Schools Keeping ES in the plan
In Term 4 of each year, your school develops its Long-Term Planning Document, which outlines how the Victorian Government Schools Agreement (VGSA) will be implemented within your school for the following year. As Term 1 progresses, now is the time to ensure that education support staff (ES) are getting their entitlements and that Long-Term Planning Documents are being implemented as they should.
How can you get more involved?
It is important to make sure that your collective ES voice is heard. Now is the perfect time to check if your ES colleagues are members of their union and tell them your story about why you joined. Make sure you have an ES representative on your sub-branch and consultative committee. If you don’t, reach out to me or your AEU organiser to organise for this to happen.
To be well informed and to ensure that you understand your entitlements under the VGSA 2022, it is important to meet with AEU members in your school, and to raise any issues at sub-branch meetings. Term 1 is a great time to ensure that your sub-branch meetings are at a time where you can have maximum attendance and there are options to attend in different ways so that all voices can be heard.
It’s also very beneficial to attend your regular AEU regional meetings. These offer a great chance to meet like-minded people who work in schools just like you, share the same values around public education, and want the best outcomes for their students and school communities.
Click here to find info on your AEU regional meetings.
Webinars and training
In 2023, we ran a series of webinars and training on ES entitlements, focusing on attendance, leave, time in lieu, allowances, and supervision. More than 1,500 ES members attended and built on their knowledge of ES entitlements. These webinars will continue throughout 2024. Webinars provide a forum for members to ask questions about specific entitlements and to ensure they are being implemented properly in your school.
AEU training is available to all members, and there is an entitlement to trade union training leave in the VGSA. If you would like to build your knowledge of entitlements or build your sub-branch, email me or head to the AEU website training page for more details.
This year, I want to visit as many schools as I can. Email me to see when I am in your area so I can visit the ES at your school: [email protected].
