Department of Education and Early Childhood Development

Published by the Department of Education and Early
Childhood Development
Melbourne
December 2014
© State of Victoria (Department of Education and Early
Childhood Development) 2014
The copyright in this document is owned by the State of
Victoria (Department of Education and Early Childhood
Development), or in the case of some materials, by third parties (third party materials). No part may be reproduced by any process except in accordance with the provisions of the
Copyright Act 1968, the National Education
Access Licence for Schools (NEALS) (see below) or with permission.
An educational institution situated in Australia which is not conducted for profit, or a body responsible for administering such an institution may copy and communicate the materials, other than third party materials, for the educational purposes of the institution.
Authorised by the Department of Education and Early
Childhood Development,
2 Treasury Place, East Melbourne, Victoria, 3002.
ISBN 978-0-7594-0701-5
Department of Education and Early Childhood Development

Summary of key points for Principals .......................................................................... 4
Key changes for 2014 reports ....................................................................................... 4
Timeline of actions ......................................................................................................... 4
Overview ......................................................................................................................... 5
Key changes for 2014 reports ...........................
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The structure for the 2014 school annual report ................................................... 5
Cover page ................................................................................................................ 5
About Our School Statement ................................................................................... 5
School Performance Summary ................................................................................ 8
Financial Performance and Position Summary ...................................................... 8
Endorsement ............................................................................................................. 9
Communication ......................................................................................................... 9
Submission of annual report to the Department .................................................... 9
Which schools should submit an annual report? .................................................. 9
Appendix 1: Checklist of minimum requirements for Annual Reports .................... 10
Appendix 2: Timeline of actions for schools ............................................................. 12
Department of Education and Early Childhood Development

.
The sections that are to be completed by schools are the ‘cover page’ and ‘About Our School’ and the ‘Financial Position and Performance Summary’ commentary.
Compared to last year’s annual reporting process, the following changes have been made:
 The ‘About Our School’ section covers the four outcome areas of achievement, engagement, wellbeing and productivity.

Any data that is not submitted by 9 February 2015 will result in that part of the School
Performance Summary showing as ‘blank’ for your school.

School staff survey data is included in the Performance Summary – School Profile section.

Performance Summary
– Achievement section; NAPLAN ‘relative growth’ has been renamed ‘learning gain’.

Performance Summary – Engagement section; student attendance is represented as number of days per student absent, rather than rate of attendance.
 The ‘Financial Position and Performance Summary’ includes the new category of Student
Resource Package (SRP) expenditure. Asset acquisitions now appear within the expenditure list.
To ensure that data is included in the School Performance Summary and the Financial Position and Performance Statement, schools are to submit their CASES21 data by 9 February 2015.
The annual report templates will be available for schools to download from the School
Performance Reports website on 2 March 2015.
Final annual reports are to be emailed to schoolaccountability@edumail.vic.gov.au
by 31
March 2015.
Guidelines for the 2014 Annual Report to the School Community 4

Reporting to the school community adds value in a number of ways:
Keeping the school community informed: The annual report provides a means for the school council to inform the community of what has been achieved and how the school is performing.
Providing information about schools helps the community hold schools, the system and government accountable for improving student outcomes.
Contributing to system accountability and meeting legislative requirements: Public accountability for improving student outcomes and for the use of public money is mandated in the
Education and Training Reform Act (2006), where school councils are required to prepare and publish an annual report.
Relationship between the planning and annual reporting processes: The development of the annual report is an opportunity to reflect on the school’s achievements and use this as a basis for future planning.
To do this:

Ensure the cursor is in the place in the cover page where you want the image to appear.
 From the ‘insert’ menu ribbon at the top of the page, select ‘picture’

Browse to the image you want to insert, click on the image file and select ‘insert’.

Modify the size of the image as necessary.
The cover page includes a section for the names of the school principal and the school council president, as a testament that:

all teachers are Victorian Institute of Teaching
(VIT) registered

the school has met the VRQA minimum standards for registration, except where any exemptions apply.
The annual report will be comprised of the following sections within the annual report template:

Cover page

About Our School statement

School Performance Summary

Financial Performance and Position Summary.
Figure 1 on page 7 outlines the annual report structure.
The sections of the annual report are described in greater detail below.
An annual report template will be available on the
School Performance Reports website on 2 March
2015.
Schools have the option of inserting their own images in the blank space provided on the cover page section of the template.
Guidelines for the 2014 Annual Report to the School Community
The About Our School statement is prepared by the school and provides succinct contextual information about the school and a brief discussion of the school’s performance and future directions. This section of the report enables the school to make connections between performance outcomes over the past year and how these translate into plans for improvement in the coming 12 months.
The About Our School Statement consists of:

the school context. This component provides the background against which the performance outcomes of the school are understood, as well as the sc hool’s vision and purpose. It describes the defining attributes of the school including its geographic location, size and structure, social characteristics, enrolment characteristics, special programs etc.
 commentary on the school’s progress and what the school is doing to improve student outcomes in the four outcome areas of achievement, engagement, wellbeing and productivity.

t he school’s website (recommended).
The Productivity outcome area is new this year and refers to the effective allocation and use of resources, adapted to the unique contexts of each school. Successful productivity outcomes exist when a school uses its resources - people, time, space, funding, facilities, community expertise, professional learning, class structures, timetables, individual learning plans and facilities – to the best possible effect and in the best possible combination to support improved student outcomes and achieve its goals and targets.
5

In addition to the above, to meet Commonwealth reporting requirements under the National
Education Agreement , schools will be required to include in their About Our School statement information in relation to:

workforce composition

the progress of students participating in the
Program for Students with a Disability (where there are more than 10 students in the program)

how non-attendance is being addressed by the school.
A checklist of requirements for the About Our
School statement is provided in Appendix 1.
Guidelines for the 2014 Annual Report to the School Community 6

Figure 1: The 2014 annual report
THE 2014 ANNUAL
REPORT TO THE
SCHOOL
COMMUNITY
COVER PAGE
ABOUT OUR
SCHOOL
STATEMENT
SCHOOL
PERFORMANCE
SUMMARY
FINANCIAL
REPORTING
DEECD prepopulates the cover page.
Schools have option to insert own images.
Section 1
Schools must complete the
About Our
School statement (see
Appendix 1)
Section 2
DEECD prepopulates the
School
Performance
Summary with the ‘How to read’ advice
Section 3
DEECD prepopulates the
Financial
Performance and Position statement
Section 4
ENDORSEMENT by School Council
SUBMISSION to school accountability mailbox
Guidelines for the 2014 Annual Report to the School Community 7

All School Performance Summary data is based on the 2014 calendar year unless otherwise stated.
The School Performance Summary includes:

absolute scores for key performance indicators for the year and across four years (where data are available) for the student outcome areas:
achievement
engagement
wellbeing.

intake-adjusted school performance measures, which indicate how the school’s performance compares with other Victorian government schools, taking into account the characteristics of the school and its students.
Information in the School Performance
Summary includes for all schools:

school enrolments

the socio-economic background of students

the proportion of students with English as an additional language

data related to parent and staff satisfaction.
Information in the School Performance
Summary for schools with primary students includes:

indicators on both absolute and intake-adjusted measures

teacher judgements of student outcomes against the AusVELS in:
English
Mathematics

Year 3 and Year 5 NAPLAN data

Years 3 – 5 NAPLAN Learning Gain

student attendance data

student Attitudes to School survey data.
Information in the School Performance
Summary for schools with secondary students includes:

indicators on both absolute and intake-adjusted measures

teacher judgements of student outcomes against the AusVELS in:
English
Mathematics

Year 7 and Year 9 NAPLAN data

Years 5 – 7 and 7 – 9 NAPLAN Learning Gain

VCE data

VET data (participation and satisfactory completion)

VCAL data (satisfactory completion)

student attendance data

student Attitudes to School survey data

real retention

students exiting to further studies or full-time employment (2013).
As part of the publicly funded education system, and mandated through the Financial Management Act
(1994) and the Education and Training Reform Act
(2006) , schools are accountable to the public and government for the efficient and effective use of those funds. The annual report must include:

a summary of the school c ouncil’s financial performance (revenue/expenditure) for the school year

a summary of the school c ouncil’s position for the school year (funds available/financial commitments).
To meet these requirements, the Financial Summary section of the annual report template will be prepopulated by the Department, using data provided by the school from CASES21 Finance reports.
Certification of these statements by the Principal and
School Council President is compulsory at year end as part of the school audit framework.
Schools must provide a commentary relating to the school’s financial performance as part of the annual report. This commentary has a limit of 300 words and should include the following:

an outline of the reasons why the annual result was a surplus or deficit

an explanation of any extraordinary revenue or expenditure items

any new sources of funding the school received during the year; for example, special grants or fundraising initiatives
Guidelines for the 2014 Annual Report to the School Community 8


any additional funding the school received
(State/Commonwealth) beyond the Student
Resource Package, including the purpose of that funding and its link to improvements in teaching and learning.
Please note that a school’s financial commitments will include both its legal obligations to pay creditors
(Accounts Payable) as well as commitments the
School Council has made in relation to future projects or programs.
School governance arrangements require the annual report to be tabled at a school council meeting for ratification and endorsement.
It is the responsibility of the school and school council to ensure that the information in the annual report is accurate and meet the expectations identified within the guidelines.
The cover page of the annual report template includes a section for sign-off by the school
Principal and the school council, as a testament that:

All teachers are VIT registered

The school has met the VRQA minimum standards for registration, except where any exemptions apply.
An important part of engaging the school community in the annual reporting process is ensuring that the annual report is made available to members of the school community. Each year, school councils are required under legislation to conduct a public meeting. The school’s annual report is presented by the school council at this meeting.
Under the Commonwealth’s
National Education
Agreement, the annual report is required to be published on the internet. In order to ensure
Victoria’s compliance with these requirements, the
VRQA State Register provides a means for all
Victorian schools to publish their annual report online to parents.
Schools are required to provide parents with the annual report either online or via a means they can access.
Final annual reports are to be emailed to schoolaccountability@edumail.vic.gov.au
by 31
March 2015.
All schools are required to complete the annual report each year. This includes schools in their year of selfevaluation, review and planning. However, the following variations apply for the 2014 annual report:
Only schools which have been operating for the entire
2014 school year are required to complete a 2014 annual report. Therefore:

schools that closed in 2014 are not required to produce a 2014 annual report

new schools, including those formed as a result of either a merger or de-merger, will not be required to produce an annual report until they have been open for a full school year, regardless of whether or not the school number changes

the previous entities that formed part of merged or de-merged schools are considered as closed and do not have to provide a 2014 annual report.
A separate annual report template will be developed for each hub and annex school, including individual
School Performance Summaries and Financial
Performance and Position Summaries. It is expected that the separate reports for hub and annex schools are signed-off by their respective school councils.
For questions regarding the School Annual Report please email: schoolaccountability@edumail.vic.gov.au
Guidelines for the 2014 Annual Report to the School Community 9

REQUIREMENTS FOR THE COVER PAGE (if inserting photos/Images)
Photos/Images present a positive image of the school and its students.
The school has appropriate authorisation for the photos/images used in the cover page (i.e. from parents/guardians, independent students and adults).
INFORMATION REQUIRED IN ABOUT OUR SCHOOL STATEMENT
School context, including:
 Workforce composition, e.g. ‘This school has # equivalent full-time staff: # Principal class, # teachers and # Education Support Staff.’
Additional requirements for the Achievement section:

Comment on VCE outcomes (for schools with VCE students).
 Progress of PSD students where a school has more than 10 students, e.g. ‘All
Program for Students with a Disability students showed progress at satisfactory or above in achieving their individual goals.’
Additional requirements for the Engagement and Wellbeing sections:

Comment on how the school is addressing non-attendance.

Schools may choose to comment on school-based student survey data that reflects their context.
Insert the school’s website in the space provided at the bottom of the page (recommended).
Done
INFORMATION REQUIRED IN THE FINANCIAL SUMMARY
The following information is required to be checked :

S ummary of the school council’s financial performance (revenue/expenditure) for the school year – Operating Statement Summary.

S ummary of the school council’s position (funds available/financial commitments) for the school year – Financial Commitments Summary.

The Total Financial Commitments should equal the Total Funds Available.

Any additional funding the school received (State/Commonwealth) beyond the
Student Resource Package, including the purpose of that funding and its link to improvements to teaching and learning.
All schools are required to write a commentary which includes:

An explanation of why the annual result was a surplus or deficit.

An explanation of any extraordinary revenue or expenditure items.

Any new sources of funding the school received during the year, e.g. from special grants or fundraising initiatives.

Any additional funding the school received (State/Commonwealth) beyond the
Student Resource Package, including the purpose of that funding and its link to improvements to teaching and learning.
Guidelines for the 2014 Annual Report to the School Community 10

GENERAL REQUIREMENTS
To assist the Department please ensure that the original file name for the Annual Report is retained.
Final Annual Reports are to be emailed to schoolaccountability@edumail.vic.gov.au
by 31
March, 2015.
Resources

Guidelines for the 2014 Annual Report to the School Community and supplementary information:
Annual Report to the School Community

Performance Reports website (to access Annual Report template and the final Annual Report document):
School Performance Reporting
Guidelines for the 2014 Annual Report to the School Community 11

Date Activity
By 9 February 2015 1. Submission of Data
Action : All schools are to submit school data via CASES21 by 9 February 2015 to avoid receiving “blank” results in their School Performance Summary.
NB: There will be no re-running of reports and no exceptions made to this deadline.
2 March 2015 Each school’s annual report template will be available for schools to download from the School Performance Reports website. The template will include the following sections:
1.
Annual report cover page
Action : Schools have two options:
Option 1: Use the default version of the cover page (No action required).
OR
Option 2: Insert their own image/s in the blank space on the standard template.
NB: Please ensure that the appropriate signatures of approval are recorded on the Cover Page.
2.
About Our School statement
Action : All schools provide text for the school profile and outcome areas. The final About Our School statement will reflect data in the School Performance
Summary available provided in the school’s annual report template.
3. School Performance Summary
The School Performance Summary will inform the About Our School statement.
This statement is pre-populated by the Department. It does not require any additional input from schools.
4. Financial Performance and Position Summary (Financial Summary)
Action : All schools check the pre-populated data and complete commentary on their financial performance and position.
NB: Please ensure that the annual report template retains its original file name for submission to the Department, using a four-digit school number:
AR_YearSchoolNumber.doc, e.g. AR_20130003.doc
Guidelines for the 2014 Annual Report to the School Community 12

Date Activity
By 31 March 2015 After quality assuring at a local level, schools ’ completed Annual Report is to be:
 presented to school council for endorsement
 forwarded to: schoolaccountability@edumail.vic.gov.au
May/June 2015
School to decide date
Schools are able to download final annual reports from the School Performance
Reports website . Annual reports are published online on the VRQA State
Register .
School Council holds a public meeting to present the annual report.
Guidelines for the 2014 Annual Report to the School Community 13