MEMORANDUM to SCHOOLS: No 60/2001

NOTICE TO SCHOOLS: No 26/2014

TO:The Principal

ATTENTION:VCE Coordinator

FROM:Justin Seabury, Manager, Assessment Operations

DATE:26 February 2014

SUBJECT:GAT centresand appointment of supervisors – 2014
______

BACKGROUND

VCE Providers with students enrolled in one or more VCE or scored VCE VET unit 3-4 sequence must meet the VCAA requirements for the conduct of the General Achievement Test (GAT) and VCE examinations as outlined in the 2014GAT and VCE Examinations Agreementform included as part of this notice.

The additional forms relate to the establishment of GAT centres and the nomination of supervisors for both the GAT and the VCE written examinations.

Schools are responsible for ensuring that all their home students are appropriately accommodated and correctly supervised. This applies for all students including those undertaking one or moreVCE or scored VCE VET unit 3-4 sequence at a provider that differs from the home schoole.g., Distance Education Centre Victoria, VET Providers, the Victorian School of Languages, other single Language providers and any other school where the assessing school differs from the home school.

Centre arrangements are proposedby schools and approved by the VCAA.

All centres require a designated host school.

When two or more schools combine, the host school is the school where the centre is located or the nominated school coordinating the arrangements for a centre which is located at a site external to all of the combining schools.

Principals nominatesupervisors subject to the conditions set out by the VCAA and under employment procedures established by the School Council or School Board. It is advisable that supervisors have a current police records check. It is further recommended that Principals ensure their employment practices for supervisors comply with the Working with Children Act 2005. For more information on this matter visit or call the WWCC information line on 1300 652 879.

ACTION REQUIRED

All VCE Providers with students enrolled in one or more VCE or scored VCE VET unit 3-4 sequencesmust complete the following 2014forms:

1. GAT and VCE Examinations Agreement

2. GAT Centres

1. GAT and VCE Examination Supervisors - (Only if you are a hosting school)

Please arrange for these forms to be completed and returned, addressedPrivateConfidential, Attention: Maria Fragale -(PO Box 326 Coburg 3058) no later thanFriday 14 March 2014.
Note: the return date has changed from that printed in the ‘Important Administrative Dates’ document.

ALL forms must be returned.

CONTACTS

Any enquiries should be directed to:

Centres- Heidi Reiter on 9225 2253;
Supervisor appointments- Susan Meadows on 9225 2237

COMPLETING THE FORMS

1.GAT and VCE EXAMINATIONS AGREEMENT

Principals must complete and sign the 2014GAT and VCE Examinations Agreement form to certify that they will comply with all VCAA requirements for administering and conducting the GAT and VCE examinations.Themanagement of these requirements may be delegated, but the Principal must sign to certify that the VCAA’s requirements and procedures will be followed.

Where all students of the school are sitting the GAT and/or VCE examinations elsewhere, home school Principals are still required to certify that they will comply with the responsibilities specific to these circumstances (refer to points 10, 11, 13 and 16) in the 2014 GAT and VCE Examinations Agreement form).

The completed form must be signed and returned to the VCAA by Friday 14March.

2.GAT CENTRE/S (Yellow Form)

Schools must complete this form and return it to the VCAA by Friday 14March.

Approval to Combine/Transfer for the GAT (included)

The ‘Approval to Combine/Transfer for the GAT’ form must be completed if:

i)your school wishes to make arrangements to combine with another school/s for the GAT, and/or

ii)you are requesting the previous year’s arrangements with another school/s to continue, and/or

iii)you wish to transfer individual student/s to another centre.

Failure to complete this form will mean changes will not occur andprevious year’s arrangements will not continue in 2014.

The‘Approval to Combine/Transfer for the GAT’form/s should bereturned attached to the 2014 GAT Centre/s form.

Please photocopy the approval form if more than one copy is required.

School’s Associated and Combined Centres Report – (Pink – only sentin hard copy)

The information provided on the enclosed report summarises the GAT centre arrangementsfor your schoolduring 2013. This report should be checked carefully before it is used as the basis for this year's GAT centre arrangements.

Note:1.The actual number of students listedon this report are last year’s details.

The correct 2014enrolment information will be collected from VASS.

2.To better understand this report, an annotated sample has been included.

3.GAT and VCE EXAMINATION SUPERVISORS(Green Form)

Supervisor details must be forwarded to the VCAA on the 2014 GAT and VCE Examination Supervisors form by Friday 14March.

It is imperative that:

• The ‘Conditions of Appointment’ printed on the front page of this form are read prior to nominating supervisors.

• Whennominating ongoing supervisors, please ensure they are available, still meet the VCAA requirements and that their contact details are correct.

• All appointed supervisors are required to sign a Statutory Declaration.
  This must be completed well in advance of the GAT – Wednesday 11 June 2014

A copy of the Statutory Declaration is included – this may be photocopied.

Signed Statutory Declarations mustbe retained at school in the VCE Examination Document
Register folder.

Note:Additional copies of the Statutory Declaration will be forwarded to schools with other
documents required for the VCE Examination Document Register folder.

Should any changes and/or additions occur later in the year, it will be necessary to notify the VCAA by completing the ‘Additional Assistant Supervisors’ or the ‘Change of Chief Supervisor’ forms that are available on VASS. [SYSTEM ADMIN Downloads].

Note:Only supervisors who meet the ‘Conditions of Appointment’can be in the centre with the students.
Appropriate school personnel who will be assisting MUST be situated outside.

GAT Supervisor Allocation Rules

The VCAA does not fund supervision costs when fewer than ten students from only one school are scheduled to present at a centre. We recommend that you combine with one or more other schools.
Where schools do combine the VCAA will fund supervision as per the allocation below.

All schools hosting the GAT have an associated centre whichis identifiedbya6-digit number. The last five digits will be the VCAA school code number of the host school.

The prefixing digit will identify the type of centre as defined by the VCAA, e.g., 201001

The supervisor allocation rules- according to the prefixing digit of the centre - are as follows:

2School centre that is a standalone centre or combines for some or all of their sessions

Fewer than 10 students-the school is to meet the cost of supervision when notcombining
with another school/s

-combining with one or more other schools, the VCAA will fund:
1 chief supervisor only - schools are expected to provide relief support

The VCAA will also meet the cost of:

10 – 70 students-1 chief supervisor and 1 assistant supervisor

71 – 140 students-1 chief supervisor and 2 assistant supervisors

141 – 200 students-1 chief supervisor and 3 assistant supervisors

201 – 260 students-1 chief supervisor and 4 assistant supervisors

261 – 320 students-1 chief supervisor and 5 assistant supervisors

321 – 380 students-1 chief supervisor and 6 assistant supervisors

381 – 440 students-1 chief supervisor and 7 assistant supervisors

441 + students-1 chief supervisor and 8 assistant supervisors

4Country school which is 15 kilometres or more from the nearest school offering VCE units 34

As for 2 except that, for groups with fewer than 10 students, the VCAA will fund:

1 chief supervisor only - schools are expected to provide relief support

5Centre, external to the school, used by ONE school only

As for 2 except that, for groups with fewer than 10 students, the VCAA will fund:

1 chief supervisor and 1 assistant supervisor.

Note:If there is only one student attending, funding will only be given for 1 chief supervisor

The VCAA will NOT pay the external venue hiring fee,the cost of furniture hire,cartage and/or setting up.

6Centre, external to the school, used by TWO or more schools

As for 5 except that the VCAA mayconsider funding an approved hiring fee for an external venue.
This will only occur for sessions where:

1. Two or more schools share the external venue as a centre.
2. The total number of students is 10 or more per session.

The VCAA willnotfund the cost of furniture hire,cartage and/or setting up.

7Interstate and 8Overseas Centres

No supervision entitlements - students must meet supervision costs

Supervisor Payments

The VCAA provides schools with a grant to fund payment of supervisors based on the above supervisorallocation rules.

The following is the current rate of pay forthe 2014 GAT.

GAT session rates are based on an hourly rate of $27.75 for chief supervisors and $25.32 for assistant supervisors.

Chief supervisors will be paid an additional allowance for work associated with checking GAT stationery and papers after delivery; preparation of GAT materials; the packaging of the response materials for courier collection and for the handing over of these materials to the courier. The chief supervisor allowance is based on the total number of students presenting at a centre for the GAT.

The grant to fund payment of supervisors, including the chief supervisorallowance, will be sent to schools prior to the date of the GAT.

The supervisors' grantand allowancedo not include paymentfor setting up furniture in the centre. Principals are responsible for arranging the setting up of furniture in the centre i.

Schools are to pay supervisors at the conclusion of the GAT.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Funding Additional Assistant Supervisors(for multiple rooms within a centre)

Where schools are obliged to use multiple rooms for the GAT, the VCAA will consider applications for extra funding of assistant supervisors bearing in mind the base assumption is that there is a minimumof 20 students allocated to a room.

Schools requesting funding of additional supervisors must apply on the ‘Application for the Funding of Additional Assistant Supervisors - 2014’ form.

Funding External Venue

Schools requesting the VCAA to meet the hiring fee for an external venue must apply on the

‘Application for the Funding of an External Venue –2014’ form.

Consideration will only be given to those applications where:

1. Two or more schools share the external venue as a centre.
   
2. The total number of students is 10 or more per session.

The VCAA will not fund the cost of furniture hire, cartage and/or setting up.

You must adhere to the application requirements as printed on both of the above forms to beconsidered
for funding.

These application forms are available on VASS. [SYSTEM ADMIN Downloads].

The above application/s must be faxed to 9225 2258, Attention Maria Fragale, by Friday 21 March.

Student Assessment Timetable

It is the responsibility of the Principal to ensure each home school student enrolled in a VCE
or a scored VCE VET unit 3-4 sequence is provided with their individual ‘Student Assessment Timetable’ produced from VASS. The timetable will inform students of their centre arrangements for the GAT.
[Student ProgramVCE ReportsStudent Assessment Timetables]

Student Assessment Timetables are NOT confirmed on VASS until the following date:

GAT (cycle1) - In the week beginning Monday 12 May

Note:Student Assessment Timetables for the October/November VCE written examinations (cycle 4) are not confirmedandshould not be produced.

Sitting the GAT outside Victoria

Students who are required to sit the GAT and wish to present at locations outside Victoria, must seek VCAA approval and meet the eligibility requirements. A service fee must be paid for the administration of GAT materials from the VCAA to the nominated supervisor.

The application form, which includes the service fee and eligibility rules, is available on VASS.

[SYSTEM ADMIN Downloads].

All applications must be supported with evidence of eligibility.

Applications will not be finalised until the supporting evidence and appropriate fees are paid.

Students are responsible for paying directly to the supervisor any required supervision fee as well asthe cost of returning the response materials immediately to the VCAA by security mail or courier.

Closing date is: Friday 21 March 2014.

VCE written examinations

In the week commencing Monday 19 May, schools will receive informationrelated to the establishmentand/or confirmation of examination centres for the October/November VCE written examinations includingCCAFL written examinations on Tuesday 21 October and the VET: Interactive Digital Media (IDM) examination.

You should consider combining with one or more other schools when fewer than ten students are scheduled to presentat your school for an examination session.

The closing date for the return of forms outlining arrangements for the VCE written examination will be
Friday 20 June 2014.

GLOSSARY OF TERMS

Home School-Student’s major school.

Responsibleforensuringthat ALL their students have been allocated to acentre.

Host School-School where the centre is locatedor

School coordinating the arrangements for an external centre.

Assessing School-School/provider responsible for providing the assessment for one or moreunits for a student,

where the school/provider differs from the ‘home’ school.

Associated Centre-The main centre associated with the home school.

Combined Centre-A centre/s with which alternative arrangements have been made.

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