Thank you for joining us today for our new school registration briefing. My name is Stefanie Veal, I’m the Deputy CEO for schools at the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority.
I would like to begin by acknowledging the Traditional Owners of the land on which we meet today, the land of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation, and I pay my respects to Elders past, present and emerging, and First Nations people joining us today.
So thanks for joining us. And we've got a fairly jam packed agenda today so we’d ask that if you've got questions for any of the VRQA presenters, you hold those questions until the end and then we'll have some time at the end to answer those questions.
We've also got some presenters from ISV, we have Peter Roberts, head of school services from Independent Schools Victoria, joining us today online. And you’ll have an opportunity to ask Peter some questions after his presentation. And we will also have some people from the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority to talk about authorisation to deliver senior secondary and foundation secondary courses.
So on the agenda, as you can see today, we're going to cover the minimum standards for school registration, and that's a really fundamental part of the agenda we're going to spend a lot of time on, because the VRQA must not register a school unless it can demonstrate it complies with all of the minimum standards and requirements for school registration. And really importantly, this includes the Child Safe Standards, which for schools are outlined in the Ministerial Order 1359, which you'll soon become very familiar with if you're not already. For schools wanting to deliver Years 11 and 12, you'll also need to apply to the VRQA for registration to provide an accredited senior secondary or foundation secondary course, and also demonstrate compliance with the minimum standards to provide those courses. And then you also need to apply to the VCAA. So as I mentioned, they will be coming along to talk about authorisation. If you're wanting to deliver the International Baccalaureate Diploma program, you need to seek authorisation from International Baccalaureate.
We'll also today, as I mentioned, we've got Peter Roberts, who is from Independent Schools Victoria, who is going to talk a little bit about what Independent Schools Victoria does, and their role, and also talk about government funding for independent schools. We’re also going to run through the application process. And then as I mentioned, we'll have time at the end for questions.
So just a little bit about the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority, we’re an independent statutory authority established under the Education and Training Reform Act. We report to a board, we’re accountable to the Minister for Education and also the Minister for Training and Skills. We've got a pretty broad remit. We, as well as registering and regulating all government independent and Catholic schools, we also regulate the providers of school sector courses to overseas students, student exchange organisations, school boarding premises, and non-school senior secondary and foundation secondary providers. We also accredit senior secondary and foundation secondary courses and register the awarding body, so the VCAA and the International Baccalaureate. And then we're also responsible for regulating employers of apprentices and trainees, registered training organisations that operate in Victoria and Western Australia, group training organisations, and then also home schooling.
As I said, in Victoria, all schools must meet the minimum standards for school registration. These minimum standards are standards that have been set by and made by the Parliament, they’re outlined in the Education and Training Reform Regulations. The VRQA has then developed guidelines, and the guidelines then outline the evidence that's require to demonstrate compliance with those minimum standards. And the guidelines are also a legislative instrument. So all of the applications that you submit will need to demonstrate compliance with each and every one of those minimum standards. And as we've got up on the slide there, you’ve got to demonstrate compliance with all the minimum standards.
But there are also some really key foundational minimum standards that we consider provide the foundations of quality schools, and that's good governance, strong financial management, effective curriculum, sound teaching practices and safe environments for children.
Although they are minimum standards, it's not an easy benchmark to meet. The standards are very high. It is difficult to obtain registration as an independent school, and that's because in Victoria, once you obtain registration, you are registered in perpetuity unless your registration is cancelled. And also because once you're registered, you then have access to Commonwealth and State Government funding, and you must continue to meet the minimum standards.
So the application process, although fairly straightforward, is something that we would expect schools, applicants have spent quite a lot of time preparing their application, thinking about their application and putting together a board that has strong skills and experience, and is able to govern a school and has experience in education. It's not unusual for applicants to have multiple attempts at registration, around 3 sometimes, is not uncommon.
You can see that in recent years, this slide just shows that if you look at the green, that's the number of independent schools that have been registered. That number is certainly a lot fewer than the number of applications that we receive each year. And, then I’d note, in the last 2, so in the 2021-2022 and 2020-21 year, that figure was higher because I think a lot of the applicants were coming back for a second or third year.
As I mentioned before, governance, really a key thing. We'll spend a bit of time today talking to you about the governance and not-for-profit minimum standards, and also talking about the types of, I think, pitfalls and challenges that you might need to be aware of when submitting your application.
And so just I'd like to thank you again, and I'm going to hand over to Mark Bellamy, our principal lawyer, who's going to talk about governance and the not-for-profit requirements for non-government schools, thanks.
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