Annual Report to the School Community

5. Quality assurance

The department quality assures a random sample of Annual Reports each year to ensure they meet quality standards.

To meet quality standards, Annual Reports must:

• meet the relevant legislative and regulatory requirements
• be written in a clear and succinct narrative style accessible to a public audience (for example, using plain language, avoiding jargon, omitting individual staff and contractor names for privacy reasons)
• contain minimal spelling and grammatical errors
• include a school logo
• meet privacy requirements by not including any of the following:
  • names of staff, students, contractors or department staff
  • any reference to Out of Home Care programs
  • number of students in any category, if less than 5 or the equivalent percentage
  • number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff.

Schools will receive an automatic email from the SPOT (staff login required) to let them know when they have passed quality assurance, if any action is required to meet quality assurance standards, or if they have not been selected for quality assurance.

Annual Reports that do not meet quality assurance standards will be returned to the school with feedback through SPOT. Schools can check the quality assurance status of their Annual Report in SPOT by clicking on the ‘Quality assurance’ tab in the Annual Report and looking under the ‘Quality assurance status’ heading.

Once a school has been notified that they have passed or have not been selected for quality assurance, the Annual Report can be shared with the school community.

Schools seeking additional support to meet quality assurance can contact the School Planning, Review and Annual Reporting Unit by emailing schoolannualreport@education.vic.gov.au