New QCE System (beginning with Year 11 students in 2019)

At the end of October, QCAA (Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority) released the “QCE and QCIA policy and procedures handbook 2019 v1.0”.  This handbook is significant as it outlines the processes schools must follow in order to ensure students have met the assessment requirements to be awarded senior qualifications at the end of Year 12 from 2020 onwards. While most of the principles are similar to those that exist in the OP system, QCAA have provided more detailed guidelines for the new system.  

Please find below a summary of some of the changes.  More information will be presented at Year 11 Information Evening in Term 1 next year.

Academic Integrity

In the new senior system, there is greater emphasis placed on what it means for students to demonstrate academic integrity in assessment preparation.  In short, academic integrity means completing your own work and referencing sources correctly when writing assignments.  Follow this link to read more about QCAA definitions of types of Academic Misconduct. 

There are two significant resources that will be provided to Northside students to assist them to understand and demonstrate academic integrity:

• -An online training course provided by the QCAA.  We will provide students with time and support to complete this course within the first few weeks of Year 11.
• -Access to PlagScan, a plagiarism checker accessed on our network that will enable students to upload and check their own drafts and fix any reported instances of plagiarism prior to final submission.

Each assessment task sheet will also outline expectation for students regarding the academic integrity requirements for that specific task.

In accordance with this policy only the portions of the work completed on or before the due date and that can be verified as the student’s own work, will be used to determine their result for that assessment task.  If there is no evidence available, the student will receive a NR (not rated) for that assessment instrument.  Obviously, this will negatively impact the student’s overall result for that subject. 

While this may seem like a lot of information to take in, we would encourage parents and students to understand that there are still just a few basic principles that need to be followed.  These rules exist to ensure equity and fairness for all of our students.

• 1.Complete and submit assessment on time.
• 2.Don’t cheat.
• 3.If circumstances arise that mean a student has a valid reason for finding assessment completion difficult, obtain a medical certificate and contact the Director of Teacher and Learning as soon as practical to discuss support arrangements.

Mrs Linda George

Director of Teaching and Learning