VIC.GOV.AU | Policy and Advisory Library

Repeating a Year Level

Policy last updated

6 October 2025

Scope

  • Schools

Date:
February 2020

On this page:

Policy

previously called Year Level Movement

Policy

This policy explains the department’s requirements on students repeating a year level.

Summary

  • Students should progress to the next year level with their peer group, unless there are exceptional circumstances and the principal and the student’s parents/carers agree that repeating the year is in the best interest of the student.
  • Research indicates that repeating a year level can be associated with poorer student wellbeing, achievement and school completion.
  • If a family makes a request for their child to repeat a year, the principal or their delegate must follow a 3-step process:
    1. meet with the student’s parents/carers
    2. consider all relevant factors
    3. communicate the final decision to the parents/carers, and the student where appropriate.

Details

Schools should progress students to the next year level with their peer group, unless there are exceptional circumstances.

Impact of repeating a year

Repeating a year level can be associated with poorer student wellbeing, achievement and school completion, including loss of confidence, development of negative attitudes towards school and learning, and challenging behaviour. Students who repeat a year are unlikely to catch up with peers, on average make about 3 months’ less progress than their peers who don’t repeat, and are more likely to disengage and leave school prior to completion.

Relevant research can be found in the Resources tab.

Decision making

Principals must use their professional expertise and judgement about individual student progression. A decision for a student to repeat a year of school will only be made in exceptional circumstances, and with parent or carer consent. When making this assessment, principals must consider:

  • the student’s social, emotional and academic needs
  • whether repeating a year may prevent the student from ultimately being able to complete a senior secondary or foundation secondary school certificate at the school because of maximum school age limitations
  • research findings on the impact of repeating a year level (refer to the Resources tab).

A student may repeat a year level only in exceptional circumstances, and with agreement of both the principal and the family that this is in the best interest of the student.

Responding to a family request for their child to repeat a year level

A family may make a request to the school for their child to repeat a year.

If a family makes such a request, the principal or their delegate must:

  1. meet with the family and discuss the student’s progress, emotional and academic needs, existing and potential future supports, any supporting documentation, and the summary of research on repeating a year level – refer to Repeating a year level information for principals (DOCX)External Link
  2. following the meeting, reach a decision considering all the factors listed in step 1. Principals are encouraged to seek support and input from their senior education improvement leader and other area and regional colleagues, for example, Student Support Services (SSS)
  3. communicate the decision to the family, outlining all the considerations and next steps to support the student.

Principal initiated decision to repeat a year

A principal may, on the advice of their staff or as a result of their own observations, form the view that, in exceptional circumstances, it would be in the best interest of a student for them to repeat the year.

The principal must meet with the parents/carers and the student where appropriate, and set out the reasons for their view.

Parent/carer agreement must be received. If a parent/carer does not agree, the principal cannot require a student to repeat a year.

A principal must not pressure or coerce parents/carers to agree to a student repeating a year.

Requests for students to transfer to another school to repeat a year

Where a parent requests that their child transfer from one government school to another government school with the purpose of repeating a year level, the decision about which year level the student will be enrolled in rests with the principal of the enrolling school.

When making this decision, the principal of the enrolling school must consult with the parent or carer and if appropriate, the student, to understand the basis of the request to repeat a year level. Where the enrolment has been accepted (but the year level not decided upon yet), the principal may also consult with the principal of the transferring school on the appropriate year level to place the student.

Where the parents do not want the enrolment to proceed until a decision is made about year level, the principal must seek parent/carer consent before consulting with the student’s current principal. For student transfers refer to Student transfers between schools.

Parent/carer complaints

If parents or carers have requested that their child repeat a year level and are not satisfied with the principal’s decision, they can lodge a complaint following the school’s Complaints Policy. To view the department’s complaints policy, refer to Complaint Resolution.

Senior secondary school

Most students complete the VCE through 16 to 20 units over a period of 2 years; however, students may accumulate units over any number of years. For more information, visit the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority websiteExternal Link .

Contacts

For support with specific queries relating to students repeating a year level, schools may contact their senior education improvement leader.

For general queries about this Repeating a Year Level Policy please contact the department’s Partnerships and Priority Cohorts Branch on:

Guidance

Guidance

There is no further guidance for this topic. For more information, refer to the Resources tab.

Resources

Resources

Communicating with families

The department has developed resources to support schools to communicate with families about repeating a year level:

Download information for families in different languages

The repeating a year level information for families is available to download in different languages:

Research on repeating a year level

For evidence on repeating a year level, refer to the following research:

  • Evidence for Learning, Teaching and Learning Toolkit (2021) Repeating a year – Negative impact for very high cost based on limited evidenceExternal Link , The Education Endowment Foundation, accessed 2 October 2025.

    Summary of findings of 71 studies:

    • Requiring students to repeat a year has a negative impact. Negative effects are rare for educational interventions, so the extent to which students who repeat a year make less progress is striking.
    • Where students are not achieving expected outcomes, alternative interventions to provide intensive support may make repeating a school year unnecessary, for example, small group tuition.
    • Students who repeat a year are unlikely to catch up with peers of a similar level who move on, even after completing an additional year’s schooling.
    • The average impact of a student repeating a year is about 3 months less progress over the course of a year than if the same student had not repeated the year, when compared with similar students.
    • Negative effects are disproportionately greater for disadvantaged students, for students from different cultural backgrounds and for students who are relatively young in their year group.
    • Negative effects tend to increase with time and repeating more than one year significantly increases the risk of students dropping out of school.

  • Visible Learning (2018) Hattie Ranking: 252 Influences And Effect Sizes Related To Student AchievementExternal Link , accessed 2 October 2025.

    Summary of findings:

    • Hattie ranked 252 influences that are related to learning outcomes from very positive effects to very negative effects. Retention (holding students back) is an intervention with a significant negative effect of -0.32.

  • Peixoto F, Monteiro V, Mata L, Sanches C, Pipa J and Almeida LS (2016) 'To be or not to be retained ... That’s the question!' Retention, self-esteem, self-concept, achievement goals, and gradesExternal Link , Frontiers in Psychology, 7(1550):1–13.

    Summary of findings:

    • Repeating a year level has long term negative impacts that remain even when students recover academic achievement and the experience is in the distant past.
    • Students who repeat a year can lose confidence in their learning, develop negative attitudes towards school and learning, have low self-esteem, and increased aggressive and disruptive behaviours.
    • Year level repetition can increase the risk of not completing school and decrease the likelihood of participation in tertiary education.

  • Cham H, Hughes JN, West SG and Im MH (2015) Effect of Retention in Elementary Grades on Grade 9 Motivation for Educational AttainmentExternal Link , Journal of School Psychology, 53:7–27.

    Summary of findings:

    • Repeating a year level is an expensive intervention with minimal evidence of benefits to the retained student.

  • Martin AJ (2011) Holding back and holding behind: Grade retention and students' non-academic and academic outcomesExternal Link , British Educational Research Journal, 37(5):739–763.

    Summary of findings:

    • Repeating a year level has negative implications for academic motivation, academic engagement, academic self-concept, and general self-esteem.
    • Repeating a year level increased student maladaptive motivation and weeks absent from school.

Reviewed 06 October 2025