Especean

Curriculum and Learning

2024 Higher School Certificate Examinations Conclude

By the time the HSC written examinations conclude on Friday 8 November, 175 St Patrick’s College Year 12 students sat 1,163 HSC papers in 32 courses. Additionally, 18 Year 11 accelerated students sat the Mathematics Advanced paper which brings the total HSC papers sat to 1,181.

 

Many thanks must go to the parents/carers who gave their time so generously to assist our NESA HSC Presiding Officer, Mrs Joanne Saric, with the administration and supervision of the examinations. Their professionalism and competence have ensured the smooth running of this important enterprise. Thank you must also go to the parents/carers and Year students who volunteered their time as reader/writers for those boys with special examination needs.

2024 Higher School Certificate Results and Credentials

Each student of the graduating Class of 2024 will receive the Higher School Certificate Testamur and the Higher School Certificate Record of Achievement which lists the results in all HSC courses satisfactorily completed.

 

The HSC Record of Achievement will include students' Year 11 Preliminary course grades and their Year 10 grades. This provides formal recognition of students' senior secondary school achievements. The HSC results, Year 11 grades and Year 10 grades will appear on separate pages of the HSCRecord of Achievement.

 

Students will be able to access their HSC results by telephone, SMS and the internet via the NESA Students Online facility on Wednesday 18 December. Students will receive their credentials by mail in January 2025.

 

The pre-Christmas release of HSC results allows students more time to take advantage of various support services before making decisions about further education, employment and other plans.

 

Michael Cutrupi 

Director of Curriculum

AI in Education and at SPC

Two years ago this month, Generative AI hit the world via ChatGPT and by January of 2023, academic institutions around the world were grappling with what this new technology would mean for the way teachers and educational institutions would deal with the increased threat of plagiarism. Schools everywhere added AI clauses into their assessment policies, NSW Government schools banned the use of AI, while early adopters started exploring the possibilities inherent in this new tool.

 

At St Patrick’s College, we initially held back from embracing, or barring, AI. Beyond an updated passage in our assessment handbooks – and a consequent shift to a greater reliance on in-class assessments – we held back from any decisions about how we would or would not use generative artificial intelligence.

 

Two years on, there are countless platforms offering the power of AI to write your resume, tutor your child, create “the new you”, or be your friend if you are lonely. Two years on, we now know more about the possibilities, yet are also more aware of the need for guardrails to ensure we use the technology, and it doesn’t use us.

 

Here at St Patrick’s, we have seen evidence in the recent assessment results of Year 12 and Year 11 students – not necessarily what students would see as cheating or plagiarism, where taking shortcuts to thinking has led to more generic and less sophisticated responses. Even at state level, Studies of Religion teachers in a Facebook group remarked how trial results for Year 12 had more inaccuracies and were more unexceptional than seen in any previous year.

 

Our students – the generation who will be most impacted by this new technology as it evolves – have been quick to take to its use, but paradoxically also have serious questions about what it means for them.

 

So, what will we be doing about AI here at SPC? A short list includes:

  • Our new Year 12 Learning and Technology Prefect, Dominic Short, has named addressing the challenges and benefits of AI as his priority focus for the year ahead. 
     
  • The Year 10 Ambassadors have chosen “AI in Education: Innovation with Integrity” as the theme for this year’s All My Own Work Program. 
     
  • Year 6 students will learn about AI at an age-appropriate level as part of their transition into the Year 7 program later this term.
     
  • Mrs Jessica Lonard led Middle and Senior Leaders in school-based professional learning around governance, assessment, and ethical implications of AI use.
     
  • Mr Ricky Istifan led another group of teachers in more practical uses of AI tools.
     
  • Our newest teachers learned about differentiation and harnessing chatbots and platforms such as Diffit to create quality differentiated resources.

Using feedback from the middle and senior leaders, and through a listening forum with year ambassadors, we hope to draft a St Patrick’s College Framework for Use of AI before the end of this year. We aim to ensure we preserve and model the best of what it means to be human while also taking advantage of the efficiencies AI offers and the reality that it is now part of our world.

 

In the next three newsletters, I will continue to focus on the impact of generative artificial intelligence in schools with articles about the emerging social and emotional implications of AI, academic concerns and helpful tools, and the ethical implications of AI.

 

Denise Lombardo

Director of Learning and Innovation