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

Schools are advised that 2016 Year 12 students will be able to access their results online at https://www.wace.wa.edu.au on Wednesday, 28 December 2016.

To log on, students will need their SCSA student number and other personal identification information.

Students who experience technical difficulties in accessing their information need to contact the Authority at wacehelp@scsa.wa.edu.au [monitored from Monday to Friday (excluding public holidays) between 8:00am to 5:00pm].

Schools are reminded that the Authority may need to speak with the specified contact person early in January should students question the results reported by schools to the Authority.

Students will receive their folios of achievement (i.e. WACE, WASSA and ATAR course report) during January 2017.

Students who are seeking details relating to university admission (including their ATAR) are advised to contact TISC.

Contact
Gail Wright (08) 9273 6392
gail.wright@scsa.wa.edu.au

The School Curriculum and Standards Authority (Authority) is currently reviewing its Disability Access and Inclusion Plan 2011-2016. The review will result in a new Plan to guide continued improvement to access and inclusion at the Authority for staff and visitors. The review will focus on access to buildings, facilities, events, services, information, skilled staff and complaint and consultation mechanisms at the Authority.

The Authority would like feedback from our visitors to help us develop the new Plan, so please take the time to complete the survey.

To request an alternative format or way to contribute, please contact us via email at info@scsa.wa.edu.au or phone on +61 8 99273 6392.

The consultation period closes on 13 January 2017.

A summary of the key findings will be shared on this page early in 2017 for those with an interest.  
The finalised DAIP 2017-2021 will be available on this page early in 2017.

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

Schools are reminded that students who are enrolled in a Year 12 ATAR course pair of units are required to sit the ATAR course examination. There are both written and practical examinations for some ATAR courses.

From 2017, 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).

This means, the grades for the ATAR Year 12 course will not contribute to the:

• completion of a minimum of 20 units, including 10 Year 12 units.
• completion of at least one pair of Year 12 units from an English course (if the ATAR Year 12 course was either English, Literature or English as an Additional Language or Dialect)
• completion of one pair of Year 12 units from List A (arts/languages/social sciences) or List B (mathematics/science/technology) {depending on the list of the ATAR Year 12 course}
• achievement of at least 14 C grades or higher, including at least six C grades in Year 12 units.
• completion of at least four Year 12 ATAR courses.

Previously, the grades for the pair of units completed in that year did not contribute to meeting the achievement standard, but they could count in the breadth and depth requirement. This is no longer the case.

In addition, students will not receive an ATAR course report and they will also not have a course mark or grade recorded on their WASSA.

As a consequence, a student may not meet the requirements to receive a WACE.

Contact

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

Schools will be able to download 2016 Year 12 statistical reports from the student information records system (SIRS) at https://sirs.scsa.wa.edu.au/ from Friday, 6 January 2017.

School login details of user-name and password are needed to access these reports. These are available from the SIRS coordinator at your school.

The reports and their pathways are:

1. STS010 – Year 12 provider statistics (parts 1 and 2)
2. STS009 – Year 12 State statistics (parts 1 and 2)
3. STS022 – Year 12 school assessment statistics (for each course)
4. STS028 – Year 12 course statistics by provider (all courses)
5. STS029 – Distribution of examination statistics (for each course)
6. STS036 – Statistical moderation and concurrent validity of school assessments.

These six reports will be available through: reports > other reports > report type: statistics.

Another report – CSE077 – will be available for checking individual Year 12 student summary details by provider. This report will be available from: reports > other reports > report type: students.

Explanatory notes containing detailed information about these reports will also be accessible from 6 January 2017 via the Authority website: www.scsa.wa.edu.au/.

If you require assistance with SIRS, contact the Authority helpdesk on  9273 6719 or email SIRShelp@scsa.wa.edu.au.

Contact
Annette Moon (08) 9273 6789
Annette.Moon@scsa.wa.edu.au

The Authority is providing two sets of seminars / webinars for senior secondary teachers.

• One for new and/or inexperienced teachers of WACE courses (i.e. graduate teachers, teachers who have not previously taught Year 11 or Year 12, teachers from interstate or overseas). These seminars are Learning Area specific.
• One for teachers involved in small group moderation in 2017 who wish to learn more about this process.

All seminars are conducted at the Authority (303 Sevenoaks St, Cannington). Details of all seminars and webinars can be accessed when the teacher registers online from the Authority website at www.scsa.wa.edu.au.

Webinars will be provided as an alternative for face-to-face meetings.

The seminars are free to attend, but the school is responsible for teacher relief and any travel and accommodation expenses.

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

Teachers of Year 11 and 12 General WACE courses are advised that the Authority intends to conduct a series of workshops during semester one 2017, designed to support improving student performance.

Workshops will be conducted for:

• Music
• Design
• Materials Design and Technology
• Business Management and Enterprise
• Physical Education Studies
• Mathematics Essential.

Further information on these workshops will be provided to schools at the commencement of the school year.

Contact
Rita Colliander (08) 9273 6378 (partnership registration)
rita.colliander@scsa.wa.edu.au

John Newman (08) 9273 6757 (moderation queries)
john.newman@scsa.wa.edu.au

Schools planning to run a class with fewer than six examination candidates in an ATAR Year 12 course are reminded of the need to establish small group moderation partnerships for 2017. All schools with one or more small groups must register their partnerships with the Authority on the required form by Thursday 16 February 2017.

To ensure the required comparability of marks, a partnership should be made with another school starting delivery at the same time. Establishment of a partnership before teaching commences enables the teachers involved to agree to the sequence and timing of delivery and to plan a common assessment outline

All schools in a partnership are required to:

• use an identical assessment outline (typically developed collaboratively)
• establish and use identical assessment tasks and marking keys
• conduct all assessment tasks under the same agreed conditions (or conditions that are as similar as possible)
• co-develop and document agreed marking strategies to ensure comparability of marking, which can include:
  • one teacher marking a task from all students in all partner schools (i.e. rotating the marking of tasks between teachers)
  • double-marking a task from all students or from selected students across the range of grades (i.e. both teachers independently mark the whole task or particular sections/questions, then discuss comparability, review marks and make adjustments where required)
  • co-marking a task (i.e. each teacher marks particular sections/questions for all students).

Full details of the small group moderation procedures for 2017 are available in sub-Section 3.6 of the WACE Manual 2017, available on the Authority website at http://www.scsa.wa.edu.au/publications/wace-manual.

A seminar with a repeat session will be provided early in 2017 for those teachers who have not participated in a small group moderation partnership before, or for those who wish to refresh their understanding of the required procedures. Details about the seminars are provided in a separate item in this Circular.

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

The WACE Manual 2017 has been published on our website.

The Manual describes policies and procedures to be followed in relation to achieving the Western Australian Certificate of Education and includes information about the requirements for a WACE in 2017.

School leaders and teachers should note that the requirements of the WACE in 2017 have been revised.

To support readers of the Manual, the use of icons in the margins has been continued. In the 2017 Manual, new content is marked with a star and clarified content is marked with an exclamation point:

The 2017 WACE Manual is available on our website at http://www.scsa.wa.edu.au/publications/wace-manual. It can also be reached via the Further Resources tab in the Years 11 and 12 section at http://senior-secondary.scsa.wa.edu.au/further-resources/wace-manual.

Contact
Gabby Raggio (08) 9273 6306
gabby.raggio@scsa.wa.edu.au

Teachers of Accounting and Finance, General and ATAR, Year 11 and Year 12 are advised that due to recent changes in the Australian Accounting Standards and the Framework for the Preparation and Presentation of Financial Statements (the Framework), changes are required in teaching practices for the Accounting and Finances courses.

The key changes are:

• The qualitative characteristics of financial information
• The treatment of discount allowed and discount received
• The classification of financial expenses/finance costs.

Full details of the changes are outlined in the following documents available on the course page for Accounting and Finance on the Authority website at http://senior-secondary.scsa.wa.edu.au/syllabus-and-support-materials/humanities-and-social-sciences/accounting-and-finance:

• Syllabus Support Materials, Accounting and Finance, ATAR Year 11 and Year 12
• Syllabus Support Materials, Accounting and Finance, General Year 12.

As outlined in the above documents these changes will be phased in during 2017 and 2018.

Contact
Angela Kiely (08) 9273 6751
angela.kiely@scsa.wa.edu.au

The School Curriculum and Standards Authority has conducted an integrity check to verify that the workplace component of the course (ADWPL) is undertaken in an industry area relevant to the qualification undertaken as a part of a VET industry specific course.

Of the 59 schools offering VET industry specific courses to Year 11 students in 2016, 29 schools were asked to provide details of the student’s work placement across 18 qualifications in all 10 VET industry specific courses.

Initial findings:

• The initial round of checks required schools to identify the student’s employer and their job role. Over half of the schools reviewed in the initial check have been asked to provide the ADWPL logbooks of their students to establish whether the workplace activities clearly align to the qualification given that it was not immediately evident from the job role and/or employer.
• Some students were required to find a more suitable workplace for the remaining ADWPL hours to contribute towards course completion requirements.
• Approximately 30% of schools were not required to provide any further evidence as the workplace role and/or employer was shown to clearly align with the qualification.
• Several schools were unable to provide workplace details at the time of conducting the integrity check.

General feedback

Schools need to consider:

• the concurrency rule which requires students are at least working towards the completion of 55 hours of ADWPL in the first year of enrolment into the VET industry specific course.
• finding suitable placements that adequately support the qualification undertaken as part of a VET industry specific course. This will ensure the integrity of these courses are maintained.
• that where students are undertaking more than one VET industry specific course that the student is able to perform appropriate work activities which support the learning of each qualification.
• where it is not immediately evident that the workplace aligns to the qualification (i.e. through the job role and/or employer) for schools to ensure that the student will be undertaking tasks that support their learning at the qualification level.

Thank you to all 29 schools for providing their time in order to complete the initial VET industry specific integrity check as well as providing any additional information where required. A big thank you to all schools who were particularly prompt and helpful in supporting this new process.

Contact
Angela Kiely (08) 9273 6751
angela.kiely@scsa.wa.edu.au

Nicole Gazey (08) 9442 9401
nicole.gazey@scsa.wa.edu.au

The 10 updated VET industry specific course syllabuses are now available for use in 2017.  The 2017 syllabuses are available for new VET industry specific enrolments in 2017. The 2016 syllabuses are only available for continuing VET industry specific enrolments in 2017.

The 2017 syllabuses can be located under the new enrolments tab and the 2016 syllabuses can be found under the continuing enrolments tab on the Authority’s website.

All VET industry specific course syllabuses including the VET industry specific course codes summary 2017-18can be found via the link below:

http://senior-secondary.scsa.wa.edu.au/syllabus-and-support-materials/vet-industry-specific.

The main changes to the 2017 VET industry specific courses include:

• Certificate II in Creative Industries has replaced the Certificate II in Live Production, Theatre and Events however the Live Production pathway has remained in the Creative Industries syllabus.
• update to training package codes across all VET industry specific courses
• removal of the Certificate I in Creative Industries from the Creative Industries syllabus
• addition of the Certificate III in Music Industry to the Creative Industries syllabus

ContactJoy Cicchini(08) 9273 6788
Joy.Cicchini@scsa.wa.edu.au

The Formulae and Data booklet has been updated for 2017 to include a table listing the properties of elementary particles.

Some formulae have been rearranged to enable them to fit on the page, including

The negative sign has been removed from the maximum emf formula in both the Formulae and Data booklet and the syllabus (page 14). It now reads

AC generator emf_max =  

Other minor edits to the syllabus include the addition of

(page 13) for consistency with the Formulae and Data booklet,

and the addition of the subscript to F in F_c =ma_c (page 12).

Contact
Graeme Quelch (08) 92736758
Graeme.quelch@scsa.wa.edu.au

All schools are reminded they are required to submit to the Authority the following documents for each ATAR Year 11 course they are delivering in 2017:

• a course outline
• an assessment outline.

These documents are to be uploaded through the Student Information Records System 2 (SIRS2).

The URL for the SDA 2017 page is https://sirs2.scsa.wa.edu.au

Schools are required to upload the required documents by 4.00pm Friday 24 February 2017.

Please note that schools will not be able to upload documents after this date.

All information on the SDA 2017 is located here

http://senior-secondary.scsa.wa.edu.au/moderation/syllabus-delivery-audit

Contact

Buddhini Daluwatta (08) 9273 6761
buddhini.daluwatta@scsa.wa.edu.au

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

Early in Term 1 2017, teachers will be able to attend teacher/examiner forums to provide feedback and ask questions of examining panels about the ATAR course examinations that have been  held in 2016.

All teacher/examiner forums will take place from 4–6pm in meeting rooms at the School Curriculum and Standards Authority, 303 Sevenoaks Street, Cannington. Teachers attending the forums are advised to bring a copy of the ATAR course examination.

Teachers intending to participate in these forums are asked to register online at http://www.scsa.wa.edu.au/events/teacher-examiner-forums

Forums are planned for all courses on the dates listed below.