Community Studies

About the subject

Community Studies offers students the opportunity to learn in a community context and to interact with teachers, peers, and community members beyond the school environment.

Students decide the focus of their community activity, which begins from a point of personal interest, skill, or knowledge. By setting challenging and achievable goals in a community activity, students enhance their skills and understandings in a guided and supported learning program. They develop their capability to work independently and to apply their skills and knowledge in practical ways in their community.

Stage 2 Community Studies can be studied as a 10-credit subject or a 20-credit subject in one or more of the ten areas of study.

Community Studies is not a Tertiary Admissions Subject and therefore cannot be used in the calculation of an ATAR.

Course content

Students prepare a contract of work to develop a community activity from the following ten areas of study:

• Arts and the Community
• Business and the Community
• Communication and the Community
• Design, Construction, and the Community
• Environment and the Community
• Foods and the Community
• Health, Recreation, and the Community
• Science and the Community
• Technology and the Community
• Work and the Community

Assessment

Students demonstrate evidence of their learning through the following assessment types:

• School-based Assessment - Contract of Work
• External Assessment - Reflection

Information on the External Assessment

Reflection

The reflection is a piece of writing of up to a maximum of 500 words if written, a maximum of 3 minutes if oral, or the equivalent in multimedia format, for a 10-credit subject; and up to a maximum of 1000 words, 6 minutes if oral, or the equivalent in multimedia format, for a 20-credit subject.

Students reflect on and evaluate both formal and informal feedback obtained from their community contact(s) and other sources. This feedback may be given in a variety of ways, such as notes or tips, pro formas, checklists, and comments. Students may also describe their feelings and attitudes to the community feedback and justify their responses. Students reflect on the value of the community activity to others, which could include such aspects as ongoing service learning, community partnerships, and school-to-work links and pathways.

The reflection is double graded, firstly by the student’s teacher and secondly by an external assessor appointed by the SACE Board. The teacher and the external assessor make a decision about the quality of the critical reflection with reference to the performance standards.

Performance Standards

The Community Studies Subject Outline includes performance standards, which describe five levels of achievement that are reported with the grades A to E at the student’s completion of the subject.

The school-based assessments and the external assessment will be graded with reference to the performance standards.