HSC Assessments

A reminder about NESA requirements around assessment for HSC courses. For a school in NSW to be accredited to run the HSC and to maintain the integrity of the system, the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) has put in place for all schools – state, Catholic and independent – strict guidelines regarding students’ satisfactory completion of courses.

Formal school-based assessment comprises 50% of a student’s final HSC mark in a subject. As such it is important to highlight a few requirements related to school-based assessment for HSC courses.

• All requirements are outlined in the HSC Assessment manual that was shared with students earlier this term.
• The HSC Assessment manual has the assessment outline for each HSC subject. This includes the type of tasks, weightings and a guide to dates that tasks will be set - note exact dates for 2024 tasks cannot be provided as the 2024 timetable is not developed at the time the manual is distributed.
• Students are required to complete assessment tasks on the date set for the task to be completed. Not following this protocol can create a range of issues such as giving some students an advantage / or even disadvantage over the students as well as impacting the integrity of the actual task.
• As outlined in the assessment manual we appreciate that from time-to-time circumstances may dictate that a student is unable to successfully complete a task such as illness or a death in the family. Provisions for these circumstances are again clearly outlined in the assessment manual and have been clearly outlined to students.
• Family holidays, trips away or other personal business such as driving tests/lessons are generally not considered valid reasons for students not to be at school and completing set formal tasks.
• In the case where a student has not completed a formal assessment task as / the assessment requirements a student will be issued an N Warning for the task. A mark of 0 will be registered for the task impacting the student’s final school-based assessment. The student is also required to complete the task at a later date to ensure they are fulfilling course requirements.

Again, we remind students and parents/carers that you consider events such as holidays (short or long) and other activities and schedule them outside of school hours as much as possible. Whilst we do our best to try and support students across their HSC journey, we also need to ensure that the HSC requirements put in place by NESA are followed by all students. In all cases, please refer to the HSC Assessment manual regarding HSC requirements. Please contact the Curriculum office at any time for further clarification.

All My Own Work

AMOW is an online course developed by NESA. It is a program designed to help HSC students follow the principles and practices of good scholarship. This includes understanding, valuing, and using ethical practices when locating and using information as part of their HSC studies.

It is a requirement for all students to complete AMOW before starting Year 11 course work. Students in Year 10 that have not undertaken Studies of Religion 1 or a Pathways elective this year are required to complete the course as are students in Year 9 who have chosen to study Studies of Religion 1 &/or a Pathways elective in 2024.

The course is completed online via a Google Classroom page that has been shared with students. The course involves completing 5 modules and students are asked to have successfully completed the course by the end of week 9.

Students that have not completed the course by this date will not be able to start Year 11 courses at the start of 2024. For students in Year 9 their place in SOR1 &/or Pathways electives may be reviewed as a consequence.

Mr Brett Moran

Curriculum Coordinator