A BENDIGO principal has welcomed new measures to support year 12 students who have been adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The Victorian government on Friday announced every student completing the Victorian Certificate of Education would be individually assessed to see if coronavirus impacted their studies.
All schools would provide the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority with information on every single student.
VCAA would consider a range of data alongside exam results, including a student's expected achievement levels before coronavirus, school assessments completed before remote learning, the General Achievement Test, and a range of statistical analyses to calculate final results.
Consideration would also take into account factors like school closures, illness, and extra family responsibilities.
Bendigo Senior Secondary College principal Dale Pearce said the new measures made sense.
"I would expect the first focus would be the schools where there have been extended closures and a significant interruption to their school year," Mr Pearce said.
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"Every student has been impacted to some extent, but that will be the same for every student across the state.
"They're looking for individual examples where a school has been impacted above and beyond."
Mr Pearce said the focus would be on how COVID-19 affected a student's study scores - the grading a student receives for each subject they complete.
Those study scores were used to determine the final ATAR result.
But Mr Pearce said schools were still waiting for the exact details about how they should determine disadvantage.
"I imagine we will not be looking at the general impact, but instead the specific impact," he said.
"Of course everyone's performance in a class may be slightly down - that may be the case across the whole state.
"But in the end, the results will all translate to the study scores that place them on the bell curve."
The Victorian government on Friday also announced $28.5 million would go to supporting students' mental health.
More than 1500 school staff would undergo additional mental health training in partnership with headspace, to help identify at-risk students.
"I think there is always a need to further support those students," Mr Pearce said.
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