The weekly Exit Preparation Programme (EPP) lessons are an important part of the academic programme for Year 11 and 12 students. In Term One, Year 11 students undertake an advanced reading course, where they have the opportunity to improve their reading speed and comprehension. From the beginning of Term Two until the end of the year, Year 11 students work on their preparation for the QCST (Queensland Core Skills Test) which is held in their Year 12 year. Each student, with the guidance of their teacher, works through a set text for this purpose, The Common Curriculum Elements Workbook. The aim of these preparation initiatives is to ensure test readiness and increase students’ confidence in their preparation for the QCST. 

In these EPP sessions Year 11 students are exposed to whole notion of the Common Curriculum elements (CCEs) which are tested by the QCST. The Queensland Studies Authority has identified 49 Common Curriculum Elements that encompass a range of skills students should have developed by completion of their Senior Studies. These elements include such things as synthesising, translating from one form to another, graphing, approximating a numerical value, expounding a viewpoint, extrapolating, analysing, perceiving patterns and generalising from information. As you can see from the small sample just given, CCEs underpin the whole senior curriculum and as these CCEs feature prominently in the learning experiences in any classroom, it does not matter which combination of subjects any one student takes. Nevertheless, the work undertaken by Year 11 in EPP, specifically the extra exposure to the CCEs, adds to each student’s core skill competence. 

In Year 12 students use the EPP sessions to do further preparatory work on the QCST. This preparation is designed to help students come to understand the nature of the testing, the timing of tests, how questions are written, the role of the clues in the question, the variety in the questioning and much more. In addition, as they work through questions on past QCST papers, they realise how well-prepared they are just by virtue of their senior study, where analysing, synthesising, decision-making, interpreting, writing appropriate responses and many other common curriculum elements are part of their daily experience in their subjects.

After the QCST is held, the EPP sessions are used as information sessions on issues important for the transition from school to work and/or tertiary study.