Year 7-9 Assessment Guidelines and Procedures

1.1 Location and communication of the Guidelines & Procedures document

All questions regarding this policy should be directed to the College Principal or Assistant Principal for Curriculum.

To ensure the assessment policy is consistently applied, relevant processes could be revisited including:

• at the beginning of each year
• at enrolment interviews (applicable for new students only)
• when publishing the assessment schedule
• in the newsletter and by email in response to assessment cycle phases..

1.2 Expectations about engaging in learning and assessment

Gilroy Santa Maria College has high expectations for academic integrity, student participation and engagement
in learning and assessment.

2.1 Due dates

Students are required to adhere to the College’s procedures for gathering evidence of their achievement on or before the due date.

Student responsibility
Students are expected to:

• engage in the learning for the subject or course of study

• produce evidence of achievement that is authenticated as their work

• submit responses to scheduled assessment on or before the due date

• record due dates in their diaries

• plan and manage their time to meet the due dates

• inform the school as soon as possible if they have concerns about assessment load and meeting due dates.

School responsibility
Due dates for final responses will be published in the assessment planner. All students will be provided with their assessment planner by the end of Week 3 each term. This document will also be available on our school website at: https://www.gilroysm.catholic.edu.au/students/assessment-planner/.

The assessment planner will:

• align with syllabus requirements

• provide sufficient working time for students to complete the task

• allow for internal quality assurance processes

• enable timelines for QCAA quality assurance processes to be met

• be clear to teachers, students and parents/carers

• consider allocation of

All final decisions are at the Principal/Assistant Principal for Curriculum discretion. Refer to AARA information below.

2.2 Submitting, collecting and storing assessment information

• Assessment instruments will provide information about Gilroy Santa Maria College’s arrangements for submission of draft and final

• All assessment evidence, including draft responses, will be submitted by their due date, in their scheduled lesson, and where appropriate, via the College’s academic integrity software (TURNITIN).

2.3 Appropriate materials

Gilroy Santa Maria College is a supportive and inclusive school. Materials and texts are carefully chosen by staff and by students to ensure they are both age and contextually appropriate. 

2.4 Year 9 students transferring between elective subjects

Should a student commence a subject late, they will be at risk of being disadvantaged compared to other students in the class.

• The ‘Change of Subject’ application form is available on our school website at https://www.gilroysm.catholic.edu.au/students/subject-change-forms-tp4qty/
• This application form must be completed by the student’s parent/carer as well as the current and future subject teachers before being submitted to the Assistant Principal for Curriculum for
• A meeting may be held with the parents/carers to discuss student progress and the requirements necessary for the student to be assigned a grade in the subject they wish to transfer

2.5 Scaffolding

Scaffolding for assessment helps students understand the process for completing the task.

Scaffolding will:

• maintain the integrity of the requirements of the task or assessment instrument

• allow for unique student

Across the phases of learning, students will gradually be given more responsibility for understanding the processes required to complete their tasks.

2.6 Checkpoints

Checkpoints will:

• be informed by teachers

• monitor student progress

• be used to establish student authorship

Students will work on assessment during designated times and show evidence of progress at scheduled checkpoints.

2.7 Drafting

Submission of a draft is a key checkpoint. Types of drafts differ depending on subject, e.g. written draft, rehearsal of a performance piece, or a product in development. Drafts might be used as evidence of student achievement in the case of illness or misadventure, or non-submission for other reasons.

A student’s draft should be the best version of their assessment task. This process is used to promote student independence and responsibility for learning. Parents/carers will be notified about non-submissions and/or poor progress of drafts and the processes to be followed.

2.7.1 Feedback
The College values effective feedback to encourage self-reflection, so students can actively monitor and evaluate their own learning, whilst facilitating self-direction and motivation.

Feedback on a draft is:

• provided on a maximum of one draft for each student’s This feedback may be written, electronic or via verbal conferencing in class

• only provided on a draft submitted by the draft due date unless the student is eligible for special consideration

• provided in a timely

Feedback on a draft must not:

• compromise the authenticity of a student’s response

• introduce new ideas, language or research to improve the quality and integrity of the student work

• edit or correct spelling, grammar, punctuation and calculations

• be exhaustive to include all possible improvements and corrections

• allocate a mark

2.8 Managing response length

Students must adhere to assessment response lengths as specified by curriculum documents.

 2.8.1 Strategies for managing response length before the assessment is submitted
The procedures below support students to manage their response length:

• all assessment instruments indicate the required length of the response

• subject-specific strategies about responding purposefully within the prescribed conditions of the task will be provided by teachers

• feedback about length is provided by teachers at checkpoints/drafting

• students may be provided with examples of assessment responses within the required length (word length, duration of time or page count).

 2.8.2 Strategies for managing response length after assessment is submitted
After all these strategies have been implemented, if the student’s response exceeds the word length required by the assessment instrument, the teacher will annotate the student response to indicate the evidence used to determine the result. Teachers will refer to their marking criteria to ensure marks/grade allocated reflect excessive word length.

2.8.3 Determining word length of a response
Response requirements vary according to the technique and response type such as written, spoken/signed and multimodal or performance responses.

Elements to be included or excluded from the word length or page count of a written response are provided in the following table. 

Academic integrity is when a person approaches their academic responsibilities in an honest, moral and ethical manner (QCAA, 2019) by recognising and acknowledging the ideas and work of others. Gilroy Santa Maria College has procedures to ensure that there is consistent application of the assessment policy and that staff and students optimise opportunities to understand academic integrity. Students are always required to produce original work when completing and submitting assessment tasks and to demonstrate academic integrity. Our College will not tolerate academic misconduct by students.

Gilroy Santa Maria College promotes academic integrity by developing students’ skills and modelling appropriate academic practices. The following whole-school procedures support this endeavour.

Gilroy Santa Maria College is committed to supporting students to complete assessment and to submit work that is their own, while minimising academic misconduct. Academic misconduct occurs when a student does not submit original work or when they attempt to cheat in completing assessment. Academic misconduct includes, but is not limited to, plagiarism and cheating. A consequence may be imposed in instances of academic misconduct, including disciplinary and academic penalties.

3.1 Authenticating student responses

Accurate judgments of student achievement can only be made on student assessment responses that are authenticated as their own work. Students can avoid academic misconduct such as plagiarism by learning how to correctly reference another person’s ideas or work. Quotations and references to other author’s or other individual’s ideas must be referenced using the APA or Harvard system.

Gilroy Santa Maria College uses the authentication strategies promoted by the QCAA which may include interviews during and after the development of the final response. The authentication strategies will be specified on assessment instruments. When a student’s work cannot be authenticated, the College will provide an opportunity for the student to demonstrate that the submitted response is their own work. If authorship cannot be established, the College will make judgements based on the student work that can be authenticated by using only the parts of the response that can be identified as the student’s own original work. Judgements will be made about their level of achievement in relation to the subject specific curriculum standards and criteria.

3.2 Academic Misconduct

Gilroy Santa Maria College will take into consideration the nature of the academic misconduct, including the seriousness and intent when making decisions regarding the consequences for academic misconduct.

Behaviour that is repeated, deliberate and/or deceptive, such as plagiarism, misconduct that distracts and/or disrupts others in an assessment room or cheating in an examination, may result in very serious academic consequences and disciplinary action.

Disciplinary action may include an academic interview with one or more of the Academic Leaders, Assistant Principal for Curriculum and/or Principal, detentions, suspensions and/or loss of credit for a course of study. Where appropriate, the school’s behaviour management policy will be implemented.

If a student plagiarised work, cheats in an exam or on an assessment task, academic and disciplinary consequences may be imposed. This may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• if academic behaviour is minor or unintentional, such as self-plagiarism, consequences may result in a warning, a failed result and/or further re-education regarding academic integrity
• if a student is found to have prohibited or unauthorised materials in their possession during an exam, these materials will be removed. This may be treated as deliberate and/or deceptive academic misconduct and academic consequences such as a Not Rated (NR) given for the assessment task. Disciplinary consequences as well as detention or suspension may also be imposed
• if a student has provided a copy of their assessment to another student who plagiarised the work and submitted it as their own, both students will receive a consequence. Consequences may include marking of the work proven to be that of the student, an academic penalty such as failed result and/or a disciplinary consequence such as detention or

Refer to the table below for examples of misconduct that are not tolerated at Gilroy Santa Maria College.

All applications for extensions and special arrangements are expected to be completed and submitted to the relevant people as soon as possible.

4.1 Absences for Assessment

Foreseen absences
All applications are expected as soon as possible as the assessment must be submitted or conducted on or before the due date.

Unforeseen absences
Students absent on the day of a scheduled assessment must contact the college by 8:30am. Depending upon the type of assessment, students should still endeavour to submit the assessment on the due date. These can be delivered to the subject teacher or Academic Leader by a family member/friend or an electronic copy emailed directly to the subject teacher.

Absent for an Exam
It will be at the discretion of the subject teacher and relevant Academic Leader as to how they will follow up with the student/s in regard to assessment.

4.2 Extensions

A ‘Special Considerations' form is provided on the College website:

https://www.gilroysm.catholic.edu.au/students/assessment-extension-forms/

 All extensions for assessment must be supported by this form.

4.2.1 Currency of supporting documentation
Supporting documentation must cover the date of the assessment for which the application is made.

4.3 Special Arrangements

Gilroy Santa Maria College is committed to reducing barriers to success for all students. Students with identified special educational needs, where their disability, impairment or medical condition significantly affects their access to assessment, both written and/or practical (including school examinations) are eligible to receive adjustments and/or modifications to their learning and assessment.

Early consultation with the Inclusive Education Coordinator and the provision of documentation to the school will be required by parents/carers in order to allow for the College to make reasonable adjustments to all stages of the student's learning.

If a parent/carer needs to discuss the implementation of specific reasonable adjustments or if the current support needs to be reviewed due to the changing nature of the learning difficulty, please contact the Inclusive Education Coordinator directly. If a parent/carer is concerned that a student has not received the discussed appropriate support, then it is most effective to make direct contact with the classroom teacher.

4.4 Non-Submissions

The checkpoints on the task sheets provide details of the evidence that will be collected. In circumstances where a student is enrolled in a subject but does not submit a final response to an assessment (other than unseen examinations) and where there is evidence of student work, the teacher will:

• Make judgements about any work provided by the student for the purposes of authentication during the assessment preparation period. Use of work other than an original and fully completed assessment is likely to achieve a lower

Work may include:

• using draft work that has been submitted
• using class work or work in the student’s notebook or laptop relevant to the assessment task
• using teacher observations of student work where appropriate

• If there is no evidence of the student’s original work to make a judgement, the student will not receive credit for the assessment (NR: not rated).

4.5 Review

Gilroy Santa Maria College’s internal review processes for student results (including NR) for all subjects and short courses is equitable and appropriate for the local context.

All student reporting will comply with Australian Curriculum requirements and the Townsville Catholic Education Office ‘Guidelines for student academic reporting, P-10’ document. Students will be kept informed of their progress throughout enrolment in a course. Parents will be notified when a task is not submitted, submitted late or when the student performs below a satisfactory level on a task.

5.1 Standards

• All mainstream students will be reported on against Australian Curriculum, A-E, achievement standards
• For students on modified programs, ‘M’ will be used to denote that the learning program has been modified.

5.2 Reporting periods

Reporting occurs throughout the school year and is an important link between the assessment completed and feedback given to students/parents/carers on student progress. This judgement is determined against a set of clearly articulated standards. Student achievement is recognised and celebrated in many ways throughout the school year;

• interim reports
• parent/student/teacher interviews
• formal semester reports that are both posted and uploaded to Compass
• informal meetings
• Awards Night
• through student diary

5.3 School reporting responsibilities

• All mainstream students will receive an A-E
• Reports written for students on an Independent Educational Program (IEP) are reported in accordance with Townsville Catholic Education Office

5.4 Review of marks and grades

If a student considers that there is an issue about the delivery of the course, the marking of one or more assessment tasks or the grade assigned for a subject, they should, in the first instance, discuss the issue with the teacher. If an assessment issue cannot be resolved through discussion with the teacher, then the teacher will review and discuss the student’s concern with their relevant Academic Leader. If a resolution cannot be found, then consultation with the Assistant Principal for Curriculum will occur.

The student or their parent/carer can request, in writing, that the school conduct a formal assessment review, if they consider that the student has been disadvantaged by any of the following:

• the assessment outline does not meet the Australian Curriculum requirements
• the assessment procedures used do not conform with this document
• procedural errors have occurred in the determination of the course mark and/or grade
• computational errors have occurred in the determination of the course

This written request should be submitted to the Assistant Principal for Curriculum, who will initiate a formal review. The reviewer(s) will meet with the student and the teacher independently and prepare a written report. This report will be provided to the student and their parent/carer.

If the review upholds a student appeal the school will make any required adjustments to the student’s mark and/or grade and where required, the mark and/or grade of other students and re-issue reports and/or the statement of achievement as necessary.

** Please read the Guidance Notes and How to Submit this Form on the back of this form before completing your application.

** Must be applied for in advance, NOT on the due date

Click here for the Year 7-9 Special Consideration Form