Focus areas
To lift outcomes for all children and young people, we will focus on:
Focus area 1 - Expanding early learning
Providing more hours of free quality early learning for all children.
Key strategic plan initiatives
- Three-Year-Old Kindergarten: continue to roll out kindergarten programs for 3-year-olds across the state, growing to 15 hours by 2029.
- Pre-Prep: transition 4-year-old kindergarten to ‘Pre-Prep’ over the next decade – a universal 30-hours a week program of play-based learning for every 4-year-old child in Victoria.
- Free Kinder funding: Free Kinder funding into the Victorian system, to support participation and ease the cost-of-living for families.
- New early learning centres: establish 50 Victorian government-owned and operated early learning centres, in areas of greatest need.
Focus area 2 - Excellence in learning
Supporting schools and services to achieve better learning outcomes for children and young people.
Key strategic plan initiatives:
- Best kindergartens for Victorian kids: provide grants for kindergartens to procure new or improved toys and equipment, Bush Kinder programs, toy libraries and expansion of bilingual kindergartens.
- Early years assessment and learning tool: provide teachers and co-educators with a new online observation-based tool that supports assessment of children’s strengths, interests and abilities.
- Differentiated support for school improvement: establish teams of regionally based executive-class principals, and leading teachers partnering with schools that have challenging and complex settings to deliver improvements.
- Lifting student literacy and numeracy outcomes:
- The Middle Years Literacy and Numeracy Support program provides funding for government schools to release experienced teachers to provide intensive learning support to at-risk students in Year 10.
- The Tutor Learning Initiative provides funding for government and low-fee non-government schools to employ tutors to deliver targeted small-group learning support to students who need it most.
- New Tech Schools: create 6 new Tech Schools to provide hands-on and immersive STEM learning experiences to at least 62,000 secondary school students.
- Lessons plans: develop high-quality sequenced lesson plans in priority curriculum areas to reduce administrative burden and ease workload pressure for teachers.
- Senior secondary pathways reform: implement the Victorian Certificate of Education Vocational Major and the Victorian Pathways Certificate, deliver high-quality VET to all Victorian students, develop pathways for students to engage with emerging industries and improve non-academic pathways to pursue senior secondary education.
Focus area 3 - Strengthening wellbeing engagement
Having the right support and services in place to meet the needs of each child and young person.
Key strategic plan initiatives:
- Inclusion in kinder: implement disability inclusion reforms, including more Pre-School Field Officers, continuing the specialist equipment program, strengthening current assessment processes, and designing and piloting a new strengths-based approach to support.
- Kinder participation: improve local kinder participation through strengthened local and state-wide strategies, leverage existing initiatives such as School Readiness Funding, and create a new kindergarten attendance data system.
- Student mental health reforms: includes establishing a Schools Mental Health Fund support by a menu of evidence-based initiatives, expanding the Mental Health in Primary Schools program, funding mental health and wellbeing leaders in every government and low-fee non-government school, and embedding mental health practitioners in every government secondary school.
- Disability inclusion: roll out the Disability Inclusion tiered funding model and system capability-building initiatives to help schools better identify and respond to the needs of students with disability.
- Engaging students: strengthen strategic focus on improving school attendance and student engagement, supported by targeted efforts to increase the scale and scope of the Navigator program for chronically disengaged students and continue LOOKOUT centre support for students in Out of Home Care.
- Re-engaging early school leavers to remain in learning: enhance data infrastructure to identify and support early school leavers who are lost or disengaged from the education and training system.
- Providing students with the essentials: continue to deliver school breakfast clubs, affordable school uniforms, glasses for kids and free period products to improve opportunities for students who need extra support.
Focus area 4 - Supporting Aboriginal self-determination strengthening cultural safety
Improving learning and wellbeing outcomes for Aboriginal children and young people and supporting community control and choice.
Key strategic plan initiatives:
- Cultural safety and participation in kinder: work with Victorian Aboriginal Education Association (VAEAI) on new approaches to establishing a culturally safe environment in all services, which values and respects Aboriginal culture, children and families.
- Pre-Prep: roll out Pre-Prep to Aboriginal children as a priority – Aboriginal children across the state will be eligible for between 16 and 30 hours per week by 2026.
- Marrung – Aboriginal education plan 2016–26: close the gap in educational outcomes between Koorie and non-Koorie Victorians that covers literacy and numeracy programs as well as Koorie staff development and additional positions.
- Dhelk Wukang – Aboriginal Inclusion Plan: strengthen Aboriginal inclusion, self-determination and cultural safety at all levels within the department, including the Victorian Public Service and Government Teaching Service.
- Self-determination in education reforms: enact change in schools to strengthen self-determination for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learners.
- First Peoples workforce: attract and retain new and returning First Peoples to the schools workforce and continue to work with VAEAI on supporting First Peoples to become early childhood teachers and educators.
Focus area 5 - Addressing disadvantage vulnerability
Enabling children and young people experiencing disadvantage and vulnerability to get the full benefits of education.
Key strategic plan initiatives:
- Fighting for students with disability and their families: provide more support for students with disability and their families, ensuring more students have better access to the services they need.
- Pre-Prep: roll out Pre-Prep to vulnerable and disadvantaged children – under the staged roll-out, 16–30 hours of Pre-Prep will be provided to vulnerable children in 2026, to disadvantaged children in 2028.
- Multicultural, multifaith and culturally and linguistically diverse communities (CALD) support: support multicultural and multifaith communities by strengthening and extending language provision and expanding refugee education support programs.
Focus area 6 - Strengthening our teaching education workforce
Growing and supporting our education and care workforces, and supporting best practices in teaching.
Key strategic plan initiatives:
- Career Start – Transforming the first years of the teaching profession (schools): improve the experience of graduate teachers as they enter the profession, including time-release, professional development opportunities and a range of additional supports.
- Primary mathematics and science specialists, secondary science technologies and mathematics: support existing teachers to train in areas of subject demand such as mathematics, science and technologies, as well as attract new teachers in these core subject areas.
- Improving teaching quality (schools): reduce maximum face-to-face contact hours.
- Targeted initiatives to attract more teachers (schools): support the growing demand for teachers by delivering programs to lift the number of graduates and career changers entering the teaching profession.
- Excellence in teacher education reforms (schools): improve the quality of initial teacher education, improve support and development for teachers early in their careers, and raise the status of the teaching profession.
- Kindergarten workforce strategy: deliver Three-Year-Old Kindergarten and Pre-Prep, work with our partners to build on the existing kindergarten workforce strategy – with a focus on attracting and retaining kindergarten teachers and educators, and supporting high-quality early childhood education.
Foundations
To be successful, our priorities will be:
Foundation area 1 - Our people
Supporting a strong, inclusive and high-performing culture.
Key strategic plan initiatives
- Victorian public service people strategy 2021–24: focus on 4 key areas: connected culture, purposeful leadership, enabled and capable and inclusive organisation.
- Gender equality action plan 2022–25: address gendered structural and cultural inequalities and ensure a gender-equitable, safe, inclusive and respectful workplace for all staff.
- Safe and well in education 2019–24: build stronger mental health and wellbeing by creating a shared culture of responsibility and support through guidance and access to assistance when needed.
Key activities
- Develop a departmental diversity plan.
- Implement next enterprise bargaining agreement for school workforces and establish workforce arrangements for the 50 new government-owned and operated early learning centres.
- Continue to support principal health and wellbeing.
Foundation area 2 - Strong systems
Ensuring we have the right systems and business processes in place.
Key strategic plan initiatives
- Cyber security and Information and Communications Technology (Securing Connected Learners): create a safe and secure system-wide digital learning environment for students and schools to achieve a globally engaged and competitive education system.
- Child Link: continue to roll out a digital register that integrates key information to support individual children’s wellbeing and safety (birth – 18 years old).
- Kindergarten information systems: establish updated kindergarten information systems for monitoring kindergarten funding applications, data collection (including enrolment and attendance) and reporting.
Key activities
- Strengthen and streamline our early childhood regulatory approaches.
Foundation area 3 - Partnerships engagement
Building strong and effective partnerships across and with our sectors, families and carers.
Key activities
- Partner with Catholic Education Commission of Victoria (CECV) and Independent Schools Victoria (ISV) to deliver the Teaching Excellence Program at the Victorian Academy of Teaching and Leadership.
- Partner with parents, professionals, providers, Victorian Student Representative Council and peak bodies to design and implement reform in the early childhood and school education sectors.
- Continue working closely with local and federal governments on maximising our collaborative impact.
- Continue working closely with the Department of Jobs, Skills, Industry and Regions to improve access to VET Delivered to School Students as part of the senior secondary pathways reform
Foundation area 4 - Physical infrastructure
Building and partnering to create and maintain contemporary, safe and sustainable spaces.
Key strategic plan initiatives
- Department of Education asset strategy: develop and maintain a high-performing asset base by targeting investment and improving processes so assets meet demand, are safe and in good condition, are fit-for-purpose and inclusive, environmentally sustainable, and asset managers are accountable and capable across the early childhood and school education systems.
- School infrastructure program: deliver infrastructure to meet demand, including new school construction and associated establishment processes, land acquisition, additional permanent infrastructure at existing schools and relocatable buildings, with the aim of 100 schools built by 2026.
- Early childhood infrastructure: grants and direct delivery to support expansion of places through kindergarten building projects that support the rollout of Three-Year-Old Kindergarten and Pre-Prep. Building Blocks grants program is also making kinder buildings, playgrounds and equipment more inclusive for children of all abilities.
Key activities
- Update Kindergarten Infrastructure and Service Plans with all local governments.
- Partner with local government, non-government schools and not-for-profit providers to deliver new early childhood infrastructure.
- Identify school sites for delivery of Kindergartens on School Sites.
- Undertake analysis to determine where and when new schools should be built and additional capacity required at established schools.
Foundation area 5 - Stewardship
Actively ensuring our sectors deliver outcomes through our state-run schools and services by providing support, guidance, oversight and assurance across education and early childhood sectors.
Key activities
- Support Best Start, Best Life provision, planning and change management at the sector and local level.
- Strengthen child information sharing and improve service connections in the early years, working with other departments, local governments and partners.
- Review school planning and review processes to align with revised Framework for Improving Student Outcomes (FISO 2.0).
Foundation area 6 - Resilience, mitigation adaptation to climate change
Doing our bit to address climate change and ensuring continuity of learning in the event of natural disasters and emergency events.
Key strategic plan initiatives
- Education and training climate adaptation action plan 2022–26: build understanding of and guide how to adapt and build resilience to the impacts of climate change.
- Greener Government School Buildings Program: install solar power systems in schools to lower costs of electricity and reduce schools’ carbon footprint.
Key activities
- Work with cross-government agencies to enable and support response to and recovery from natural emergency events.
How we measure our success
The department uses a set of objective indicators and performance measures to evaluate outcomes and assess how well we are meeting our objectives and delivering our outputs. Through monitoring and measuring our performance, we are better able to understand and demonstrate the impact we are having on the educational outcomes in the Victorian community. The full set of the department’s objective indicators and performance measures are published in the 2023–24 Victorian State Budget Paper 3.1
The department reports progress against the objective indicators and performance measures in the Annual Report, available on the department’s website.2 The Annual Report also provides a summary of the progress in implementing the key initiatives outlined in this strategic plan.
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