School Networks

Network operations

Network annual work plans

Each network must develop an annual work plan to guide their work in the following school year.

The annual work plan outlines the actions the network will take to address their local improvement priorities in line with statewide directions and reforms.

Networks reflect on progress against the work plan in Term 4 each year, and this reflection informs the development of the next year’s work plan.

An optional template for the network annual work plan will be available in Term 3 2025.

Network meetings

Networks must meet at least twice per term. All principals are required to attend network meetings, and if a principal is unable to attend they may delegate another school leader from their school (usually the assistant principal) to attend on their behalf.

Networks may set their own local arrangements for other invitees to network meetings where, for example, assistant principals and/or other school leaders may also be invited to attend.

Each network determines the structure of its network meetings. The network chair leads the development of the agenda for each meeting, in conjunction with the SEIL and network executive, noting that across the year the network must cover their annual work plan.

Network meetings may include:

• deep dives into specific projects or problems of practice led by member schools
• time for communities of practice (CoPs) to meet
• externally provided professional learning
• updates from the SEIL
• reflection on the network annual work plan and planning for the next meeting.

The network chair is responsible for ensuring that a summary of the discussion and any actions emerging from the meeting are recorded. A brief summary of key discussion points, or the learning focus when a professional learning activity is conducted in the meeting, followed by a clear resolution where appropriate, is sufficient. The summary of the discussion should not record the remarks of individual network members unless there is a good reason for doing so. Good practice is to pull out action items into a separate action list which records:

• a brief description of the action to be taken
• who will undertake the action and by when
• a reference to the agenda item
• the status and expected date of completion of the action.

Optional templates for network meeting agendas and summaries of meeting discussions are available in the Resources tab.

Communities of practice

Networks may establish communities of practice (CoPs). CoPs are sub-groups that work more intensively on common areas of interest, such as:

• VTLM 2.0
• literacy
• numeracy
• attendance
• mental health and wellbeing
• Marrung
• senior secondary reforms.

CoPs can meet as part of, or separate to, network meetings, and can include:

• principals
• assistant principals
• other school leaders.

Networks may also establish collaborative structures for middle leaders who are able to progress the work of the network or a particular community of practice.

CoPs and other collaborative structures are intended to:

• connect people
• introduce collaborative processes
• stimulate learning
• capture and diffuse existing knowledge
• help people organise
• generate new knowledge.

Network development

Networks are encouraged to use the Network Development Roadmap (PDF) to self-assess their practice and identify opportunities for further development on an annual basis.

Networks are supported to use the Network Development Roadmap through the WISE program offered by the Academy.

The roadmap outlines the strategies for actively building and sustaining relational trust within a network. These strategies are grouped under 3 elements (establish, build, amplify) and 6 components of network development as shown below.

Establish: lay enabling groundwork

1. Productive relationships
   1. Actively strengthen personal connections and knowledge of each other’s schools
   2. Encourage members to provide practical help to each other, for example with VTLM 2.0 practices
   3. Actively enhance psychological safety
   4. Surface and address uncomfortable issues
   5. Onboard new members and nurture their sense of connection and belonging
2. Strategic focus
   1. Uncover and define a unifying common purpose and shared values
   2. Jointly craft a compelling and motivating vision to implement VTLM 2.0
   3. Promote alignment and coherence among school, network, regional and state improvement directions
   4. Determine core priorities collaboratively, and align activities and resources to VTLM 2.0, for example, refer to VLPs
   5. Ensure continuity through network leadership team succession planning

Build: develop sustainable systems

3. Learning architecture
   1. Define the core components of your network learning approach
   2. Design an annual learning rhythm and plan
   3. Harness digital platforms and tools to enhance engagement and efficiency
   4. Actively open up network opportunities to engage with leaders at all levels
   5. Seek and respond to feedback from members
4. Learning processes
   1. Showcase effective local VTLM 2.0 practices and elevate internal experts
   2. Analyse network and school data sets to track progress and define problems
   3. Engage with robust research evidence to build knowledge and guide decision-making
   4. Draw on credible external expertise and ensure inputs are tailored to VTLM 2.0 strategic focus
   5. Embed protocols for raising and addressing problems of practice

Amplify: empower collaborative improvement

5. Collaborative improvement approaches
   1. Define the network collaborative improvement structures (for example, communities of practice) and processes (for example, collaborative complex problem solving)
   2. Train facilitators within the network, to lead collaborative processes and activate dispositions (Academy Leadership Excellence Framework)
   3. Organise and actively facilitate collaborative improvement approaches
   4. Continually evaluate and refine approaches to enhance effectiveness
   5. Share improvement lessons, for example, VTLM 2.0 evidence-informed practices and tested approaches back into the network
6. Collective accountability
   1. Instil practices and norms for effective peer challenge and feedback
   2. Proactively partner and align with area and region
   3. Orchestrate and lead cross-school peer review processes
   4. Establish and cultivate intentional school-school capability building partnerships
   5. Strengthen other networks by mentoring, inviting collaboration and generously sharing your best resources

Network funding

Each network determines the level of financial support that their member schools will contribute for network activities.

In addition to these contributions, funding of up to $5,000 per annum is available for each network to support network activities, claimed as a reimbursement through the Schools Targeted Funding Governance (STFG) Portal ($2,500 July to December and $2,500 January to June). Any remaining funds from July to December are rolled over to January to June. Funds cannot be rolled over across financial years.

The nominated school on the funding program for a double network is eligible for $10,000 per year (up to $5,000 July to December and up to $5,000 January to June).

Network chairs are responsible for overseeing collection and disbursement of network funding, and must maintain records as to the funds collected and disbursed. The network executive is responsible for overall oversight of the expenditure of network funds.

Reimbursements

Reimbursements for expenditure must be claimed via the STFG Portal (staff login required). Schools can claim reimbursement of the following expenses (up to the allocated allowance amount):

• casual relief teachers (CRTs) to allow staff to participate in activities that relate to the network workplan and CoP
• network administration including venue hire and catering for network meetings or professional learning, travel to attend network meetings and salary for administrative support.

Schools must provide evidence in the form of receipts or invoices that clearly state the date and reason for the expense. Invoices should not include GST.

Requests for reimbursement must be made out to:

Victorian Academy of Teaching and Leadership
603–615 Queensberry St, North Melbourne 3051.

If the funding program for your nominated school is not appearing on the portal, please contact the Schools Targeted Funding Governance team at Schools.targeted.funding.governance@education.vic.gov.au