For this month’s guidance from the Certificates Team we are learning about one side of the Academic Projection Sheet. We will discuss the Goal Contract which is on the back next month. Remember, we are asking our families to aid us in maintaining our Certificate’s high standing with the tertiary educational institutions in the South Pacific through high quality marking standards.
Were you aware of the Academic Projection towards Graduation Form that can be downloaded here (in the Downloads section of the Member’s Area) or purchased from SCEE (printed onto card)? This is a great way for a student (and parents) to track how their progress towards the completion of their Certificate Pathway. Please be aware that this can also be used to help track younger students progress through the PACEs too.
Procedure:
This form can be completed digitally or on paper. The Accelerate team recommends printing out a copy and displaying it near the student’s work area as a positive motivation tool.
1.To complete the form:
- Add the student’s details at the top (name, age, Certificate level Years of attendance, enrolment date and last grade completed).
- Type or write all the Subjects that are on the students pathway aligned to the subject area under courses remaining for graduation.
- In the credits column, insert the number of credits each subject is allocated. The total credits will be tallied at the bottom.
- Add the PACE numbers for the subjects that the student plans to complete in the current year. As the form is designed to be completed each year, and the duration for most Certificates courses are 2 years. For a Year 10 Certificate, it would likely be one subject from each subject area as below.
- If a subject has been completed in a previous year (such as Algebra I and English I which are often completed in the Year 10 Certificate) it can be included under Courses Completed.
- The number of Credits earned can be placed under Credits Earned column. The Credits earned column will automatically tally the number of credits.
- Finally, the form is signed. As this form was designed for schools, the form asks for the parent and the school admin’s signature, however for home school families, I recommend that the student signs in the admin section. This now becomes an agreement between the student and the parent.
2. Determine the how much is required to be completed between writing the form and the deadline usually 12 months from completing the form. The Goal Contract (explained in next month’s newsletter) is a great way to work out how many PACEs to complete or you can do the following:
- Count the number of PACEs to be completed between now and the deadline. If possible work out how many pages each PACE includes. If you have not purchased all the PACEs for the year estimate based on the first few PACEs in each subject.
- Determine how many PACEs and Pages are required to be completed each Semester, Term, month, week and day:
- Semester – divide the number of PACES by 2
- Term – divide the number of PACES by 4
- Month – divide the number of PACES by 12
- Week – divide the number of PACES by 52
- Day – divide the number of PACES by 200 (Based on 5 day weeks over 4, 10 week terms)
- Or complete the Goal Contract on the back of the Academic Progress to Graduation Form (explained below)
3. Track the student’s progress over the year by crossing out each PACE when it is completed. Be looking out for:
- The completion of approximately 3 PACEs per subject per term (6 per semester/12 per year)
- One or more subjects advancing more than 3 PACEs ahead or behind and adjust the workload accordingly. The ideal is to progress through all the subjects at approximately the same time (with allowances for a couple of PACEs either side. If a subject is lagging behind, it should be given more time in the week, than the other subjects to catch up, and if a subject is too far ahead, less time should be devoted to it.
