Providers and partners

SAC– Information for Parents and Caregivers

How can I support my child?

Talk to the school about any concerns you have and keep them informed of any progress, medication changes or deterioration in behaviour or condition. Also encourage your child to discuss their need for help with their subject teachers.

If your child is in Years 9 or 10 the school will be building a profile of their difficulties and how they are managing so that an informed application can be made for SAC use for NCEA Level 1. As part of this, your child may be asked to do some class assessments by themselves and other assessments with varying amounts of assistance to trial SAC use.

Try to implement any specific activities or procedures or exercises for home that may have been recommended by the school, specialists or psychologists. If your child has entitlement for a computer, then improved keyboarding skills will be useful for working independently.

Be aware that your child might not be able to achieve some NCEA standards as the objectives of some standards specifically require the student to do the activity, e.g. to read (and not to listen to a reader), to do something (and not to instruct someone else how to do it). Check with your school for possible alternative standards your child might access for the course if this is the case. Some other standards have partial exclusions such as a writer not allowed to draw maps or graphs, or a reader not allowed to speak in a specific language if that skill is what is being assessed. Further details can be found at Assessments where SAC provision is not appropriate or not allowed

Your child may not always use SAC for all their assessments. Many internal assessments are long term projects or may be mainly practical. Students may be able to present their work as a podcast, video, etc. Reading and writing software or tools may be useful help for internal assessments. This can be clarified with your child’s school.

Discuss with your child which SAC may be of most help to them in the external assessment (exams). Students may choose to use different SACs for different exams e.g. a computer for one and a writer for another. Your child’s school will inform NZQA of your child’s choices.

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