Grants for Outside School Hours Care
Grants to help schools establish Outside School Hours Care (OSHC) services are now open.
As part of a Victorian Government initiative to ensure Victorian children and families can access OSHC (before school care, after school care or vacation care) in their local communities, 150 grants of up to $75,000 per year are available to government schools delivering primary-aged education (including specialist schools), who do not have an existing OSHC service.
Parents, carers and guardians are encouraged to promote that schools investigate this grant opportunity.
Schools can submit an application through the SmartyGrants application page, with more information available at the DET Policy and Advisory Library.
Applications close Friday 20 August.
Enquiries can be directed to Kris Arcaro, Project Leader Youth Participation on 7022 1316.
How to help your kids succeed in school without piling on the pressure
"There are four key things children need to get the most out of their education, and hassling them about results or getting them into an expensive private school are not on the list."
In this article on the ABC website, parenting expert Justin Coulson summarises extensive academic research on the key factors for success at school.
According to Dr Coulson, "The first one is relatedness. We need to have good relationships with the people around us, our friends, our teachers..."
Return to the classroom: PV comment
PV Executive Officer Gail McHardy has been approached by the media for comment about the re-opening of schols for on-site learning tomorrow.
Here are Gail's comments as supplied to the media. Gail also mentions two related issues: the vaccination of teachers and VicSRC's call for student 'mental health days'.
"Victorian public school parents are feeling relieved and many are saying it's great students are going back to school in Victoria. Many parents and teachers are saying that we should vaccinate essential workers, giving priority access to teachers and staff.
"We note also that the student representative body, VicSRC is seeking two Student Mental Health days per term as approved absence days ("no-questions asked"). PV would agree this is a reasonable request from the student organisation, considering what some schools and families are experiencing. We want to keep our young people engaged in education and not have higher absenteeism rates or school refusal.
"Congratulations to all those in the education community - they've done our state proud."
VCE special consideration: PV media comment
According to an article in today's Herald-Sun, "Results relief is on the way for desperate VCE students after special consideration on their ATAR was locked in."
PV Executive Officer Gail McHardy is quoted in the article. Gail said the VCE rescheduling and assessment considerations were greatly welcomed by the 2021 cohort.
“PV is pleased to see that the Victorian government, Department of Education and VCAA have taken this decision earlier than later to minimise any anxieties for families and their young people,” Ms McHardy said.
- Read the Herald-Sun article (subscription only)
- Read today's article in the Canberra Times (freely available)
- Read yesterday's article in the Age (freely available)
We will bring you official announcements on this topic as soon as they are available.
Home learning again: PV media comment
An article in today's Age focuses on the impact of Victoria's fifth lockdown on school students and their parents.
PV Executive Officer Gail McHardy is quoted in the article.
Gail said families seemed to be coping with the latest shutdown.
“In this wintry weather, people have gone to their bunkers,” she said. “We’ve got to give Victorians a medal. We’re all doing the best we can.”
Vaccination of teachers: PV media comment
An article published in the Herald-Sun yesterday focuses on Covid-19 outbreaks in schools. According to the article, "Unions, parents and educator lobby groups are united in calling for teachers to be vaccinated as a priority."
PV Executive Officer Gail McHardy was consulted by the Herald-Sun for the article.
Gail's comments, as supplied to the newspaper, are given here in full:
"Parents Victoria (PV) believes it's reasonable for teachers to be vaccinated and we are mindful of several recent outbreaks in Victorian schools impacting students and teachers.
"The increased risk from the Delta variant only reinforces our original comment; it would increase families, students and teacher confidence if teachers were eligible to be vaccinated now.
"PV has noted that the NSW Government has taken the decision for teachers to be eligible in the worst affected areas, this is a start. PV believes the education workforce and communities would feel more confident knowing teachers were all able to be vaccinated considering they have from the outset of the pandemic been deemed an essential service."
Protection of School Communities Bill
As reported on 8 June, Parents Victoria has concerns about the Education and Training Reform Amendment (Protection of School Communities) Bill 2021, which was passed by the Victorian Parliament on 28 June.
PV advocacy
PV successfully engaged a number of our Members of Parliament in regard to this Bill and this experience did demonstrate the importance of our parliamentary process. The Bill successfully got through the Legislative Assembly supported by both the ALP and Liberal Party. However, we do wish to acknowledge Sam Hibbins (The Greens) for raising our concerns in the Legislative Assembly and we were advised his party would be giving further consideration to the Bill when debated in the Legislative Council.
PV contacted the cross benchers in the Legislative Council to draw people’s attention to our concerns, as many people had not considered the on-the-ground repercussions (unintended consequences) or further impacts on the workforce and the relationships of schools and families. As a result, the Bill did not move as quickly through the Legislative Council as others expected on the 22 June 2021. PV wishes to acknowledge Samantha Ratnum (The Greens) for asking questions and moving amendments in order to introduce additional safeguards. These included reporting measures and stronger internal review provisions, however the amendments were not successful.
Drug use by school students: PV media comment
The Herald-Sun published an article today about increasing use of the drug ketamine by Victorian school students.
PV Executive Officer Gail McHardy is quoted in the article.
Gail's commentary on this issue, as supplied to the Herald-Sun, is given here in full:
"Drugs, alcohol and vaping remain an issue for schools, students and their families.
"The Department gives clear policy advice to Victorian Government Schools on their expectations and obligations in regard to the whole school approach, education and harm minimisation but most importantly it's essential they work with parents and the wider community with their efforts in prevention or addressing spikes in school related use or incidents.
"The statistics reaffirm that the prevalence of incidents occur and rise from Year 8. The reports in the Primary school years, in our experience, can be a child accessing a substance without parent knowledge or approval (bringing it and showing it to another child at school). Yes, we all need to be extremely mindful of where we store our medications and how we role model to children and young people.
"Drug and alcohol education and use is a community problem. PV encourages governments to keep consulting with experts and young people on how we can do better in this area."
Careers webinar Q&A
Our "Supporting your child on their career journey" webinar in May provided lots of valuable information for the parents who attended, and here's a bonus follow-up: a transcript of the Q & A session.
The questions cover school based career education, work experience, gap years, gaining life skills for students and post-school course selection.
School based career education, including Morrisby Assessment
Q. What if your school does not offer the subject stream your child needs? What are some practical suggestions to address this?
A: Talk to your child and their careers practitioner in the first instance to ascertain if your child is interested in the career pathway and if the subject/s are required for the pathway. If this is the case and your child wants to pursue the pathway, then discuss options with the careers practitioner and year level coordinator, for example, enrolling for the particular subject/s at a neighbouring school, TAFE or Virtual Schools Victoria.
Q: Is the My Career Insights program parent initiated, (ie do parents need to tell their children to go to the website and fill in the questionnaire?)? Or is it school initiated in Year 9 where the school sets a time for all Year 9 students to complete the questionnaire during school hours?
A: My Career Insights is school initiated, with schools providing time for students to complete the Morrisby questionnaires during school hours. Some schools have also supported students to do this from home, during periods of remote learning. It is important to note that students can only participate in the program if their parents complete the relevant consent form. If parents have any questions or concerns relating to the program that they would like to discuss before they complete the consent form, parents should contact the school career practitioner to discuss further.
Parents: returning from a Red Zone?
Are you returning to Victoria from a Red Zone?
If your school-aged children are required to be tested and home base quarantine, this will impact their return to school next week.
If you have no arrangements with your child’s school already in place, please contact the DET COVID-19 Hotline on 1800 338 663 (Mon-Fri 8.30am – 5.00pm and Sat/Sun 10am- 4pm)
Any questions about testing and quarantine requirements, please contact the Department of Health on 1800 675 398.
