Curriculum for School Certificate
The curriculum for the School Certificate provided by a registered and accredited non-government school must meet the requirements of the Education Act 1990.
The curriculum from Year 7 to Year 10 for students who are candidates for the School Certificate must:
- meet the study requirements for each key learning area as detailed in the table following, and
- be taught in accordance with a syllabus developed by the Board of Studies and approved by the Minister.
The requirements for the School Certificate are detailed in section 4 of the Assessment, Certification and Examination (ACE) Manual. The ACE Manual also states the requirements for the School Certificate in sections 2 to 5, 10 and 11. Schools need to refer to these requirements to ensure the eligibility of students for the School Certificate credential.
Schools must refer to the ACE Manual for details of their responsibilities in relation to the requirements for the Award of the School Certificate, the School Certificate curriculum, satisfactory completion of a course and rules concerning attendance and appeals.
The Board's mandatory curriculum requirements for the award of a School Certificate are listed below in Table 1. This core curriculum for the School Certificate curriculum is mandatory for all accredited non-government schools.
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English
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The Board Developed syllabus to be studied substantially throughout each of Years 7–10. 400 hours to be completed by the end of Year 10. |
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Mathematics
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Board Developed syllabus to be studied substantially throughout each of Years 7–10. 400 hours to be completed by the end of Year 10. |
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Science
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Board Developed syllabus to be studied substantially throughouteach of Years 7–10. 400 hours to be completed by the end of Year 10. |
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Human Society and Its Environment
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To be studied substantially throughout each of Years 7–10. 400 hours to be completed by the end of Year 10 and must include 100 hours of each of History and Geography in Stage 4 and 100 hours of each of Australian History and Australian Geography in Stage 5. |
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Languages Other than English
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100 hours to be completed in one language over one continuous 12-month period between Years 7-10 but preferably in Years 7-8. |
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Technological and Applied Studies
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The Board's Technology (Mandatory) Years 7–8 syllabus to be studied for 200 hours. |
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Creative Arts
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200 hours to be completed consisting of the Board’s 100-hour mandatory courses in each of Visual Arts and Music. It is the Board's expectation that the 100-hour mandatory courses in these subjects will be taught as coherent units of study and not split over a number of years. |
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Personal Development, Health and Physical Education
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The Board’s mandatory 300-hour integrated course in Personal Development, Health and Physical Education. This integrated course is to be studied in each of Years 7-10. |
All time allocations in Table 1 are indicative. Indicative hours represent the time expected for a typical student to achieve the objectives and outcomes of the course. The indicative time for a course is therefore directly related to the objectives and outcomes for that course.
Evidence of compliance
A registered and accredited non-government school must have in place policies and procedures to monitor the compliance of each student with the requirements for eligibility for the award of the School Certificate.
A registered and accredited non-government school must maintain documentation for each calendar year of the current accreditation period that provides evidence of:
- timetables showing the allocation of time and teachers for each Year/class
- the total number of hours allocated to each course
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an overview of the educational program indicating
- the scope and sequence of learning units/units of work mapped against the content and outcomes of the relevant Board syllabus for each course
- resources and equipment available for each KLA
- assessment policies and procedures which comply with the requirements documented in the ACE Manual. These assessment policies should include statements of school procedures relating to the allocation of grades in each School Certificate course
- an overview of the process for reporting student achievement.
For each calendar year, the school must maintain, until the end of that calendar year, documentation that includes:
- teaching programs for each unit of work for each course for each Year/class. The units of work should correspond to those identified in the scope and sequence for that year
- samples of student work that relate to the teaching program for that year.