Annual Report to the School Community

Attestation and endorsement

The obligations of attestation and endorsement recognise the different roles and responsibilities of principals, school council presidents, and school councils in relation to school governance, and the importance of the minimum standards in keeping students and staff safe.

By attesting the Annual Report, the principal attests that:

• all teachers at the school meet the registration requirements of the Victorian Institute of Teaching (VIT)
• the school meets prescribed Minimum Standards for registration as regulated by the Victorian Regulation and Qualifications Authority (VRQA) in accordance with the Education and Training Reform Act 2006 (Vic). This includes schools granted an exemption by the VRQA until 31 December 2021 from the Minimum Standards for student enrolment numbers and/or curriculum framework for school language programs
• the school is compliant with the Child Safe Standards prescribed in Ministerial Order 1359 – Implementing the Child Safe Standards – Managing the risk of child abuse in schools (PDF).

Principals of schools that are not compliant with the Minimum Standards or Child Safe Standards cannot attest to the Annual Report. If you are concerned that your school may not be compliant please contact the department’s School Compliance Unit for support, phone: 03 9084 8788 or email: school.compliance@education.vic.gov.au

By attesting the Annual Report, the school council president attests that the Annual Report:

• has been tabled and endorsed at a meeting of the school council under the Education and Training Reform Regulations 2017 (Vic)
• will be publicly shared with the school community.

How to attest in SPOT

Principals

To attest the Annual Report in SPOT, principals should follow the steps outlined below:

• Log on to the Strategic Planning Online Tool (SPOT) (staff login required)
• On your school homepage under ‘Annual Report to the School Community’ select ‘2022’ from the drop-down box and click ‘Manage report’
• Navigate to the ‘Attest and view report’ tab
• Attest the Annual Report by clicking on the ‘attest’ button

School council presidents

School council presidents will receive an email to alert them that the Annual Report is ready for their attestation once it has been attested by the principal.

School council presidents should ensure they wait for school council to endorse the Annual Report before attesting to this in SPOT.

To attest the Annual Report, school council presidents can follow the link provided in the email alert, or follow the steps outlined below:

• Log on to the Strategic Planning Online Tool (SPOT) (@education username and password required)
• On the school’s homepage under ‘Annual Report to the School Community’ select ‘2022’ from the drop-down box and click ‘Manage report’
• Navigate to the ‘Attest and view report’ tab
• Attest the Annual Report by clicking on the ‘attest’ button, under the ‘School council president: attest’ heading

If the school council requests changes to the Annual Report prior to providing their endorsement:

• it is recommended that it is motioned and noted in meeting minutes that the Annual Report is endorsed by the school council pending changes – this ensures the principal does not have to take the Annual Report back to a subsequent school council meeting for endorsement
• where changes to the Annual Report are required, principals can click the ‘Edit About our school commentary’ button, under the ‘Attest and view report’ tab in SPOT, and make any adjustments required in the ‘About our school’ tab
• once the required changes have been made to the Annual Report the principal can re-attest
• an email notification will then be sent to the school council president’s @education email account prompting them to attest to school council’s endorsement of the annual report in SPOT.

Note: If your school council president is experiencing difficulties attesting the Annual Report in SPOT, please refer to the Access to SPOT for school council presidents chapter for guidance on troubleshooting.

Making changes to the Annual Report after attestation

• If changes are required after principal attestation, click the ‘Edit About our school commentary’ button under the ‘Attest and view report’ tab. This will revert the Annual Report to draft and the principal will be able to make any changes.
• School council presidents have read-only access to the Annual Report – they cannot add comments or make changes to the Annual Report.
• If the school council president has already attested the Annual Report and changes need to be made, please use the ‘Report an issue’ button on SPOT to request the Annual Report to be reverted to draft.
• After making changes the principal should re-attest the Annual Report, share changes with the school council, and ask the school council president to re-attest.