The Age Schools Summit LIVE updates: Education minister announces teaching overhaul

And that’s where we’ll leave today’s live coverage.

Thanks for reading, and good night.

The final panel discussion has just ended. The thoughts of Dr Mark Merry, principal of Yarra Valley Grammar, were in high demand.

As principal of the private school in Melbourne’s outer-east, Merry had to manage and respond to news that a spreadsheet ranking female students had been produced and circulated on social media.

Two boys were expelled over the spreadsheet containing photos of their female peers posted to messaging app Discord. The document ranked the students in categories including “wifeys”, “cuties”, “mid”, “object”, “get out” and then finally “unrapable”.

Merry said his school, sadly, was not alone.

“If there is a principal out there who thinks it’s not going on at their school, it is. It really is.”

He said while the fallout played out at school because it involved students, families also had a central role to play.

Even though schools are talking about respect, diversity and dignity in class and on campus, said Merry, they are “competing with [controversial social media personality] Andrew Tate at home. That’s what we are up against”.

Fellow panellists Lisa Holt, principal at Rosebud Secondary College, and Robert Pyers, from the school performance division at the Education Department, agreed.

“I think it’s a partnership and I think parents really need the support,” Holt said.

She said she didn’t think parents understood what was going on online, but she believed they wanted to.

The final presentation at today’s summit was made by Australian Education Research Organisation chief executive Dr Jenny Donovan, who advocated for routines and rules in the classroom.

“Classroom management and quality teaching go hand-in-hand,” she said.

Australian Education Research Organisation boss Dr Jenny Donovan. Credit: Brook Mitchell

Donovan said pervasive, insidious behaviour at a low level is disruptive and negatively impacts student learning outcomes. Low-level disengagement is behind the behaviour which, she said, had “become almost normalised in our classrooms”.

Misbehaviour in classrooms can impact teacher confidence and leave them feeling under-prepared for classroom management, she said. This can result in principals spending extra time to help teachers manage behaviour issues.

Donovan added that high expectations showed students that teachers believed in their success. Routines in the classroom give students predictability and structure and this builds a sense of safety, she said.

“Introducing that routine and detailing expectations … will set them up to succeed.”

The reactions to today’s phonics announcement keep rolling in.

Among those celebrating is Dyslexia Victoria Support founder Heidi Gregory, who had this to say:

This decision will empower educators with the tools and training necessary to deliver structured and effective reading instruction, ensuring that every child has the opportunity to succeed.

The removal of balanced literacy from our schools signifies a bold and necessary step towards rectifying past educational shortcomings and aligns Victoria with best practices in literacy education worldwide.

Back at the schools summit, attendees have reconvened after lunch, and the Grattan Institute’s education program director Dr Jordana Hunter has outlined a case for multi-school organisations, or “families” of 10 to 100 schools.

While the model exists overseas in government and independent school sectors, it’s new to Victoria.

Dr Jordana Hunter from the Grattan Institute.Credit: Rhett Wyman

Multi-school organisations benefit from a shared leadership. Hunter said most school “families” consisted of 20 to 40 schools.

“They sit in that sweet spot – not too big, not too small,” she said.

Operational support from multi-school organisations can include back-office help, professional development or teacher recruitment. Another benefit, she said, was that if a principal moved on, a school’s success did not become vulnerable as the leadership network was robust.

Hunter said feedback from overseas suggested the model better supported principals, meaning they had more time for staff.

Staying with that press conference for a moment, and the Liberal MP for Kew went on to criticise the timeline for mandatory phonics education in all Victorian government schools.

As we learnt this morning, the rollout will begin next year, but schools will have three years to completely transition.

Jess Wilson said other states rolled out their phonics programs immediately.

“In a three-year rollout, more students will be left behind,” the opposition education spokeswoman said.

Earlier, we flagged that the state opposition was holding a press conference to respond to Education Minister Ben Carroll’s announcement about mandatory phonics for students from prep to grade 2.

Here’s what shadow education minister Jess Wilson told reporters a little while ago:

Liberal frontbencher Jess Wilson. Credit: Eamon Gallagher

It is simply unacceptable that it has taken a decade for the Labor government to introduce phonics, evidence-based learing and explicit instructions in our classrooms.

The minister himself this morning said the evidence has been clear for over 20 years about the impact of evidence-based learning in our classrooms. [A] Labor government has been in power for 21 of the last 25 years in this state. Yet, over that time, thousands of Victorian students have been left behind when it comes to how we teach them to read.

This is too little, too late from this government.

The Age Schools Summit is taking a break for lunch. Here’s today’s agenda for when attendees return.

2pm The case for trialling multi-school organisations in Victoria

Dr Jordana Hunter, education program director, Grattan Institute

2.20pm Panel discussion: School improvement and turnaround

Elaine Hazim, principal, Victoria University Secondary College
Jacquie Burrows, principal, Churchill Primary School
Dan Steele, former assistant principal, Aldercourt Primary School

Moderated by Dr Jordana Hunter, education program director, Grattan Institute

2.50pm Afternoon tea

3.10pm Evidence-based strategies for engaged classrooms

Dr Jenny Donovan, CEO, Australian Education Research Organisation

3.30pm Panel discussion: Behavioural management

Lisa Holt, principal, Rosebud Secondary College
Robert Pyers, project manager, School Performance Division, Department of Education
Dr Mark Merry, principal, Yarra Valley Grammar School

Moderated by Robyn Grace, education editor, The Age

4pm Closing remarks

Returning to the schools summit, and attendees have heard from three school leaders about the benefits of direct instruction.

Kitty Hancock, principal at St Mary’s Primary School in Myrtleford, described explicit direct instruction as a game changer for her school, which she admitted had student behaviour problems when she arrived as principal.

Hancock said instructional teaching was a major part of improvements to student behaviour and engagement – but apparently simple things, like facing desks forward to the teacher, had also worked wonders.

“The children are all very focused. They are engaging with the teachers, and that’s right across the school – it’s the same in foundation as in grade 6.”

Cranbourne Primary School principal Lachlan Yeates said like St Mary’s in Myrtleford, his school had problems with student behaviour before making the shift to direct instruction.

“There was violence in the yard [both] towards teachers and students. And the learning had slipped away,” he said. “When we started, there was a sense of helplessness among teachers.”

Turning to other schools for advice on resources and approaches, the school introduced Read to Learn and Write to Learn programs and saw improvements within a term.

Yeates said in the past three years, the school has recorded improved NAPLAN performances and student attendance.

He said today’s announcement that government schools would teach the same type of reading lessons based on systematic synthetic phonics was sure to benefit both students and teachers. It is a significant change to the current system, which lets principals choose their own approach.

Some educators say their schools had problems with student behaviour before shifting to direct instruction.Credit: iStock

“The strength and weakness of the Victorian education system is the autonomy that each school has. But this announcement will help a lot of schools, so I really celebrate it.”

Yeates said he was surprised how much direct instruction benefited students with a trauma background and neurodivergent students.

Kathryn D’Elia, director of learning at Goulburn Valley Grammar, said the school’s direct instruction teaching approach was well-supported by the school community.

However, broadly speaking, D’Elia acknowledged it was hard to bring all teachers along the evidence-based teaching path.

“Teachers are emotionally invested in their jobs, and if they have been teaching for 30, 40 years, being told that there’s a better way can be very confronting. Some will want to do what they have always done.”

Speech Pathology Australia supports today’s phonics announcement from the Allan government.

Here’s what its president Kathryn McKinley had to say in a statement:

We’ve been advocating for the introduction of systematic synthetic phonics into the curriculum for a long time.

A child’s early years at primary school are critical for learning to read and this change means that no child will be left behind.

SPA is committed to supporting the successful implementation of these reforms.

We commend the Victorian government for its commitment to evidence-based practice in education.

We look forward to continuing to work with educators, policymakers and other stakeholders to enhance language and literacy outcomes for all Victorian students.