QCE updates

Study Habits

As we enter the final few weeks of our first term in year 11 and assessment is upon us, there is an pattern emerging that always appear at the start of year 11. What we notice is that students stress levels start to spike due to the added pressure of managing multiple assessment items and due dates. When this starts to occur students will fall in to one of two categories.

1. The student with a plan – this is the student who has developed a clear study plan, has mapped when their assessment items are due, has written down their other commitments, and has clear deadlines ahead of schedule to ensure they have time to finish their assessment items to the best of their ability.

2. The student without a plan – this student knows they have multiple assessment items due however they haven’t determined when they will work on them but hope to have them done in time.

As James Clear states in Atomic Habits, “you won’t rise to the level of your goal, but rather fall to the level of your system”. Students will have heard me speak of this principle many times and will invariably hear it many more before they finish year 12. The reason being is that hope is not a strategy. What is important is that students learn from their experiences and look for new ways to improve their habits. From years of experience working with students I have never seen a talented student with no study plan out perform a student who is willing to continually apply themselves and work on improving by 1% each day. The talented student may appear to be doing well to start with, however there is always a point where they reach the limit of their ability and have not learnt how to apply themselves to reach the next step.

When the end of term report card arrives, take the time to sit down with your student/s and review their grades, from this determine not only a goal for improving, but also a study plan on how to improve. This is the key to unlocking sustained improvement rather than hoping for improvement.

Formative vs Summative assessment

Following on from reviewing grades and developing a plan is understanding the importance of continual improvement. There are two important systems involved with the senior years of learning and they are the QCE system and the ATAR. The Queensland Certificate of Education (QCE) is a measure of a students progress across their senior years and their success at completing their senior subjects to a satisfactory (C or higher) standard or the ability to achieve a VET qualification. Within the QCE system, every unit of work is valuable as it is the accumulation of these unit credits that determines a students ability to achieve their QCE or not.

Within the ATAR (Australian Tertiary Admission Rank) process, only for students who are seeking to go to University, there is both a formative and summative aspect. As Unit 1 and 2 are formattive, they do not count towards the ATAR calculation and as such it is important for students to not only consider how well they have done on their assessment items, but look for opportunities on how they can improve for their summative assessment. Unit 3 and 4 are considered summative as the results from the assessment items of ATAR students is cumulative and adds together to produce their final score for each subject in order to help calculate their ATAR.

Whether a student is only on a QCE pathway or both a QCE and ATAR pathway, it is important that they both look for opportunities for continual improvement. The process of reflection is important to determine what a student may need to work on to improve their results and help develop a study plan as a strategy for that improvement.

QCE review date claimer

At the end of the first unit of year 11 students will be required to participate in a QCE review and parents are encouraged to attend. During this process students and parents will meet with a member of the College’s Leadership team to discuss their progress and their intended pathway. These review meetings will occur in week 9 of term 2 with more information provided during term 2.

As term 1 draws to a close I encourage students to take a break, recharge and come back to term 2 ready to continue to work at their best. Enjoy your holidays!