Annual Report to the School Community

Attestation and endorsement

Endorsement

Following principal attestation, the draft Annual Report must be downloaded from SPOT and taken to a meeting of the school council for endorsement, with this endorsement noted in the meeting minutes.

The school council may request updates to the Annual Report. In this case, it is recommended that it is motioned and noted in the meeting minutes that the Annual Report has been endorsed by the school council, pending the requested changes. This enables the Annual Report to be finalised without having to be taken back to a subsequent school council meeting for endorsement.

At this meeting, the school council are encouraged to identify a time to hold the public reporting meeting to share the final Annual Report with the community, and organise responsibility for publicising this meeting. It is recommended that the public reporting meeting takes place at the start of Term 3.

Attestation

The obligations of attestation recognise the different roles and responsibilities of principals and school council presidents.

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 any exemption granted to this school by the VRQA, for the most recent calendar year, in relation to minimum student enrolment numbers and/or the curriculum framework requirement to deliver a languages program)
• the school meets the requirements of the Child Safe Standards as prescribed in Ministerial Order 1359 – Implementing the Child Safe Standards – Managing the risk of child abuse in schools (PDF).

Note: Principals of schools that are not compliant with the Minimum Standards or Child Safe Standards cannot attest to the Annual Report. Schools that have received advice they are not compliant, or are concerned that this may be the case, must contact the department’s School Compliance Unit for support, by 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 the Strategic Planning Online Tool (SPOT), follow the steps outlined below:

• log on to SPOT
• on the school homepage, under ‘Annual Report to the School Community’, select the latest year from the drop-down box and click ‘Manage Annual Report’
• navigate to the ‘Attest and view report’ tab
• attest the Annual Report by clicking the ‘Attest Annual Report’ button.

School council presidents

Once the principal has attested the Annual Report, the school council president will receive an email to alert them that the Annual Report is ready for their attestation.

Before the school council president attests to the Annual Report in SPOT, the Annual Report must be endorsed by the school council.

Note that school council presidents have read-only access to SPOT, which means they cannot add comments or make changes to the Annual Report.

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

• log on to SPOT (@education username and password required)
• on the school’s homepage, under ‘Annual Report to the School Community’, select the latest year from the drop-down box and click ‘Manage Annual Report’
• navigate to the ‘Attest and view report’ tab
• attest the Annual Report by clicking the ‘Attest Annual Report’ button, under the ‘School council president: attest’ heading.

Note: If the 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, for any reason, changes to the Annual Report are required after principal attestation, principals must follow the steps outlined below:

• click the ‘Edit About our school commentary’ button under the ‘Attest and view report’ tab in SPOT to revert the Annual Report to draft
• make any adjustments required in the ‘About our school’ tab
• re-attest the Annual Report, once the required changes have been made
• share changes with the school council, if required.

Once the principal has re-attested the Annual Report, the school council president will receive an email notification at their @education account, prompting them to attest to the school council’s endorsement of the Annual Report in SPOT.

Note: If the school council president has already attested the Annual Report and changes need to be made, please use the ‘Report an issue’ button in SPOT to request the Annual Report to be reverted to draft.