Big Picture Education Australia (BPEA) will work with the Australian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (ACARA) on a project designed to validate the achievement standards of the newly published Work Studies Years 9-10 curriculum.
This project requires the development, collection and annotation of portfolios of student work samples that will ultimately be published on the ACARA website as a valuable resource for all teachers. Big Picture’s innovative curriculum design, including Learning Through Internships (LTIs) and exhibition-based assessment, is of particular interest to ACARA in establishing this new course for all Australian schools.
Eight Big Picture schools from across Australia will work with BPEA curriculum leaders to better understand the design in relation to this new course. Documentation of the project will be a collection of annotated work samples and an analysis of the alignment that exists between the curriculum in Big Picture project schools and the achievement standards set out in the Work Studies course. Student exhibitions and work portfolios following LTIs will be studied to inform this validation process.
Big Picture schools offer students a unique and authentic entry into the workplace and it is already known how engaged these students become throughout their LTIs. Their learning, confidence and abilities to perform in new, and often unexpected ways, are evidenced in the Big Picture Education design. Via this project, participating schools will now be able to document and share their programs and student successes with other educators.
Congratulations to the following selected schools:
- Brewarrina Central School, NSW
- Birdwood High School, SA
- Cooks Hill Campus, NSW
- Hunter Sports High School, NSW
- Halls Head Community College, WA
- Kalumburu Remote Community School, WA
- Launceston City Campus, TAS
- Wanniassa School, ACT
Their work together starts in November in Sydney and finishes in June 2015.