Principals Report 

Dear Parents and Guardians,

We are well and truly through the majority of this second Remote Learning period and I commend everyone for their resilience and persistence. I have been receiving some enquiries from parents regarding students returning to school. To date, I have received no direction, from the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria (CECV) or Department of Education and Training (DET), about when students will return to school. The Premiers press conference this Sunday 6 September will hopefully shed some light on the way forward for the return to face-to-face learning. Be assured, when I receive this information, I will inform the Monivae community immediately. Our students, teachers and parents/guardians have been tremendous in our second stint of remote learning and some light at the end of the tunnel would lift spirits and be most welcome.

Additional support the Victorian Government is providing for students taking VCAL/VET

The Honourable James Merlino, Minister for Education, has provided some recent advice to schools to support VCAL students. I have included the relevant information from his communication for your information.

I am pleased to inform you that the Victorian Government is working with schools and Vocational Education and Training (VET) providers to enable students to undertake essential assessments on-site, and to get them back into workplaces as soon as it is safe to do so. 

Looking ahead to Term 4, we want to help your students complete their VET studies as planned for 2020. I have asked Ian Burrage, Acting Deputy Secretary, School Education Programs and Support in the Department of Education and Training, to ensure that additional support is provided for VCAL students. 

An additional $2.4 million in VET ‘Catch Up’ funding has been allocated to cover extra costs your school may face to support the completion of applied VET studies in Term 4, and that cannot be covered in the school’s current VET budget. This could include additional fees and materials costs associated with changed enrolments in VET Units, or transport costs associated with additional training. Funding will be available from Term 4, 2020. 

In addition, Local Learning and Employment Networks are also providing further support to our schools, training providers and employers, as they arrange options for additional training or work placements that are needed for VET completion. 

The College will look at all the challenges facing our VCAL/VET students during this time and provide the support necessary for them to complete their Units this year.

Every few years the College undertakes a survey to gage its ‘Organisational Health’.  Insight SRC have been engaged by the Catholic Education Office of Ballarat (CEOB) to conduct this survey. This year, like most things during the pandemic, it will be administered electronically. A link to the whole community, parents/guardians, teachers and students, will be sent next week. Insight SRC Survey Live period will be from Monday 7 September to Friday 16 October 2020 - extended due to continued lockdown period. You will be emailed usernames and passwords to access the survey.

I strongly encourage you to complete the survey as this information helps the College identify its strengths and weaknesses. The larger the number of responses, the greater the consistency of the data received. The information gathered, via this survey, is a vehicle for Monivae College to review and improve its practices and policies.

Take care and stay safe,

Kind regards,

Jonathan Rowe

Principal