December 2019

A message from ACARA CEO

As the year comes to a close, I mark the end of my first 10 months or so as CEO of ACARA. Through its work nationally in assessment, reporting and curriculum, ACARA’s focus is on providing support to teachers, schools and education systems in fanning the flames of wonder in our children and young people.  

In order to deliver on this mission, we must work in partnership, and the focus for me this year has very much been on meeting with, and hearing views and perspectives of, our many stakeholders. I appreciate the collaborative and open approach of our partners and stakeholders in working together with ACARA to support the education of our young people.

I look forward to 2020 and to continuing the important work of all in education to meet the goals of the Mparntwe Declaration of an “Australian education system that promotes excellence and equity” and supports all young Australians to “become confident and creative individuals, successful lifelong learners, and active and informed members of the community”.  In the meantime, I wish you all a safe and happy holiday.

The Alice Springs (Mparntwe) Education Declaration

ACARA’s CEO, David de Carvalho, and Deputy Chair of ACARA’s Board, Norm Hart, last week attended the release of the Alice Springs (Mparntwe) Education Declaration, which sets out revised education goals for all young Australians. The declaration will be a key document for guiding ACARA’s work and commitment to a vision to inspire improvement in the learning of all young Australians through world-class curriculum, assessment and reporting.

The declaration reinforces the importance of literacy and numeracy mastery in the early years of school as foundations for future learning and commits to ensuring the development of creative and critical thinking skills, drawing on deep content knowledge as a feature of the school curriculum. The declaration also includes a commitment to ensuring that all students learn about the diversity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, and to seeing all young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples thrive in their education and all facets of life.

Read the Alice Springs (Mparntwe) Education Declaration (PDF 4.9 mb).

Helping teachers keep young people safe online

ACARA has published a resource to help teachers identify existing content in the Australian Curriculum, which supports the teaching and learning of online safety.

In consultation with the eSafety Commissioner, ACARA has developed a new online safety curriculum connection – a resource that helps teachers identify where in the Australian Curriculum that online safety can be incorporated across year levels, learning areas, subjects and general capabilities. This was in response to a recommendation from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse for nationally consistent curriculum for online safety education.

The online safety curriculum connection focuses on five interrelated dimensions:

• online safety values, rights and responsibilities
• wellbeing
• respectful relationships
• digital media literacy
• informed and safe use of information and devices.

The online safety curriculum connection is now available on the Australian Curriculum website.

My School: 2019 Term 3 student attendance data

The My School website has been updated with school student attendance rates for Term 3, 2019. Attendance data are reported on all students, Indigenous students and non-Indigenous students. Data are suppressed where student numbers are less than, or equal to, five students. 

This update follows on from the release of Semester 1 student attendance data in November 2019.

Attendance data reporting is a COAG (Council of Australian Governments) initiative to help improve learning outcomes by monitoring attendance. Data are reported twice a year, for Semester 1 (Terms 1 and 2) and Term 3. 

National Report on Schooling data portal: data updated

ACARA’s interactive resource, the National Report on Schooling Data Portal, has been updated with new data on schools and schooling including:

• student attendance
• Year 12 subject enrolments
• Year 12 certification rates
• participation and attainment in education and work
• participation in VET in schools.

ACARA's offices close at 5 pm on Friday 20 December 2019 and reopen on Monday 6 January 2020

We would like to wish you a safe and happy festive season!