New to the Site
Significant new content added to the site
Multicultural Education and LMERC (added June 21 and 26)
Two additional new areas on the site have been published by the Multicultural Education Unit:
- The Multicultural Education section provides a range of useful information and resources for school leaders, teachers and parents regarding multicultural education in Victorian government schools
- Languages and Multicultural Education Resource Centre (LMERC) is a statewide, specialised resource centre supporting curriculum development and programs including LOTE, ESL, Studies of Asia, multicultural, values and human rights education.
See:
2008 Victorian State Schools Spectacular (added June 21)
With 200 Victorian government schools, some 2500 students and over 5000 costumes, the Victorian State Schools Spectacular is one of the largest and most breathtaking performances in Australia. The 2008 Victorian State Schools Spectacular will take place at Hisense Arena (formerly Vodaphone Arena), Melbourne Park on Saturday and Sunday, September 6 and 7.
See:
Traffic Safety Education and Studies of Asia (added 3 June 2008)
Two new areas on the site provide information about two Student Learning programs:
- The Studies of Asia program embeds the study of history, geography, literature, popular culture and traditional arts of the countries of Asia within the domains of Humanities, English and The Arts. DEECD facilitates the Victorian Studies of Asia program in collaboration with the Catholic Education Commission Victoria, the Association of Independent Schools Victoria and the Asia Education Foundation
- DEECD supports schools, together with the key road safety agencies, to incorporate Traffic Safety Education in their core curriculum with resources, professional learning opportunities and readings and links to other support agencies. The new Traffic Safety Education program information provides resources, professional learning information and links to relevant agencies.
See:
New and renamed Topics (added 26 May 2008)
To reflect changes to content on the website, new sections have been added and some sections have been renamed.
New Topic - Research and Innovation
Research informs the strategic thinking of the Department and allows innovative practices to flourish and effective policy to be developed. This new section includes these topics: Research in the Department, Innovation in education, Permission to conduct research, Statewide initiatives, Knowledge sharing, Data collection and evaluation, Who's who in research and innovation.
See:
New sections
These sections will be expanded as content for the Office for Children and Early Childhood Development is migrated from the Department of Human Services websites:
Renamed sections
To reflect the addition of the Early Childhood Services Management topic, the Management topic was renamed to School Management, and in response to user feedback, the Senior Secondary and Youth Transitions section was renamed to Youth Transitions.
See:
Education Week 2008 information (added 13 May 2008)
Education Week will be celebrated by Victorian government schools and kindergartens from 18-24 May 2008.
During the week, schools and kindergartens are encouraged to hold activities that engage parent and community networks while profiling their learning opportunities and achievements.
See:
- Education Week sub-site
Innovation Showcase - Friday, 16 May 2008 (added 12 May 2008)
Join over 600 education and early childhood service providers at the Melbourne Convention Centre to explore how innovation is transforming learning. See:
National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) 2008 information (added 8 May 2008)
The purpose of the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is to assess the literacy and numeracy learning of students in all Australian schools at years 3, 5, 7 and 9. The NAPLAN will assess literacy and numeracy skills in much the same way as the Achievement Improvement Monitor (AIM) tests did. NAPLAN tests for 2008 will be conducted between Tuesday 13 May and Friday 15 May.
The Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority(VCAA) is responsible for the National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) in Victoria.
See:
- National Assessment Program for Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) page in the Prep - Year 10 Assessment section
See also:
- VCAA's NAPLAN page (http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/prep10/naplan/index.html)
Sample Science P-6 (added 9 May 2008)
Sample Science P-6 is a unit planning resource for primary teachers. It provides engaging and challenging activities that encourage students to explore science ideas. Teachers can sample from these activities to develop units that support students to achieve the VELS Science standards.
The activities in Sample Science have been designed to support student motivation and engagement, as well as exploration and application of science ideas.
See:
- Sample Science P-6 in the Learning and Teaching section of the Science Domain.
Sexuality Education pages (added 18 April 2008)
Sexuality Education pages provide a range of learning and teaching resources for Victorian primary and secondary schools. All materials support a comprehensive, whole-school learning approach to sexuality education.
Section headings: About sexuality education, Teaching programs, Professional learning, Learning & teaching, For principals, For parents, Prevention & support
See:
New Media Releases pages (added 17 April 2008)
Two new pages have been created to provide easier access to official Media Releases from our Ministers, with direct links to each media release, indexed by month.
See:
- Media releases - Minister for Education, and
- Media releases - Minister for Children and Early Childhood Development
Premier's VCE Awards 2008 (added 17 April 2008)
Each year students who have demonstrated outstanding achievement in the Victorian Certificate of Education are recognised at the Premier’s VCE Awards.
In 2008, the Premier’s VCE Awards ceremony will be held at the Palladium at Crown on Thursday, 22 May. Awards will be presented by the Premier, the Governor, the Minister for Education, and distinguished Victorian's from the arts, music, science, law, sport, business, and media fields.
See:
Personal Learning Goals (added 16 April 2008)
Personal learning goals are the behaviours, knowledge or understandings that students identify as important to their own learning. They may relate to general work habits, specific subjects, domains of learning, or a combination of these.
Topics in this section include Personal learning goals and student learning, Supporting students, The process, Case studies, Key resources.
See:
- Personal Learning Goals in the Student Reports section
English Developmental Continuum videos added (added 14 April 2008)
Another 70 videos illustrating best practice for teaching writing have been published, in the English Developmental Continuum section of the site. See:
- English Developmental Continuum P–10 – Writing and follow the links to 'writing videos' at the various developmental levels.
Blueprint for Early Childhood Development and School Reform (added 11 April 2008)
The Blueprint for Early Childhood Development and School Reform is the Government's proposed future vision for supporting Victorians from birth to adulthood. It aims to drive improvement and integration and helps to deliver the best possible outcomes for all Victorian children and young people.
Three Blueprint for Early Childhood Development and School Reform discussion papers have been developed to assist in gathering input. These discussion papers outline the Government's proposed strategic directions, possible actions and targets to ensure our education and early childhood service systems are best placed to meet the needs of children, young people and their families into the future.
Feedback from the public consultation process will help shape the final Blueprint, which will be released later this year.
Fractions and Decimals Online Interview (added 7 April 2008)
The Fractions and Decimals Online Interview is used by teachers in a one-on-one interview situation to determine students’ existing mathematical knowledge in relation to rational number concepts. It is appropriate for use with middle years students. It will allow teachers to better understand their students’ knowledge, skills and behaviours with regard to a known ‘hot spot’ of difficulty for many students. It will allow comprehensive collated data to be available that can be compared within schools to better understand student achievement and monitor student progress.
Fractions and Decimals Online Interview (http://www.eduweb.vic.gov.au/fractionsonline/) secure website - Edumail PIN and password required.
Whole school support for refugee students (added 20 March 2008)
Strengthening Outcomes - Refugee Students in Government Schools – a new publication for schools and other service providers about the range of resources available to support students from refugee backgrounds in Victorian schools.
Speaking and Listening videos (added 29 February 2008)
Another 89 videos have been added to the English Continuum to assist with literacy skills.
This series of speaking and listening videos are presented to support teachers to make consistent and accurate judgements of students’ progress in speaking and listening, against the speaking and listening dimension of the English Victorian Essential Learning Standards. The videos depict student-teacher interactions, which highlight typical student behaviours that reflect the speaking and listening standards and progression points. They may be viewed to generate professional conversations about student learning and to report on student progress.
- See Speaking and Listening teaching resources (click on links to videos at the various VELS levels).
Scaffolding Numeracy in the Middle Years (SNMY) (added 26 February 2008)
Scaffolding Numeracy in the Middle Years 2003-2006 (SNMY) was a research project that investigated a new assessment-guided approach to improving student numeracy outcomes in Years 4 to 8. Teachers can use the materials and resources from the project in their classrooms to help scaffold numeracy and develop multiplicative thinking with their students.
New functionality - Sub-sites (added 14 February 2008)
The first of many new 'sub-sites' were added to the Education website. This new presentation format has been developed in response to user feedback and an external consultant's review of the site design.
This new design allows for sections of the site to be presented as a coherent group of pages, with specific left-hand navigation and a common graphic banner on all sub-site pages. Optional information panels on the right of sub-sites provide content-specific contact information or 'deep' links to featured information.
- See School Councils and
- Joining the Chorus
Strategic Partnerships Program (added 29 January 2007)
The Strategic Partnerships Program provides funding of $5.2m annually over the 2006-08 triennium to 93 community, cultural and professional development associations.
Reading Recovery (added 14 January 2008)
The goal of the Reading Recovery program is to reduce the number of Year 1 students having difficulties learning to read and write. Students receive a series of individual, 30-minute Reading Recovery lessons daily from a specially trained teacher. This section explains:
- how the program is implemented
- how schools can participate
- how teachers and tutors can receive training
- the outcomes of the 2006 program
- provides links to further reading and useful resources online.
See Reading Recovery
School Start Bonus (Updated 6 December 2007)
The School Start Bonus provides $300 per annum financial assistance to families for expenditure on school and sporting uniforms, school bags, books and related expenses.
- Information for Parents, see: School Start Bonus Parent FAQs
- Information for Schools, see: School Operations - School Start Bonus
Drug Education (Added 3 December 2007)
The Drug Education program implements and reviews ongoing, effective drug education in Victorian schools using prevention and harm-minimisation approaches. This site outlines policy, school funding opportunities, curriculum materials, resources, services and information available to teachers and parents in Victoria.
see: Student Learning - Programs - Drug Education
Victorian Student Number (VSN) for students in Victoria (Added 26 October 2007)
Answers to frequently asked questions about the proposed implementation of a Victorian Student Number (VSN) for students in Victoria.
Parent Payments in Victorian Government Schools (Added 16 October 2007)
Information about the categories of education items or services that school councils can request payments from parents and guardians for students in Victorian government schools.
- Information for Parents, see: About School - Life at School - Parent Payments in Victorian Government Schools
- Information for Schools, see: Management - School Operations - Student Materials and Services Charges and Voluntary Financial Contributions