Acknowledging that meeting all curriculum and assessment requirements for the rest of this school year might be difficult, states and territories have begun to advise educators on how these could be adjusted and where some flexibility would be appropriate. Of course, the situation continues to change daily in some states and territories, and education departments are regularly updating their advice.

As teachers and students have returned to school across Australia, focus turns to curriculum delivery and assessment for the remainder of the year. Given educators have unexpectedly lost a significant amount of face-to-face teaching time, how will they decide which elements of the curriculum are crucial to cover for the remainder of the 2020 school year?

Continuity of assessment post COVID-19
The continuation of teaching and assessment during lengthy periods of government-mandated learning from home has presented challenges, and meant time needed to cover curriculum requirements has been lost. COVID-19 has affected different areas of Australia in different ways, so the challenges faced by educators are not always the same.

Instead of producing grades of A to E for students, teachers will communicate the student’s level of achievement in core learning areas in their reports, and indicate next steps in learning. They will also provide a summary of the student’s wellbeing.