By Bridie Smith
Marina Oliver believed she had found the perfect school for her children. Her daughter and son have dyslexia and a new school planned for Bundoora ticked all the boxes.
The school would use an evidence-based teaching approach and cater for students with dyslexia and other learning difficulties. The only problem? Plans for it have been put on hold.
Marina Oliver is desperate for her children, Morrison and Violet, to get the specialist teaching they need.Credit: Justin McManus
The Queensland-based not-for-profit Mastery Schools Australia says it withdrew its registration application for the Bundoora campus to open in 2024 after Victorian authorities nominated more than 300 items they wanted to be rectified before it could proceed.
Most related to the governance structure of the Queensland-based organisation, which operates five schools in its home state.
“I’m quite desperate for [my children] to start,” Oliver said. “We’re on the edges of our seats waiting for confirmation.”
Oliver’s daughter, Violet Duggan, 12, and son Morrison, 9, are at a Catholic primary school – while she has no complaints, she knows they need more assistance.
Oliver suspects Violet, who is in grade 6, has a reading and writing level of a grade 4 student, while Morrison, in grade 3, is probably 12 to 18 months behind.
“If you finish school and can’t read and write, you are not going to have the same opportunities as someone else,” Oliver said. “You will be so disadvantaged.”
Mastery Schools Australia leased a building from La Trobe University before applying to the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority last year to open a school for 180 students.
Mastery’s general manager of corporate services Ashleigh Mitchell said the group could not believe the red tape involved in registering a school in Victoria.
“I’ve never seen or experienced anything like it, it was next-level extensive,” Mitchell said. “We definitely had a meeting to discuss whether it was even worth it.”
However, the group decided to persevere because its affiliation with La Trobe University was “just too good to be true”.
Mitchell said Mastery resubmitted its application to open in 2025 after setting up a Victorian subsidiary with a separate board, bank account and accountant.
When asked about the 300 items that needed to be rectified, the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority responded with a short statement that did not go into detail. A spokesperson said new school applications went through “a thorough and in-depth process” to ensure they were compliant with the minimum standards outlined in the Education and Training Reform Regulations.
La Trobe University dean of education, Professor Joanna Barbousas, said she was keen for the partnership to proceed, given the university’s science of learning approach complemented Mastery Schools Australia’s evidence-based practice.
She said pre-service teachers studying at the university would benefit from doing their placements, on-site practice and tutoring at the school.
The university’s academics would also be able to conduct longitudinal studies on teachers in training to see how their practices developed after graduation.
“The opportunity for us here at La Trobe is to really collaborate with a school that does focus only on the science of learning,” she said. “It makes it a rich weave of research opportunities.”
Advocacy group SPELD Victoria estimates there are more than 100,000 students with significant learning and language difficulties in Victoria, but many go undiagnosed.
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