Year Twelve Assessment and Tertiary Entrance explained
By Lynda Wall, Dean of Studies
Senior assessment and tertiary entrance procedures are changing in Queensland. St Aidan’s is ensuring that all of our senior students, in the existing and new systems, achieve their best outcomes.
The OP System: Year 12, 2017-2019
We’ve had outstanding outcomes from the current system. Our students graduating in 2018 and 2019 will be supported by many years of expertise.
The existing system is based around assessment set and marked by the school, and then verified by panels of Queensland teachers. St Aidan’s work is consistently selected as exemplars, confirming our high standards.
What makes this an effective senior system?
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Schools can set assessment that is creative and engaging for their students. Students can follow their passions, such as by selecting their own choice of films, art movements or poetry to study, technological problems to solve, and case studies to investigate.
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A wide range of assessment types can be used, allowing students to show their abilities in creative pieces, research assignments, community-based reports, oral and multimodal presentations.
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Schools can manage timetabling for the benefit of students.
How does St Aidan’s support students and achieve excellence?
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For an OP, student results are moderated and scaled by the Queensland Core Skills (QCS) test. St Aidan’s teachers ensure that the Core Skills are explicitly taught in every subject.
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Students are thoroughly prepared for the QCS test so that as a group they have the best opportunity to maximise their OPs.
For students who have studied the set amount of required learning by the end of Year 12, the result is an Overall Position (OP) between 1 - 25.
the ATAR System: 2020 and beyond
St Aidan’s teachers are leading changes to senior curriculum and assessment.
The new future system combines school-based assessment with external examinations at the end of Year 12. The school based assessment will be checked by selected and trained Queensland teachers before and after the students complete the assessment.
What is changing?
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There will be quality control of the assessment in Queensland schools before the students complete the tasks.
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There will be fewer assessment items, so focus can be given to learning.
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There will be increased comparability between schools, with more prescriptive syllabuses to guide the school-based assessment, as well as the state-wide external exams.
How is St Aidan’s supporting students to achieve excellence in the new system?
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Teachers have been actively involved in the curriculum and assessment redevelopment.
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Teachers explicitly teach students the study skills and processes needed for success in external assessment.
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St Aidan’s is continuing to focus on excellence in teaching and learning.
For students who have achieved the set amount of required learning by the end of Year 12, the result will be an Australian Tertiary Entrance Rank (ATAR) between 99.95 – 0.