School Networks

School network operations

Annual school network plans

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

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

School networks reflect on progress against the school network plan in Term 4 each year, and this reflection informs the development of the next year’s school network plan.

An optional template for the school network plan as well as a worked example is available on the Resources tab.

School network meetings

School networks are encouraged to meet at least twice per term. All principals are required to attend school network meetings. 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.

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

Each school network determines the structure of its school network meetings. The agenda is developed by the school network chair and the senior education improvement leader (SEIL) in conjunction with the school network executive, noting that across the year the school network must cover their school network plan.

School network meetings may include:

• a focus on specific projects or problems of practice led by member schools
• reference to and engagement with data from the Panorama Network Data dashboard (staff login required) to inform discussions, monitor progress, and guide decision-making across priorities
• time for communities of practice (CoPs) to meet
• externally provided professional learning
• updates from the SEIL
• reflection on the school network work plan and planning for the next meeting.

The school network chair is responsible for ensuring that a summary of the discussion and any actions emerging from the meeting are recorded and distributed to the school network. A 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 school 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 school network meeting agendas and summaries of meeting discussions are available in the Resources tab.

Communities of practice

School 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
• First Nations Education – Marrung
• senior secondary reforms.

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

• principals
• assistant principals
• other school leaders.

School networks may also establish collaborative structures for middle leaders who are able to progress the work of the school network or a particular CoP.

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.

School network development

School networks are encouraged to use the Network development roadmap (PDF) to identify opportunities for further development on an annual basis, supported by the WISE program offered by the Victorian Academy of Teaching and Leadership.

The roadmap outlines the strategies for actively building and sustaining relational trust within a school network. These strategies are grouped under 3 elements (establish, build, amplify) and 6 components of school 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, 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 Victorian Lesson Plans (VLPs)
   5. Ensure continuity through school network leadership team succession planning

Build: develop sustainable systems

3. Learning architecture
   1. Define the core components of your school network learning approach
   2. Design the school network plan
   3. Harness digital platforms and tools to enhance engagement and efficiency
   4. Actively open up school 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 school 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 school network collaborative improvement structures (for example, CoPs) and processes (for example, collaborative complex problem solving)
   2. Train facilitators within the school 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 school 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

School network funding

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

In addition to these contributions, funding of up to $5,000 per annum is available for each school network to support school network activities. School networks claim reimbursements through the Schools Targeted Funding Governance (STFG) Portal. $2,500 can be claimed between July and December and $2,500 between January and June. The network chair will nominate a school to coordinate reimbursements on behalf of the network. Claims for reimbursements must be made during the allocated periods.

In larger contexts, networks have been combined to form double networks. The nominated school on the funding program for a double school network is eligible for $10,000 per year (up to $5,000 July to December and up to $5,000 January to June).

School network chairs are responsible for overseeing collection and disbursement of school network funding and must maintain records as to the funds collected and disbursed. The school network executive is responsible for overall oversight of the expenditure of school 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 school network workplan and CoP
• school network administration including venue hire and catering for school network meetings or professional learning, travel to attend school 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:

Department of Education
Level 3, 200 Victoria Parade, East Melbourne VIC 3002

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