Whitsunday leading the change to new QCE
At Whitsunday Anglican School we believe in unlocking our students’ full potential so they can achieve the best possible academic outcomes.
It is for this reason that Whitsunday Anglican School’s Year 10 students will make an early transition to the new Queensland Certificate of Education (QCE) system by commencing Year 11 in Term 4 this year.
These students will be the first to graduate with an ATAR (Australian Tertiary Admission Rank) in 2020 as the ATAR will replace the Overall Position (OP).
Students graduating in 2018 and 2019 will still sit the QCS (Queensland Core Skills) test and graduate with a QCE and an OP if all criteria is met. Whitsunday Anglican School is committed to supporting these students as they have always done, through their subject studies and cohort preparation for the QCS Test.
Chris Rider, the CEO of the QCAA (Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority), categorises the benefits of the changes for students and their parents in terms of:
- greater comparability of results between school
- reduced summative assessment load
- better evidence to determine fair subject results
- transparent and easy to understand method for the calculation of subject results
- reinvigorated curriculum
- focus on twenty-first century skills
In the new Queensland system, there will General subjects, Applied subjects and Vocational qualifications. There will be two methods of calculating an ATAR. A student may choose to study 5 general subjects to attain an ATAR or to study 4 general subjects plus an applied subject or a vocational qualification. Students must also pass an English subject. Currently while a pass in English is a requirement for admission to most post-secondary courses it is not a requirement for an OP.
There will no longer be a State-wide exam, such as the QCS test, which is used to scale internal school results. Each subject result will be expressed in terms of a percentage, calculated by adding the four pieces of assessment completed in that subject in Year 12. The external piece will not be used to scale the internal pieces. In all subjects except for Maths and Sciences, the external assessment will be 25% of the final grade, contributing the same as each of the three internal pieces. In Maths and Science subjects, the external exam will be 50% of the final subject grade. The scaling that will exist in the new system will be inter-subject scaling. That means that some subjects will be worth more than other subjects in terms of ATAR calculation. This scaling will not be available until the end of 2020.
The rules for selecting subjects will remain the same. A student should choose the subjects they enjoy, keeping in mind their demonstrated capacity and career options. Often students do not know what career path they wish to explore at the time they are choosing senior subjects. In this case, it is important for students to keep their options open and be aware of pre-requisites for tertiary study.
