APPA's Media Release in Response to the Changes to the My School Website

The Minister, Peter Garrett, held a press conference this morning in Canberra to familiarise people with the new elements of the My School website prior to the launch, which is anticipated for early December. 

Click here to download a PowerPoint file which contains a presentation which details the structure and design of My School version 2, which has now been released on the ACARA website. 

Click here to download is a fact sheet outlining the elements of the new version of the My School website, where it specifies that the school profile page includes an expanded commentary on the school context. This is also now available on the ACARA website.

APPA has issued a media release in response to the changes to the My School website. Click here to download the media release.

The text of the media release:

MY SCHOOL CHANGES ON TRACK BUT MORE NEEDS TO BE DONE

The Australian Primary Principals Association President, Leonie Trimper, today supported the announcement of a number of the new changes and additions to the My School website by Minister Garrett.

Ms Trimper said that the introduction of a set of terms and conditions which visitors must accept will help reassure schools and school communities about the appropriate use of information on the site. Additional measures to protect the integrity of information on the website will make the creation of unhelpful, simplistic and meaningless league tables much more difficult.

“The changes announced today by the Minister provide real improvements to the website and will greatly reassure schools and school communities about the appropriate use of data and its publication.

Ms Trimper said that APPA also welcomed the changes to increase transparency around the financial situation of individual schools.

“APPA has been calling for greater transparency around financial data of individual schools, and we welcome that schools’ finances will now be available on the website so that parents can see what resources are available to be spent on each child. While there are still issues to be resolved, we acknowledge that a start has finally been made.”

APPA also welcomed that individual principals have an expanded commentary section to provide greater background about a schools individual situation and context.

While APPA supports today’s announcement, the Association is disappointed that this is an opportunity missed by the Minister to adhere to the advice made by the My School Working Party. Ms Trimper said today that: “As a member of the My School Working Party, APPA is particularly disappointed with the decision to maintain the privileged status of NAPLAN data on the website. The Working Party recommended that changes be made to allow a school's story to be told as the user scrolls through the available information. This would have enabled a school's NAPLAN results to be placed in their proper context.”

Ms Trimper identified that, while the website itself says that NAPLAN is only one piece of information about schools, the revised first page for individual schools still contains five NAPLAN icons. The message from this to schools is clear.