Record of changes

NESA has amended Rule 2.1.1 and Rule 2.1.2 to allow schools flexibility in determining the number, type, and weightings of assessment in each Preliminary and HSC course from 2025.

These changes allow schools to develop assessment schedules to suit their school context. 

Schools can continue to follow NESA’s assessment settings for number, type and weightings in each course, as provided in the course-specific Assessment and Examination information that is released with each syllabus.

Schools must notify NESA through Schools Online if they  use this flexibility in Year 12. This will involve completing an additional checkbox in Schools Online when Year 12 final assessment marks are submitted.

NESA has deleted the following paragraph from Rule: 2.1.1

“Schools must record all malpractice offences in HSC school-based assessment tasks in the Malpractice Register in Schools Online.”

Paragraph references NESA's requirements for HSC school-based assessment tasks and is therefore out of place in the Preliminary course school-based assessment rule.

Changed

• Content point text was changed.
  Found in: Stage 5, Genetics and evolutionary change (Use an ethical framework to construct evidence-based written arguments about the implications of a genetic technology, including the ethical implications of the continued use of the immortal HeLa cell line).

• The word ‘complex’ was removed from content point and an alternative example was added.
  Found in: Stage 1, Reading comprehension (Understanding and connecting sentences), ‘Know the meaning and purpose of coordinating and subordinating conjunctions and identify them in a complex sentence’.
• Content point was changed to ‘Use temporal, conditional and causal connectives within and between sentences for cohesion and effect'. The word ‘conjunctions’ was changed to ‘connections’ in examples.
  Found in: Stage 2, Creating written texts (Text features for multiple purposes), ‘Use temporal, conditional and causal conjunctions within sentences, and as connectives to link ideas across sentences for cohesion’.
• Content point was changed to ‘Use adverbs and adverbial phrases to add information to a sentence, providing reasons or circumstances’. Examples were modified or deleted.
  Found in: Stage 2, Creating written texts (Sentence-level grammar), ‘Use adverbial phrases or clauses to add information to the verb or verb group of the main or other clauses, to provide reasons for or circumstances’.
• Content point was changed to ‘Use coordinating conjunctions in compound sentences to signal addition, comparison, consequence or alternatives’. Examples were modified or deleted.
  Found in: Stage 2, Creating written texts (Sentence-level grammar), ‘Use coordinating conjunctions in compound sentences to compare and contrast, or for addition’.
• Content point was changed to ‘Use subordinating conjunctions in complex sentences to signal sequence, cause and effect or contrast’. First example was modified.
  Found in: Stage 2, Creating written texts (Sentence-level grammar), ‘Use subordinating conjunctions in complex sentences to signal sequence, reason or cause and effect’.
• The word ‘phrases’ was changed to ‘groups’ in the content point.
  Found in: Stage 3, Reading comprehension (Comprehending language), ‘Recognise that anaphors, such as pronouns and verb phrases, take their meanings from other parts of a text to support inference’.
• The first example was changed.
  Found in: Stage 3, Creating written texts (Punctuation), ‘Use parentheses in the first instance when abbreviating names using acronyms, and when acknowledging a source’.
• The word ‘if’ was removed from the example.
  Found in: Stage 4, Expressing ideas and composing texts A (Text features), ‘Use modality for a range of intended effects’.

Changed

• Introduction text was changed from ‘Students investigate at least ONE option from’ to ‘Teachers select at least ONE option from’.
  Found in: Stage 4, Historical context 1 (options): The ancient past.
• Introduction text was changed from ‘Students investigate at least ONE of the following options’ to ‘Teachers select at least ONE option from’.
  Found in: Stage 4, Historical context 2 (options): The medieval world (c. 500 – c. 1600).
• Introduction text was changed from ‘Students can investigate the following options’ to ‘Teachers select from the following options.'.
  Found in: Stage 5, Depth study (options).

Updated

• The link to NESA's privacy statement was updated.
  Found in: NSW Curriculum website footer.

Changed

• The information for Year 12 school-based assessment has changed. Refer to Official Notice NESA 32/24.
  Found in: Assessment tab of affected syllabuses

Changed

• The wording of the example text was changed to ‘If it takes 8 hours to drive from Albury to Brewarrina, how long does it take to drive from Albury to Nyngan?’. A line labelled ‘8 hours’ has been added to the image and the sentence ‘A line the same length labelled 8 hours is underneath’ has been added to the image long description.
  Found in: Stage 3, Multiplicative relations B (Select and apply strategies to solve problems involving multiplication and division with whole numbers), ‘Solve word problems involving rates using multiplication and division (Reasons about relations)’, Example.

Removed

• Numeracy tag ‘AdS8’ was removed from content as the learning expectation more closely aligns with Stage 2.
  Found in: Stage 1, Combining and Separating quantities B (Form multiples of ten when adding and subtracting two-digit numbers).

Changed

• Content point text was changed from ‘colotomy’ to ‘colotomic’.
  Found in: Stage 5, Elements of music (Structure), ‘Microstructures such as sequences, head, colotomy’.