ACARA news, October 2016

Happy World Teachers’ Day!

Today Australia celebrates World Teachers’ Day – a day to recognise the important contribution teachers around the world make to shaping our future generations. ACARA would like to wish all teachers a happy World Teachers’ Day.

Although celebrated in most countries on 5 October, in Australia the day is celebrated on the last Friday of October. Thank you to all teachers for your hard work and commitment to our nation’s children.

Read more on the UNESCO website

ACARA's annual report released

NAP – Civics and Citizenship sample assessments start today

Around 12,000 students will be participating in the NAP – Civics and Citizenship sample assessments, which start from today in 630 schools across Australia. The assessment represents the first official use of a new online assessment platform, which will also host NAPLAN Online from 2017, and other local assessments. A rigorous selection process has been used to ensure the sample represents Australia’s Years 6 and 10 cohorts. 

The assessments run until 4 November 2016.  Visit the ‘Parent/carer support’ page or 'School support' page of the NAP website for more information.

UNESCO delegation visits Australia to learn from My School

A delegation from UNESCO’s International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) is visiting Australia to learn more about how the My School website, run by ACARA, improves transparency and accountability through public access to school data.

Delegates from seven countries in the Asia-Pacific region are attending: Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines and Nepal.

The five-day visit focuses on how to improve transparency and accountability in schools in the Asia-Pacific region through the use of data, using the My School website as an example of how this has been successfully implemented.

This visit provide an opportunity for countries of the Asia-Pacific region to learn from the My School experience in improving transparency and accountability through public access to school data. The aim is to gain a better understanding of open education data projects in the region and aid participants to formulate and implement their own open education data initiatives. Delegates are going to discuss what the most critical data for improving transparency are and how this can be used for improving accountability and transparency.

Delegates will hear from a range of stakeholders about My School and visit schools to understand how My School works.

Read more on the UNESCO IIEP website.

No NAPLAN tests in ‘fitness’

An article in the Daily Telegraph today and subsequent media reports suggest that NAPLAN might change so that students ‘take fitness exams’. The story originates from a report to the NSW government about student physical activity and nutrition.

There are no plans to change NAPLAN as this report suggests.

Any changes to the scope of NAPLAN testing and subsequent reporting would need the agreement and endorsement of the COAG Education Council comprising Australia’s nine education ministers.

Australian Curriculum website: tell us what you think!

We are undertaking a user survey of the Australian Curriculum website and we want to hear from you!

With over four million user sessions last year, the Australian Curriculum website is a popular place. We want you to tell us what you like about it, what you don’t like, and how we could go about improving it. The survey will be open for the next few weeks and will only take around 10 minutes to complete.

Take the survey