eCircular edition 8 2012

2013 WACE activities schedule available online

Contact
George Temple (08) 9273 6703
george.temple@scsa.wa.edu.au

The School Curriculum and Standards Authority 2013 WACE activities schedule is available on the Authority website at http://www.scsa.wa.edu.au/internet/Publications/WACE_Activities_Schedule.

The dates in this schedule are colour-coded. Orange dates are for items to be received by the School Curriculum and Standards Authority. Blue dates are for items to be available to or received by schools/providers. Green dates are significant to both schools and the School Curriculum and Standards Authority.

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Earth and Environmental Science syllabus 2013 – unit 1B

Contact
Joy Cicchini (08) 9273 6788
joy.cicchini@scsa.wa.edu.au

The percentage weightings for assessment types in unit 1B (page 14 of the syllabus) have been corrected to align with the weightings in the Assessment table on page 9 of the syllabus.

The assessment type weightings for unit 1B now read: Investigation 30–50%, Tests and exams 20–40%, Extended tasks 30–50%.

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Media Production and Analysis: syllabus change for 2014

Contact
Amanda Herbert (08) 9273 6361
amanda.herbert@scsa.wa.edu.au

Teachers are reminded that the Media Production and Analysis syllabus, which includes changes to the content and design briefs related to the practical (production) examination, is now available on the Media Production and Analysis course page of the Authority website at http://www.scsa.wa.edu.au/internet/Senior_Secondary/Courses/WACE_Courses.

This syllabus will be examined in 2014. Information to support teachers with the changes will be provided during first term in 2013.

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Small group moderation partnership options

Contact
Chris Stone (08) 9273 6365
chris.stone@scsa.wa.edu.au

Once WACE examination marking is complete, all partner schools with fewer than six WACE examination candidates in a particular course at either Stage 2 or 3 will have their results reviewed by the Authority. In previous years this was Partnership Option C and was selected by schools for most partnerships.

The review process used by the Authority has not changed.

Where partner schools’ assessment scales are comparable, the partnership will be left unaltered and they will be statistically moderated as a single group.

Where assessment scales are not comparable, two-school partnerships will be split and the schools will be statistically moderated separately. The process for partnerships with three or more schools will be as follows:

• all three schools will be statistically moderated separately
• two schools will be statistically moderated as a group and one school statistically moderated separately.

Any adjustment to the partnership is completed in the interest of fairness for the students involved.

A partner school with six or more WACE examination candidates has the option to be statistically moderated without its partners. In previous years this was Partnership Option B and was selected by a few schools with a large group that volunteered to assist a school with a smaller group, yet wished to assure its own students that participation in the partnership would have no effect on their marks. Schools were able to select this option on the Small Group Moderation Partnership Declaration form which was required by the Authority by 17 October 2012.

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Retention of marked assessment tasks of Year 11 and 12 students

Contact
Chris Stone (08) 9273 6365
chris.stone@scsa.wa.edu.au

Teachers of Year 12 students are reminded to retain the marked assessment tasks of all students or to ensure that the tasks are readily accessible.

Access to all marked assessment tasks is necessary should:

• the Authority consider that a grading review is necessary to validate the final grades for a particular course/stage at the school, or
• a student from the school lodge an appeal against their school assessment.

Access to the assessment tasks of Year 12 students is required until the grades are approved by the Authority in December.

Access to the assessment tasks of Year 11 students is required until the grades are approved by the Authority in February next year.

Disposal of retained student work should be undertaken in accordance with school policies and procedures.

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Music: Changes to examination requirements for instruments in the Contemporary context for 2013

Contact
Jane Alderson (08) 9273 6756
jane.alderson@scsa.wa.edu.au

Changes have been made to the requirements for instruments in the Contemporary context for the 2013 WACE Music examinations. These will be reflected in the following documents to be sent to schools early in 2013:

• Music Practical (Performance and Portfolio) examinations requirements document
• Music resource package for the practical component
• Practical (Performance) Marking key.

Reference to solos and improvisation have been removed and replaced with a need to demonstrate stylistic variety and versatility of technique in both solo and ensemble repertoire. A list of repertoire of a suitable standard, organised according to styles and technique, is being compiled to be included in the resource package to support the proposed change.

A review of the practical marking key to address these changes will be considered following the 2012 WACE practical (performance examinations). Details on a revised key will be sent to schools with the Music Practical (Performance and Portfolio) examinations requirements document early in 2013.

These changes will also be discussed as part of the Improving Student Performance workshops to be held in Term 1 2013.

Change of Work for Stage 3 WAM Designated Works List (Opera) 2013–2015
The score for Dr Atomic by John Adams is currently unavailable. It will be replaced by John Adams, Nixon in China. The excerpts for study will be; Act One: News Has a Kind of Mystery (Nixon, Chou, Kissinger), Act Two: This is Prophetic (Pat) and I am The Wife of Mao Tse-tung (Chiang Ch’ing, chorus)
The Designated Works List 2013–2015 will be updated accordingly to reflect this change.

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Examination panel applications close soon

Contact
Kerry Cribb (08) 9273 6787
kerry.cribb@scsa.wa.edu.au

The School Curriculum and Standards Authority seeks applications from current and retired teachers and training and university lecturers to participate in the development of the 2013 WACE examinations.

Positions available for Stage 2 and Stage 3 examining groups are:

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

Applicants should have at least five years’ experience in teaching and assessment, have an excellent understanding of examination setting techniques and familiarity with the syllabus to be examined in 2013 in the relevant course.

Applications are to be made online from a link on the Authority’s homepage at http://www.scsa.wa.edu.au.

Applications must be received no later than 5pm on Friday 26 October 2012. Appointment to positions will be finalised by 14 November 2012.

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Accurate Year 12 student details and community service hours

Contact
Lynn Galbraith (08) 9273 6702
lynn.galbraith@scsa.wa.edu.au
Jenny Offer (08) 9273 6313
jenny.offer@scsa.wa.edu.au

Schools are reminded the last date for uploading Year 12 student registration and demographic data is 23 November 2012.

All schools are requested to upload their SRGDG (Student registration and demographic file) on a regular basis to ensure the accuracy of student registration and demographic data. This is particularly important for the Year 12 students who will be receiving their WACE and/or statement of results through Australia Post early in 2013.

Please ensure that the student home and postal address details are correct. The Certificate Name that appears on the CSE059 Report is the name that will be printed on the student’s statement of results and WACE. This information is taken from the Certificate Name field in the SRGDG file.

These details can be checked by running the Verification of student details report: Reports > Other Reports > Enrolments > CSE059 – Verification of Student Details. Schools should ensure students check all this information carefully and make any changes by uploading their SRGDG file. Instructions for uploading the SRGDG file can be found in Section 5 of the WACE Procedures File at http://www.scsa.wa.edu.au/internet/Publications/WACE_Procedures_File.

If a student has received prior learning block credit, this will also show on the Verification report.

Schools are also reminded that it is a legislative requirement that all secondary students in Western Australia must be registered with the School Curriculum and Standards Authority until the end of the year in which they turn 17 years of age, regardless of their study program. This applies to students undertaking ‘Flying Start programs’, students at Intensive English Centres, or students at education support centres. This does not apply to those classed as an ‘overseas student’.

Community service hours
Schools are also reminded that the number of community service hours a student has completed can be uploaded through the SRGDG file, and this will appear on students’ statements of results. If no hours are noted, no mention of community service will be made on the statement.

Left Provider/Left Secondary Education
Year 12 students should not be removed from the school roll unless they have left Western Australia, are deceased, or the school has received advice from either the Participation unit at the Department of Education or the School Curriculum and Standards Authority that the student is on an approved Notice of Arrangements. Students who have been removed from the roll and marked as ‘Left’ will not receive a statement of results from the School Curriculum and Standard Authority, even if they have results for Year 11 and a portion of Year 12.

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Changes to Student Summary Details report (CSE012) in SIRS

Contact
Jenny Offer (08) 9273 6313
jenny.offer@scsa.wa.edu.au
Lynn Galbraith (08) 9273 6702
lynn.galbraith@scsa.wa.edu.au
Kathy Pilkington (08) 9273 6770
kathy.pilkington@scsa.wa.edu.au

Schools are able to check on their students’ details, and in particular their students’ enrolments, using the Student Summary Details report, available in SIRS.

Several modifications have been made to the report to assist schools when counselling their students.

Firstly, where a student is repeating a course unit, an * appears in front of the course unit code, indicating that the course unit has been completed previously.

Secondly, the number of nominal hours is listed for each VET unit of competency delivered as VET credit transfer. At the end of the VET units of competency section, the total number of nominal hours is listed for achieved credit transfer VET units of competency. Where a unit of competency has been achieved previously, an * will be printed next to the nominal hours, indicating that the unit of competency has been achieved previously.

Thirdly, the endorsed programs section of the report now contains the points per program, and where it is possible to complete multiple programs per year, the number of programs completed. Also listed is the total points credited for each endorsed program.

The pathway to the report is as follows: Reports > Other reports > Students > Student Summary Details (CSE012).

This report will generate details for a specific student.

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Data integrity for VET and endorsed programs

Contact
Jenny Offer (08) 9273 6313
jenny.offer@scsa.wa.edu.au
Kathy Pilkington (08) 9273 6770
kathy.pilkington@scsa.wa.edu.au 

VET and endorsed program achievement data submitted to the School Curriculum and Standards Authority are important components in determining if a student has met the WACE requirements.

Schools must provide accurate achievement information for all VET and endorsed programs. Schools are urged to be thorough, especially when collecting and uploading VET achievement data from registered training organisations (RTOs) and endorsed program achievement from endorsed program providers.

The principal is responsible for ensuring:

• the school has verified the achievement data from the relevant organisations
• that an appropriate record of the evidence of this achievement is maintained at the school.

The principal must declare that the achievement data submitted by the school is correct. The declaration will state that:

• the result for each unit of competency has been verified by the RTO
• full qualifications achieved by students have been verified by the RTO
• the evidence of achievement of endorsed programs has been verified.

Appropriate evidence of achievement and verification from RTOs may be in the form of an email or letter bearing the organisation’s logo or on a letterhead, stating the outcomes of individual units of competency and, where relevant, full qualifications that have been achieved by the specified students. If available, a copy of the statement of attainment, qualification certificate or other specified evidence of achievement may be used.

The declaration form will be sent to schools by Tuesday, 20 November 2012 with the confirmation of achievement data package for Year 12 students.

VET students granted exemption from sitting the 2012 WACE examinations
A cross-check of VET qualification achievement data and the VET students that have been granted exemption from sitting the 2012 WACE examinations will be carried out to identify inconsistencies in qualification completion data. A School Curriculum and Standards Authority officer will follow up anomalies with the relevant schools on a case-by-case basis.

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Requests for SCSA student numbers for 2013

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

As previously advised, schools may now request School Curriculum and Standards Authority (SCSA) student numbers automatically through the student information record system (SIRS) for Year 8 students starting in 2013. Details of how to request SCSA student numbers are in Section 5.1 of the WACE Procedures File, available online at http://www.scsa.wa.edu.au/internet/Publications/WACE_Procedures_File/WACE_Procedures.

For students other than Year 8, schools are encouraged to do an initial search in SIRS for student numbers via Enrolment > Student Enrolment > Find Student Number. 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 WA from overseas or interstate.

This will enable a more comprehensive search to be undertaken before a new number is issued.

Schools with a Year 7 intake that require SCSA student numbers in 2013 need to email numbers@scsa.wa.edu.au and advise how many numbers are required and specify that they are for Year 7 students. These numbers can be allocated to your students, but must not be uploaded to SIRS.

Schools who allocated Year 7 numbers to their students in 2012 are requested to utilise the same number for each student, and upload via their SRGDG in 2013 when the students enter Year 8.

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WACE eligibility – students not achieving the WACE and summary statistics for those who do achieve the WACE

Contact
Jenny Offer (08) 9273 6313
jenny.offer@scsa.wa.edu.au
Lynn Galbraith (08) 9273 6702
lynn.galbraith@scsa.wa.edu.au
Kathy Pilkington (08) 9273 6770
kathy.pilkington@scsa.wa.edu.au

To enable schools to determine the current eligibility of their Year 12 students to achieve a WACE, schools can generate the SIRS report, WACE Eligibility – Students Not Achieving WACE. It is available via the following pathway: Reports > Other Reports > Certification > Report: CSE015.

This report lists all Year 12 students who, according to the data currently uploaded into SIRS, will not achieve a WACE. The report indicates for each student whether or not he/she has met each of the WACE requirements relating to breadth and depth, achievement standard and English language competence.

It is important to note that the eligibility status of students may change with the uploading of new achievement data into SIRS.

The SIRS database will be ‘locked’ on Friday, 23 November 2012 . Schools will no longer be able to upload changes to Year 12 student achievements.

From Monday, 26 November 2012 , schools will be able to run the Confirmation of Students’ Results report in SIRS. This report indicates the number of full-time Year 12 students:

• eligible to receive a WACE
• who will receive a WACE if the results submitted by the school are accepted by the School Curriculum and Standards Authority.

This report is available via the following pathway: Reports > Other Reports > Certification > Report: CSE078. The report also lists the names of the full-time eligible Year 12 students who will not receive a WACE. This part of the report is similar to the table generated by CSE015. Note also, by checking the Yes/No status of listed students with respect to the six criteria, schools may see which of these criteria have not been met.

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Year 12 achievement data due now

Contact
Kathy Pilkington (08) 9273 6770
kathy.pilkington@scsa.wa.edu.au

In accordance with the 2012 WACE activities schedule, it is time for schools to provide achievements in:

• course units (Year 12 students and Year 11 students sitting the WACE examinations) for Semester 1, 2 or full year.
• VET units of competency (Year 12 students)
• endorsed programs (Year 12 students)
• VET qualifications

The achievements are to be submitted to the Student Information Record System (SIRS) through the RSCOS, RSVET, RSEND and RSQUAL files by 1 November 2012.

Grades
For each course unit, at Stage 1, 2 or 3, schools must submit a grade of A, B, C, D, or E or a notation of U (not completed). In the case of Preliminary Stage units, schools report either completed (A) or not completed (U).

There are only two cases for submission of the U grade. The first is if a student is returning to repeat Year 12 in 2013. The second is if the student has been given the opportunity to submit work for assessment after the achievements are due at the Authority. In this case the school must amend the course unit mark and assign a grade by 23 November 2012. After this date no more changes can be made to Year 12 achievement data.

Course unit marks
A course unit written mark and a course unit mark must be submitted for each course unit at Stage 2 or Stage 3. For courses with a practical examination, (oral, performance, portfolio, production submission), a course unit practical mark, a course unit written mark and a course unit mark must be submitted. Schools are also encouraged to submit a course unit mark for Stage 1 units. Marks must be entered as a whole number out of 100.

Please note that where a course has only a written component, the course unit written mark and the course unit mark will be the same.

The course unit written mark is calculated by adding the weighted marks for the assessment tasks (or parts of tasks) which the teacher determines are written and converted to a mark out of 100.

The course unit practical mark is calculated by adding the weighted marks for the assessment tasks (or parts of tasks) which the teacher determines are practical (i.e. assessing practical skills/techniques) and converted to a mark out of 100.

The Authority will use each school’s written WACE examination marks to statistically moderate their course unit written marks. The practical WACE examination marks will be used to statistically moderate the course unit practical marks. This process will provide fairness for those students whose performance differs between the written and practical aspects of the course.

Reporting written and practical marks
The WACE course report for these courses will show the course unit written mark, the course unit practical mark, the written WACE examination mark and the practical WACE examination mark. It will also show a WACE course score for the course/stage, which is generated from a combined mark based on all four marks after statistical moderation.

VET and endorsed program achievement
Schools should use the values and achievement descriptors relevant to the VET units of competency and specific endorsed program to submit student achievement through the appropriate file to SIRS.

Information regarding the submission of the achievement data was emailed to schools on 12 October 2012. If schools require clarification regarding the achievement collection processes, please contact Kathy Pilkington.

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