President’s Report

We are well in to the term already.... I wish everyone a positive term and, especially given my very fresh memories of leading a school, I hope that the term provides all schools with the springboard to a positive end of the year and a solid foundation for 2012 planning.

The upcoming year in education will be interesting as the Ministers and the department bed down some of the changes to departmental structures and then start to build on the overarching themes that are being developed by the Ministers. Alongside this will be the negotiations around the EBA.... and the hope that there may be an EBA for the principal class and one that reflects the role and value of leadership in our state education system.

On July 22 the new structure of the DEECD was unveiled to the public service workforce in Dallas Brooks Hall. The broad brush structure was outlined. A great deal of work needs to happen over the coming months to operationalise the new structure. We are yet to see the structure and role of regions.

The proposed new organisation design includes six offices plus a Portfolio Services Group. The six offices include

• Office for Early Childhood,
• Office for School Education, Office for Higher Education and Skills, Office for Strategy and Review, Office for Resources and Infrastructure and
• Office for Regional Support.

The latter three offices work across the three associated with early childhood, schools and higher education requiring significant ‘teaming’ and/or sharing across offices. The Office of Regional Support is new. While we wait to see its role, one expects this office will oversight coordinated approaches to school support across the region. Some additional points made:

• There will be no job losses as a result of the redesign.
• There will be wide-spread consultation with VPS staff to ensure everyone has the opportunity to be involved in the change process.The new Department design will be finalised by 1 October.Implementation of the new design will occur between 3 October and 31 December.
• The new design will be operational from 1 January 2012

The permanent Secretary for the DEECD has not been put in to place as yet. This decision lies above the level of our Ministers who, I am sure, would like to have this position filled. The Secretary will need to drive the selection of Deputy Secretaries and the fleshing out of the new structure and its functioning. It is not a very positive reflection on the Government and its priorities that education is left in caretaker mode for so long.

The role of schools and school leaders in this newly emerging environment will be very interesting. As the peak professional organisation representing secondary state principal class and as school leaders, it is important for us to be centrally involved in education policy and strategy development. That has not been the case over recent years and it is certainly an indictment on the department and its way of operating. To this point, there has been an emerging environment of consultation with VASSP as the representative of secondary Principal class, by various areas of the DEECD. We hope this will become embedded practice.

Both Federal and State governments have school autonomy high on the agenda. While this is a very different discussion in Victoria than other states, we need to ask the question... ‘autonomy for what?’ In the last few years in Victoria we have seen an increasingly centrally driven agenda in the all important area of teaching and learning while at the same time greater and greater devolution of bureaucratic functions.

Our Ministers have espoused the position that schools should be the locus of teaching and learning development, have overseen the planning for a restructured DEECD with a view to developing a more service oriented organisation at all levels of bureaucracy and have undertaken to cut red tape. We look forward to how all this rolls out and hope to see a great deal more trust in school leaders and schools to provide the programs and the type of teaching and learning that best caters for the needs of their students and communities. The starting point needs to be one of school autonomy alongside which needs to be the recognition that some schools will need significant support and the system needs to provide this in spades.

ASSOCIATION ACTIVITIES AND NEWS

VASSP State Committee Meeting June 20

As always, the Committee meeting was very full, positive and forward looking.

Our guest presenters were Steve Lamb from Melbourne University (regarding the approaches to the current review of the operation of the SRP) and Melanie Saba, the CEO of VIT and Susan Halliday Chairperson of the VIT Board. Below there are some pointers I have repeated from the June VASSP Bites regarding VIT and VIT processes.

Among a range of other things, the meeting had your representatives working on position papers and input around the SRP, performance pay, staff survey, Naplan/Myschool2 and discipline issues in schools.

The next State Committee meeting is on August 22. We already have a very full agenda including involvement from Rex Pirie (workforce bridging), Sarah Glover (surveys) and Ian Burrage (autonomy and possible approaches to giving better advice and support to schools in relation to schools/staff being targeted via social media).

The meeting will also spend some time on revisiting the areas of interest/concern that we need to be lobbying for and influencing in the coming months and as next year’s budget is prepared. This should be a topic for regional meetings so that representatives can give feedback at the State Committee meeting.

Consultations:

As we have stressed VASSP is involved in providing advice and feedback to the Ministers directly as well as through the formal consultation processes. The Stakeholders and Principal Reference Group meetings continue fortnightly with additional work done in between on the Ultranet. It is now anticipated (very much hoped) that the process will be completed by the end of this term. Again, thank you to Jenny Malberg, Mark Kosach, Viv Tellefson, Sue Peddlesden who are on these two groups, and Harvey Wood and Judy Crowe, who are on the SRP Expert Principal Advisory Group. They are giving up considerable time to represent VASSP and all our Principal class members. Some of the meatier election commitments that need to be addressed and/or finalised in the coming few weeks include enforcing truancy laws, school workforce and overhauling bureaucracy. The only commitment to be announced has been the student free days. We expect that others will flow shortly.

On a personal level I have had numerous meetings over the past few weeks with Department personnel as well as individually with the Ministers. It is vital to our role and to our ability to influence and have input to strategy, policy and procedures to develop and to have these strong consultative relationships.

Recently I was asked to present to a Parliamentary Inquiry in to Gifted and Talented Education following our submission earlier in the year. The submission was developed through State Committee. At their request I have met with the Auditor General’s department as they prepare a report around the ageing teacher workforce. I have also been requested to give evidence to an ombudsman's investigation in to the causes of cost overruns and delays in a number of ICT projects and to its report on how such projects can be better managed in the future.

We have also been asked to provide representatives for diverse new consultation groups in the DEECD.

Performance Pay

The VASSP position as developed through the State Committee has been that we do not support the notion of performance pay to individual teachers in the way proposed earlier by the Federals. We have provided our position paper to appropriate Ministers and DEECD personnel and had meetings to discuss this with the Minister and Tony Bugden. It is interesting to note that in New York (the home of all good things such as high stakes data and performance pay) the bonus program has been abandoned.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/21/nyregion/21bonuses.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=bonuses%20schools%20suspended&st=cse

MCEEDDYA, the federal council of education Ministers, has put together a paper on the main points they agree on in relation to meeting federal demands regarding performance pay. The points appear to allow the different jurisdictions to implement the program in the way they believe best meets the needs of that state. We certainly hope that our government and Department heed our call and look beyond simplistic approaches that have been shown not to work.

Staff Survey

In earlier bulletins I noted issues around the current staff survey and the work VASSP and VPA were doing to impact on this. Since then I have had meetings with the DEECD regarding this and am pleased to see positive moves in relation to surveys in the future in response to our concerns and requests as outlined in our position paper. While there is work to be done, and Sarah Glover, the General Manager of Data, Outcomes and Evaluations will be attending our next State Committee meeting to test some of the improvements we have asked for, we are confident that:

• there will be a faster turn around of data,
• various surveys will be timed more closely together to make them more useful,
• more and better explanation of the interpretation of the data will be provided
• the number of reports will be reduced so that only those that directly reflect on organisational health will be made automatically available (with Principals able to request the more detailed reports if there is a need)

Charles Leadbetter

Charles session with us on June 22 was very popular and very interesting. His themes around ‘innovation, autonomy and collaboration’ were very topical and timely. In the workshop session current concerns raised by those in attendance generally came back to the ‘one size fits all’ problem we have been experiencing in recent years. Charles raised some very pertinent points regarding greater autonomy

• What does it actually mean and look like?
• Who will we be accountable to?
• How are we going to demonstrate success/performance to students, parents, peers?

He made the strong point that while we might have autonomous schools there needs to be a blending with other schools, community and business as those schools that are connected can innovate.

A report on this activity follows later in this bulletin.

VIT

As number of principal class members have run in to trouble over VIT registrations I am repeating this snippet. Note that VIT registration dates for everybody will be September 30 after this year. This will be better in relation to following up issues. VIT has provided the points below by way of information.

Every registered teacher is provided with a registration card - which will indicate when their registration will expire and the date of their last NCHRC (and these last for five years), if a teacher cannot produce a card, either check online or contact the Institute to ensure that the teacher holds registration or permission to teach

The public register at www.vit.vic.edu.au Search for a teacher lets you do an individual search on any teacher.  It is updated twice a day - if a teacher does not show on the public register, they should not be teaching

Vitonline - is a service provided by the Institute to Victorian principals.  If you do not remember the log in details provided to your school, just call VIT on the principal hotline and they can provide that to you.  Based on the information provided to VIT by teachers and the department they have a list of all of the teachers that have advised that are working at your school, and you can check the registration status of the teacher, add and take teachers off the list based on if they work for you etc.  It can be found at http://www.vitonline.vit.vic.edu.au/

There is a dedicated Principals Hotline 1300 650 375

Staffing Referrals – Exemptions

The exemption process associated with accepting referrals has not changed. You get one exemption for accepting a temporary referral and two exemptions for accepting a permanent appointment. You have 12 months, effectively 12 months plus one term, to use that exemption and then it lapses.  You can apply the exemption to any position you wish, in other words you can keep it for a special vacancy for which you definitely to select your own candidate. 

Below is the relevant extract from the Recruitment in Schools Guide:

Exempt Vacancies

Where a school selects an ongoing employee with priority status from another school for temporary placement to an advertised vacancy, that school is eligible to exempt one vacancy from the requirement to consider employees with priority status ahead of other applicants. Where a school selects an ongoing employee with priority status from another school for permanent placement to an advertised vacancy, that school is eligible to exempt two vacancies from the requirement to consider employees with priority status ahead of other applicants.
For a vacancy to be given exempt status principals must notify the Schools Recruitment Unit and provide the following information: the details of the employee with priority status who has been placed/transferred into the school including the date of commencement in the school and the Job Opening number of the vacancy in which the employee was placed/transferred,
the details of the vacancy for which exempt status is sought and the intended date of advertisement of that vacancy.

Subject to meeting the eligibility criteria, Schools Recruitment Unit will advise the principal that the vacancy has exempt status and may be advertised on Recruitment Online where it will be identified as exempt. The Schools Recruitment Unit will maintain a register of vacancies with exempt status and may be contacted to verify the exempt status of any vacancy. Exempt vacancies can be advertised at any time prior to the end of the school term that occurs 12 months from the date the employee with priority status commenced in the position. Exempt status will expire at the end of this period. Employees with priority status who apply for, or are referred to, exempt vacancies will be considered in the merit-based selection process in competition with all other applicants.

Business Partners

Our business partners give us the ability to provide the services we do to our members. All of our business partners are highly reputable organisations and most base their business on servicing schools so have a very strong understanding of the needs of schools. All they ask is that they are given the ‘opportunity’ to win your support for the particular service they provide when you are in the position to review service providers. For your information our business partners at varying levels are:

Premier Partners

• Vic Super
• Woods Furniture (new in 2011)

Supporting Partners

• MSP Photography
• PSW School wear (new in 2011)

Tiger Turf

• Campion Education Australia (new in 2011)
• mecu (upgraded in 2011)

Associate Partners

• Konica Minolta
• Allardice printing

NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL NEWS

TH100 and ASPA Council

On June 24, fourteen VASSP representatives attended the ASPA Talking Heads 100 workshop in Canberra and six of these remained in Canberra for the meeting of the ASPA national council. As outlined in reports that follow, TH100 helped set positions and directions regarding national education issues. The Council meeting spent considerable time working through new constitutional arrangements that will clearly set the roles of Executive and Council and take ASPA in to the future as a cohesive force in national education debates.

ACARA Update
In this update you will find:

Consultation on Cross-Curriculum Priorities

View the ACARA Update:
http://www.acara.edu.au/acara_update_20072011.html

AITSL

The Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) has responsibility for establishing professional learning flagship programs that support national education priority areas. The Professional Learning Flagship Program: Leading Curriculum Change will aim to enhance teachers' knowledge, skills and confidence to plan for, support and lead curriculum change, including school level implementation of the Australian Curriculum. Classroom teachers with curriculum change leadership responsibility in a school are the primary audience for this flagship program.

AITSL would like to draw your attention to a number of relevant resources to assist you in communicating about the Leading Curriculum Change project with your staff. They have a number of resources available on their dedicated Leading Curriculum Change web page http://www.aitsl.edu.au/lcc Please also note that this website is the place that all interested individuals go to register an expression of interest in The Professional Learning Flagship Program: Leading Curriculum Change.

Frank Sal
President

EXECUTIVE OFFICER’S REPORT

Business Partner

As you know mecu has been a valued business partner of VASSP’ for many years – here is a message from them.

SchoolAid is very proud to partner with mecu on the Indigenous Literacy Campaign.  Indigenous inequality is a serious issue in Australian society and as a result of mecu's vision to be the pre-eminent responsible banking brand in Australia; the Credit Union has made a commitment to participate in the Australian Indigenous reconciliation process. mecu is the first Australian credit union to launch an Indigenous Reconciliation Action Plan, and our support of the Indigenous Literacy Program is a result of our commitment.

Talking Heads 100 event

A number of VASSP members attended this event in Canberra on your behalf and we present their reports here:

The conference started early with a live video link up from San Jose USA with Michael Stevenson,  CISCO Vice President of Global Education. Linking with Michael in Canberra was Michelle Selinger – CISCO Director of Education - Asia Pacific Public Sector. Michael and Michelle outlined the changing face of education and technology. They pointed out that as the skills students need to meet the challenges of the 21st century evolve, so will the way in which these skills are assessed and accredited. A great video produced by CISCO which really brought home this message can be seen on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5piyIUa-FTIv

 Susi Steigler-Peters the Telstra National General Manager for Education spoke about the Australian Education Road Map. Using some clever animations http://www.telstraenterprise.com/industries/Pages/EducationFlyThroughs.aspx  Susi showed how Telstra's Learning Blueprint see various technologies are coming together to support and enhance learning.

 Charles Ledbetter, Author of "Learning from the Extremes" discussed true innovation. He spoke about his experiences in Victoria and in other authorities and how he had seen many schools undertaking covert missions into innovation. Principals and schools will think outside the box and bend the rules to obtain better learning outcomes for students but it almost has to be under the cover of darkness. He asked "How can we innovate in the daylight?” A very interesting commentary in light of the Victorian Government’s push for further autonomy for schools and principals.

 Bernie Shepherd and Chris Bonner shared their analysis of the MySchool website data. While both agreed the website did not provide a good basis for comparing individual school, the complete data set provides a unique opportunity to take a close look at what is happening in education across Australia. Unfortunately the data demonstrates the concerning trends towards the residualisation of public schools and the impact that this is having on young people from low socio-economic backgrounds.

 Two workshops after lunch saw the TH100 participants reflecting on the current state of education in Australia. In the first workshop delegates provided feedback to ASPA on the challenges and opportunities they saw with "Educating the Adolescent in the 21stC". In the second workshop delegates worked in focus groups to draft positions papers on various topics under the broader heading of "Investing in Education".

 All together it was a very challenging, thought provoking and productive day in the equally thought provoking surrounds of the Old Parliament House.

George Porter, Sebastopol College.

A grey and frosty Canberra welcomed us to TH100 on Friday June 24. Arriving at Old Parliament House, with centimetres of ice on the ground at 6.40 a.m. tested the resolve of all - even we Victorians. But the effort was well worth it.

The day began with Michael Stevenson from CISCO speaking with us from San Jose. He raised several challenges for governments and schools including providing the opportunity for schools and educators to be solving complex problems, working in teams, in real time, all over the world and the creating a safe place where schools can practice the revolution. He spoke about Education 3.0; building higher order capabilities, achieved through holistic change, transfer of ownership from teachers to learners and accelerated by collaborative learning technologies.

Susi Steiger-Peters from Telstra followed, presenting Telstra plans for Learning Platforms and future provision.

Charles Leadbetter then posed the question: How can we innovate, in broad daylight, in large numbers, with our education systems and with no apology? He spoke at length about the need to see education from new vantage points, with new eyes and from beyond schools. There was a very clear focus on the need for schools to build connections with businesses and services and activate opportunities.

Bernie Shepherd and Chris Bonner lead us through the 'Landscape of Education in Australia' as it appears on the MySchool website and with much further analysis of the limitations of the data provided. There followed 2 workshops, working with colleagues from across Australia, with Investment in Education at the core.

The day was challenging, informative and thought provoking - well worth the trip!

Marie Ghirardello, Wheelers Hill Secondary College

In June VASSP was fortunate to obtain the service of Charles Leadbetter, renowned British educational thinker. Here is a VASSP member’s summary of this event:

The VASSP sponsored conversation with Charles Leadbetter held on 22^nd June was a rare opportunity for practising principals to engage with one of the innovative educational thinkers of our time.

In “Learning from the Extremes” Charlie opened the conversation about how innovative educators, with few traditional text and teaching resources, devise new approaches to learning in extreme social conditions. During the VASSP presentation he clearly linked this study to show that our work in a first world Western culture must also be brave and innovative if we are to truly enhance and reform the future of our students.

As we learn more about the paradigm of autonomy put forward by the Liberal State government, Charlie made the point for us that autonomy does not mean ‘going it alone’ it will require innovation and collaboration to be meaningful for our students. Indeed, it is innovation and collaboration which will intrinsically engage learning communities in education which satisfies at the deepest curiosity, knowledge, and experience levels.

The following points resonated for reflection on our leadership and in considering each of our unique school contexts.

People who are connected, innovate. People who are isolated don’t. As leaders we need to enhance the work of our schools by working with families and communities. The point that innovation often emerges from crisis is relevant but the greater imperative is that schools innovate in positive ways to really engage both established and new communities. This means taking risks, but risk with accountability, clear vision and purpose. The drive for community stakeholder and industry to school collaboration resonates here- but what more is possible?

Leaders need to know what they want to do with the new-found freedom of autonomy. We need to reinvent schools to create education which is a better fit for our twenty first century learner and world. Teachers are coaches, learning is real world and flexible, teachers give insight into context and skills not content alone.

A leaders’ vantage point determines what they will see. If you keep standing where you are right now you’ll keep seeing what you see. You need to stand somewhere different to really know about the lives and issues you are dealing with. Be a change agent for both sustainable and disruptive innovation within the formal and informal learning you sponsor at your school.

We certainly left the VASSP offices on 22^nd June ready for the entrepreneurial, innovative challenges ahead.

Karen Money, William Ruthven Secondary College

ASPA     
Next week a survey will be emailed to a sample of schools in Australia inviting them to give their feedback on their experiences of grant seeking from philanthropic Foundations / Trusts.   Grants from the philanthropic sector are ‘out there’ and so in this first national study of its kind, LLEAP aims to build knowledge and improve outcomes for schools and philanthropic supporters. Another survey has also been prepared for the philanthropic sector and the response to that survey so far has been terrific. The project will deliver a practical LLEAP toolkit for schools and philanthropic Foundations / Trusts to improve the way education and philanthropy work together for maximum impact. LLEAP is an initiative of Tender Bridge (an ACER research and development service) and The Ian Potter Foundation. Anyone wishing to learn more about this project can visit www.acer.edu.au/lleap <http://www.acer.edu.au/lleap>  

Events and opportunities you might be interested in:

• Bill Lucas from the UK will be presenting in Melbourne in October 2011. Bill is the Co-Director of the Centre for Real-World Learning at the University of Winchester.  Bill will be sharing, New thinking about intelligence and learning; new ideas for resourcing new thinking in schools and colleges. Click here for details.
  
  
• Professor Peter Cuttance is presenting a Leadership Seminar series that will be run nationally over the period August–November. The seminars are based on the experience of schools undertaking surveys over the past five years. He has researched the factors that make a difference to the integrity of the data that has been collected and its validity for school improvement and accountability purposes. Peter contends that the proposal to add survey data to the MySchool website faces a series of major hurdles in terms of the integrity of the data. The research shows that it is highly unlikely that survey data will be of value to parents and others, although it can be of great value to individual schools in assessing strategic areas for improvement. Click here for details.
  
• The Australian Children’s Music Foundation conducts a National Songwriting Competition for all Australian school age children each year, which is sponsored by DEEWR.  The aim of the competition is to engage students in writing and performing music and to highlight the role of music in schools.   The ACMF is a non-profit organisation that puts music programs into disadvantaged and remote schools. Entry in the competition is free.  All winners receive monetary prizes to be used for musical equipment or tuition for both themselves and their school.  With a prize pool of over $30,000, the winning songwriters are not the only ones who are rewarded - their school is too! 
  The following hyperlink takes you directly to the competition page: http://acmf.com.au/our-initiatives/national-songwriting-competition/.

Invitation to Teach For Australia Information Briefing

The Teach For Australia initiative is currently taking expressions of interest from schools wishing to participate in the program in 2012-13. By way of reminder, the program is a two-year employment-based pathway into teaching for Australia’s most outstanding graduates from disciplines other than education. To be eligible, schools must have an SFO of 0.4267 or higher and be able to employ the graduate (‘Associate’) for a period of two years. Further information regarding the program and its success to date can be found here and here.

You (or another school representative) are invited to attend a Teach For Australia Principal Briefing Session which will provide further detail relating to:

• The recruitment and selection process
• The rigorous teacher education as delivered by the University of Melbourne
• Support structures provided to the Associates throughout the two year program
• Requirements for your school
• The process and timeframes for placing Associates in your school

Details for the meeting: Date: Thursday 4 August, 10.30 – 12.00

Location: Teach For Australia, Level 1, 103 Flinders Lane, Melbourne. To attend, please RSVP to Adam Buxton at adam.buxton@teachforaustralia.org by Wednesday August 3.

The Australasia Pacific Play Therapy Association annual conference is on August 18 and 19 in Geelong Victoria and APPTA welcomes student welfare coordinators, therapists and counsellors from primary and secondary schools. APPTA is pleased to offer registration at member rates with the use of the following promotional codes on the registration page.  For secondary schools we ask you put in the following code - VASSP and you can register at membership rates.    The direct link to the registration page is https://s.eventarc.com/event/view/2104/tickets/conference-building-healing-relationships-18th-and-19th-august-2011

Puggy Hunter Memorial Scholarship Scheme 
The scholarship provides financial assistance to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who are intending to undertake study or are undertaking study in an entry level qualification at an Australian university or TAFE (certificate IV and above) level in the areas of:

• Aboriginal health worker
• Allied health (excluding pharmacy) <http://www.rcna.org.au/scholarships/allied_health>   
• Dentistry/oral health
• Enrolled nursing
• Medicine
• Midwifery
• Registered nursing.

The Scheme is now open for applications and will close on Friday 16 September 2011. Applications will be available to access and complete from our website: www.rcna.org.au/scholarships/puggy_hunter <http://www.rcna.org.au/scholarships/puggy_hunter>

Scholarships are worth up to $15 000 per year for full time students.

SCHOOL COMMUTER BUSES

Garry Allen is a Licensed Motor Dealer specialising in the smaller commuter buses and has sold many buses to school institutions throughout Australia such as 12 seater Toyota Commuter buses. These smaller buses being from Japan are somewhat scarce due to the recent tsunami. Garry currently has 2 in stock that are 2009, petrol, auto, 60/70,000 kms only. Some schools find it difficult to source this type of thing, so we hope this may be of assistance to any school principal looking for a bus replacement. Contact Garry on elbus1@optusnet.com.au

Employee Assistance Program including Manager Assist

The Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is a short term, solution focused and strictly confidential counselling service of up to four sessions for any personal or work related issue an employee may have. This program also provides a dedicated Manager Assist service to support principals and managers in leadership positions to access management support and coaching.

The service is provided by Converge International, an independent organisation experienced in delivering similar services in other workplaces. DEECD funds this service as part of its commitment to health, safety and wellbeing. Simply call Converge International directly on 1800 337 068 and make an appointment at a time and location that is suitable to you. Any further enquiries regarding the EAP and other support services available to DEECD staff can be directed to the Employee Health Unit on 9637 2460. Click here for more information.

Request for assistance

You are invited to participate in a research project on overseas trained teachers’ English language proficiency and the effectiveness of IELTS in determining the readiness of overseas trained teachers (OTTs) to enter the workplace.  It involves responding to a short, anonymous online survey.

The project is being conducted by Dr Jill Murray of Macquarie University, Associate Professor Ken Cruickshank of Sydney University and Dr Judie Cross of Randwick TAFE. If you decide to participate in the project, you are invited to complete the survey you will find by following the link below

[http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LH6SZQP]

For principals with no experience of OTTS in their schools the survey will take less than 5 minutes.  For those who have employed OTTS whose effectiveness in the workplace has been in any way affected by language competency issues, including literacy, it will take up to 15 minutes to complete the survey. The survey is anonymous and no information will be obtained about the identity of respondents or their schools. The data will be used in publications and research presentations, but no individuals or schools will be identified. If you would like to obtain a copy of the report, please send an email to one of the researchers listed above. You are welcome to request a copy whether or not you decide to participate in the study.

Update from the Curriculum team at ACARA

Consultation on general capabilities materials

This is to confirm that the draft general capabilities materials will be available for consultation on the Australian Curriculum website from Friday 10 June 2011 to Sunday 7 August 2011.To ensure a significant level of response from a wide range of stakeholders; we would encourage you to disseminate this information through your networks. To view the general capabilities materials and to register for the general capabilities consultation, go to: http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/Consultation.

Senior Secondary national consultation forums - The first deliverable for each subject including the review of the rationale, aims, unit structure, unit descriptions and overview of achievement standards was scheduled for completion in early June for presentation to national forums of teachers and curriculum experts in the latter part of June. Some advisory panels have required a few more days to finalise the draft writing. With the advent of the school holiday period across the nation variously between the latter part of June through to the latter part of July, ACARA has decided to take that time to fine tune and edit all the draft materials in preparation for the national consultation forums and to conduct those forums after the school holidays to ensure teachers and others are available. As a consequence, the second national forum scheduled for late September will now take place in late October/early November. The overall timeline will not be affected with the draft senior secondary Australian Curriculum to be available for national public consultation in term one 2012.

This information will also be announced on the Curriculum Directors SharePoint site: https://portal.acara.edu.au/CurriculumDirectors

Dare to Lead Indigenous Conference

The next Dare to Lead National Indigenous Education Conference titled ‘Student and Teacher Engagement’ will be held in Melbourne on Wednesday 31st August 2011. Click here for the flyer and registration form

Asia Education Foundation
The 2011 AEF National Summit took place in May under the theme Asia Literacy: Shaping our Future. It was divided into showcase sessions devoted to school practice and plenary sessions featuring a range of high-profile keynote speakers. A wide range of schools - primary and secondary, urban and rural, from Government, Independent and Catholic sectors and across all states and territories - shared their journeys towards Asia literacy with the 150-strong audience. This flagship event for the Asia literacy agenda also featured a range of leading national and international speakers, spanning government, academia, business, media and diplomacy. A comprehensive multimedia record of the Summit is now online. Access summaries, photos, video, audio and have your say on the wide ranging discussions here.

Parents Victoria Annual Conference 2011
The Parents Victoria Annual Conference will be held at Melbourne Zoo, Parkville on August 16^th and 17^th.  Visit the Parents Victoria website for further details and a

Principal for a Day
Victoria’s Principal for a Day program is happening on Tuesday 23 August 2011 which fosters collaboration between schools and their communities. The program is a joint partnership between the Australian Council for Educational Research and the DEECD and has been running in Victoria since 2001. It provides a unique opportunity for business and community leaders to shadow a school principal to gain a first hand behind-the-scenes experience of the strengths and challenges facing our schools every day. Since 2001, Principal for a Day has successfully matched over 1000 schools with business and community leaders in Victoria and independent research has found that 93% of Principals for a Day and schools have continued their relationships through professional learning exchanges, curriculum development, careers advice, job offers to students, industry and work experience visits, two-way mentoring and sharing of physical, technical and financial resources. You can register by contacting the program coordinator Viv Acker (03 9277 5617 or acker@acer.edu.au) or register directly here.

VIT Professional Practice
Issue 9 of Professional Practice: 'Teachers finding new ways to inspire' has been released. It highlights some of the great work being done by teachers across the state in a report on the 2011 Innovation Showcase. 'Tomorrow’s stars at Etihad' looks at the process of helping provisionally registered teachers meet the standards required for full registration, and 'Your card. Your profession.' looks at the significance of owning a teacher's registration card. There is also information regarding the Victorian Institute of Teaching Council Election 2011, and more news updates. Click here to read or click here for the printable version.

Rural Learning Summit 2011- Engaging and Retaining Rural Youth in Learning
Country Education Project’s Rural learning Summit will be held at Glenormiston College near Terang on Friday, 12^th August. The summit will look at ways to improve engagement and retention of young people in rural Victoria. Click here for further information or email admin@cep.org.au

Exemptions for accepting a staff referral

The exemption for accepting a referral has not changed.  You get one exemption for accepting a temporary referral and two exemptions for accepting a permanent exemption.  You have 12 months, effectively 12 months plus one term, to use that exemption and then it lapses.  You can apply the exemption to any position you wish, in other words you can keep it for a special vacancy for which you definitely want to select your own candidate. Below is the relevant extract from the Recruitment in School Guide.

Working with Children Check Renewals

The Department of Justice has asked us to remind you of your obligation under the Working with Children Act to ensure that staff and volunteers apply for and hold a valid card. Please arrange to check the expiry dates of cards and ensure that renewal application forms are lodged before their card expires. Cardholders can update their details at any time online at https//online.justice.vic.gov.au/wwccu
Some useful resources:

NAPLAN and High stakes Testing
A really interesting literature review written by Samuel Lobascher entitled ‘What are the potential impacts of high-stakes testing on literacy education in Australia’ explores the potential impacts of high-stakes testing on Australian curriculum and draws on research from the US and UK. The paper concludes that the negative consequences of testing results from a failure to gain support from teachers and provide  them with a greater role in the design, implementation and evaluation of tests, as well as

Education Reform Paper – USA and Australia set the wrong drivers for improvement

Click here to read Professor Michael Fullan’s paper ‘Choosing the wrong drivers for whole system reform’ on our website.

The Australian Principal Health and Wellbeing Survey
Will begin AUGUST 2011

Click here for flyer.

Monash University is conducting the first truly independent longitudinal study into the health and wellbeing of school leaders in response to concerns that increasing complexity and workload demands are impacting their health and wellbeing.

The survey will involve principals, assistant principals and deputy principals in every sector of every state and territory of Australia. This research is independent of all employer groups, professional associations and unions. All individual survey data will be kept strictly confidential and no individual or school will be identifiable in any reporting of the results. Survey data will provide evidence to policy makers about the real but often hidden costs and benefits of initiatives such as the introduction of a national curriculum and changes to national testing and accountability requirements.

As a participant you will be emailed a confidential, individualised report on your health and wellbeing status relative to others in similar situations.

YOUR PARTICIPATION IS IMPORTANT

VASSP will email the survey invitation to you in August. We hope you will take the time to participate. The more of you who respond, the stronger the message we can deliver on your behalf. For more information: http://www.principalhealth.org