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ACE Rules

NESA has published clarified ACE Rules on the NSW Curriculum website. Stay up to date with the clarified ACE Rules by visiting this website. 

The clarified rules come into effect from 14 October 2024. Schools must not implement the clarified rules before this date. Schools must use the current ACE Rules on Loading... until 14 October 2024.

To learn more about how NESA has clarified the ACE Rules, refer to the information sheets.

Illness/Misadventure program

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Pursuant to sections 20A(2)(i) and 96 of the Education Act 1990 (NSW), NESA considers and makes a decision on each illness/misadventure application based on NESA's requirements and the evidence presented in each illness/misadventure application.

Categories

HSC (assessment)HSC credentialSchools Online

About NESA’s Illness/Misadventure program

  1. NESA administers the Illness/Misadventure program to support students who:
    1. experience illness or misadventure immediately before or during an HSC exam; and
    2. are prevented from attending or impacted during an HSC exam.
  2. The Illness/Misadventure program is only open to those HSC students who have either an assessment mark or estimated exam mark submitted for the course in question.
  3. There are two types of illness/misadventure applications:
    1. individual, and
    2. group.
  4. NESA will award students with upheld illness/misadventure applications with the higher of:
    1. their earned HSC exam mark; or
    2. an exam mark calculated for them.

Illness/Misadventure program exclusions

  1. The Illness/Misadventure program does not cover:
    1. attendance at a sporting or cultural event, or family holiday, or
    2. alleged inadequacies of teaching, or
    3. long-term matters relating to loss of preparation time, or loss of study time or facilities, or
    4. disabilities for which NESA has already granted disability provisions, unless:
      1. an unforeseen episode1 occurs during the exam;or
      2. further difficulties with the approved provision(s) occur during the exam; or
    5. long-term illness2, unless the student has a ‘flare-up’ of the condition immediately before or during the HSC exam, or
    6. matters avoidable by the student.3
  2. NESA may consider some cases involving interruption to the completion of an HSC submitted work or loss of materials prepared by the student, such as the theft, vandalism or destruction of major works. Schools must raise any incidents with NESA at the time of the incident.

Expectation to attend scheduled exams

  1. NESA expects that students will attend their scheduled HSC exams except when unsafe to do so, or against specific documented medical advice.
  2. Students:
    1. must notify their principal immediately if unable to attend an HSC exam
    2. who are in doubt about their illness or injury may seek advice from their principal, and
    3. who do not attend all their HSC exams in a course and have their illness/misadventure application declined will not receive results for the affected course.

Accessing illness/misadventure applications

  1. NESA provides principals with access to illness/misadventure applications in Loading... before the start of the HSC exams every year.
  2. Principals must:
    1. provide illness/misadventure forms to students on request
    2. explain the illness/misadventure application procedures to students, and
    3. not dissuade or encourage students from lodging illness/misadventure applications.

Related ACE Rules

For further information

Please contact Student Support on (02) 9367 8117 or by email at studentsupport@nesa.nsw.edu.au.

Footnotes

  1. For example, a diabetic student who has an extraordinary hypoglycaemic event and is unable to recover.

  2. For example, glandular fever, asthma, and epilepsy.

  3. For example, misreading the HSC exam timetable, misinterpreting the exam paper or not ensuring appropriate safeguards to protect their work.

Categories

HSC (assessment)HSC credentialSchools Online

Individual students

  1. Students may lodge an illness/misadventure application if they consider their HSC exam performance was diminished by illness or misadventure which:
    1. occurred immediately before or during an HSC exam, and
    2. was beyond their control.
  2. Students are responsible for:
    1. requesting an illness/misadventure form from their principal
    2. completing all applicable sections of the illness/misadventure form
    3. seeking independent evidence on the same day, either immediately before or after each HSC exam
    4. providing independent supporting evidence:
      1. that is current, specific to the date and time of the exam
      2. that clearly outlines the impact experienced by the student at the time of attempting the HSC exam
      3. on the correct sections of the NESA-approved illness/misadventure form
    5. submitting individual illness/misadventure forms to their principal within 6 days after the exam for which illness/misadventure is being applied for, except if incapacitated1, and
    6. costs incurred from obtaining independent supporting evidence.

Providing supporting evidence

  1. A student’s individual illness/misadventure application must use the NESA illness/misadventure forms to include:
    1. Student section:
      1. a statement written by the student explaining how they were impacted during the HSC exam, and
      2. a signed student declaration.
    2. School section:
      1. a Presiding Officer’s report that outlines any observable signs noticed by the exam supervisor(s) during the written exam for applications where the student physically attended some or all of a written exam only, or
      2. the class teacher’s report containing detailed observations for applications regarding practical submissions only.
    3. Independent evidence section(s):
      1. for illness, a NESA medical form – NESA will not accept a medical certificate that merely states a student is unfit for work/study, and/or
      2. for misadventure, other evidence2 explaining how the student’s performance in the HSC exam may have been impacted.

Independent evidence – illness

  1. The NESA medical form must be prepared by an appropriately qualified medical professional that contains:
    1. the illness experienced by the student, and
    2. contemporary evidence of the illness, as observed by the attending medical professional, and
    3. the date of onset of the illness, and
    4. a statement about how the student’s performance in the exam may have been impacted, and
    5. any additional dates of consultation.

Independent evidence – misadventure

  1. Evidence explaining how the student’s performance in the HSC exam may have been impacted must include:
    1. details of the misadventure, and
    2. the date(s) and time(s) of the occurrence(s).


Submitting illness/misadventure applications in Schools Online

  1. Principals must:
    1. create, review and submit all applications in Loading...
    2. attach the completed forms provided by the student
    3. provide a statement for the student’s illness/misadventure application(s) which addresses the genuineness of the application3, and
    4. submit the student’s illness/misadventure application(s) to NESA by the due date:
      1. for HSC written exams, within 7 calendar days of the student’s last exam, and within 3 calendar days after the last HSC exam, and
      2. for HSC oral and practical exams, within 7 calendar days of the student’s exam or submission date.
  2. NESA will only consider applications submitted after the due date in exceptional circumstances.

Related ACE Rules

For further information

Please contact Student Support on (02) 9367 8117 or by email at studentsupport@nesa.nsw.edu.au.

Footnotes

  1. A parent or guardian of a student who is incapacitated may submit an application on the student’s behalf.

  2. For example, police statements and/or statutory declarations.

  3. The principal’s statement is of particular importance where the student was absent from the exam.

Categories

HSC (assessment)HSC credentialSchools Online

Group applications

  1. Principals are responsible for submitting group applications where an entire course candidature of an HSC exam, or a proportion of it, is impacted by the same illness or misadventure.
  2. Principals must complete and submit the group application in Loading... and:
    1. use their professional judgement to determine whether a proportion of the course candidature has been impacted by the same illness or misadventure
    2. provide a detailed description of the incident and its impact on the performance of the students involved
    3. only select students that were impacted and note the students who were accommodated elsewhere or had left the exam prior to the incident, if the illness or misadventure was in a particular exam venue
    4. identify, and include where applicable, the students from another school sitting HSC exams at their exam centre, and notify the principal of the home school, and
    5. encourage students who have been particularly impacted to submit individual illness/misadventure applications.

Related ACE Rules

For further information

Please contact Student Support on (02) 9367 8117 or by email at studentsupport@nesa.nsw.edu.au.

Categories

HSC (assessment)HSC credentialSchools Online

Appealing declined illness/misadventure applications

  1. Principals may appeal a declined group or individual illness/misadventure application.
  2. Students may appeal a declined individual application.
  3. Appeals must:
    1. outline the reason(s) for the appeal
    2. be supported by new evidence, and
    3. include the student’s name and NESA student number.

Related ACE Rules

For further information

Please contact Student Support on (02) 9367 8117 or by email at studentsupport@nesa.nsw.edu.au.