Dear Families,

We are living in a different world to what we are used to. Only a month ago most of us left home to go to work, students did the same to go to school, we could have meetings face to face and teachers could see the faces of the students in their class sitting directly in front of them in the same ROOM. We could plan BBQs and shared meals with family and friends for the weekend, attend Mass on Sunday, buy toilet paper without much regard for this simple commodity. So much has changed, indeed the world has now changed.

Catholic Regional College Sydenham had been planning for schooling online for a month prior to the school closure. I had thought we were well prepared, now I am not certain any organisation or workforce could be prepared for what we are experiencing. I wish to thank the staff of the College for their hard work and countless hours that they have put into making sure your child’s education has not suffered or been disadvantaged as a result of Covid-19.

Many schools took the decision to close on Tuesday and commence school holidays early. We did not. I have been asked why. It is simple. This non-tuition period will be long enough without three additional days. In addition, I wanted to ensure our systems were robust, that we could manage the remote learning paradigm and that we really had a chance to iron out any issues before the new school term. An additional three days of learning online helped the College and my team plan for what could potentially be an entire Term 2 learning online. While I hope this will not be the case, we will plan for it regardless.

The three consecutive days of learning online saw many great moments. We had 100% attendance in most classes for a great deal of the time – unprecedented! Staff and students really were happy to see each other and interact. Perhaps we do take each other for granted when we see each other every day. The learning program continued and did not suffer. In some learning areas I am hearing reports that students have been working so well at home that they are starting to move ahead of what the usual learning program would had they been in class at school.

I understand that many students and their families have been worried about how this will impact Year 12 students. We are committed to having graduation at the end of the year and seeing all our Year 12 students graduate. It will be a celebration worth having, one for the graduates and hopefully one because we are all gathered together at St Patrick’s Cathedral. It is certainly something to be looking forward to. The Victorian Curriculum Assessment Authority (VCAA) is the statutory authority that governs senior secondary curriculum establishing the requirements for the delivery of both the VCE and VCAL. Schools must implement the VCE and the VCAL in accordance with the VCAA guidelines creating policies and procedures for their delivery at a local school level. The VCAA provided advice to schools in the last few days of Term 1. I have included both the advice and our College’s response so far as the actions we will be taking to implement the advice and support student learning.

Given the challenges posed by the emerging coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, we advise:

The reason for student/s being unable to attend school, in any circumstance related to coronavirus (COVID-19) should be regarded as an approved absence and not impact negatively on their attendance record

The College has already implemented this and made the decision to do so prior to the advice being received. As the Coronavirus established itself, there were a number of staff and students who I felt I had to allow to be absent from the College which meant working from home. There was a concern for those in their families who were particularly vulnerable due to their already existing health conditions. It was necessary to modify our usual attendance policy at this time in order to support them and the rest of the College when the time came.

Where school-assessed coursework assessment has been scheduled but students are absent, schools may opt to defer the assessment until students return to school. Alternatively, schools may consider delivering the task remotely. It is of course entirely up to schools to decide how they deliver school-assessed coursework.
Advice and options on how to deliver tasks remotely is available on our website at www.vcaa.vic.edu.au

We recognise that this option may generate concerns from teachers regarding their reduced capacity to authenticate in a remote delivery model. In response we would recommend Principals advise teachers to:

- remind students of the school rules related to the undertaking of school-based assessment
- focus on the correct ranking of students across the group rather than the level of performance
- remember that all school scores are initial and proceed through a process of statistical moderation before they are finalised
Supervised assessment may be undertaken at an appropriate time following student/s’ return to school

In the coming week, staff with positions of leadership in the College Leadership Team, Learning Enhancement Leaders and Learning Area Convenors together with the VCE Convenor will meet online for an extended period. While it is school holidays, we have called this meeting in order that we, as a College, can establish the protocols, policies and local guidelines so as to be able to respond to this news from the VCAA while maintaining the integrity of the VCE and all assessments. This will take considerable effort, planning and some creative thinking on how we might move forward. Thus, the three days of learning that we have just experienced will better inform our decision making. Without this 3 day experience we would have been making decisions based on the trial day which was a novelty and quite different to the reality of every lesson, every day, each week. The College will develop the parameters and local practices for our staff to implement. I intend to consult with the staff before I provide our students and families with the documentation and will also need to ensure that the VCAA is satisfied with whatever we develop. Senior Secondary Colleges are not the norm in Victoria. Catholic Regional College Sydenham is the largest Catholic senior secondary and as such I have always held the view that it is incumbent on our College to be an innovator and to lead in the senior secondary curriculum space. We do this well, as such, I am committed to doing my very best to do this again and to find a way so that our students’ learning can continue unfettered by the Coronavirus.

At this stage, we are continuing to work towards scheduled external assessments, moderation activities and the calculation of study scores as the basis for the ATAR calculation in 2020. As the situation unfolds, we will continue to review each of these activities, and have developed a range of strategies and contingencies that could come into play, when and if needed, these include but are not limited to:
- an extension to the published deadline for the submission of school scores
- rescheduling of the General Achievement Test (GAT) and/or VCE examinations
- the development of additional tools to validate School-based assessment to further ensure fairness and equity for all students.

The College will continue to monitor and review all of the VCAA advice so as to ensure we comply as a school and will also provide advice back to the VCAA as one of the larger providers of both the VCE and the VCAL. I am certain that no one saw an event where all students would be undertaking the VCE or VCAL from home in a global pandemic so there are no maps to follow. The modifications made will be consistently and fairly applied across the College with clear explanations for all staff, students and families. You can expect to receive information from the College as it becomes available and we have had a chance to review, discuss and develop the protocols for application in our school.

The need for isolating ourselves in o

Our Catholic Faith