Record of School Achievement (RoSA)

Students who do not complete their HSC may receive a RoSA. Learn about eligibility, and the requirements and rules for documents issued to school leavers by NESA.

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About the RoSA

The RoSA is a cumulative record of achievement that includes a student’s record of academic achievement up until the date they leave school. The RoSA was introduced in 2012.

The RoSA records (where applicable):

completed Stage 5 (Year 10) courses and grades
completed Preliminary Stage 6 (Year 11) courses and grades
HSC (Year 12) results
any uncompleted Preliminary Stage 6 courses or HSC courses.

The RoSA is useful to students leaving school before the HSC because they can show it to potential employers or places of further learning.

Students who have not met the HSC minimum standard to receive their HSC, can receive a RoSA.

Eligibility for a RoSA

To be eligible for a RoSA, students must have:

completed the mandatory curriculum requirements for Years 7 to 10
attended a government school, an accredited non-government school or a recognised school outside NSW
completed courses of study that satisfy NESA's curriculum and assessment requirements for the RoSA
left the schooling system after completing Year 10 but before completing the HSC
complied with the requirements from the Education Act.

Receiving the RoSA

Schools are responsible for nominating a student for a RoSA through the enrolments section in Schools Online.

Once schools have finalised the requests, the student can download the RoSA from their Students Online account.

Students cannot make a request for a RoSA, it must come from their school.

Schools are able to generate an eRecord and check the student’s course information is correctly recorded. Students can use the eRecord as an interim result report until the formal RoSA credential is available for download from their Students Online account

At any time, all students in Years 11 and 12 can access an online eRecord via their Students Online account. They can show the online eRecord to potential employers when seeking casual work, or enrolling in training courses..

Students who remain at school to complete their HSC will not receive a RoSA.

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A RoSA is not issued to students if they are transferring schools.

The schools handle the transfer process. Schools need to let NESA know about the student's arrival by updating their details on Schools Online during the enrolment process.

RoSA reporting and grades

The RoSA shows a student’s comprehensive record of academic achievement, which includes:

completed courses and the awarded grade or mark
courses a student has participated in but did not complete before leaving school
the date the student left school (if applicable).

It includes an A to E grade for all Stage 5 (Year 10) and Preliminary Stage 6 (Year 11) satisfactorily completed courses.

Grades are:

based on student achievement in their assessment work
submitted to NESA by the school in Term 4
monitored by us for fairness and consistency.

NESA works with teachers to ensure appropriate standards for grading and assessment are developed and applied, to ensure grades given in different schools mean the same thing.

We provide schools with information about the allocation or patterns of grades awarded over recent years. This helps guide the allocation of grades to current students.

Students who don’t qualify for a RoSA

Students are not eligible for a RoSA if they:

leave school before finishing Year 10
leave after Year 10 without meeting RoSA eligibility requirements.

These students will be issued with a Transcript of Study.

The Transcript of Study contains the same information as the RoSA for courses satisfactorily completed.

Schools must let us know when a student leaves school via Schools Online.

Formal RoSA credentials are for school leavers. However, all Years 11 and 12 students will be able to:

access their cumulative academic results
access their enrolled courses
download an eRecord via their Students Online account.

RoSA requirements and rules

Use the dropdowns to view the RoSA rules and requirements.

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We don’t set minimum attendance for the satisfactory completion of a course. However, a principal may determine that, due to absence, course completion criteria may not be met.

To receive a RoSA, students must attend school until the final day of Year 10.

They must also complete the following mandatory Years 7-10 curriculum requirements.

Subject requirements

English – Our syllabus must be studied substantially throughout Years 7–10. By the end of Year 10, 400 hours need to be completed.
Mathematics – Our syllabus must be studied substantially throughout Years 7–10. By the end of Year 10, 400 hours need to be completed.
Science – Our syllabus must be studied substantially throughout Years 7–10. By the end of Year 10, 400 hours need to be completed.
Human Society and its Environment – Our syllabus must be studied substantially throughout Years 7–10. By the end of Year 10, 400 hours need to be completed. This must include 100 hours each of History and Geography in each Stage.
Languages Other than English – 100 hours to be completed in one language over one continuous 12-month period between Years 7–10 but preferably in Years 7–8.
Technological and Applied Studies – Our Technology (mandatory) Years 7–8 syllabus to be studied for 200 hours.
Creative Arts – Two hundred hours to be completed, consisting of our 100-hour mandatory courses in each of Visual Arts and Music. We expect that the 100-hour mandatory courses in these subjects will be taught as coherent units of study and not split over a number of years.
Personal Development, Health and Physical Education – Our mandatory 300-hour course to be completed. This integrated course is to be studied in each of Years 7–10.

‘N’ determinations

If students don’t complete a course’s requirements, they will receive an ‘N’ determination.

Students are warned via a letter from their school if it looks like they might not meet course requirements. NESA's aim is to give the student time to complete the course and fix the problem.

If a student receives an ‘N’ determination in a mandatory curriculum requirement course, they won’t be eligible for the RoSA. If they leave school, they will receive a Transcript of Study. Courses that received an 'N' determination will not be listed on the transcript.

If a student is given an ‘N’ determination in a non-mandatory course, the course will not appear on their RoSA or Transcript of Study.

Principals need to contact NESA student records if they feel a student is eligible for a RoSA after being deemed ineligible at the end of Year 10 because they failed to meet the mandatory course requirements.

Life Skills

Students with intellectual disability can complete the Life Skills curriculum option.

Students who leave school before completing HSC requirements, but who have satisfactorily completed Year 10 via a partial or full Life Skills pathway can receive a RoSA

For every satisfactorily completed Year 10, 11 and/or 12 completed Life Skills course an accompanying Profile of Student Achievement is included with the RoSA to provide students with more details of their achievements from each course.

What happened to the School Certificate?

In 2011, the NSW Government announced the abolition of the School Certificate, a credential that had existed since 1965.

It also announced that, for students choosing to leave school before the completion of their HSC, the School Certificate would be replaced by a broader, cumulative record of achievement.

It’s important that employers understand that the RoSA is cumulative so it reports everything a student has completed from the end of year 10 up until the date they left school.

This differs to the School Certificate where only achievements until the end of year 10 were reported.