Senior Secondary Update
Study Skills Bite
Week 5 and 6 study skills sessions for Year 10-12 students covered The Spacing effect and chunking and chewing information. Week 8 will be interleaved practice and Week 9 is SWOT for exams. Encourage your student to attend on Monday afternoon 1:25pm- 1:40pm.
Spacing Effect
Information that is studied or repeated over time leads to long-term retention. When students are exposed to and engage with information numerous times, spaced across multiple intervals it solidifies long-term memory, which enhances their ability for retention and recall.
As shown in figure 1, by reviewing information at intervals, not just at the end of a study cycle, students can recall a greater percentage of the information with a higher level of accuracy. (QCAA Strategies for retaining and recalling information for assessment, 2020). Students need to be integrating spaced learning into their study schedules to allow for long-term retention. This also reduces their cognitive load particularly at times of greater stress.
Figure 1: The forgetting curve and review cycle (Ebbinghaus, 1885)
Chunking and Chewing
By breaking information into bite-sized ‘chunks’ and providing an opportunity to process (‘chew’) the learning helps to make meaning clear but also assists in moving it from working memory to long-term memory.
Assessment
Year 10 students will have shutdown for exams in Week 10. Exams will be scheduled from Monday 19 June up to and including Friday 23 June.
Year 11 students have normal classes everyday for the rest of the term. They will have assessment in Week 2 of Term 3. Due to the compressed nature of the year 11 curriculum all Year 11 students will have assignment tasks and exams to study for over the holidays.
Year 12 students will have normal classes for the Monday and Tuesday of Week 10 and then have an exam shutdown commencing on Wednesday 21 June up to and including Friday 23 June. Many subjects will have assignment tasks due in Weeks 2 to 3 of next term.
Shutdown calendars for Year 10 and 12 will be published on the school website in the coming week Students are expected to know the date, time and room of their assessments.
The school’s assessment policy is published on the school website. Note that students need to complete all assessment in a subject to be given a result. If students do not submit an assessment task by 9:00am on the due date then the teacher must use the evidence collected before that date to make a judgement. If the student did not submit a draft this means that the student will not get a result for the subject. This will affect their progress towards the QCE and also their enrolment in post compulsory education.
Year 11 End of Unit 1 subject reports will be emailed to parents this week. The Senior schooling team will begin monitoring the academic performance of students in this cohort to ensure that they are on track to attain the QCE.
Students are expected to pass at least 5 out of their 6 subjects to remain eligible for the QCE and to remain enrolled in post compulsory schooling. If students have been disengaged and not working appropriately, they could find themselves in a position where they are ineligible for the QCE at the end of Unit 1. Please visit the following link for more information on the requirements for the QCE:
https://myqce.qcaa.qld.edu.au/your-qce-pathway/about-the-qce
Whilst Unit 2 has already commenced, Year 11 students can still change classes up to Friday 9 June, though there is limited timetable availability. Any Year 11 student that wishes to change classes should come to Y block as soon as possible.
Year 12 ATAR students had the opportunity to a mentoring session this week to discuss their progress in General subjects and their ATAR range. A range of study support sessions are available for Year 12 students to help them maximise their results. These are also published here (please add in Year 12 Study skills opportunities pdf).
The link below is an academic paper on improving study techniques amongst students, which may be useful when parents are discussing the best way to prepare for external exams.
Year 12 students are now completing Unit 4 work and will only have 2 assessments left in each of their subjects. At the end of Year 12 students’ results in Unit 3 and 4 are combined to award an exit grade and for General subjects a numerical value.
All year 12 students should by now have logged onto their QCAA learning account in the QCAA student portal. This is accessed via the myQCE website https://myqce.qcaa.qld.edu.au/index.html. All students were sent emails regarding the details of logging into the account at the start of the year. Student results are published by the QCAA directly into their learning account.
Report Cards
Year 11 Reports will be emailed to parents early in the week of 5 June. Congratulations to all Year 11 students for their excellence efforts.
Other senior secondary news:
- The Senior External Assessment timetable for the end of 2023 has been published and is available on the QCAA website and the school website: https://www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/senior/assessment/external-assessment/timetable
- Prestige Services Training are offering a Virtual online Diploma of Business course commencing in July. This 18 month long course opens up a range of tertiary pathways for students. The course is offered after school and comes at a cost of $2500. Please contact Mr. McDougall for further details.
- Year 10s and 11s are encouraged to register for School based traineeships and apprenticeships (SAT) in Y block. A SAT will give students paid employment, work experience and a Certificate 3 qualification which gains extra QCE credits, but also opens up a tertiary pathway. Please contact Ms Shreeve in Y block for more information.
- Students in Year 10 are reminded that their academic performance in Year 10 semester 1 will determine which pathway they can choose in Year 11. Students wishing to complete an ATAR pathway need to achieve Bs in English and Maths. Students wishing to study a senior science course in year 11 and 12 also need to achieve a B in Year 10 Science.