Every school subject modernised under Qld’s new ATAR system

Every Year 11 and 12 subject in Queensland has been updated and modernised under the new ATAR system — and that has brought positives and negatives.

EVERY Year 11 and 12 subject has been updated and modernised under the biggest overhaul of senior secondary schooling in Queensland in half a century.

In addition to introducing six new subjects, the Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority has revamped all senior syllabuses, providing more detailed and specific course content to teachers and introducing a new focus on 21st century skills.

Six new subjects offered to Qld high school students under ATAR

ATAR: Gender theory in new psychology subject

How the ATAR is calculated

QCAA chief executive Chris Rider said curriculum should reflect wider changes in society, and Queensland also needed to incorporate the new Australian curriculum in its senior subjects.

“The new Queensland Certificate of Education system was an opportunity for us to do something like a syllabus stocktake, we started the redevelopment process by commissioning academics to do international literature reviews in each learning area — mathematics, science, English, technologies,” he said.

“On the most basic level we gave some syllabuses more contemporary or descriptive names.”

Students who are talented in mathematics, for example, will no longer take maths B or maths C, but subjects called mathematics methods and mathematics specialist.

In the English subjects, new prescribed text lists have been introduced, which include some edgy and surprise additions, including the US cult sci-fi series Stranger Things alongside Shakespearean classics.

English Teachers’ Association of Queensland president Fiona Laing said there were benefits and drawbacks to the updated approach to senior English.

“The advantage of this is that there will be available a wide range of resources and practice which can be shared between schools and students,” she said.

“The disadvantage is the narrowing of the curriculum and the lack of choice compared to teachers’ practice in the past – with a full panoply of texts permissible.”