Surveys

Thanks for taking the time to provide us with feedback about the Specialist Program at OGPS. We have loads of data now to analyse and I will provide further information in the next few newsletters. During this process we also had a few questions come back to us, so I have tried to detail a few responses to answer them: 

Questions that were asked via the survey:

Is LOTE compulsory? 

YES.  LOTE is mandated in the curriculum and is required to maintain the school’s registration. Schools must provide a language program for students from Foundation (to Year 10.) School’s decide the language and before I was appointed at OGPS, Indonesian was the preferred language. We have investigated Wadawurrung language but there are not enough qualified teachers within community yet to teach this, but it is on our radar. Auslan is increasing its presence and we do have a staff member training in this and using in their classroom. We will continue to explore this in the future.

Why is a school of this size not able to invest in this (Specialist) program?

Schools are able to determine what ‘specialist programs they provide. Specialist programs provide time in an area that teachers can delve deeper into with students while being an enabler for classroom teachers to have time with their teams for “non face-to-face teaching time” (NFTFTT) where they plan, assess, correct, meet, call, etc while the students attend specialist subjects. The current EBA states that a teacher must have 4 hours of NFTFTT, hence we supply 3 x 1 hour specialist subject for the whole year and 2 subjects that run for an hour, each semester. To run 5 or more full time specialist programs is possible, but there are compromises we would have to make such as larger student numbers in each classroom and decreasing resources or budgets in other areas. 

Schools receive a certain amount of funding per student. Approx 90% of this funding is allocated towards salaries and approx. 10% allocated to the overall running costs of the school.  There has also been a decline in Family payment contributions to schools since the introduction of the Parent Payment policy. We have also been heavily impacted by the unfunded extra costs of Time in Lieu for staff in this Agreement. We have a finite amount of money to be spent/managed annually.  Some tough decisions have to be made to avoid the school going into debt.

Can you explain why in a school this big you are not able to offer 5 subjects? Perhaps less money in other areas like grounds?

See response to the above question. 

Offering a 5th hour per week of a specialist program is expensive. It is the cost of the teacher’s salary, oncosts and equipment or resources required – on top of what we already have. We do currently offer 5 subjects in Specialist classes but are unable to fund 2 of them for more than a semester at a time.

In relation to the grounds… We are given 22.9c/sqm (yes that is cents per square meter) to manage the grounds annually. Approx $6000 a year is allocated by DE for this for OGPS. This covers, maintenance of equipment, salaries of our groundskeeper and handy man and minor repairs required from 600+ students and weekend visitors. 

Our grounds have over 600 students using it 5 days per week plus the amount of traffic that is evident over weekends, adds to the wear and tear of the facility. We try to create a playground that enables play in multiple areas, for multiple abilities and ensure safety. Some of the improvements this question may be alluding to are due to a number of reasons and EXTRA work we have had to do to secure funding through grants, DE processes and funding opportunities. As a school, we have been awarded funds after a “condition assessment report” was done to fix some roof leaks, painting, and more general maintenance. The works that have been done (Fire services upgrade, Gabion Walls, Flood mitigation, disability access, etc) are all funded by DE through various grants we apply for. The school (Ocean Grove PS) does not pay for these major works from the Student Resource Program (budget). Managing the 130 year old site and infrastructure is certainly a challenge.