A4L Community Newsletter - December 2016 A4L Newsletter - December 2016 | Page 6

NEWSLETTER | Issue 34

6

News from the Australian Community
AU Community Day & Annual Meeting: Overview
by Bruce Rigby, NSIP
The A4L Community in Australia
recently held their A4L Community Day
and Annual Meeting, on 30 November
2016 in Adelaide. The A4L Community
Day began with an early morning
Members breakfast. Following lots of
conversations and demolition of bacon,
egg and hash browns, A4L CEO/Exec
Director, Dr Larry Fruth, set the scene
outlining where A4L is currently at and
how the organisation interacts with
government,
vendors
and other
standard organisations around the
world.
Members were introduced to the new
chair of the A4L Community AU
Management Board (SIFAAMB), Dave
Burns, Executive Director Web and
Digital
Delivery,
Department
of
Education and Training (Queensland)
and the new chair of the NSIP Steering
Group, Simon Maizels, Director –
Integration Competency Centre, NSW
Department of Education.
The main agenda of the Community
Day was open to a broader group of
suppliers, educators and agency staff.
It commenced with updates on a major
program to introduce online delivery of
the National Assessment Program for
Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) from
2017.
This included detail of the
Results and Reporting Data Set
presented by Anthony Yaremenko,
Program Lead - Projects, NSIP. The
data set is defined in SIF to encapsulate
the outcome of staged adaptive

assessments that by 2019 are expected
to be undertaken by all students in
years 3, 5, 7 and 9.
Joerg Huber from Systemic and the cochair
of
the
A4L
Community
International Technical Board (ITB)
reported on global groups forming part
of the ITB and also the current status of
the Global SIF REST Infrastructu re 3.2
which introduces Functional Services.
Following morning tea, Lawrence
Royston,
Managing
Director
of
Groupcall and member of the A4L
Community UK Management Board;
Tony
Hewett,
Data
Architect
representing the NZ Ministry of
Education;
and
Larry
Fruth,
representing the A4L Community in
North America, reported on the status
of interoperability programs and SIF
activities in their respective locales.
The reports were followed by a case
study from Mount Barker High School
in South Australia presented by Jenni
Cook, Vice Principal Positive Education
and Teaching Practice and Julie
Humphries,
Assistant
Principal
Curriculum. This session re-iterated the
importance of measures of student
well-being in developing appropriate
learning programs and in highlighting
areas where the school’s positive
education program has made a
difference to individual students and
the school as a whole. It gave
participants insight into the importance
of interoperability in relation to

student’s outcomes.
A brief Annual Meeting was held over
lunch at which newly elected members
of the A4L Community AU Management
Board and Data Standards Working
Group, (the AU Technical Board) were
introduced. Participants were reminded
of the opportunities available to
monitor and participate in development
of the SIF Specification.
The afternoon session chaired by Matt
Farmer, Program Lead – Products and
Market Engagement, NSIP commenced
with reports on work to extend the SIF
AU Data Model Specification to support
exchange of data on student wellbeing
and formative assessment. Focus then
shifted to the Learning Services
Architecture which is based on the SIF
AU Data Model Specification and SIF 3
integration with reports from each
jurisdiction regarding progress with
implementation.
Matt
gave
an
overview of each of the implementation
models and various vendors and
jurisdiction representatives reported on
their particular positions.
The day was capped off by the SIFAAMB
Chair, Dave Burns who asked us all to
reflect on the day and what we need to
do more of. Vendors in the room also
highlighted the importance of having ‘a
reason’ such as NAPLAN and NSW ICC
to engage with each other and develop
in-roads into the Learning Services
Architecture. The enthusiasm of Dave
and participants was palpable and we
all look forward to a vibrant 2017.
A short de-brief was had by those able
to stay in the Pioneer Room over beer,
wine and nibbles.
Hope to see you all next year!