Victoria
Mr Gary Shaw
Mr Gary Shaw
Senior Project Officer
Targeted Programs Branch
Department of Education
GPO Box 4367
MELBOURNE VIC 3001
Tel: (03) 9637 2031
Fax: (03) 9637 2170
Email: shaw.gary.r@edumail.vic.gov.au
Website: http://www.education.vic.gov.au/studentlearning/program/valuesed/index.htm
Gary Shaw is the values education contact officer in Victoria and will provide coordination and professional support to schools across sectors to run values education forums (see contact details above). Further information on values education in Victorian schools and the application for the funding and reporting of values education school forums can be found at http://www.education.vic.gov.au/studentlearning/program/valuesed/index.htm
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Victoria – news – 30/03/08
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Victoria – news – 30/09/07
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Victoria - news - 19/07/06
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Victoria - news - 07/11/05
School forum snapshot
Point Lonsdale Primary School (PDF), Victoria
Values education forums allow school communities to consider what place values education plays in schools policies and practices. Point Lonsdale Primary School has a long and established history of explicitly placing values at the forefront of school practice. They are a long way down the track of values education. In fact, they are so confident in their whole school approach and practice that the students at this primary school organised the whole values education school forum themselves.
The values education school forum at Undera Primary School complemented the school’s Garden Science Project and helped forge stronger bonds between the school and the community at a time of need.
Values education in Victorian schools
The Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS) describe what is essential for all students to achieve from Prep to 10 and are to be used as a framework in curriculum planning in Victorian schools from 2005.
In its advice to schools the Victorian Curriculum Assessment Authority (VCAA) suggests that schools need to consider educational purposes, principles and underlying social values when implementing VELS. The set of 10 values (drawn from the Draft National Framework on Values Education in Australian Schools) – respect, tolerance and understanding, responsibility, care, excellence, social justice, freedom, honesty, inclusion and trust and being ethical – are not proposed to be the subject of specific, stand alone teaching or the focus of assessment of individual students. Instead they help frame five educational principles that underpin VELS: learning for all, pursuit of excellence, engagement and effort, respect for evidence and openness of mind.
Victoria's proposal takes account of the complimentary nature of these two Frameworks and the context in which schools operate by:
- recognising that individual schools will develop their own approaches to values education, reflecting broader understanding of shared personal and social values and the needs of the school community;
- encouraging local school communities to articulate their values as part of their planning processes;
- targeting professional development by regions and dioceses to school teams, which emphasises a whole school approach; and
- enabling school communities to consider what role values education plays in their school policies and practice and how to sustain values education in the curriculum and policies.
Grants will be made available to all schools in Victoria to conduct values education forums, through 2005 to 2008. A cross-sectoral Advisory Committee will be established to provide strategic direction for the implementation of the initiative. Individual schools and clusters of schools will be encouraged to apply for funding. Regular promotion of values education information briefings, newsletters and Education Times will be used to highlight ways in which values education could support related initiatives such as the National Safe Schools Framework, the National School Drug Education Strategy and MindMatters.
Annual professional development will be conducted for regional DE&T and non-government staff, to support school teams to run forums. A statewide conference is planned for 2007 to celebrate achievements and identify ways in which schools can sustain their work on values education.
Gary Shaw, a DE&T Senior Project Officer will provide coordination and professional support to schools to run values education forums. Gary has extensive experience in education as a teacher, consultant, project manager and researcher.