A message from the Principal

This week, there has been significant news in Victorian education, with the Australian Education Union and the State Government reaching an in-principle agreement regarding a new enterprise agreement for teachers, principals and Education Support staff.

It is clearly positive that an agreement has now been reached after an uncertain period of negotiations and industrial action. However, the next step in this process will see Union members, including our own SKiPPS AEU sub-branch, carefully consider all aspects of the proposed agreement before voting on whether to accept it.

While the headline figures around percentage pay increases are certainly welcome, there will understandably continue to be important conversations about workload, conditions and the broader challenges currently facing our profession. Across schools, many teachers, principals and Education Support staff continue to experience increasing demands and pressures, and it remains critically important that our education system is able to attract and retain high-quality staff into the future.

Even though the agreement has not yet been formally ratified, the industrial campaign that has been underway since last term has now been suspended. I would like to pay tribute to our staff, almost all of whom are members of the AEU, for their willingness to take action in support of the pay, conditions and funding that public education needs if we are to continue providing the excellent learning opportunities and experiences that we are so proud of at SKiPPS.

I would also like to sincerely thank our parent community for the support, understanding and positivity you have shown throughout this period. The messages of encouragement we received from families, particularly during last term’s strike action, meant a great deal to our staff. It was genuinely heartening to know that our community stood behind us and understood the importance of advocating for a strong and sustainable public education system.

Most immediately, this means that the planned half-day stop work action scheduled for tomorrow, Thursday 21st May, will no longer be going ahead. School will operate as normal and all students are expected to attend. Other industrial actions that had been in place, including bans on attending some after-school meetings, responding to certain Department communications and implementing new Department initiatives, will also now cease.

One ongoing impact of the industrial action relates to Semester 1 student reports. As part of the campaign, the AEU had implemented a ban on “all aspects of work related to the provision of written comments on student reports that will be provided to parents.”

While this ban has now been lifted, the Department recognises that the timing of the action means many schools will not be able to provide full written comments for Semester 1 reports this year.

At SKiPPS, student achievement reports will still be distributed as planned on Thursday 25th June and will continue to provide important information about student learning attainment and progress. However, written comments will not be included in Semester 1 reports as a result of the industrial action.

We will, of course, be very pleased to discuss your child’s learning and progress in detail during our parent-teacher interviews at the beginning of Term 3. These meetings will provide an opportunity for teachers to discuss your child’s academic and social progress across the first half of the year, as well as outline goals and next steps for learning.

Thank you again for your understanding and continued support of our staff and school community.

Neil Scott

Principal