Teaching the SACE | Stage 2
Teaching Stage 2
Before teaching a Stage 2 subject, you should have a firm understanding of performance standards and grades, learning and assessment plans, the quality assurance cycle, and relevant policies and guidelines, and how these apply to your subject. Also consider if one or more of your students may be eligible for special provisions.
The requirements are different for teaching Modified Subjects.
This page contains general information about teaching a Stage 2 subject. For subject specific resources (e.g. subject outlines, learning and assessment plans, and forms), use the subject search.
On this page
Understanding the SACE
Although your school's SACE coordinator and leadership team are in charge of making sure students select appropriate subjects and ultimately complete the SACE, it's also important for you to understand how the SACE works.
Your SACE journey is a great place to start. This is aimed at students, but contains a lot of what you'll need to get a handle on the various aspects of the SACE, including compulsory subjects, credits, the ATAR, and recognised learning (e.g. VET).
Subject outlines
Subject outlines describe the learning and assessment requirements of Stage 2 subjects. They form the basis of the teaching, learning, and assessment programs delivered in schools and are considered critical reading. Subject outlines are published at the beginning of every year and are available on each subject's homepage.
Performance standards and grades
Performance standards detail each level of achievement in the SACE (A+ to E– for Stage 2). These standards are used to allocate a grade based on how well a student has demonstrated their learning.
Performance standards can be found in every subject outline (available on each subject's homepage).
More about performance standards and grades.
Learning and assessment plans
A learning and assessment plan (LAP) is a document that shows a teacher's intended learning and assessment activities for a subject.
Pre-approved LAPs are available for every subject and can be accessed through the subject search. Teachers are also free to develop their own LAP (called a school-developed LAP), but must ensure it meets the subject outline specifications. Stage 2 LAPs are approved by your principal and kept in your school.
Support is available to help prepare learning and assessment plans and design assessment tasks. Contact your subject's SACE officer for more information (details available on every subject homepage).
More about learning and assessment plans (including general supporting documents).
Supervision and verification of student work
Students must only produce and submit work that is their own.
As a teacher, you'll need to supervise and verify their work. If you suspect a student has submitted something that isn't theirs, you must follow the procedure outlined in Breach of rules (Information sheet 03).
More about supervision and verification.
School assessment and moderation
In a Stage 2 subject, 70% of student work is assessed by the school. To make sure that students' work is marked consistently no matter where they attend school, the subjects that students study are moderated.
Moderation is part of the confirming phase of the quality assurance cycle. Learn more about the quality assurance cycle, including your roles and responsibilities.
More about school assessment and moderation.
External assessment and exams
In a Stage 2 subject, 30% of student work is assessed externally. This ensures that the performance standards in a subject have been interpreted and applied consistently and the results awarded to students — no matter where they attend school — are comparable and fair.
There are three types of external assessment: investigations, performances, and examinations.
More about external assessment and exams.
Key dates
Every subject has a simplified list of Stage 2 key dates, under the 'Stage 2' menu (or as a top-level menu option) on the subject's site. You can use this to plan your year.
To print the entire list, go to the full description calendar and type the hash symbol (#) plus the name of your subject into the search box (e.g. #Biology). If your subject has multiple words, separate them with a hyphen (-) (e.g. #Language-and-Culture).
Not in SA? Try the NT calendar.