As we enter the last 2 weeks of term, the Senior school will go into shutdown exams for Years 12 first in week 9 and then Years 11 and 10 in week 10.

Exam timetables and schedules for Years 10, 11 and 12 can be found here -

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

Students need to know the date, time and room of their assessment and ensure that they are present in full school uniform at least 15minutes before exams commence.

KEY DATES

Year 12 full shutdown all of week 9 and 10 (September 2 to 13) for Mock exams and Applied assessment (9:00am start).

Year 11 full shutdown week 10 (September 9 to 13)

Year 10 full shutdown week 10 (September 9 to 13)

Students that are behind in their VET certificates will be required to attend school during shutdown to catch up.

Year 12

Mentoring and Track Ed Profiles

Year 12 ATAR students have recently been sent their Track Ed profiles which provides students and parents with a copy of their numerical data in each of their subjects. Students will also have the opportunity to complete a Mentoring session with a Senior Teacher on Wednesday and Thursday morning August 28 and 29 in L block from 8am.

Hospitality Course

Year 12 students following a Personalised Pathway may not have many exams in week 10. These students may elect to complete a short course in Hospitality on Wednesday September 11 to 13. The details of the course are below:

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!

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 16. To register for this course students, need to collect a letter from Y block and ensure payments are made by September 9 ($100). 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.

All external assessment resources can also be located on the school website under testing and assessment:

https://pbc-shs.eq.edu.au/curriculum/testing-and-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 9 to 13.

Moving forward 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 18 to 22.

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 2025 to be eligible for the QCE.

Year 10

Year 10 students have a full week of shutdown from September 9 to 13 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 Year 10 than in Year 11. Please see Ms Shreeve in Y block for more information regarding SATs.

Assessment policy

This policy is published on our school website.

If students are absent for an assessment 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.