Enrolment Policy
Our Lady Help of Christians Catholic Primary School is co-educational and caters for children from Year Prep to Year 6. We believe that parents are the first educators of their children and we partner this educational journey as a school during a child’s Primary years.
All children participate in Religious Education classes. Gospel values of love, truth, justice, peace making, forgiveness, respect for the dignity of each person and responsibility for the environment permeates each area of our school curriculum and our teaching each day.
School/Family Index: Parent Occupation Group
Enrolment Information
Priority of Enrolment
Our Enrolment Policy is consistent with this MACS Enrolment Policy
General Process regarding enrolment
Enrolment of Children under the minimum age
Enrolment of children with additional learning needs
Our school welcomes parents who wish to enrol a child with additional learning needs and we will do everything possible to accommodate the child’s needs. The process for enrolling students with special needs is the same as that for enrolling any student, and will follow the CEOM Recommended Enrolment process. Our school will comply with the relevant Australian and Victorian Government legislation when considering the enrolment of a child with additional learning needs in a Catholic school.
Enrolment of students from Interstate
When enrolling students whose previous school was interstate, our school will use the protocols of the Interstate Student Data Transfer Note (ISDTN). This is mandatory under the Schools Assistance (Learning Together – Achievement through Choice and Opportunity) Act 2004. It is the responsibility of the enrolling school to initiate and manage this process, and be sensitive to parent/student consent requirements for the provision. All relevant documents and information are available at the Standing Council on School Education and Early Childhood website http://scseec.edu.au/archive/Publications/ISDTN/ISDTN---Gov-Schools.aspx
Relevant legislation to be considered when enrolling students in Catholic Schools
The Victorian Education and Training Reform Regulations 2007 - The regulations impose a requirement on a registered school to have a clearly defined enrolment policy that complies with all applicable State and Commonwealth laws. Referred therein is the main legislation affecting school enrolments. Each school must be familiar with the relevant provisions of this legislation and, if appropriate, prepare policies for administration and enforcement of relevant procedures.
Equal Opportunity Act 1996 (Vic). This legislation prohibits discrimination by an educational authority against a person in deciding who should be admitted as a student, in the terms on which the authority admits a person as a student, or by refusing of failing to accept the person’s application for administration as a student. However, an exception is provided for an educational authority that operates an educational institution wholly or mainly for students of a particular sex, religious belief, age or age group, such that it may exclude from that institution people who are not of the particular sex, religious belief, age or age group. All other discrimination in enrolment of students is prohibited.
Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cwlth) - Under this federal legislation, discrimination based on disability is unlawful. It applies to school authorities and their employees. The definition of disability is broad and includes physical, intellectual, psychiatric, sensory, neurological or learning disability, physical disfigurement, and the presence in the body of a disease-causing organism.
Relevant for enrolments, it is unlawful for an educational authority to discriminate against a person on the ground of the person’s disability, or a disability of any of the other person’s associates, by refusing or failing to accept the person’s application for admission as a student; or in terms and conditions on which it is prepared to admit the person as a student.
However, it is not unlawful to refuse or fail to accept a person’s application for admission as a student in an educational institution where the person, if admitted as a student by the educational authority, would require services or facilities that are not required by students who do not have a disability and the provision of which would impose unjustifiable hardship on the educational authority.
Privacy amendment (Private Sector) Act 2000 (Cwlth) - This legislation governs how schools must handle personal information collected as part of the enrolment process. Schools will have adopted a Privacy Policy to reflect their acts and practice in management of personal information in compliance with the legislation. Schools should also determine what is the necessary information for collection, provide information about collection and, where necessary, obtain consents to the collection, use and disclosure of that information. For these purposes, schools should include in enrolment forms and information collection notice, which should also be contained in the school’s Privacy Policy and where applicable should be located on the school’s website.
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