Giving your students more VCE options

Across Victoria, schools face increasing pressures to find the expertise, time and resources to offer students the broadest possible choice of VCE subjects.

A shortage of specialist teachers, timetabling issues, lack of resources, or not having enough students interested in a particular subject to make it viable are all challenges that schools juggle every day.

Some schools are now looking at new ways to ensure students can still study a VCE subject that interests them or is important to their future university or career pathway.

“Particularly at VCE level, we want to offer students a range of choice so they can focus on their future pathways,” says Anna Sever, Deputy Principal Teaching & Learning at Haileybury.

“But in the senior secondary years, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to staff subjects like Latin, algorithmics or some of the sciences. Often, when schools can’t recruit a specialist teacher, they either have a teacher who teaches out of method, or don’t offer the subject at all. Neither of those options are ideal.

“We need to think about new ways to collaborate as schools to offer students the choices they deserve.”

One option is supporting students to study a subject online with a partner school. Students remain at their home school where they complete their VCE studies and graduate, while studying online for a VCE subject their school is unable to offer.

Haileybury Pangea, the online campus of Haileybury, already works with students from other schools who enrol in individual VCE subjects online. There are currently more than 20 single subjects available, ranging from Commerce, Australian History, Algorithmics, Politics and Software Development through to Accounting, Latin, Music Composition and Theatre Studies.

“We think there’s a great opportunity to work in collaboration with other independent, government and Catholic schools in Victoria to keep options open for students, and to give them access to the specialist teachers in those more niche areas and in subjects that may otherwise be difficult for schools to provide,” says Joanna Baker, head of Campus at Haileybury Pangea.

“We know certain industries are looking for students to study niche subjects, like commerce and economics, but those subjects are not widely offered in schools across Victoria.

“And sometimes a student has a very clear idea about the subject they want or need to study, but their school simply can’t offer it. An online single-subject option means that opportunity is now available for these students.

“We are also working with schools that have had to cut a subject, but who still want to provide that subject as an option for students, so they’ve directed their students to us for subjects like Latin and algorithmics.”

Haileybury Pangea’s single subject program focuses on working with a student’s home school to ensure they have access to the suite of VCE subjects that inspire and interest them. It is designed to complement what they are already studying at their current school, rather than replace it.

Learning is a mix of online classes with specialist teachers and other online classmates with self-paced learning, which can be completed during or outside school hours.

Online classes use Microsoft Teams and students can ask questions and communicate with teachers and classmates outside scheduled lesson times and have ongoing access to their course materials.

They can also join online study halls, an open online space where students can work together with academic coaches on hand at certain times of the week. Units 3 and 4 students can also do trial exams and take part in a September holiday revision program.

“Students complete their final VCE exams for Units 3 and 4 at their home campus, so they are still fully engaged with their home school and have access to all the programs and ongoing support there. Plus, they have access to their Haileybury Pangea subject online which creates choice and flexibility that they wouldn’t previously have had,” says Joanna.

“Students who study a VCE subject through Haileybury Pangea remain enrolled at their home school, and their result still contributes to their home school’s VCE outcomes, as well as their own ATAR,” adds Anna.

“I think everybody working in education in Australia wants students to have the strongest possible opportunities and choices. But unless we work together as schools, students won’t have those options.

“We want to help other schools retain the students who are thriving and love being there while still giving them access to the subjects they need or want to study to complete their VCE and pursue what comes next.”