CEO'S Report 

It’s almost Term 4, what happened to this crazy, difficult year?  As we head into exam time, we wish all our Year 12 VCE and VCAL students the most successful end of year possible.  

Our VCAL students are facing particular challenges trying to complete the requirements for their VET certificates. We are here to help students and VCAL teachers support their students to complete everything they need to finalise their Year 12 studies this year.  

The City LLEN and LLEN Network submitted a report to DET on the impact of Covid-19 on students, we also attended a webinar with senior DET staff to discuss strategies to identify processes to support VCAL and VET students given the difficulties students have faced.  It was fantastic to see our Minister for Education, James Merlino announce a raft of supports especially designed for VCAL students. 

These include $4.6 million to fund schools to make any other arrangements, free TAFE if needed in 2021 and a special consideration processes.  Refer to the Premier’s Media Release.

We know how hard this year has been on teachers and students. It is very important that students remain engaged and seek all the support they need to feel hope for the future. We are all ‘zoomed’ out and by all reports many students are growing tired of this one dimensional way of learning.  

This health crisis has emphasised the importance of the other less tangible aspects of going to school that help create the conditions to optimise learning and engagement: having a break where you chat/have fun with friends, interactions across the day with others, physical exercise, direct counselling and supervision by adults and so on.  It is also rather ironical that parents have gone from trying to minimise screen time for their children to encouraging them to complete their remote learning online. By all reports a lot of students are growing tired of this  one dimensional way of learning after the initial enthusiasm back in Term 1 and 2.

Remote learning has been hard and we take our hats off to the wonderful teachers, school welfare and careers advisors, together with their principals and assistant principals for their amazing work adapting to the circumstances and working hard to maintain the education of our young people.  A very hard job done well.

The City LLEN also made a submission to the government review on the impact of Covid-19 on schools and students via a statewide process prior to the reports mentioned earlier through the Engage Victoria program. 

We were very impressed with the quick turnaround from the Department of Education and Training to the recommendations made in the inquiry to enhance the education of students.  

You can read this report, Lessons from Remote and Flexible Learning here: 

We also continue to adapt our services and have some great industry, careers and support based webinars coming up in Term 4 – you can read about these on the Attend This page of this newsletter.  

We hope our teachers and students have a well deserved break and chance to catch their breath over the holidays, know you are valued and are doing a really important job.

Fingers crossed for a speedy end to this crisis.

Take care

CEO, Capital City LLEN 

Louise Smith