Date
03 November 2024

Provide options for students to create, learn and share

Provide flexible options and tools so years 9-13 students can show their learning and share with others.

Personalise learning

Personalise learning

Provide opportunities for students to learn in ways that suit their needs and preferences.

  • Set realistic, ambitious, and achievable personal targets.
  • Create opportunities where students can personalise learning tasks and projects to build on their culture, knowledge, experience and strengths.
  • Discuss with students the different ways they can share their thinking and demonstrate understanding.
  • Develop success criteria with the students and present them with clear visual supports.
  • Provide opportunities for students to gain confidence using a range of media so they can select the most appropriate way to express their learning.
  • Offer a flexible learning environment with a variety of seating and working spaces.
  • Offer a reader-writer or assistive technologies to support success in assessments.

Create personalised learning and assessment pathways

Create personalised learning and assessment pathways

Create timelines, expectations and NCEA programmes in collaboration with the student, their whānau and their learning support team. 

Design learning and assessment programmes to meet the unique needs of each student.

Support success in assessments

Support success in assessments

Discuss with students what support they need to demonstrate their understanding in assessments.

Consider:

  • possible barriers hidden in the physical environment, for example: unfamiliar layout of room, lighting, temperature
  • possible barriers hidden in the resources and materials, for example: cluttered presentation, hard-to-read diagrams, unclear layout, hard-copies only
  • approaches to managing time allocations such as calendar tools and visual timers
  • approaches to managing anxiety
  • approaches to maintaining concentration
  • negotiating breaks and extra time
  • use of digital technologies such as text-to-speech and predictive text
  • pre-teaching specific assessment/exam skills, such as how to approach multiple choice questions
  • identify whether SAC application needs to be made for NCEA.

Identify Special Assessment Conditions needs

Identify Special Assessment Conditions needs

Identify whether Special Assessment Conditions are needed for NCEA assessments.

Special Assessment Conditions application – NZQA

Special Assessment Conditions (SAC) can provide extra help for otherwise capable students to address barriers to achievement in assessments for NCEA or New Zealand Scholarship.

For example, handwriting difficulties might impair the performance for students with dyspraxia and large unfamiliar group settings might impair the performance of students that need stability and routine.

Support external assessments

Support external assessments

Support students to successfully show their learning in external assessments.
  • Offer students mock or practice assessments so they know what to expect and can become familiar with formats and assessment environments.
  • Identify possible barriers in the physical environment, for example, unfamiliar room layout, lighting, or temperature.
  • Support time management with visual timers and calendar tools.
  • Teach and practise approaches to managing anxiety, such as mindfulness and positive self-talk, and identify solutions to anticipated problems prior to an assessment.
  • Pre-teaching specific assessment or exam skills, such as how to approach multiple choice questions.

Useful resources

Useful resources

Website

Succeeding at school: Accommodations for students with coordination difficulties

Publisher: CanChild, McMaster University

Visit website

Website

Special Assessment Conditions

Information for New Zealand schools, students, parents and caregivers, and professionals.

Publisher: New Zealand Qualifications Authority

Visit website

Next steps

More suggestions for implementing the strategy “Helpful classroom strategies years 9-13”:

Return to the guide “Dyspraxia and learning”

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