable all students to demonstrate their knowledge, understandings and skills in relation to the year-level achievement standards
• develop processes to support all teachers in making valid and reliable judgements.

Assessment should provide information about fine-grained changes in student learning related to specific aspects of that learning, as well as provide feedback to students. They should help teachers understand where students are in their learning, what they need to learn next, as well as identify any misunderstandings or misconceptions that the students have. It is this specific information that enables teachers to plan teaching and learning programs in order to further develop student’s knowledge, understandings and skills.

Marking keys should be developed in conjunction with the assessment tasks. The development of a marking key is a reflective process that allows teachers the opportunity to review the suitability of the task for the students, to consider whether the task will allow for the range of student achievement and to modify the task, if necessary.

Within the Western Australian Curriculum and Assessment Outline, marking keys have been published for sample assessment tasks to assist teacher understanding of criterion based marking keys. These provide the fine-grained information to assist teachers to make a judgement on student performance on a particular task. When using criterion based marking keys, information may be used to:

• identify areas of individual student need and to reflect on teaching and learning programs, and make adjustments, if necessary
• ensure comparability across classes and to enable fair and valid assessment of student performance.

When developing teaching and learning programs, teachers should plan for assessment, considering a variety of assessment types. Grades should not be allocated to individual pieces of assessment. A suite of student work should inform teacher judgement regarding the allocation of a grade and/or achievement descriptor to be describe student achievement at the end of the semester or year.

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

Teachers are advised that the Sample Integrated Teaching and Learning Outline for Kindergarten is now available through the Western Australian Curriculum and Assessment Outline. The link is provided below.

http://k10outline.scsa.wa.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/408752/Kindergarten-Sample-Teaching-Learning-Outline-2017.PDF

The five week sample planning outline exemplifies the dynamic elements of a teaching and learning program appropriate to the context of a Kindergarten classroom and the knowledge, skills and concepts from the Kindergarten Curriculum Guidelines. It models a program designed around a ‘big idea’ through an inquiry question which arises from the children’s experiences, interests, needs and context. The outline allows children to pursue knowledge, and increase understanding, across the learning and development areas, as well as transfer concepts and develop a deeper understanding in a range of perspectives.

The Sample Integrated Teaching and Learning Outline incorporates the Early Years Learning Framework, National Quality Standard (NQS) opens in new window and the Kindergarten Curriculum Guidelines. Educators can cater the outline to meet the diverse needs of their students to provide quality curriculum for the Kindergarten year.