Sample assessments support classroom teachers to create high quality assessments. These resources should be reviewed for suitability prior to use.

Understanding the sample assessments

The sample assessments show how to design assessments for the Senior English 11–12 syllabuses (2024):

• They support teachers in creating and giving assessments that fit their own classrooms.
• The resources include information for both teachers and students.
• The teacher information is meant to help teachers learn and improve their assessment design.
• Many schools have their own assessment templates – teachers can change the sample materials to fit their school’s needs.
• The student parts of the assessments can be copied into the school’s assessment templates.

The structure of the assessments

The structure and content of the assessment tasks is influenced by the department’s:

• Effective assessment practices – a guide for teachers and leaders.
• Strengthening assessment advice.

The tasks also align with NESA’s advice on:

• Assessment Principles
• Formative assessment
• Summative assessment

These tasks provide opportunities for teachers to gather evidence about student achievement in relation to the syllabus outcomes.

Assessment procedures

The following points should be considered when creating assessments:

• Teachers should familiarise themselves with the evidence-base in this area and engage in ongoing evaluation.
• Ensure that assessment programs are developed in line with the information provided by NESA in the assessment tab of the digital syllabus and in the Assessment Certification Examination (ACE) rules.
• Ensure all sections of the assessment are written in student-friendly language.
• Ensure that assessment practices focus on identifying where students ‘are in their learning so that teaching can be adjusted and further learning progress can be monitored over time' (CESE 2025:46).
• Students should be provided with a range of assessment types to demonstrate their skills and understanding in a variety of ways, which could include
  • writing portfolios where students develop persuasive, discursive and reflective writing, such as the assessment samples in ‘Reading to write: Transition to English EAL/D' – 11.1
  • experimenting with forms such as performance poetry and hybrid texts, featured in the assessment task for ‘Reading to write: Transition to English Studies’ – 11.1
  • responding to interview questions in a viva voce assessment, such as the assessment task for English Extension ‘Texts, culture and value' – 11.1.
• Marking rubrics should be clear, explaining the place of the task in the learning context, and setting up consistent and objective marking practices (CESE 2025; NESA 2021).
• Students’ writing processes should be recursive. They should be supported through the task preparation stage by explicitly scheduling brainstorming, planning, drafting, editing and revising time. See for example, The process writing approach: A meta-analysis (Graham and Sandmel 2011).
• Self, peer and teacher feedback is crucial to student success. Teachers should build in explicit opportunities for feedback, both during task preparation and after the return of the assessed task (CESE 2025; Hattie and Timperley 2007).

Formative assessment

The purpose of formative assessment is to:

• inform teaching and learning to meet student needs
• identify gaps in understanding or skills
• provide information that can be used to move the learning forward and determine next steps in teaching and learning.

Each of the sample assessments is supported by:

• core formative tasks that guide students towards their formal assessment
• supporting activities and resources.

The sample resources contain examples of the way formative assessment may involve:

• reflecting on and responding to feedback, outlined in Core formative task 4 in ‘Reading to write: Transition to English Studies’ – 11.1
• creating or adjusting the teaching materials and resources informed by the needs of students, modelled in ‘Reading to write: English EAL/D’ – 11.1, Pre-reading, resource 2 – listening skills, where teachers use their knowledge of their students to adapt the embedded listening tasks to meet the diverse needs of students
  • adjusting materials is further supported by differentiation notes and teacher notes included across documents in the support resources
• providing opportunities for peer-to-peer feedback, such as Core formative task 2 in the English Extension program ‘Texts, culture and value’ – 11.1, where students use a peer feedback template to develop an analytical paragraph
• establishing goals to support success in Phase 2, activity 2 – setting SMART goals in ‘Reading to write: Transition to English Studies’ – 11.1.

Opportunities for adaptation and collaboration

The sample assessments provide an opportunity for adaptation and collaboration. This enhances collective efficacy and supports consistent teacher judgement. This is an outline of some of the ways sample assessments can be used with colleagues.

• Use the samples to evaluate and refine school tasks and the way they follow NESA’s advice.
• The tasks and student samples provide an opportunity for modelled and guided co-construction of faculty assessment documents. Teams could co-construct structures like the marking criteria or steps-to-success.
• Use the student responses as an example and model of how to achieve success.
  • Make modifications to the models to reflect contextual needs.
  • This can take place at different stages
    • prior to students beginning their own compositional process
    • as a feedback opportunity
    • to refine compositions as they engage with the task.
• Examine the sample assessments and student samples located in the assessment notifications during faculty meetings or planning days.
  • Collaboratively refine them based on faculty or school goals.
• Liaise with the learning support team or English as an Additional Language or Dialect (EAL/D) specialists to identify ways to support students with specific learning needs.
• Examine the materials during faculty meetings or planning days and collaboratively plan opportunities for
  • team teaching
  • resource development
  • mentoring
  • lesson observation
  • sharing student samples.
• Use the examples as inspiration for designing ‘real-world’ and student-specific tasks.
• Use the assessment practices or syllabus planning as an opportunity to backward map Years 12–7 to guide programming, assessment design or the scope and sequence.

Professional learning

Professional learning courses and resources that support the teaching of these sample assessments.