Moderation Support Materials

The purpose of the moderation process is to work with schools and teachers to develop a comprehensive and shared understanding of the achievement standards. Teachers will develop an understanding of the benefits and use of marking keys as diagnostic tools and in making valid, reliable and consistent judgements on student achievement. The deep analysis of the standards, along with engagement with the assessment pointers, will also support teachers to collect evidence in order make judgements for reporting purposes. Schools who participate in the moderation process with the Authority will be able to apply the model within their school for school-based moderation and comparability practices across all year levels.

  • Moderation

    • In 2017 the School Curriculum and Standards Authority conducted a Year 6 and Year 7 pilot moderation process with a network of schools in Western Australia. The Authority developed moderation tasks including marking keys for English, Mathematics and Science for both Year 6 and Year 7. These tasks developed for the 2017 moderation pilot are provided below for use by all schools. This moderation process has been extended in 2018 to include Humanities and Social Sciences. The 2018 April circular will have details for schools wishing to participate this year.

    The Board of the School Curriculum and Standards Authority has approved the continuation of Year 6 and Year 7 Moderation for 2019. To facilitate teacher planning for next year, teachers of English, Mathematics, Science and Humanities and Social Sciences are advised that the content for the 2019 common task, the content of the common task to be used in the moderation is listed below.

    Participating schools in 2019 will have the responsibility to consider the curriculum content that will be covered in the moderation task to plan and sequence their teaching and learning accordingly. This will ensure that the relevant prior learning has taken place before the moderation tasks have been administered. Online registration for participation in the moderation will be open to schools in January 2019 with further details in the first circular of the year.

    The School Curriculum and Standards Authority (Authority)  cancelled the 2020 Year 6 and Year 7 Moderation process due to circumstances relating to COVID-19.

    The Authority distributed a survey to all registered teachers in June 2020 to identify the uptake of schools implementing the Year 6 and Year 7 Moderation assessment tasks and to gauge interest for a corresponding moderation activity late in Term 3. The survey results showed that many teachers were impacted by COVID-19 and unable to engage with the moderation process as a result, and the moderation activities were cancelled for Term 3.

    In 2021, the School Curriculum and Standards Authority continued to implement the Year 6 and Year 7 moderation process. The Authority developed moderation tasks including marking keys for English, Mathematics, Science, Humanities and Social Sciences, Health and Physical Education (Health Education), Technologies (Design and Technologies) and The Arts (Visual Arts). These tasks developed for 2021 moderation are provided below for use by all schools.

    The moderation process has been extended to include a range of year levels in 2022. Information will be available through the K-10 Circular.

    In 2021, the School Curriculum and Standards Authority conducted a Year 4 pilot moderation process. The Authority developed moderation tasks including marking keys for Chinese: Second Language, French: Second Language, German: Second Language, Indonesian: Second Language, Italian: Second Language and Japanese: Second Language. These tasks developed for the 2021 moderation pilot are provided below for use by all schools.

    This moderation process has been extended in 2022 for Year 6 Languages. Information will be available through the K-10 Circular.

    The purpose of the School Curriculum and Standards Authority’s (the Authority) moderation process is to work with schools and teachers to develop a comprehensive and shared understanding of the Achievement Standards. The analysis of the Standards supports teachers to collect evidence in order to make judgements for reporting purposes.

    The Authority’s Pre-primary to Year 10: Teaching, Assessing and Reporting Policy and Policy Standards requires schools to develop processes to support all teachers in making valid and reliable judgements. The Authority’s moderation process supports schools to fulfil this requirement.

    The Board of the School Curriculum and Standards Authority has approved the extension of the moderation process to include a range of year levels and learning areas in 2022 to include Year 4 English, Year 4 Humanities and Social Sciences, Year 4 Digital Technologies, Year 6 Languages (Chinese: Second Languages, French: Second Language, German: Second Language, Indonesian: Second Language, Italian: Second Language and Japanese: Second Language), Year 6 Physical Education, Year 6 Visual Arts, Year 7 Visual Arts, Year 8 English and Year 8  Humanities and Social Sciences.

    Visit the Pre-primary to Year 10 Moderation Events page for information in relation to participation and registration. Pre-primary to Year 10 Moderation Workshops

    Year 4

    The moderation task can be accessed from the Year 4 English Teaching and Learning Exemplar Appendix B – Picture Book Response, using the extranet login.

    https://k10outline.scsa.wa.edu.au/home/pre-primary-to-year-6/year-4

    Year 8

    The moderation task can be accessed from the Year 8 English Teaching, Learning and Assessment Exemplar – Environmental Citizenship through Analytical Writing, using the extranet login.

    https://k10outline.scsa.wa.edu.au/home/year-7-to-year-10/english

    Year 4

    The moderation task can be accessed from the Year 4 Humanities and Social Sciences Teaching and Learning Exemplar Appendix C Assessment Exemplar – Geography, using the extranet login.

    https://k10outline.scsa.wa.edu.au/home/pre-primary-to-year-6/year-4

    Year 8

    The moderation task can be accessed from the Year 8 Humanities and Social Sciences Teaching, Learning and Assessment Exemplar – Geography, using the extranet login.

    https://k10outline.scsa.wa.edu.au/home/year-7-to-year-10/humanities-and-social-sciences

    Year 4

    The moderation task can be accessed from the Year 4 Technologies: Digital Technologies Teaching and Learning Exemplar Appendix B – Superhero/Avatar and Appendix C – Program my Sprite, using the extranet login.

    https://k10outline.scsa.wa.edu.au/home/pre-primary-to-year-6/year-4

    The Board of the School Curriculum and Standards Authority has approved the extension of the moderation process to include curriculum and assessment seminars for a limited number of year levels and learning areas in 2022 to include Years 5 and 6 Mathematics, Technologies (Design and Technologies), Years 3 and 4 Science and Year 8 Science. Information will be available through the K-10 Circular in relation to participation and registration.

    The purpose of the School Curriculum and Standards Authority’s (the Authority) Curriculum and Assessment Seminars is to work with teachers to develop a comprehensive and shared understanding of the mandated Principles of Teaching, Learning and Assessment in the Western Australian Curriculum and Assessment Outline.

    The seminars will exemplify models of learning area planning, including formative and summative assessment to develop authentic assessment tasks that enable teachers to collect a suite of evidence to support comparable judgements against the year-level Achievement Standard.

    Years 5 and 6
    • Exemplify the ways of assessing in Mathematics.
    • Develop assessment tasks and marking keys using the year-level curriculum.
    • Support teachers to collect a suite of evidence to inform teacher judgements against the year-level Achievement Standard.
    Years 3 and 4
    • Exemplify a model of Science planning as articulated in the Science overview.
    • Illustrate the use of the investigation templates as discreet skills or units of work.
    • Support teachers to collect a suite of evidence to inform teacher judgements against the Year-level Achievement Standard.
    • Create opportunities to teach and assess Science Understanding, Science as a Human Endeavour and the Science Inquiry Skills using an integrated teaching and learning approach in the primary context.
    Year 8
    • Exemplify a model of Science planning articulated in the Science overview.
    • Illustrate the use of the investigation templates as discreet skills or units of work.
    • Support teachers to collect a suite of evidence to inform teacher judgements against the Year-level Achievement Standard.
    • Create opportunities to teach and assess Science Understanding, Science as a Human Endeavour and the Science Inquiry Skills using an integrated learning approach in the secondary context.
    Years 5 and 6
    • Exemplify a model of Design and Technologies planning across a range of contexts.
    • Illustrate the use of the Processes and production skills that sit across the Design and Technologies learning area.
    • Develop context-specific assessment tasks.
    • Use of marking keys to support the assessment of Processes and production skills.
    • Support teachers to collect a suite of evidence, including a range of contexts, to inform teacher judgements against the year-level Achievement Standard.