With three weeks remaining in Term 3, Senior students will participate in assessment which will impact normal timetabled classes. We wish all of our students the best in their preparation and sitting of all assessment during this time. Major points are as follows:

• Year 12 Full Shutdown all of Week 9 and 10 (September 4 to 15) for Mock exams and Applied assessment (9:00am start).
• Year 11 Full Shutdown Week 10 (September 11 to 15)
• Year 10 Full Shutdown Week 10 (September 11 to 15)
• Students that are behind in their VET certificates will also be required to attend school during shutdown to catch up.

External exams will commence at 9:00am, PBC will have the same start time for Mock exams. During this time, students should attend school for exams only, in complete school uniform. All exam timetables for all of the above are located here -

https://pbc-shs.eq.edu.au/curriculum/testing-and-assessment.

Study Skills

With mock exams and external exams quickly approaching for our Year 12 students it is imperative they are preparing by engaging in practice questions on a weekly basis.

Completing practice problems and writing prompts deliberately engages students with information, helps them to consolidate their understanding and moves it from short-term to long-term memory, reducing cognitive load.

There are a number of ways students can do this, some examples include:

• Writing possible questions from notes;
• completing practice tests (under varied conditions; open/closed book, timed/untimed);
• practicing writing over a variety of topics (by hand is important as exams are handwritten in most cases)

Academic integrity course for students completing senior studies

The QCAA has released a factsheet for how parents/carers can promote and ensure their students maintain academic integrity:

https://www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/downloads/senior/snr_academic_integrity_factsheet_parents_carers.pdf 

They suggest that parents/carers could, for example:

• encourage students to complete the course academic integrity course on the myQCE website
• reinforce the importance of ethical conduct and study practices
• support students to understand family, community and school expectations
• ensure students understand the consequences of academic misconduct
• support students to develop the skills needed to submit their own work
• encourage students to seek additional information and/or advice from their school if they have

questions after completing the course

• discuss any concerns they may have with the school.

Hospitality course

 Year 12 students following a Personalised pathway will not have exams in week 10. These students may elect to complete a short course in Hospitality on Wednesday September 13 to 15. The details of the course are below:

Short Course / Skillset (Aurora Training Institute)

Duration- 3 days

Fund Source- Fee for Service         

Student Fees- $220 per student

SITHFAB025- Prepare and serve espresso coffee

SITHFAB021- Provide responsible service of alcohol

SITHGAM022- Provide responsible gambling services

SITXFSA005- Use hygienic practices for food safety 

This constitutes 25% of a certificate 3 in Hospitality and will attain 2 QCE points (assuming students have not completed these competencies in other courses), but more importantly may help students with future employment. The Next Step data certainly indicates that the majority of our students enter the Hospitality industry after they leave school.

Any interested students can register with Sonia Shreeve or Mick McDougall in Y block.

First Aid and Safety course

Over 40 Year 12 students successfully completed the First Aid and Safety course in August.

A final First Aid and Safety course will be conducted at PBC on Wednesday October 18. To register for this course students, need to collect a letter from Y block and ensure payments are made by September 11 ($100 for year 12s and $75 for year 11s). This course also attains 2 QCE points.

External Assessment

To access the External Assessment timetable please visit the myQCE website:

https://www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/senior/assessment/external-assessment/timetable

The External Assessment Guide has also been published on the myQCE website:

https://myqce.qcaa.qld.edu.au/_media/documents/external_assessment_guide_students.pdf

Year 12s should be familiarising themselves with this document as it answers all questions about exams especially regarding equipment, calculators allowed and directions to students.

Year 12 students also have access to practice exams for all General subjects on the QCAA website. This should be used in preparation for both the upcoming Mock exam and the External assessment. As an example, the practice External exams for General Maths and General English can be located on the following links:

 https://www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/senior/senior-subjects/english/english/assessment

https://www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/senior/senior-subjects/mathematics/general-mathematics/assessment

It is expected that all students complete these practice exams for their General subjects in preparation for their External Assessment.

Students are again reminded that they must complete all assessment in Applied and General subjects to be awarded a result.

Year 11

Year 11 students will finalise Unit 2 in shutdown during week 10 of this term September 13 to 17.

Year 11 students will commence the summative units for ATAR in term 4 of this year and will have their first assessment for Unit 3 in the last week of term 4. This will be a full shutdown in the week of November 21 to 25.

The school commences Unit 3 in term 4, this is the last opportunity for Year 11 students to change subjects in Senior Schooling. Any student requesting a subject change should come to Y block at the end of this term to collect a subject change form.

A reminder that all students must have passed a Unit of English and Maths by the end of Unit 2. Students that do not meet this requirement will have to complete Unit 1 or 2 gain in 2023 to be eligible for the QCE.

Year 10

Year 10 students have a full week of shutdown from September 12 to 16 to finalise exams and assignments.

Year 10 students are again reminded that they are much better off commencing a school-based apprenticeship and traineeship (SAT) in Year10 than in Year 11. Please see Ms Shreeve in Y block for more information regarding SATs.

Assessment Policy

This policy is published on the school website.

If students are absent for an exam they must contact their teacher and provide a medical certificate

A reminder that all assignments are due at 9:00am on the due date and that teachers are instructed to make a judgement on the evidence, which is available at this time. Late assignments are not accepted.

Students are reminded to back up their work via USBs, emails or cloud storage as computer malfunctions and losing assignments are not grounds for an extension.

Link and Launch

Remember Link and Launch Grace for your 2023 graduate

Grace will see to it that Grade 12 leavers receive free individualised advice and support to ‘open the door to their future success’. Know someone suitable who will be graduating or has graduated in the last two years? Text or call 0467 951 239 or email gmack73@eq.edu.au. #linkandlaunch

Scan QR code below to provide contact for a check in text next year: