Community and Me

Using a practical skills-based approach, students learn about various community organisations and their roles. They will learn about their rights and responsibilities. Students will learn about key events and celebrations to develop their understanding of links between the community and themselves.

Learning will take place in a limited range of highly familiar contexts, using concrete and immediate examples, in a very restricted range of contexts and using limited and highly familiar vocabulary. Tasks will involve a limited number of familiar processes.

Community and Me is one of a suite of courses designed to provide basic skills to learners with high needs, many of whom have a learning difficulty or disability.

Some learners may need the full suite of courses for study in both Years 11 and 12, some may need it for only part of their course load, and other learners may need only some courses in Year 11 before moving to other programs for Year 12.

In Community and Me, learners will develop their understanding of the community in which they live, the organisations and services that may meet their needs, and how to access a range of services by utilising safe transport options.

This course is specifically designed for learners who require flexible and individualised programs. The skills, knowledge and understandings offered in this course will enable learners to move towards greater independence.

On successful completion of this course, learners will be able to:

1. know about relevant organisations and facilities in their local community
2. have the necessary skills to access personal transport
3. have the basic skills needed to interact with others in their community
4. know about some local and national events and celebrations, and some notable Australian people
5. have basic awareness of the expectations of citizenship and Australian society.

All learners have a right to an education that meets their needs through full participation and engagement with learning. Teachers need to enhance the quality of all students’ learning through responsive and planned learning programs that optimise achievement using inclusive practices.

Learners should have access to appropriate resources such as professional support staff; or adult assistance, and equipment such as assistive technology or modified facilities, as required. The Disability Standards for Education, 2005 outline the obligations that educational providers must meet in supporting the needs of students with disability through reasonable adjustments.

Adjustments include a range of supports and accommodations including but not limited to: supportive learning environments, tailored delivery models, visual and organisational supports, multimodal learning and assessment opportunities, varying levels of prompting and adult assistance. In the instance of online, distance or flexible delivery, adjustments may be made to the courses by teachers to suit the individual student’s learning environment. This may involve adaptation of the course to reflect the resources readily available to the learner within their home or community.

This course has a complexity level preliminary to Level 1.

This course has a size value of 15.

Tasmanian Certificate of Education: The qualifications available have a level of complexity preliminary to that of Level 1. Achievement of the qualifications does not, therefore, contribute credit points towards meeting the participation and achievement standard of the Tasmanian Certificate of Education qualification.

Qualifications Certificate: The qualifications available can be listed on the Qualifications Certificate issued by TASC.

This course has seven (7) Units. Learners will complete all 7 Units.

The time allocated to each Unit will reflect the needs of the individual learner.

Learners will complete one required Work Task.

UNIT 1 Community

• individuals

• families

• friendship groups

• communities

• the range of cultural and linguistic backgrounds of people in the community

• key people in the local community i.e. personalities that are likely to be known (e.g. Mayor, police).

UNIT 2 Organisations in the community

• personal needs and preferences

• service organisations (e.g. libraries, the police, hospitals, health clinics)

• recreation organisations (e.g. cinema, bowling alley, skateboard park)

• range of businesses (e.g. shops, pharmacies, sports stores, hairdressers).

UNIT 3 Involvement in the community

• personal choices and preferences

• organisations that provide goods and services to meet individual needs

• how to contact organisations (e.g. phone number, address, website, using a brochure)

• how to access a range of organisations (e.g. personal visit, phone call, internet enquiry)

• indicate recognition of how to become a member of a group or club.

UNIT 4 Getting around

• moving around safely in the community environment (e.g. school, shopping centre, parks and gardens)

• using public and private transport (e.g. bus, taxi, maxi cab)

• safe practices when in a vehicle (e.g. seatbelts, stowing of luggage, restraining pets in vehicles)

• organising small outings (e.g. picnics, cinema outings, local shopping centre)

• pedestrian safety (e.g. WALK/DON’T WALK signals, No Crossing, Pedestrian Crossing, Ramp Access)

• use of special transport (e.g. wheelchair accessible vehicles, maxi cab).

UNIT 5 Rules and laws

• rules and laws as ways of regulating behaviour (e.g. promoting social safety (face to face) and cyber safety)
• equality and equity: what’s fair to me and others?
• identify some basic rules and expectations in the classroom
• human rights: what rights do I have?
• identify some reasons for having rules in the community
• structures around enforcing the legal system
• identify some key roles of people and agencies who enforce rules in the community
• support services (e.g. advocates, legal advice, youth groups).

UNIT 6 Citizenship

• how have individuals and groups contributed to development of Australia
• How do I contribute to my community?
• personal roles and responsibilities (e.g. within a family, on the road, as a consumer, as a tenant)
• Citizenship, national identity, e.g. what is an Australian?
• elections and voting
•  significant roles in the community.

UNIT 7 Knowing About Australia

• familiarity with a few key events
• government in Australia: basic concepts of local, state and national

• famous Australians (e.g. famous explorers, bushrangers, politicians, sports stars, media personalities)

• indigenous Australians (e.g. artists, pop stars, movie stars).

WORK TASK

Learners will appropriately and actively engage in at least one (1) community event.

This could be a school, local community or wider community event.

NOTATION ON EVIDENCE OF LEARNING

Some of the criteria standard elements (see below) use the terms ‘identify’ or ‘describe’.

In the context of this preliminary level course, ‘identification’ might be done via methods such as:

• correctly selecting from a given list

• correctly selecting from a set of images

• correctly naming from memory or after consulting a source such as the internet.

‘Selecting’ might be done by methods such as: pointing; nodding; circling with a pen; or matching (e.g. picture with corresponding name card).

In the context of this preliminary level course, ‘describing’ might be done via methods such as:

• an oral description

• a written description (e.g. a word list of characteristics)

• a series of actions

• a series of images with simple written notations.

Criterion-based assessment is a form of outcomes assessment that identifies the extent of learner achievement at an appropriate end-point of study. Although assessment – as part of the learning program – is continuous, much of it is formative, and is done to help learners identify what they need to do to attain the maximum benefit from their study of the course. Therefore, assessment for summative reporting to TASC will focus on what both teacher and learner understand to reflect end-point achievement.

The standard of achievement each learner attains on each criterion is recorded as a rating of ‘C’ (satisfactory standard) according to the outcomes specified in the standards section of the course document.

A ‘t’ notation must be used where a learner demonstrates any achievement against a criterion less than the standard specified for the ‘C’ rating. The ‘t’ notation is not described in course standards.

A ‘z’ notation is to be used where a learner provides no evidence of achievement at all.

Providers offering this course must participate in quality assurance processes specified by TASC to ensure provider validity and comparability of standards across all awards. To learn more, see TASC's quality assurance processes and assessment information.

Internal assessment of all criteria will be made by the provider. Assessment processes must gather evidence that clearly shows the match between individual learner performance, the standards of the course and the learner’s award. Providers will report the learner’s rating for each criterion to TASC.

The following process will be facilitated by TASC to ensure there is:

• a match between the standards of achievement specified in the course and the skills and knowledge demonstrated by learners

• community confidence in the integrity and meaning of the qualification.

Process – Each provider is responsible for ensuring the integrity and validity of their assessment results against the requirements of the course, including standards, and for maintaining records and documentation that will demonstrate the integrity, accuracy and validity of the award decisions they make each year.

Where TASC identifies sufficient potential for concern about the integrity or validity of a provider’s award decisions it will undertake an investigation. After such an investigation is completed, TASC may take action under Section 33 of the Office of Tasmanian Assessment, Standards and Certification Act 2003 as it considers appropriate, including but not limited to:

• giving the school/college a direction in relation to the provision or assessment of the course (section 33 (2))

• refusing to accept results for this course from the provider (section 33 (4)).

The assessment for Community and Me will be based on the degree to which the learner can:

• 1. name and describe the basic nature of organisations with which the individual is likely to interact
• 2. select and access transport
• 3. apply basic skills to interact with others in the community
• 4. demonstrate awareness of local and national events, celebrations and some notable Australian individuals
• 5. identify laws, rules and responsibilities
• 6. identify elements of citizenship

Community and Me (with the award of):

SATISFACTORY ACHIEVEMENT (SA)

PRELIMINARY ACHIEVEMENT (PA)

The minimum requirements for an award in Community and Me are as follows:

SATISFACTORY ACHIEVEMENT (SA)
5 ‘C’ ratings

PRELIMINARY ACHIEVEMENT (PA)
3 ‘C’ ratings

The Department of Education’s Curriculum Services will develop and regularly revise the curriculum. This evaluation will be informed by the experience of the course’s implementation, delivery and assessment.

In addition, stakeholders may request Curriculum Services to review a particular aspect of an accredited course.

Requests for amendments to an accredited course will be forwarded by Curriculum Services to the Office of TASC for formal consideration.

Such requests for amendment will be considered in terms of the likely improvements to the outcomes for learners, possible consequences for delivery and assessment of the course, and alignment with Australian Curriculum materials.

A course is formally analysed prior to the expiry of its accreditation as part of the process to develop specifications to guide the development of any replacement course.

Version 1 - Accredited on 2 April 2014 for use in 2015 to 2018. This course replaces Community and Me (PRE012610) that expired on 31 December 2014.

Version 1.a - Minor amendments of course content and criteria standards. 21 December 2017.