NSW Secondary Principals' Council Week 10| Term 2 | 2020 www.nswspc.org.au SPC Bulletin July President's Report Craig Petersen The Except ional Year Cont inues! the various restrictions. An impressive number of Last term I wrote that, ?The commencement of the members attended, included a significant number of 2020 academic year has been like no other.? Life Members for whom the trip to Conference would not normally be viable. In fact, the response was so Nothing much has changed ? if anything, the level of great and the feedback so positive that we will complexity has grown. consider including this as a feature of future AGMs. Added into the drought, fire, storm and COVID mix One of the drivers for going ahead with a virtual AGM we now have the release of the long-anticipated was to install the 2020-22 SPC Executive. An updated Review into NSW Curriculum as well as School list of Executive Members and their key Excellence in Action; Parliamentary Committee #3 responsibilities is included later in this Bulletin. I Report ? Measurement and outcome-based finding in encourage you to reference this list when seeking NSW schools; and the Auditor-General?s Report into advice or support for a problem. Our Reference Local Schools, Local Decisions? and did I mention a Group leaders hold a wealth of information and variety of activities around Disabilities? should be able to answer most of your questions.For Virt ual Meet ings more complex matters, I encourage you to contact Of course, we are all becoming quite adept at a range the relevant executive member. of platforms to compensate for the need to socially Last week I hosted our first ever SPC Webinar. Based distance. Whilst Skype, Microsoft Teams and Webex on our previous zoom meeting experience we were are all in the mix, Zoom has become the preferred quietly confident of a positive response, but the option.SPC has our own zoom licence, separate from feedback was even better than anticipated, despite a the DoE instance, and we will continue to use this as couple of minor technical glitches. This will become a our preferred platform. regular communication tool, with updates from It was great to attend a number of regional meetings myself and other members of the executive to be via zoom earlier in the term, and it was terrific to be scheduled on the afternoon of every second able to hold our first virtual State Assembly. Whilst Thursday, commencing Week 1 next term. We will we forewent the usual reporting and PL Sessions, we publish the host and topic in advance. I encourage were able to get through our critical business session you to register when Geoff Hastings (PL Director) and consider the large number of motions that came sends out the details. This will allow you to log your through from our regional groups. questions in advance, but will also give you access to The AGM also had to be held as a virtual meeting due the recording, in the event that you cannot attend to the postponement of our Annual Conference and the webinar. 1 In Term 3, whilst SPC PL activities are still on hold, A brief summary of SPC activities: we will resume the regular format for our SPC Curriculum Review - the final report and Executive Meetings and State Assembly, in Government response have both been released. anticipation that we will be able to meet face to We were anticipating a 10 year implementation face. Amy is constantly monitoring the current period, but the NSW Government has deemed restrictions and liaising with our main venues so that 4 years is adequate. We await more detail on that we can make an informed and responsible the consultation that must take place to translate decision. In the event that face to face is not the very high level recommendations into practice possible, we will, of course, hold a zoom meeting, in our schools. but will retain the usual full agenda, with Disability Strategy- appropriate modifications to ensure no one has to there are regular update sit in front of their computer for the entire day meetings on this and the Student Wellbeing RG is without moving. doing exceptional work in making sure that the Departmental Restructure: views of members are being heard. We have a very strong statewide system of inclusive education, The SPC, PPA, NSWTF and PSA Presidents have providing every student with expert support to been briefed by Mark Scott and DoE Senior meet their specific needs. We must not let this be Executive about a restructure designed to provide compromised. A DoE Inclusive Education Statement greater clarity of departmental responsibility and is due out shortly. functions. I encourage colleagues to check out the School Excellence in Action new structures. With Jane Simmons and Cathy - whilst we were Brennan joining the senior executive, this will unsuccessful in pushing back against the increase the number of experienced educators reduction in EV cycle from 5 to 4 years, or the who are Deputy Secretaries threefold. mandating of Student Growth and Achievement as Strategic Direction 1, we were successful in having As is usual practice, the SPC does not respond to the number of elements reduced from 14 to 8. We departmental restructures by restructuring our will be keeping a close eye on the implementation organisation. We retain our current regional, of the situational analysis. This is supposed to be a reference and interest groups. The SPC Executive helpful tool and not the onerous task that was will be examining the updated DoE Organisational required under National Partnerships and other Structures in detail, once they are released, to previous programs. ensure that we have identified the key personnel and have linked them to our structures. Craig Petersen July 2020 IN THIS ISSUE (Click on the page numbers to go straight to each section) Page 3: SPC Executive and Reference Group Reports Page 8: Opportunities, resources and upcoming events Page 10: SPC Executive Roles Page 12: SPC Contacts 2 SPC Executive and Reference Group Reports Cassy Norris SPC Execut ive The Legal Reference Group meeting held in April raised a range of issues with potential legal implications regarding COVID 19. Most were raised with the COVID 19 team and involve other DOE functional areas. - Phone calls and SMS on private phones ? concerns re staff privacy - Meeting parental expectations of the amount of time we spend with our classes online - Communication and check-ins ? what is fair and meets duty of care? - VCs- Child protection concerns, the issue of teachers being invited, virtually, into the homes of students and families. Potential risks and parental expectations regarding the use of VC - Equity issues and access to internet and technology - Duty of care issues - how do we do online suspensions for cyber bullying, sexting, behaviour, support our students and families with complex needs The reference group meeting held in May discussed the following issues: - Non-attendance directions - a new category is being proposed to cover cases where students may need to be out of school in order to safeguard the safety of others. Raised the issue of students with disabilities, especially older students exhibiting violence or escalating - could this be an option rather than suspension in some cases? Principals will be canvassed as the feedback indicated the incidence of violence in support units and similar settings is increasing. - Issues arising from COVID-19 and remote learning: parent rights to join into online lessons and google classrooms. Parents do not have a ?physical? right to enrol as students, although it is at discretion of principal. Parents do not have the right to sit in classrooms for extended periods either. If they want to enrol, they have to do all the paperwork involved in enrolling. Communication protocols may also be needed if parents are communicating excessively in such cases. - Legal ramifications for Principals/DoE due to the pandemic e.g. intellectual property use or child protection considerations etc. Generally speaking if reasonable steps have been taken to prevent reasonable and foreseeable risk of harm that will suffice- and is achieved by following guidelines. - Clear information to schools regarding necessary record keeping requirements especially relating to Disability Royal Commission requirements. Keep all records of adjustments this year for Commission. - Briefed on the common themes/aspects of law in 2020 from schools to then engage Legal Services for support. Suggestions included the ongoing consideration of ?wicked problems? i.e how to manage disciplinary processes whilst not interfering with police investigations of cases. 3 - Further discussion of preferred PL delivery approaches. Virtual PL event will be offered in Term 3. - Number of GIPA requests are up 60% this year. Legal Directorate is writing a number of papers for the Upper House of Parliament. - Significant work is being done in the area of redress claims especially for sexual abuse, commercial work, and terms and conditions for excursion and camps - A whole of government policy to address abusive online behaviour towards schools and staff is currently being workshopped. The focus will be on using privacy, employment, commercial, criminal, health and safety laws more effectively, use of institutional/association pressure on professionals, enhanced defamation advice and review of current prohibition against funding defamation support. - The Legal Services Disability Royal Commission Committee is also gathering feedback from schools on submissions related to mainstreaming all students with disabilities, including obtaining stories of success from schools with Support Units, SSPS and other settings. Di Solt au SPC Execut ive 2019-2020 has been very challenging for all of us in staffing our schools. However the SPC has worked closely with the department to ensure the needs of schools in staffing are known and understood.