Our Place shares expertise with Parliamentary Inquiry into Victoria’s Education System

Our Place has made a submission to the Parliamentary Inquiry into the State Education System in Victoria this month, with a series of key recommendations to address educational outcomes for all families and children in disadvantaged communities in Victoria.

The Legislative Council Legal and Social Issues Committee is investigating the Victorian education system across government schools, with the inquiry looking at trends in student learning outcomes, disparities associated with geography and socio-disadvantage; the state of the teaching profession including the administrative burden on teachers; and student wellbeing.

The submission aims to draw the Committees attention to Our Place being an existing model of best practice that is already being demonstrated within Victoria.

Our Place’s recommendations to the committee include that the Inquiry’s findings should:

• Acknowledge that underlying, systemic disadvantage continues to determine the education outcomes for children in many communities and that multi-sectoral, long-term investments and new ways of working are required to address this.

• Recommend an increase in the fully integrated school environments, replicating the quality and ambition of the Our Place approach for more communities: where wrap around support for children and families can be delivered in a collaborative and family-centric setting.

• Identify the role of parents as a child’s first educators and the importance of active support for and engagement of parents by the school system. Ongoing resourcing for programs that enable this, such as the Early Help Trail, should also be recommended.

• Support increased continuity of learning between early learning and school including through aligning the training, pedagogy and career paths for educators.

• Recommend an increase in ongoing funding for schools in communities with high levels of disadvantage to provide regular engagement and enrichment activities as a mechanism to materially improve school attendance and build essential life skills.

The Inquiry is due to report to Parliament with findings and recommendations for government by 25 June 2024.
To read the Our Place submission, click here
For the Inquiry terms of reference, click here