Canterbury College has announced a significant reform to its assessment model, committing to fully supervised assessment across Prep to Year 10 from the start of 2027. Take-home assignments will no longer count toward reported results. Instead, students will complete formal examinations, timed in-class writing tasks, creative responses, and extended written pieces completed under classroom conditions using controlled browser environments that restrict access to AI tools and external assistance.

Principal Dan Walker said the decision reflects a pragmatic response to a changing educational landscape.

“Generative AI has made it genuinely impossible to know, with any confidence, whether a take-home assignment reflects what a student knows or what a tool produced on their behalf. We have worked hard to design tasks that address this, and that work has been genuine. The technology is simply moving faster than task design can keep pace with.”

“The right response is to change the instrument. The results we report to a family should reflect what their child can demonstrate on their own, in the room. From 2027, it will.”

Canterbury is among the first Australian schools to formally commit to this shift across an entire Prep to Year 10 programme. The reform positions Canterbury alongside the small number of schools nationally that have moved from policy statements on AI integrity to structural assessment change.

Mr Walker was direct about the relationship between the reform and the College’s digital identity.

“We are a Microsoft Showcase School and a national Lighthouse School. We think seriously about the role technology plays in learning, and that is precisely why we are taking the assessment question seriously rather than deferring it. A school that genuinely believes in digital innovation also has a responsibility to ensure its results continue to mean something.”

The College also confirmed it will increase its investment in AI education in 2027, giving students structured practical experience in using AI tools to deepen understanding and build the kind of knowledge that translates directly into supervised assessment performance.

“We want students who use AI to think harder, not students who use it to avoid thinking altogether. Those are very different outcomes, and the distinction matters.”

Years 11 and 12 assessment remains governed by Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority syllabuses, which Canterbury will continue to meet in full. The

College is also calling for the QCAA to accelerate its own review of non-supervised assessment conditions in senior schooling.

“The case for change at the senior level is just as strong. We would rather see that conversation happen now than after another three years of drift.”

The reform will be implemented over the second half of 2026 through revised assessment programmes, staff professional learning, and direct communication with students and families ahead of the 2027 school year.