Principal's Report

Better and Fairer Schools (Funding and Reform) Bill 2024

The Better and Fairer Schools (Funding and Reform) Bill 2024 (the Bill) was tabled in Federal Parliament last Thursday 10 October and was immediately referred to the Senate Education and Employment Committee for an inquiry (the Inquiry) and report by 18 November 2024.

The Committee will accept submissions on the Bill up until 24 October 2024.

For the sake of our young people, as a learning community we must take a prominent role in this latest Inquiry.

In essence the Bill would replace the current cap of 20% on the Federal government contributions to the public school SRS (School Resource Standard) allocation with a minimum of 20%. The key issue is that this does not provide a legislated guarantee of more than 20%.

Even if the current Federal government offer to the states of 22.5% is agreed to, the Bill would enable a future government to revert to the base amount of 20%, resulting in funding cuts to schools.

In any case, the Victorian, NSW, Queensland, and South Australian governments have rejected the Federal government’s offer and instead are calling for the Federal government to contribute 25% alongside the States’ commitment of 75%.

In the Senate the Greens and the cross bench have agreed with the States listed above that the legislation should set a minimum of 25% of the SRS for the Federal contribution.

To work around this, the Federal ALP have engaged the Liberals in discussions to support the Bill, and thereby preventing full funding of public schools.

The Eltham High School Council feels strongly that the Bill will lock public schools out of receiving the full funding in perpetuity and believes that all public schools should be funded at 100%, in light of this the School Council has written a submission which was forwarded to the Senate Committee on Wednesday 23 October. Furthermore, I have written to our local Federal Member the Hon Kate Twaites MP voicing my disappointment with the Bill and urging her to act on behalf of all the young people in her electorate and support a change to the Bill to a minimum Federal Funding Contribution of 25%.

I present my letter to you below.

Whilst it will be too late for any individual to make a submission by the due date of Thursday 24 October, I urge you all to have your voices heard by contacting our local member the Hon Kate Thwaites MP at kate.thwaites.mp@aph.gov.au to have your voice heard.

“Hon Kate Thwaites MP

Member for Jagajaga

Dear Kate

It is with passion for and commitment to government school education that I write to you on behalf of all the students at Eltham High School alongside all students attending government schools across the nation.

With their best interests at heart, I express my disappointment with the Federal Government’s Better and Fairer Schools (Funding and Reform) Bill 2024 (the Bill). Should this bill come into effect it will certainly ensure that government school students will never receive the level of funding that they deserve as indicated through the Gonski Review.

I am aware that School Funding Agreements are currently being negotiated between the State and Federal Governments.

Schools have been waiting over a decade to receive full funding (100% of the School Resource Standard (SRS), as agreed in the original Gonski funding agreement.

A whole generation of students have missed out.

Our students deserve to be fully funded. Currently the average student shortfall is $2,600 per student per year. In our school, on our current student numbers of around 1400, this equates to $3,640,000.

The Federal Government needs to understand that funding shortfalls have an impact on student outcomes, growth and development.

An additional $3.6M in our school budget would allow us to:

Employ additional teachers and education support staff

Attract and retain school staff including through better support for Initial Teacher Education students
Engage in greater levels of Professional Learning for staff to cultivate joy, creativity, and original thinking in themselves and their students, enabling students to take control of their own learning and expand learning from a classroom environment to a global environment.
Buy in more time for teachers to collaboratively and wholistically plan (work with experts across our global community), develop and implement programs that teach students to thrive in the complexities of a continuously changing world.
Buy in time for teachers to work alongside students to analyse their own data, draw conclusions and set goals for their next stage of learning and development implementing authentic student agency at a whole school level.
Have greater access to developing technologies allowing out teachers and student to be at the forefront of understanding how the world is going to change.
Provide more individual student and small group support
Implement higher level of support for the individual needs of all students
Offer greater subject and curriculum availability
Engage students with holistic learning through a breadth of co-curricular options that align social care, wellbeing and academic care.
Plan smaller class sizes
Employ allied health support within our school
Increase our administration and support staff removing such responsibilities from teaching staff so that they are left to do the thing they do best, teach
Address the issue of excessive workload.

I believe that the Bill was tabled in Federal Parliament last Thursday 10 October and was immediately referred to the Senate Education and Employment Committee for an inquiry (the Inquiry) and report by 18 November 2024 and that the Committee will accept submissions on the Bill up until 24 October 2024. The Eltham High School Council will express its voice by forwarding its submission to the Committee.

It is my understanding that in essence the Bill would replace the current cap of 20% on the Federal government contributions to the public-school SRS allocation with a minimum of 20%. The key issue here is that this does not provide a legislated guarantee of more than 20%.

Even if the current Federal government offer to the states of 22.5% is agreed to, the Bill will enable a future government to revert to the base amount of 20%, resulting in funding cuts to schools.

Further to this, it is my understanding that in the Senate the Greens and the cross bench have agreed with the states listed above that the legislation should set a minimum of 25% of the SRS for the Federal contribution.

I also understand that, the Federal ALP have engaged the Liberals in discussions to support the Bill, and thereby preventing full funding of public schools. If correct, in my mind this constitutes a selling out of a large number of possibilities and opportunities that public schools could provide to their students by a Labor Government who professes to value and support education, allowing not only a continuation of the class gap that currently exists but a widening of it.

If this is allowed to occur, I would feel cheated not personally but on behalf of every student in my care.

The Victorian government has made a commitment to honour its 75% contribution to government school funding and it is time that the Federal ALP government honours the agreement that was established through the Gonski Review.

The Federal government alongside the Liberals cannot continue to undercut our children’s education.

I demand that the Federal government moves away from setting the minimum level of funding to public schools at 20% and in essence securing the future of public schools funding for generations to come at a level below the original Gonski funding agreement. Federal funding must be set at 25%.

Kate, I ask you for your support on behalf of all the students in public schools in your electorate. Think about the impact of the minimum level of funding proposed in the Bill which will remain in perpetuity and the impact that such a decision will have on the learning, growth and development of all the young people in these schools.

I ask you to reject the bill and not sell out the future of our nation, the young people in education in public schools some of which are in your electorate.

Your sincerely

Vincent Sicari”

Year 12 Final Week

I congratulate all our Year 12 students on the way they completed their final week of secondary education. The celebrations that took place were well organised and in line with the values of our school. I am very proud of our students’ efforts and of course those of the staff.

The traditional Count Down to the school bell was a great success. Fortunately, the weather held out and we were able to conduct this event on the back oval. I am certain that every student experienced mixed feelings on this occasion as they probably did at the breakfast the next morning. Feelings of achievement having completed their final year of schooling as well as a little sadness recognizing that they will all venture out on different paths and that the security and structure of school will no longer be there for them. However, we are confident that our students are resilient enough and have the necessary skills to embrace this change, transition and rite of passage with confidence and determination.

The breakfast was a great deal of fun for all involved. Students walked to school as a group from the Eltham Town Centre, most in costume. They were quite creative this year. The Senior Sub-school Team had organized games and awards as well lots of delicious food which I know the students greatly appreciated. The morning went off without a hitch.

I congratulate and thank the Senior Sub-school Team under the leadership of Amanda Saliba for their hard work throughput the year and in particular during the last week of the Year 12 Program. A job well done!

I wish all our Year 12 students the very best as they continue to prepare and engage with exams in a week’s time.

School Working Bee

I thank all parents/carers and friends, staff and students who attended last Sunday’s Working Bee. It was a great success, and lots of work was done in a short time. I thank all members of the Grounds Committee for their planning, preparation and hard work on Sunday. A big thank you to Anna Panas (Assistant Principal) for her work in organizing the Grounds Committee Meetings and for supporting the group to achieve what they do achieve. Collectively, we accomplished a great deal.

Day Before Melbourne Cup – 4 November

Historically the day before the Melbourne Cup holiday has had very poor student attendance. Consequently, and as a way of causing the least disruption to the educational program of the school, the last few years have seen this day used as time-in-lieu for teachers. As clearly expressed in the Victorian Government Schools Agreement 2022 and supported by the Department of Education and Training, this compensates teachers for the time they allocate beyond work hours throughout the year to student progress interviews involving students, parents, and staff.

In the past, irrespective of the time-in-lieu arrangement, the school has remained open on the Monday before Melbourne Cup Day as Year 12 exams are generally on during that time, and the school is an examination centre. This will also be the case this year.

However, while this day would seem to be the most appropriate in terms of minimising disruption to the educational program of the school in the provision of time-in-lieu, I am writing to ascertain your intention as to your child’s/children’s attendance on Monday, 4 November for us to plan effectively. The school will be open on this day and based on previous experience, due to the small numbers of students in attendance, it is most likely that an alternative educational program will be in place. Your information will be valuable in ascertaining staffing requirements for this day.

I ask you to confirm with us only if your child(ren) will be attending on Monday, 4 November 2024 by contacting the appropriate Sub-School Office either by telephone on 9430 5111 or by email through each of the Sub-School Team Leaders by Wednesday, 30 October:

Senior Sub-School: Amanda Saliba – Amanda.Saliba@education.vic.gov.au

Middle Sub-School: Ross McKinnon – Ross.McKinnon@education.vic.gov.au

Junior Sub-School: Melissa Hughes – Melissa.Hughes@education.vic.gov.au

I thank you for your cooperation with this matter.

Yard Duty and Supervision

Student safety at Eltham High School is our highest priority and the safe and appropriate supervision of students is an important element of our duty of care to students. Part of this duty is ensuring parents and students are aware of our student supervision arrangements before and after school.

Before school: School grounds are supervised at 8.49am, with supervision provided at entries to the school from Withers Way and Ely Street.

After school: School grounds are supervised after school from the end of the school day until 3.24pm. Again the supervision points are placed at the exits to the school at Withers Way and Ely Street.

Students on school grounds outside these times will not be supervised unless they are attending a supervised extracurricular activity. Parents/carers are requested to ensure that students do not attend school outside of these supervised times unless they are attending a pre-arranged supervised activity (i.e. Music, Drama and Sports programs).

Families are encouraged to contact Fran Mullins at fran.mullins@education.vic.gov.au for more information about the before and after school care facilities available to our school community or if you would like any further information about our student supervision arrangements.

For a copy of our school’s Yard Duty and Supervision Policy please contact the General Office. This policy includes Eltham High School’s student supervision arrangements across the school day, including before and after school.

Student Safety at the Start and End of The School Day

I once again take the opportunity to remind parents/carers of the importance of obeying road rules all the time and especially in the vicinity of the school. I ask you all to be cautious around the children’s crossing and to always follow the guidance provided by the crossing supervisor.

It is important that you are constantly vigilant, watching for students whilst driving on Withers Way and Susan Street during peak times (8:30 – 9:00am and 3:00 – 3:30pm) and adhere to the speed limit.

I also remind you that the front of the administration building is a “No Standing” area during peak times; and you cannot queue there prior to pick-up. If you arrive early and your child is not standing at your pickup point you are required to drive through the circular drive and enter as many times as needed until your child is there for pick up.

If you have been fortunate to find a parking spot when entering the circular drive, we ask that you reverse park as this will reduce the risk of colliding with a student on their way out of the school as well as with other cars.

It would also be reasonable and sensible for you to reverse park in the parking bays at the front of the school as this will reduce the risk of you backing out onto oncoming traffic when you leave.

Signage already exists in front of the administration area about it being a “No Standing” zone between 8:00 - 10:00am and 2:00 - 4:00pm. We are looking at installing additional signage reminding parents/carers to reverse park.

Please be aware that if these measures do not improve safety for our students especially at peak times we will engage with local authorities (Victoria Police and/or Council) to discuss the possibility of increased enforcement of parking restrictions and/or road rules.

I look forward to your ongoing support with this matter.

VINCENT SICARI, Principal