We are circulating this information on behalf of our colleagues at NESA, who have received a number of inquiries this year regarding Languages Life Skills courses in Stage 6.
· Schools with eligible students can develop a School Developed Board Endorsed Course for a Stage 6 Life Skills course in any language.
· Applications for these courses are submitted to NESA via Schools Online. Applications should be submitted by the end of Term 1 in the year before the course is planned to commence.
· Objectives, outcomes and modules are pre-filled in the application form. Schools determine the topics they will deliver (in relation to the modules provided), and the content that will be taught in each topic (suggested content is provided in supporting documentation attached to the application form).
· The objectives and outcomes within the application are based on the Stage 6 Beginners Languages courses.
· Once endorsed, the course can be delivered by the school and count as 2 units towards a student’s pattern of study.
Further inquiries from schools can be directed to Marina Laing or Melissa Gould-Drakeley.

With preparations for the HSC underway for Stage 6 students here is a reminder of the resources available in the Stage 6 languages section of the Department of Education's website to support our language students.

1. Listening and reading resources (adapted from the old HSC Online website) are available for most Beginners and Continuers courses. Navigate to your language and scroll down to sample listening and reading activities for the link. Questions, audio, sample responses and transcripts can be found here.
2. Sample speaking questions can be found under most Beginners and Continuers courses by scrolling to the practice speaking questions link.
​3. Advice for students in approaching the Beginners/Continuers/Extension HSC examinations – these can be found by navigating to your language, and the course from our Stage 6 curriculum page, under the heading Advice for students.

And don't forget to also check the Stage 6 teacher-contributed resources in our statewide staffroom in Yammer (staff only), including NSW School of Languages' guide to best practice for speaking lessons and the Languages and Culture teams' preparing students for the oral examinations in Beginners and Continuers advice.

NESA has updated all Stage 6 course descriptions – they are now available on the NESA website.
 
Course descriptions are helpful for students making subject selections. 

We're not sure if you'd noticed, but when the DoE's website moved platforms over the January holidays, we discovered the new platform did not allow foreign characters, or even things like apostrophes or long (en) dashes. Instead, it turned all these things into question marks. Very frustrating!!

We have been trying ever since to fix the problem, and we're nearly there! The Continuers text types information has now been added as Word documents - easier to download and use with students! Thank you for your patience during this frustrating period.
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https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-learning/curriculum/key-learning-areas/languages/s6

In order to support teachers with more learning from home content, we have just add sample speaking questions for French Continuers, Japanese Continuers and Spanish Continuers to our website.

This adds to what we've already added over the last 2 weeks:
*Arabic – sample reading and listening activities for Continuers
*Chinese – sample reading and listening activities for Beginners and Continuers, and sample speaking questions for Beginners
*French – sample speaking questions and sample reading and listening activities for Beginners and Continuers
*German – sample reading and listening activities for Beginners and Continuers, and sample speaking questions for Beginners
*Indonesian – sample reading and listening activities for Beginners and Continuers, and sample speaking questions for Beginners (please access the Continuers link from the left-hand menu - the link on the page is down at the moment)
*Italian – sample reading and listening activities for Beginners and Continuers, and sample speaking questions for Beginners
*Japanese – sample speaking questions and sample reading and listening activities for Beginners and Continuers
*Korean – sample reading and listening activities for Continuers
*Modern Greek – sample reading and listening activities for Beginners and Continuers, and sample speaking questions for Beginners
​*Spanish – sample speaking questions and sample reading and listening activities for Beginners and Continuers

Thank you to NSW School of Languages teachers for sharing some of their Continuers speaking questions with us.

​If other teachers would like to share their resources, for any Stage (4, 5 or 6), please email elisabeth.robertson@det.nsw.edu.au

We have set up a dedicated sharing space in our virtual staffroom on Yammer and we will add your resources there.

The Languages and Culture team, in collaboration with Shirley Cai from Killarney Heights High School, is offering a Stage 6 school-based assessment in [Language] and Literature workshop. This is TIPL for 2 hours.
 
This course builds teachers’ capacity to understand and apply mandatory Stage 6 school-based assessment in [Language] and Literature courses. It unpacks NESA’s current school-based assessment requirements including examples of best practices. Provision of sample tasks based on syllabus outcomes, combined with collaborative discussions, support teachers in developing their own non-HSC style assessment tasks.

​This course will enable participants to:
- understand the requirements of school-based assessment in Stage 6 [Language] and Literature courses
- implement a range of assessment strategies in Stage 6 [Language] and Literature courses
- design an effective assessment task for Stage 6 [Language] and Literature courses.  

The workshop will be held at Ashfield Boys High School on 5 March from 1:00-3:00pm. Afternoon tea will be provided. To enrol, browse for course code NR27707.
​
For further information, please email Marcela Ayas or call on 7814 3448. Alternatively, you may also contact Shirley Cai on 9451 7005.

The HSC Languages oral examinations timetable for 2020 will be released in March. Important information for schools scheduling students' oral examinations is now available on the NESA website. 

NESA has published information on preparing Year 11 assessment programs for 2020. You can find advice on: 
- developing school-based assessment programs in Stage 6, including checklists for teachers
- formal assessment schedules
- adjustments for students with a disability. 

Check your syllabus "Assessment and Reporting" documents available on syllabus pages for course specific requirements. 

The Languages and Culture team is currently running workshops and network meetings focused on Stage 6 school-based assessment for Beginners, Continuers and Extension courses.

If anyone is interested in collaborating in an afternoon sharing session for [Language] and Literature courses, please contact SHIRLEY.CAI@det.nsw.edu.au from Killarney Heights HS.

If enough teachers are interested, the Languages and Culture will arrange a venue for the sharing session.

​Please email Shirley by Friday 8 November 2019.