Secret new campus for ‘vulnerable’ Greater Shepparton Secondary kids
Secret plans have revealed a new super school in Shepparton plans to ship difficult kids off to another campus. A selection process is underway to determine which students will go.
Education
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Secret plans reveal Shepparton’s difficult kids will be plucked out of their new super school and sent to a campus 30 minutes drive away.
Controversial Greater Shepparton Secondary College — which formed this year by merging four schools into one — is hiring staff for a new site for its “most vulnerable” students.
Staff memos show the school will launch a “Rural Annex” at Invergordon, 30 minutes drive north of Shepparton, in term 3.
Student “selection” was underway, while an assistant principal was assigned and two teaching jobs were being advertised.
The former Invergordon Primary School — closed in 2018 — has been earmarked as the location for selected pupils.
However, there has been no mention of the campus in public briefing papers, plans or school notices.
The Herald Sun found a child safety risk assessment for the Rural Annex, written in March and upload among the school’s policy documents online.
It was removed from the school’s website within hours of questions being submitted to the government.
Building is underway at the former Shepparton High site for a new school campus to cater for 2700 students of Greater Shepparton Secondary College.
Meanwhile, pupils merged from four campuses have been spread across McGuire College, Mooroopna Secondary and Wanganui Park Secondary.
It’s understood none of the previous schools had a Rural Annex program.
When the new school is completed in 2022, it’s understood the Rural Annex would be moved there and the Invergordon site possibly used as an agricultural learning hub.
A risk assessment found ineffective communication with students picked to attend the Rural Annex and their families could lead to “severe” consequences, with “clear communication” pinpointed as a solution.
It also suggested “regular media stories” as a way to combat the risk of a lack of community confidence.
Despite the risk assessment being put together more than two months ago, the school community was yet to be briefed about the campus.
Education Minister James Merlino confirmed the “therapeutic education program” had been planned for “some time” and would begin from term 3
“Similar programs have been particularly successful at a number of schools across the state with students who are at risk of disengaging from education,” he said.
Member for Northern Victoria Wendy Lovell blasted the plan, questioning why the government was spending money opening another campus so soon after closing four schools to establish a single school this year.
“The educational outcomes of our students is the critical factor and these will deteriorate if some students are hidden away at the rural campus,” she said.
The Herald Sun has been told the campus intended to give short-term intensive support to re-engage kids in mainstream learning.
When plans for the new super school were unveiled, families expressed concerns over bullying and troubling behaviour due to all the region’s public high school students being forced together.
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