School council elections are held in February or March each year and must be completed by 31 March.  All parents or guardians of students enrolled at the school are eligible to vote for parent members, staff vote for Department employee members and students vote for student members. Community members are co-opted by the school council.

What is a school council and what does it do?

All government schools in Victoria have a school council. They are legally constituted bodies that are given powers to set the broad direction of a school in accordance with their constituting Order and the Education and Training Reform Act 2006. In doing this, a school council is able to directly influence the quality of education that the school provides for its students.

Who is on the school council?

For most primary school councils, there are several possible categories of membership:

• A mandated elected Parent member category – more than one-third of the total members must be from this category. DET employees can be Parent members at their child’s school as long as they are not engaged in work at the school
• A mandated elected DET employee member category – members of this category may make up no more than one-third of the total membership of school council. The principal of the school is automatically one of these members
• An optional Community member category – members are co-opted by a decision of the council because of their special skills, interests or experiences. DET employees are not eligible to be Community members
• A small number of school councils have Nominee members.

For all schools with a Year 7 and above cohort, there is an additional category of membership:

• A mandated elected Student member category, two positions.

Generally, the term of office for all members is two years. The term of office of half the members expires each year, creating vacancies for the annual school council elections.

Nomination forms are available from either campus office, and have also be sent out through Compass.