Accountability

Attitudes to School survey (AToSS) - Years 4, 5, 6

Please note that the AToSS survey will be done in week 7. Each class will be provided with a timetable indicating the session to do the survey. Prior to doing the AToSS, a PCO member will come and speak to the children about the importance of their feedback. More details about the 'How To', the usernames and passwords and the timetable will be provided shortly.

NW

Sick/Carer's Leave – Certificates Requirements

A reminder to staff requesting sick leave with a certificate -

• Certificates must state you are ‘unfit for work’ to qualify for a full day absence with a certificate.  
• If you are only absent for part of the working day, you should request instead a ‘certificate of attendance’ as you should not be attending the workplace over any part of the day if your certificate states that you are ‘unfit for work’.  You would not be covered by Workcover should you be injured at work under these circumstances.
• Certificates that state ‘medical appointment’ or ‘certificate of attendance’ only qualify for a half day absence with certificate only.
• Carer’s certificates must state your name, the name of the person you are caring for and your relationship to them.  As above, carer’s certificates of attendance will usually count for half day only.
• A medical certificate must be provided for personal leave which occurs either immediately before and, or after a period of long service leave, school vacation or public holiday otherwise the absence will be without pay.

• A statutory declaration may be accepted but must detail why it was not reasonably practicable to obtain a medical certificate.

  Annual Salary Step Progression in next Pay

• The common progression cycle for eligible employees concluded on 30/4/25 and salary progression has been applied, from 1 May, in the next pay.  To qualify, employees need 6 or more months’ eligible service at or above a salary subdivision and have met the Performance expectations. For more information go to :  https://www2.education.vic.gov.au/pal/remuneration-teaching-service/policy-and-guidelines/annual-progression

  VD

Reporting Changes

Feedback has been overwhelming relating to the reduced workload for our Semester 1 Reports.

Where to next?

We are looking closely at the Reporting requirements and wish to ensure that our families are aware of on-going assessment and reporting as with:

• The Term Overview
• Seesaw and Google Classrooms
• The Parent Teacher conference at the start of the year 
• Parent Teacher conferencing in Term 3
• Two written reports
• Open classrooms from time to time as well as in Education week

Some tweaks for the future could be

• End of Term 1 parent teacher conference (instead of the beginning of term)  so that we know the students better
• Term based open classrooms showing student workbooks
• Two reports including
  • an overview of the semester
  • the progression point
  • a student reflection
  • the learning behaviour rubric

Leadership have been discussing a Learning Behaviour rubric used at Auburn High School which was shared by Edwige. It is a simple and explicit means of communicating a student's learning behaviours and would also be used as a self assessment rubric with students. The rubric would be used by 

The intention is to have a quick and effective means of communicating a student's progress in our School Values, the Learner Capabilities and working habits.

The plan is to develop the rubric for implementation with students in Term 3 so that it can be part of the Reporting Package in Term 4. This project is very much in its initial stages

Some of the categories suggested so far include:

Concentration and Focus                                  Respects the rights of others to learn; 

Effort and Perseverance                                     Presentation of Work

Participation and Engagement                         Following Instructions

Respect for Others;                                              Demonstrating School Values

Self-Organisation                                                  Collaboration and Teamwork

Responsibility for Learning                                Completes required work

Seeks Assistance when necessary                 Makes good use of time and transitions easily

As stated before, still very much a work in progress, so once it is firmed up it can be discussed by one and all.  

JG 

Reporting Update on Character Counts

There has been a mistake on the template 2025_Reports - Written Comments Template MAKE A COPY whereby it stated that the character count for the personal and social comment is between 400-450 characters.  However, the professional learning stated that the character count was between 350-400 characters. The template has been updated to now reflect the professional learning character count. 

However, report samples differed from one year level to another.

Before continuing your reports, please ensure the following:

1- Within your level, choose if you are going to write between 350-400 characters or 400-450 characters for each of your students.

2- Double check that any siblings in another year level would have the same character count as chose by your team level. Please adjust your character count for that particular child if that is not the case.

3- If you have twins, ensure that the comments are personalised to each child.

If still in doubt, please ask for support.

NW