11to12 Circulars

March 2018

General Information, SIRS and Enrolments

Year 11 and Year 12 student enrolments in course units for 2018 – timeline

Contact
Jenny Offer (08) 9273 6313
jenny.offer@scsa.wa.edu.au

Last dates for changes and withdrawals
Schools are reminded that the last date for changes to enrolments is Thursday, 5 April 2018 for:

  • ATAR, General, Foundation, Preliminary courses for Year 12 students
  • ATAR, General and Foundation courses (Units 3 and 4) for Year 11 students.

After Thursday, 5 April:

  • SIRS will be locked and no further changes (except withdrawals) will be accepted in the above courses
  • Year 11 and Year 12 students are able to withdraw from ATAR courses (Units 3 and 4) with practical examination components until Friday, 27 July 2018
  • Year 11 and Year 12 students are able to withdraw from ATAR courses (Units 3 and 4) which do not have practical examination components until Friday, 17 August 2018
  • Year 12 students are able to withdraw from ATAR (Units 1 and 2), General, Foundation, Preliminary and VET-industry specific courses until Friday, 17 August 2018.

If schools do not withdraw students from Year 12 ATAR courses before the above deadlines, then these students are enrolled in the course and are required to sit the ATAR course examinations. Where the Year 12 ATAR course has both written and practical examinations, students are required to sit for both of these examinations. Students who do not sit an ATAR course examination and do not have an approved sickness/misadventure application for that course, will not have the grades for the pair of units completed in that year contribute to the calculation of the Western Australian Certificate of Education (WACE). Further details relating to the consequences of not sitting examinations and WACE requirements can be found in the WACE Manual 2018 under Explanatory notes relating to WACE requirements (Number 5).

Schools are also reminded that the last date for changes to enrolments in VET industry specific courses for Year 12 students is Thursday, 21 June 2018 and for Year 11 students is Thursday, 9 August 2018.

New date 
In 2018, a new date has been included relating to the enrolment of Year 11 students in year-long courses (i.e. courses with codes starting with either AE, GE or FE). Schools are able to upload, into SIRS, Year 11 students enrolments in year-long courses until Friday, 3 August 2018. After this date, this SIRS facility will be locked and no further changes (except withdrawals in these courses) will be accepted. After Friday, 3 August, Year 11 students will need to be enrolled into single units only (i.e. courses with codes starting with either A2, G2 or F2).

Non-school candidate enrolments
Enrolments as non-school candidates in ATAR course examinations must be received at the Authority by Thursday, 5 April 2018. No further applications will be accepted after this date. This form can be found on the Authority website at https://www.scsa.wa.edu.au/forms/forms (under Enrolments).

Other enrolment-related forms 
The following enrolment-related forms are due:

  • Year 11 equivalent studies for a WACE as soon as possible(under WACE Equivalence)
  • Year 10 and Year 11 Overseas full fee-paying student declaration form – 2018 and/or Year 12 Overseas full fee-paying student declaration form – 2018 with payment (for schools in Western Australia only – under Declarations) are due on Tuesday, 15 May 2018.

These forms can be found on the Authority website at: https://www.scsa.wa.edu.au/forms/forms.


WACE Checker developed to assist Year 12 students monitor their progress towards achieving the WACE

Contact
Jenny Offer (08) 9273 6313
jenny.offer@scsa.wa.edu.au

Schools are kindly reminded that the School Curriculum and Standards Authority (the Authority) has developed a WACE Checker for Year 12 students. The WACE Checker is a tool which Year 12s can use to check their progress towards achieving their Western Australian Certificate of Education (WACE) and is now available on the Authority website at: https://wacechecker.scsa.wa.edu.au/.

The WACE Checker is provided as a guide only. The report it provides students must not be interpreted as a guarantee that the student will achieve a WACE. Achievement of the WACE is dependent on the calculation of a student’s final results and completion of courses. Individuals are encouraged to consult the WACE Manual for the relevant year, or their school, should they wish to confirm WACE eligibility for a student based on enrolment and predicted/actual achievement.

To use the WACE Checker, students will need to add information about their achievements in Year 11 and their expected achievements in Year 12. The checker will be of most assistance if the information provided for Year 12 is realistic. When students add their anticipated grades for Year 12, they need to add what they realistically expect to achieve this year.

The WACE Checker will be particularly useful for students considering changes to their education program which may affect their eligibility for the WACE.

The WACE Checker allows students to save the summary of their input as a Portable Document Format (PDF). They can use this PDF to track their progress and to check the impact of any changes to their enrolment or achievement.

Students can also use a save function which will keep the data entered into the checker for a month. An access code is provided to allow students to use the ‘Fetch My Data’ button when they select that option in the checker.

More information is available under the ‘Tell me more’ button on the checker.


Registration of students on the Student Information Records System (SIRS) in 2018

Contact
Lynn Galbraith (08) 9273 6702
lynn.galbraith@education.wa.edu.au opens in new window
dataservices@scsa.wa.edu.au

Thank you to all schools who met the due date of 15 February for the initial upload of student registration and demographic information to SIRS in 2018.  

Schools are now asked to please note the following dates for uploading student registration and demographic files (SRGDG) to SIRS. Please do not leave it until the last date to upload your data as this may not allow enough time to fix any errors.

Wednesday, 14 March 2018

  • An extension has been given to Brightpath schools to upload both their SRGDG and THREG (Teacher Registration) files to SIRS.  Any schools not meeting this deadline will not be able to utilise Brightpath until Term 2.

Thursday, 15 March 2018

  • Registration and demographic information for Years 7–9 students where these students attend schools not administering NAPLAN online is due to be uploaded on Thursday, 15 March 2018.

Thursday, 12 April 2018

  • Registration and demographic information for Kindergarten–Year 6 students where these students attend schools not administering NAPLAN Online is due to be uploaded on Thursday, 12 April 2018.

Please note: updates to registration and demographic information should be uploaded into SIRS on a regular basis for the remainder of the year.  Senior secondary student data should always be updated prior to uploading any enrolment files.

Details of how to register students are provided in the updated Data Procedures Manual 2018 - https://www.scsa.wa.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/438159/Data-Procedures-Manual-2018.pdf, with links to assist schools using Reporting to Parents, MAZE, and Excel. There is also a separate Student Registration Procedures Manual 2018 – Primary Students found on the following web page https://www.scsa.wa.edu.au/sirs-info/primary-schools to assist primary schools with creating and uploading their Student Registration and Demographic File (SRGDG).

Schools who have never previously registered their students’ Western Australian Student Number (WASN) will be contacted during 2018 with instructions on how to request and allocate the WASN and how to upload an SRGDG to SIRS.

Requesting Western Australian Student Numbers 
WASNs for Kindergarten students ONLY can be requested directly through SIRS. Please see instructions in the Section 3.3 of the Student Registration Procedures Manual 2018 – Primary Students found in the above link.

Schools, where most students already have a WASN and new students have enrolled who require a number, should check first using the ‘Search for WASN’ process – explained in ‘How to Search for WA Student Numbers in SIRS’ in this Circular.  If you cannot locate a number, then contact numbers@scsa.wa.edu.au and give details of the student’s legal surname, legal first name, date of birth and academic year.

To request WASNs, where you have a large number of students requiring numbers, please send a spreadsheet containing the students’ surname, first name, date of birth and academic year to numbers@scsa.wa.edu.au and a check will be made before returning with allocated numbers and a request made for new numbers where appropriate.

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


Vocational Education and Training (VET)

Vocational Education and Training (VET) industry specific WACE course integrity check Term 3 2018

Contact
Rachael Davidson (08) 9273 6750
rachael.davidson@scsa.wa.edu.au

A reminder to schools who have students enrolled in a VET industry specific course in 2018 that there may be a request to provide details about student workplaces to ensure the requirements of the relevant VET industry specific course are being met.

The purpose of the VET industry specific integrity check is to assess whether the students who are enrolled in a VET industry specific course are in a workplace that:

  • is aligned to the qualification undertaken
  • provides an opportunity to reinforce the learning of the qualification undertaken
  • is undertaken concurrently to the qualification.

Schools are provided with an opportunity to ensure the student can meet the workplace requirements where it is initially assessed that those requirements are not being met.

What are schools required to do?

An email with an attached spread sheet will be sent to selected schools in Term 3, 2018. The spreadsheet will be pre-populated with course enrolment details and request the following workplace information from schools:

  • Student enrolment status (current, left)
  • Main job role
  • Employer
  • Supervisor nameand contact
  • Start Date
  • Work placement arrangement (block release, daily/weekly)
  • Workplace occurrence (total number of weeks released, days per week in the workplace)
  • Scheduled work placement (during the semester, holidays, combination)
  • Course duration (1 or 2 years)
  • Delivery arrangement (auspice, SBT, SBA, profile, NoA, fee for service, combination)
  • RTO name.

Schools may choose to include any or all of the details required into their recordkeeping practices.


2018 Vocational Education and Training (VET) Qualification estimates (ESQUAL) – important information

Contact
Rachael Davidson (08) 9273 6750
rachael.davidson@scsa.wa.edu.au

The VET ESQUAL is a mandatory WACE reporting activity required by Thursday, 3 May 2018. Schools who do not meet the deadline will be contacted to provide the information.

Schools are required to report the qualifications being undertaken by students (including students who access training offsite at external providers) and the student details for each qualification.

Details of the units of competence within each qualification are not required to be reported. Schools are only required to update the ESQUAL file after the 3 May deadline if there is a significant change in VET offerings.

Schools will also need to indicate the delivery arrangement (e.g. auspice, profile, fee for service) for each VET qualification.

For more information about the reporting process, the full list of delivery arrangement definitions and the ESQUAL file format, refer to the 2018 Data Procedures Manual, Section 3.3 VET qualification estimates (ESQUAL). The manual can be downloaded from the Authority website at: http://www.scsa.wa.edu.au/internet/Publications/Data_Procedures_Manual.

Important information
Uploading an ESQUAL file to Student Information and Record System (SIRS) causes the previous file to be completely erased. To correctly update the information in your ESQUAL upload file, all students should be included in each upload. This ensures that information on your school record in SIRS is maintained correctly.


VET industry specific course mandatory co-requisite – linking Authority developed Workplace Learning Endorsed Program (ADWPL)

Contact
Rachael Davidson (08) 9273 6750
rachael.davidson@scsa.wa.edu.au

A reminder to schools that for students enrolled in a VET industry specific course, the ADWPL must be linked to the relevant qualification code when reporting enrolments and achievements in ADWPL.

For SIRS to allocate course credit for VET industry specific courses, it is a requirement that ADWPL is linked to the relevant qualification code before uploading to SIRS.

ADWPL is reported through ENEND and RSEND SIRS file formats.

To identify the link between ADWPL and the relevant VET industry specific course, there is a qualification codefield in both ENEND and RSEND file formats. For further details see Section 9.4 of the Data Procedures Manual 2018.

Please note: The qualification code is not required for ADWPL completed independent of a VET industry specific course.