Select Entry Accelerated Learning

A Select Entry Accelerated Learning (SEAL) program is a form of streaming used in government secondary schools in Victoria, Australia to provide a focused educational environment for academically gifted children.[1][2]

The program allows students to undertake Year 8 work in Year 7, and the option to complete their secondary education in five years instead of six, or students can choose to undertake a more comprehensive Victorian Certificate of Education that takes three years instead of two.[3][4]

Victoria currently has four government secondary schools which are entirely selective entry: Melbourne High School, Mac.Robertson Girls' High School, Nossal High School and Suzanne Cory High School,[5] plus five specialist schools: John Monash Science School (which has a science focus), Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School (which specialises in dance, music and visual arts), Maribyrnong Secondary College (with specialist sport programs), the Flying Fruit Fly Circus School, and The Alpine School (an intensive leadership and enterprise program for year 9).[6]

In 2016, the Department of Education stopped accrediting the SEAL program, with a spokesman saying that schools that offer the program should offer enrolment to local students before students outside the school's zoning region.[7]

Controversies

As a form of streaming, SEAL programs by their very nature attract criticism from those committed to the principles of comprehensive education. Additionally, because they are not offered by every school, the schools that run them are argued to take away the top students from schools that don't, thus leading to a pool of less diverse schools and a concentration of bright students in a small number of schools.[8][9][10][11]

Schools with SEAL programs

Secondary schools in Victoria offering SEAL programs:[12]

References
  1. "Select Entry Acceleration Learning (SEAL) Programs". State of Victoria (Department of Education). 4 October 2006. Archived from the original on 2 March 2007.
  2. "Acceleration Options". State of Victoria (Department of Education). 4 October 2006. Archived from the original on 2 March 2007.
  3. Pung, Alice (2 February 2013). "It's just a swot hop to the top". The Australian. Newscorp. Archived from the original on 8 February 2013.
  4. "Select Entry Accelerated Learning Programs". Department of Education and Training. 8 December 2014.
  5. "Selective Entry High Schools". Department of Education and Training. 17 February 2015.
  6. "Types of Government Schools". Department of Education and Training. 28 September 2013.
  7. Cook, Henrietta (4 April 2016). "Department walks away from select-entry programs for gifted students". The Age. Retrieved 13 May 2018.
  8. Guy, Roslyn (26 February 2005). "Gifted pupils drift from state schools". The Age.
  9. Guy, Roslyn (5 March 2005). "SEAL performs but not all applaud". The Age.
  10. "Selective entry: the state school dilemma". The Age. 5 October 2004.
  11. Siobhan, Duck (1 May 2007). "Test Case". The Herald Sun. Archived from the original on 15 June 2011.
  12. "Select Entry Accelerated Learning Program". Department of Education and Early Childhood Development. 24 October 2012. Archived from the original on 11 May 2013.
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