Supporting schools impacted by natural disasters

For General, General (Extension) and Applied (Essential) subjects, internal assessment (IA) instruments must be endorsed before changes can be approved and made. However, schools can submit a request to change the sequence of assessment instruments that have been endorsed for Units 3 and 4.

To request a change to the sequence of endorsed assessments, principal’s delegates should provide details of the new intended sequence by contacting the Quality Assurance Unit. Please ensure you include the name of the school and subject.

The QCAA will make the change on your behalf to ensure the information is captured in the Student Management, Endorsement and Confirmation applications.

For Applied subjects, schools have the flexibility to review the order of modules and assessment to meet the needs of the school community.

Schools make decisions about due dates for assessment, and they do not need to seek approval for updates that continue to meet the specifications of the relevant syllabus. Due dates are established to provide sufficient working time for students to complete a task and to enable QCAA quality assurance processes to be delivered as scheduled. Due dates need to be applied consistently.

For General, General (Extension) and Applied (Essential) subjects, schools can update a due date on a task sheet by creating a new print preview in the Endorsement application.

Further information is available in the QCE and QCIA policy and procedures handbook v3.0, Section 8.2.7: Gathering evidence of student achievement.

Schools have a number of options for supporting students to complete assessments where they are no longer able to attend planned field trips or excursions.

Options include:

• Swap the delivery of internal assessments and adjust the teaching and learning program to support the change.
• Reschedule the date of the excursion and adjust due dates accordingly to meet school and QCAA quality assurance process timelines.
• If appropriate, find alternative ways to collect primary sources and data without going to the site, e.g. use open-source resources available on the internet. Note that this is not suitable for Geography IA2.
• Where appropriate, change the location to an on-school site to meet the requirements of the syllabus objectives. Please note that if you are changing the location, an amendment is required.
• Learning area–specific resources can be accessed from the QCAA Portal > Syllabus > Resources. For further assistance, please contact the Principal Education Officer for your subject.

Section 6.5 of the QCE and QCIA policy and procedures handbook outlines the process for supporting students in unforeseen circumstances for the completion of internal assessment.

The overarching principles are:

• schools can approve changes to internal assessment dates and extensions of due dates for cohorts and individual students
• schools can determine what evidence is required to approve extensions to be 'reasonably satisfied' that the need exists
• schools can use a comparable assessment to support individual or groups of students if required
• individual students that won't meet the provisional results timelines can have NYA (not yet administered) entered into the Student Management application.

An adjustment to a field location will require an amendment to the endorsed task. This will ensure confirmers have accurate information for their reviews during the confirmation process. The amendment request can be made in the Endorsement application by selecting the relevant assessment and clicking on the Modify the endorsed assessment button.  Once this option is selected, the instrument can be edited as required. When the required changes have been made, it will progress through the school’s internal approval process before being submitted to the QCAA for final approval. For more assistance, refer to the Amendments help guide in the Help link of the Endorsement application or contact Endorsement.

All key dates in the Senior Education Profile (SEP) calendar for confirmation will remain unchanged at this stage. The QCAA will continue to monitor the impacts of emerging circumstances and respond accordingly.

If your school anticipates any difficulties in meeting the Friday April 1 deadline for submitting provisional marks, please contact Confirmation.

There is room to adjust the module delivery order, especially if the change is being made to accommodate emergent circumstances. The QCAA advises that you should only change the delivery order among the Unit 3 and 4 modules in your study plan, i.e. Unit 3 or 4 modules should not be swapped with Unit 1 or 2 modules. If the change is for 2022 only, you do not need to submit a study plan amendment. If the change is to be longer term or permanent, a study plan amendment is required. Schools should note any adjustments made to the module delivery order to ensure students’ results are accurately entered in the Student Management application.

The delivery and implementation dates for CIA Phase 1 are:

Standard deliveries are scheduled to proceed on Tuesday 8 March. If schools are unable to receive the delivery or contractors are unable to access the school, packages will be returned to the QCAA.

If a scheduled delivery does not arrive at your school, or you are unable to accept it, please notify the QCAA.

If a school is unable to accept a delivery and intends to proceed with administration of Phase 1 CIA, the QCAA will work with the school on an alternative delivery method.

If your school is unable to administer the Phase 1 CIA for the entire cohort due to unforeseen circumstances, you can change to another CIA phase of delivery. In this instance, store the delivered assessment materials securely as normal. QCAA will provide further advice about the secure period for the CIA materials.

Contact the Quality Assurance Unit to advise that you need to change phases.

Please note that timelines for the production of papers prohibit schools from transferring to Phase 2. Schools are able to change to Phase 3 or Phase 4 administration. The dates for these phases are:

As per the guidelines in the QCE and QCIA policy and procedures handbook schools can use a comparable assessment to support individual students if required. For the CIA, this is provided by the QCAA in the ancillary phase.