On behalf of Catholic Education Melbourne and the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria Ltd, the Finance Unit worked closely with the Grants Allocation Committees (Primary and Secondary) to ensure that all financial and accountability requirements were comprehensively and accurately completed within required timeframes. This included administration of systemic funds and grants, and management of government accountability and reporting requirements.
Another service is the financial administration of the Catholic Education Long Service Leave Scheme Victoria (LSL).
Following consultation with the Senior Leadership Team, the final 2018 budget was completed and approved by the Executive Director and the CECV Board. Due to low state government recurrent grant indexation and Multi-Enterprise-Agreement-driven salary increases, the 2018 budget includes financial parameters into the strategic planning framework to address a projected funding shortfall for the Catholic system.
The Budget allocation graph for 2017 highlights employment costs as the major cost of running the Office. It also shows the total budget commitment to training both school staff and Catholic Education Melbourne staff.
The second graph shows total budgeted operating costs of all programs in 2017.
2017 Budget Allocations by category:
2017 Budget Allocations by department:
The Finance Unit’s internal audits for the Catholic Education Melbourne’s Audit and Risk Committee included: cybersecurity, payroll, capital projects, workforce planning and follow-up audits. It also reported to the CECV Audit and Risk Committee on internal audits for: GAC(TP), Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority (VRQA) and follow up audits.
The Finance Unit continued to advise schools on Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) developments with governance and financial reporting through National Catholic Education Commission (NCEC) representation on the ACNC Working Party.
Financial and administrative accounting procedures, government accountability and reporting requirements assistance to parish priests, school principals, business managers and school administrative personnel ensures financial viability and best practice. The School Accounting Unit provides these services through:
In all financial management services and support, the School Accounting Unit strives to serve and lead our Catholic schools by upholding the commitment to our School Service Model. This model was developed to be responsive not only to changing needs of schools but also the ever-changing landscape of education in Australia.
Regional Finance Officers (RFOs) continued to meet on a one-on-one basis with principals to enhance their financial management skills and understanding key financial information. A new induction program was also introduced for newly appointed school principals. Attendance at these principal induction sessions was very high, with four one-day sessions held throughout the year. Areas of focus included:
Nevertheless, RFOs continue to identify ‘at risk’ primary schools who need additional focus and support, with an ‘at risk schools’ report generated and updated each term by the school accounting team. To support all accounting teams, two Finance Training Officers continue to facilitate similar financial management skills training to all eligible staff in primary schools. Delivered as cluster meetings, our survey response showed overwhelming approval and appreciation.
Meanwhile, and following feedback from principals and Catholic Education Melbourne School Accounting staff, the School Financial Dashboard developed a one-page dashboard of a school’s financial performance. This dashboard provides relevant benchmark information by comparing a school’s position to similar schools within the Archdiocese of Melbourne. The School Financial Dashboard also includes additional information derived from the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) MySchool finance data which was presented throughout the year to school principals, parish priests and school boards.
The Financial Compliance Obligations Guide for Parents and Friends Associations was developed in response to the regulatory requirements of the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission (ACNC). Content includes a decision framework and guide to assist schools and Parents and Friends Associations (PFA) to better understand and manage their financial compliance obligations.
The Guide acknowledges the varied structures of PFAs (school, parish or independently controlled) along with relevant financial and compliance requirements, and the potential benefits and risks for each structure. This Guide is accompanied by targeted training sessions for PFAs on how to incorporate ACNC regulatory requirements into school accounts. These training sessions were delivered every week at different venues to principals and administrative officers.
Given that a lot of school staff work part-time fractions, a new online LSL Reimbursement Request process was designed and released in 2017. This new application pre-populates employee information (salary, time fraction and school information from the relevant Online Staffing Record) and is accessible to all schools via the Catholic Education Victoria Network website. As a result of this development, we envisage significant efficiency gains in the administrative space.
So far, 19 Melbourne Catholic primary schools have transitioned from their previous school finance software packages to the Integrated Catholic Online Network (ICON) during 2017. These schools adopted accrual accounting and reported their Annual Financial Statement (AFS) for 2017 on this basis.
In addition, the four new schools planned to open in 2018 received ICON training in 2017 so they too would be fully equipped to commence operations. All Victorian Catholic secondary and combined schools report on an accruals basis as of 2017.
Forty-six Administration Officer Cluster meetings were delivered by School Accounting team members during 2017. A number of principals and deputy principals also attended throughout the year. Schools were combined into 25 cluster groups (on the basis of geographical location) and meetings were held two times in the year for each of the 25 cluster groups. All of these meetings focused sharply on servicing the needs of school administration officers, with the overarching objective of enhancing the schools’ understanding of finance and administration processes and procedures.
| Administration Officer Cluster Meetings | Participants |
| Total attendees in 2017 | 424 |
| Average attendees per Cluster Meeting | 9.2 |
This cluster-based approach to school service was also supported by additional targeted training as detailed below.
| Training Activities | Participants |
| Primary School Administration Induction Program (5 days over each semester) | 29 |
| Administrative Officers’ Forum (annual full-day forum) | 31 |
| New Principal’s Induction Program (4 days over the year) | 25 |
| Online Service Records Workshops (five regional workshops held in February 2016) | 40 |
| Fringe Benefits Tax / Salary Packaging / | 5 |
In line with To Serve and Lead: Strategic Plan 2015–2019, our Human Resources (HR) and Administration Teams continued to support the achievement of Catholic Education Melbourne’s goal: a high level of capability in leadership and service.
This support included the the provision of best practice Human Resource strategy delivery, programs, support, payroll and administrative processes to all staff of Catholic Education Melbourne in supporting Catholic education in our schools.
Ensuring all staff achieve their full potential is the ultimate focus of the Human Resources and Administration Team. By working closely with managers, HR introduced an online performance management program allowing managers and staff to work together in setting goals for delivery of services, training and development to ensure all staff can provide the best services possible to our schools.
Because the HR Business Partnership Model provides one point of contact for allocated managers of business units across our organisation, it has enabled a more proactive approach to resolving staffing issues, consistency of support and advice, and a very effective structure for rolling out new processes, policies and tools.
2017 has seen the Administration team working on the introduction of the the Enterprise Content Management project: a key new initiative that ensures timely and accurate records management.
All records are being transitioned to a new online platform. It promises to be a more effective and efficient system for providing information, archiving data and managing records for our schools as well as the Archdiocese. The project will be completed by the end of 2018.
Having developed the baseline for benchmarking and the introduction of key HR Metrics in 2017, Human Resources can now better monitor major resource trends, thus ensure appropriate and cost effective workforce organisational planning in 2018.
The Analysis, Policy & Research team plays a key role in leading and supporting the strategic direction of the organisation to better serve and lead schools through:
The Understanding School Engagement in Research (USER) project provided invaluable feedback about Melbourne Catholic schools’ involvement in academic research projects and engagement with research evidence.
Because the findings from the USER project attracted great interest from schools, universities and other jurisdictions, Catholic Education Melbourne partnered with Monash University to write an academic journal article. Key themes of the article were presented at the Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) conference in 2017, and the USER article will be published in 2018.
Catholic Education Melbourne’s research policy was updated to reflect some of the findings in the USER project, and encouraged researchers to submit applications that seek to actively engage schools in the research process. In 2017, the Analysis, Policy & Research team coordinated the review of 95 research applications wishing to conduct research in Melbourne Catholic schools.
To guide schools when seeking to register a new school or to amend the registration of an existing school, a School Registration Forum was held in April 2017. Various school partners and stakeholders were invited to participate and discuss a range of topics presented by the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority (VRQA) and the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) and Catholic Education staff. These topics included:
The discussion and sharing of information throughout the forum was also filmed and uploaded on to the Catholic Education Victoria Network website.
To discuss and learn about ways to meaningfully engage in research projects and use the evidence to inform best practice, the Analysis, Policy & Research Team conducted the School Engagement in and with Research Forum in October 2017. Twenty-four school leaders from 15 different schools attended. Catholic Education Melbourne co-facilitated the forum with Associate Professor Mark Rickinson from Monash University, and Dr Tanya Vaughan from Social Ventures Australia. All participants found the day to be a valuable experience and offered to recommend similar forums to other schools.
The Integrated Catholic Online Network (ICON) is a collaborative program of the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria Ltd (CECV) involving Victorian Catholic schools and the four diocesan Catholic Education Offices.
ICON will provide a technology platform and applications to enable school leaders, teachers and staff to collaborate and bring about new ways of working that optimise student learning and school administration.
During 2017 the ICON eAdmin product was implemented in a second group of pilot schools.
The ICON suite of eAdmin products (eHR/Payroll, eFIN and eSIS) was implemented in the following primary schools during Term 4, 2017:
The new ICON ePortal was released in July 2017 and provides users with single sign-on to ICON applications, management of ICON user login details, password and security questions plus CEV G Suite (Google) for Education administration tools.
ICON’s communications about its rollout to school leaders and diocesan staff in 2017 included:
| Activity / Course | PARTICIPANTS | ||
| PRIMARY | SECONDARY | TOTAL | |
| Are you ready for Hapara? | 51 | 1 | 52 |
| Getting Established with Hapara | 60 | 60 | |
| Getting started with G Suite | 20 | 1 | 21 |
| Getting Established with G Suite | 24 | 1 | 25 |
| G Suite for School Administration Staff | 80 | 11 | 91 |
| G Suite Online Courses | 1286 | ||
After an extensive tender and contracting process in 2016, the Enterprise Content Management system (known as REX) was chosen to establish a more centralised and coordinated management of organisation knowledge, corporate information, documents and records.
The ECM vision to ‘improve the information management capacity of Catholic Education Melbourne to more efficiently and effectively lead and serve our schools’, aligns perfectly with our To Serve and Lead: Strategic Plan 2015–19 vision. All information managed by REX will be secure, and available to all authorised staff at any given time, from anywhere over a number of device types.
A 2017 strategic priority of Catholic Education Melbourne was to configure the Enterprise Content Management system to meet the information management needs of Catholic Education Melbourne ahead of training, deployment and the development of electronic workflows in 2018.
Our Industrial Relations (IR) Unit is a key resource for school leaders, parish priests and canonical administrators in their role as employers. The IR Unit provides expert workplace relations advice and assistance in a wide range of areas including performance management, occupational health and safety obligations, child safety standards and reportable conduct processes, workplace safety assessments and representation for employment-related legal matters as well as professional management of ill and injured staff.
What’s more, the IR Unit plays a critical role in consulting, negotiating and representing Catholic school employers for employment arrangements under industrial instruments. This particular service to schools is funded under a Service Level Agreement with the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria Ltd.
The following is a summary of initiatives by our Industrial Relations Unit in 2017:
| Activity / Course | PARTICIPANTS | ||
| PRIMARY | SECONDARY | TOTAL | |
| Reportable Conduct Scheme for Principals – CLC | 64 | 18 | 82 |
| Reportable Conduct Scheme for Principals – Outer North Western Network | 20 | – | 20 |
| Reportable Conduct Scheme for Principals –Northern Network | 12 | – | 12 |
| Reportable Conduct Scheme and EBA Consultation for Deputy Principals – Northern Region | 20 | – | 20 |
| Reportable Conduct Scheme for Principals – Western Region | 41 | – | 41 |
| Reportable Conduct Scheme for Principals – Southern Region | 30 | – | 30 |
| Reportable Conduct Scheme | 25 | 3 | 28 |
| Workplace Bullying and Harassment | – | 60 | 60 |
| Know Your Agreement – Education Support | 10 | 3 | 13 |
| Know Your Agreement – School Leaders | 16 | 18 | 34 |
| Managing Employment Concerns – School Leaders | 15 | 9 | 24 |
| Redundancy & Introduction of Change | 2 | – | 2 |
| Return to Work Coordinator Training | 29 | 16 | 45 |
| VCEMEA Leave | 2 | 4 | 6 |
| Hazard Management (Sale) | 7 | 7 | 14 |
| OHS for School Leaders | 46 | 20 | 66 |
| Ergonomics | 18 | 12 | 30 |
| Managing Stress in Education | 40 | 40 | 80 |
| Administration Offices’ Start of Year Forum | 30 | – | 30 |
| Principal Induction | 30 | – | 30 |
| Education Support Network Meeting – Eastern Region | 50 | – | 50 |
| Administration Officers Network Meeting – Western Region | 30 | – | 30 |
| Administration Officers Network Meeting – North Western Region | 30 | – | 30 |
| Administration Officer Conference – Sandhurst | 30 | – | 30 |
| Total | 597 | 210 | 807 |
Our Information Technology Services (ITS) Unit assists our schools with the management of email, bandwidth, internet traffic, security and school networks. ITS also supports schools using Catholic Education Victoria Network and Catholic Education Melbourne applications to meet accountability and reporting requirements such as staffing returns, school census data and annual financial statements.
In addition, ITS facilitates sector contracts and service agreements with the suppliers of schools’ software and hardware infrastructure.
Providing dedicated IT services to CEM staff and schools including operational management and security monitoring of the infrastructure for the Catholic Education Victoria Network (CEVN) connecting all schools and Catholic Education Offices. It also includes the provision of managed Internet from Telstra, Optus and TPG as well as free peering content from Google and Apple. All access is managed by centralised filtering and firewalls.
Providing oversight and maintenance of the CEVN and Catholic Education Melbourne applications including the Catholic Information System (CIS), Online Staffing Records (OSR), the Personnel Record System (PRS) and the Long Service Leave (LSL) calculator as well as the school Census functions.
The Student Attendance system receives automated student attendance data from compliant school systems and stores the aggregated data centrally for uploading to the Australian Government Department of Education and Training (AGDET) for the MySchool website in 2018. The unit also provides support for the Students with Disability (SWD) funding application systems and for the NCCD data collection.
The ITS Unit acts as a data custodian for the school and corporate data required for regulatory compliance and for strategic planning. The data is collected through various CEVN and Catholic Education Melbourne applications This includes systems that monitor usage of the Victorian Student Number (VSN) and registration of teachers with the Victorian Institute of Teachers (VIT) as well as the Working with Children Check for school and office staff.
| Activity / Course | PARTICIPANTS | ||
| PRIMARY | SECONDARY | TOTAL | |
| Term 1 Network Administrator forum | 2 | 45 | 47 |
| Term 2 Network Administrator forum | 2 | 40 | 42 |
| Term 3 Network Administrator forum | 3 | 43 | 46 |
| Term 4 Network Administrator forum | 1 | 40 | 41 |
Our Infrastructure & Capital Funding Unit supports schools to undertake their capital development through these five initiatives:
In 2017, thirteen schools received funding support totalling $17,130,000 under the Capital Grants Program. The program operates annually and has been extended to 2021.
In 2017 this program has assisted schools to undertake their capital development projects shown below:
| School Name | Location | Project Description | Proposed Grant | |
| St Mary’s School | Alexandra | Reconfiguration of corridors, student and staff amenities and extension to administration and associated spaces, to provide disability compliant access through the school. | $500,000
|
|
| Queen of Peace Primary School | Altona Meadows | Partial demolition and refurbishment of 15 general learning areas and administration spaces. Construction of student amenities and administration including school entry. | $1,500,000
|
|
| Christ the King Primary School | Braybrook | Refurbishment of three general learning areas, library/resource area, administration and staff area. Creation of shared learning space. | $1,300,000
|
|
| St Paul the Apostle | Doreen | Construction of eight general learning areas, multi-purpose hall, external play spaces and associated spaces. | $1,500,000
|
|
| St Mark’s School | Fawkner | Refurbishment of six general learning areas and associated spaces. | $1,550,000
|
|
| St John’s School | Frankston East | The refurbishment of general learning areas to provide flexible learning spaces. Upgrade of associated spaces and student amenities. | $660,000
|
|
| St Anthony’s School | Lara | Refurbishment of general learning areas and library space. | $1,550,000
|
|
| St Martin de Porres School | Laverton | Refurbishment of general learning areas including student amenities. Construction of covered outdoor learning areas. | $2,350,000
|
|
| St Dominic’s School | Melton | Refurbishment of eight general learning areas. Construction of four general learning areas above the existing building and associated landscape works. | $2,250,000
|
|
| St Catherine of Siena School | Melton West | Refurbishment of eight general learning areas, associated areas and multi-purpose room. | $1,250,000
|
|
| St Thomas Aquinas School | Norlane | Refurbish four general learning areas. Reconstruction of student and staff amenities, resource area, staff and administration facilities. | $1,320,000
|
|
| St Aloysius College | North Melbourne | Refurbishment of general learning areas. Construction of disability access and associated spaces. | $500,000
|
|
| St Michael’s School | North Melbourne | Refurbishment of general learning areas, staffroom and school hall kitchen and associated areas. Construction of amenities. | $900,000
|
|
| Total | $17,130,000 |
Although The VGCFP program is now closed for application under the current Funding Framework Agreement, the State Government committed $84 million over four years to give those Victorian Catholic schools with the greatest need the opportunity to seek funding for contemporary educational spaces which meet modern teaching and learning requirements.
The final round resulted in twenty projects receiving funding support as shown in the table below:
| School Name | Location | Project Description | Grant Amount |
| St Mary Mackillop School | Bannockburn | Refurbishment of state school site to create new Catholic primary school. | $1,000,000 |
| Mater Christi College | Belgrave | Construction of lecture and performance arts centre and associated spaces. | $1,000,000 |
| Salesian College | Chadstone | Refurbishment and extension to administration area, upgrade of external services and associated spaces. | $1,000,000 |
| St Peter’s School | Epping | Refurbishment of administration and staff facilities and associated areas | $400,000 |
| St Matthew’s School | Fawkner North | Refurbishment of administration, staffroom and associated areas. | $400,000 |
| Sacred Heart Girls’ College | Hughesdale | Construction of flexible learning spaces, two general learning areas and the expansion of storage facilities to the school hall. | $1,000,000 |
| Catholic Regional College | Keilor North | Construction and refurbishment of existing multi-purpose hall and associated spaces. | $2,000,000 |
| Mount Lilydale Mercy College | Lilydale | Demolition of learning areas. Construction of eight general learning areas, staff offices and associated spaces. | $2,000,000 |
| Catholic Regional College | Melton | Refurbishment of gymnasium to provide student resource centre, library and associated areas. | $2,000,000 |
| St Catherine’s School | Moorabbin | Refurbishment of two general learning areas. | $50,000
|
| St Brigid’s School | Mordialloc | Construction of administration, four general learning areas and associated areas. Demolition and external works. Refurbishment of general learning areas | $1,750,000 |
| Santa Maria College | Northcote | Refurbishment of ten general learning areas. Construction of four general learning areas and associated spaces. | $1,000,000 |
| Christ Our Holy Redeemer School | Oakleigh East | Refurbishment of general learning areas and associated works. | $1,450,000 |
| St Mary of the Cross | Point Cook | Construction of five general learning areas and associated spaces. Refurbishment of external areas and student amenities. | $1,500,000 |
| Holy Trinity | Sunbury | Construction of Stage 1 of a new Catholic primary school on a greenfield site. | $2,500,000 |
| St John the Apostle Catholic Primary School | Tarneit West | Stage 3 of new school comprising general learning areas, carpark, Stage 1 of multi-purpose hall | $1,500,000 |
| MacKillop Catholic Regional College | Werribee | Construction of 14 general learning areas. Refurbishment of general learning areas to provide library. Refurbishment to provide staff work areas, and student services and car park. Demolition of relocatables. | $2,000,000 |
| St Andrew’s School | Werribee | Refurbishment of library to provide administration. Refurbishment of administration to provide general learning areas. Construction of staff lounge and outdoor learning area. Reconstruction of student amenities. | $1,650,000 |
| Presentation College | Windsor | Refurbishment of general learning areas, specialist spaces and associated student and teacher amenities in Nagle Building. | $1,000,000 |
| Glowrey school | Wollert | Construction of Stage 1 of a new Catholic primary school on a greenfield site. | $2,500,000 |
| Total | $27,700,000 |
This program runs on an annual basis and is serviced by a per-head capital levy on primary school students to assist schools with annual capital repayments for approved projects (including the establishment of new schools).
Under the Supplementary Capital Fund, 21 Catholic primary schools received $18,223,460 in funding for support in their capital projects (table below):
| School Name | Location | Project Description | Proposed Grant |
|
St Mary MacKillop School |
Bannockburn
|
Refurbishment of state school site to create new Catholic primary school. | $1,000,000 |
| St Scholastica’s School | Bennettswood | Refurbishment of general learning areas and associated areas. | $1,742,311 |
| St George Preca School | Caroline Springs | Construction of six modular general learning areas, multi-purpose spaces, meeting rooms and associated areas. | $409,090 |
| Oscar Romero School | Craigieburn West | Additional funding for the completion of existing project. | $68,260 |
| Sacred Heart School | Diamond Creek | Demolition of five general learning areas. Refurbishment of seven general learning areas, staff and student amenities and associated spaces. | $834,720 |
| St Paul the Apostle | Doreen | Construction of eight general learning areas, multi-purpose hall, external play spaces and associated spaces. | $1,076,138 |
| St Paul the Apostle | Doreen | Purchase of relocatable classrooms | $580,000 |
| St John the Baptist School | Ferntree Gully | Demolition of relocatable buildings. Construction of new and refurbishment of existing general learning areas and associated spaces. | $1,038,028
|
| Resurrection School | Keysborough | Stage 1A to C of the Master Plan to create two general learning areas, the refurbishment of staff and administrative spaces and the conversion of the Hall. | $481,480 |
| St Mary’s School | Mansfield | Refurbishment of five general learning areas and construction of adjoining breakout spaces and associated spaces. | $671,190 |
| St John’s School | Mitcham | Redevelopment of general learning areas incorporating external play spaces. Refurbishment of building façade and associated spaces. | $1,543,958 |
| St Paul’s School | Monbulk | Additional funding for the completion of existing project. | $185,060 |
| Mother Theresa Catholic Primary School | Mt Ridley | Purchase of relocatable classrooms. | $614,640 |
| Sacred Heart School | Newport | Construction of two general learning areas and student amenities to create a contemporary teaching and learning space. | $94,980 |
| Lumen Christi School | Point Cook | Refurbishment and modernisation of classrooms and administration spaces; construction of eight general learning areas; car parking extension and demolition/removal of relocatable facilities. | $418,392 |
| St Mary of the Cross | Point Cook | Construction of five general learning areas, student amenities, and associated spaces. Refurbishment of external areas. | $1,273,030 |
| Holy Trinity School | Sunbury | Construction of Stage 1 of a new Catholic primary school on a greenfield site. | $1.435.000 |
| St John the Apostle Catholic Primary School | Tarneit | Stage 3 of new school comprising general learning areas, carpark, Stage 1 of multi-purpose hall. | $1,402,153 |
| Lisieux Catholic Primary School | Torquay North | Additional funding for the completion of existing project. | $180,000 |
| Glowrey School | Wollert | Construction of Stage 1 of a new Catholic primary school on a greenfield site. | $2.240.000 |
| Our Lady of the Southern Cross | Wyndham Vale | Construction of six general learning area-modular building and associated spaces. | $935,030 |
| Total | $18,223,460 |
To effectively reflect changes in pedagogical practice and enrolment changes impacting space required by a school, the master planning support for schools continues to be an important process in schools’ planning of their capital and facility development.
Modular relocatable classrooms are allocated by Catholic Education Melbourne on an annual needs basis by taking into consideration a school’s enrolment profile and the amount of space available per student. In 2017, a pool of 64 modular relocatable classrooms were administered to assist schools with their short-term accommodation needs.
The following table shows the Relocatable Classroom allocation for the Archdiocese of Melbourne in 2017:
| LOCATION |
School |
No. of Classrooms |
| Ashburton | St Michael’s School | 2 |
| Aspendale | St Louis De Montfort’s School | 5 |
| Caroline Springs | St George Preca School | 2 |
| Crib Point | St Joseph’s School | 2 |
| Dandenong | St Mary’s School | 1 |
| Derrimut | St Lawrence School | 4 |
| Doreen | St Paul Apostle | 1 |
| Epping North | St Mary of the Cross MacKillop Catholic Parish Primary School | 2 |
| Hillside | Cana Catholic Primary Sschool | 4 |
| Kilmore | St Patrick’s School | 6 |
| Lalor West | St Catherine’s School | 2 |
| Laverton | St Martin De Porres School | 1 |
| New Gisborne | Holy Cross School | 1 |
| Point Cook | Lumen Christ School | 3 |
| Roxburgh Park | Good Samaritan Catholic Primary School | 10 |
| South Morang | Marymede Catholic College | 10 |
| Sydenham | Emmaus Catholic Primary School | 4 |
| Tarneit West | St John the Apostle Catholic Primary School | 2 |
| Wyndham Vale | Our Lady of the Southern Cross | 2 |
| Total: | 64 |
Introduced by the Australian Government in 2008, the Trade Training Centres (TSC) in Schools program supports school facilities to develop and deliver vocational education and training. While this program is now closed, funded schools have now entered the operational phase of their TSC facility.
As part of this phase, all schools report annually on the activities of their facilities for 10 years after the commencement date. Annual reports are reviewed to ensure courses being provided by schools are consistent with the agreements with the government, and concur with the government’s registration of the courses.
The Moonlight Head site is currently being developed by Catholic Education Melbourne to create a Rural Learning campus for the Catholic sector. The site is around 400 hectares of land located on the southern side of the Great Ocean Road at Wattle Hill, some 65 kilometres south-west of the Victorian coastal resort town of Apollo Bay. Once completed, the Moonlight Head campus will provide many opportunities for students in a truly remote and beautiful coastal environment.
Development of the property in 2017 included the following key activities:
Our Infrastructure and Capital Funding Unit organised and monitored service contracts for James Goold House, the Catholic Leadership Centre and all Regional Offices. Key service contracts included:
While each school has overall responsibility and control of emergency response and recovery activity, the Emergency Management Working Party (EMWP) gives support, guidance and resources through the respective diocesan Catholic education offices. Members of the EMWP put forward policy advice, guidance and regular reports to the CECV Board.
They met five times in 2017 to share information and knowledge about specific incidents and issues throughout the four dioceses. 2017 saw the EMWP continue to build strong relationships with the Department of Education and Training, Emergency Management Division and Emergency Management Victoria in statewide planning and implementation of Emergency Management.
Significant works in 2017 included:
3 August 2017 Emergency Management Planning Session held at the Catholic Leadership Centre
18 September 2017 School Master Planning Information Session held at the Catholic Leadership Centre
The primary objective of our Planning Unit is the strategic provision of schooling across the Archdiocese of Melbourne. Critical to this work is high-level technical understanding of demographic trends, impact of population growth and changing population characteristics on school enrolments. The extensive work and achievements by the Unit in 2017 included:
Research into a variety of issues is an ongoing priority. In 2017, the Planning Unit in partnership with the Infrastructure & Capital Funding Unit and the LEaRN Team at the University of Melbourne completed the final year of a three-year evaluation of the effectiveness of school learning environments.
With four new Catholic primary schools set to open in 2018, the Planning Unit provided ongoing support to Catholic Education Melbourne New School Project Managers to deliver these schools in Term 1, 2018:
Each was opened on time and registered with the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority (VRQA).
After a formal Parish Working Party process and recommendation, Mother of God School, Ivanhoe, and Holy Eucharist School, Malvern East, closed in December 2017.
A change in approach from the Victorian Planning Authority (VPA) to planning for Catholic schools presented a number of challenges to the Planning Unit. We continued to work with the VPA to ensure the appropriate location for future Catholic school sites in Precinct Structure Plans and Urban Renewal areas.
Urban renewal projects in established residential areas and locations present a challenge to the education sector seeking available land for new schools. Despite this challenge, the Planning Unit’s reassessment of the Inner City School Provision Study identified inner city Parishes where delivery of primary and secondary education is a priority in the short-to-medium term.
For this reason, the Unit engaged two developers to identify sites for Catholic primary and secondary education facilities.
In 2017, key members of the Planning Unit completed Phase Two of the School Planning and Infrastructure Data Analytics (SPIDA) software development program to deliver more effective data analytic services to schools. This included the completion of modules for strategic planning, demographic analysis, enrolment forecasting, master planning, building project management, grant and funding administration and facilities management.
Overall, SPIDA will provide holistic information support across the entire life cycle of educational spaces, reducing risks inherent in the legacy platform. It will also fit in seamlessly with the recently introduced ICON (Integrated Catholic Online Network) platform. SPIDA is available for use by both the Planning Unit and our schools.
25 October 2017 Hosting of the Planning Profiles Training Session
18 September 2017 Presentation of the Catholic Education Melbourne Strategic Provision Planning at School Provision Planning Conference, Sydney NSW
The Catholic Leadership Centre (CLC) is a facility where Catholic Education Melbourne can continually educate our educators.
It’s a place where our principals, teachers and administrators can learn to better serve our schools.
It’s an environment where our principals, teachers and administrators develop in becoming exemplary leaders.
Operated by Catholic Education Melbourne, the CLC hosts professional learning and leadership programs, executive courses and conferences supporting Catholic education and Catholic agencies.
Centrally located in East Melbourne, CLC is a state-of-the-art, purpose-built learning and conference centre with two large halls, 10 learning/conference spaces, a 350 seat dining room, 45 accommodation rooms and is operated by a team of hospitality specialists.
In 2017, the CLC:
In addition to the regular professional learning programs, key Catholic events held at the CLC in 2017 included:
