ALL schools need to be transparent and accountable

In today's Age there is a story about plans for greater transparency from non- government schools. details will be released in a new ministerial order by Minister Merlino soon, apparently the changes will 'empower the minister to place any reasonable conditions on funding provided and allow the minister to require non-government schoolsand/or their governing body to provide a report as to the application of funding. In other words- what are you doing with the tax payers money you receive? Is funding for disadvantaged students provided by the government actually spent on those students or used  for something else? Mmmmmm. It is important that we don't have any more private schools going into mysterious financial meltdowns like Mowbray!

Predictably the non government school bodies are 'up in arms'! Stephen Elder from the Catholic Education office is bleating about 'too much red tape!".......well welcome to the world of government schools! I was up at work on my Saturday completing my annual report which details our funding and how it was spent during 2014. Not only is that made available to the school community but will also be published on our school website for all to see. I hope the government stands firm on this, the AEU is always inexplicably quiet on this issue but it is time that ALL schools accessing government funding make their financial reports public knowledge.

Old customs house

Feelings nautical history is told through these artefact boxes.

Great day in Geelong today, sunny but cool and not over crowded. Apparently Jeremy Clarkson was supposed to be in town today. we didn't see him, he was undoubtedly at the F1 Grand Prix in Melbourne.