Contents

Priority Items
Priority Items

NSW Curriculum Reform (Ref: 210/20)

Scholaris will provide regular updates on the NSW Curriculum Reform. This will include useful links, NESA information, key matters considered by the NESA Curriculum Reform Steering Committee, and other information as it becomes available. In the meantime, keep an eye on the NSW Curriculum Reform website, where you can also peruse the NSW Curriculum Review Final Report and the NSW Government Response.

At its first meeting on 13 September, the NESA Curriculum Reform Steering Committee considered strategies to ensure appropriate representation of all sectors, including the NSW Catholic sector, in consultation processes moving forward.

Catholic Schools NSW will ensure that this representation is inclusive of regional dioceses, and teachers with expertise in meeting the diverse needs of all students. Danielle Cronin, Director of Education Policy, represents Catholic Schools New South Wales on this Steering Committee.

Live streaming and recording end of year events – new licence (Ref: 208/20)

On Friday 25 September 2020, the National Copyright Unit (NCU) announced that it had negotiated with APRA/AMCOS/ARIA a gratis interim music Licence for schools, which is in effect immediately until 31 December 2020. The terms of the interim Licence mean that:

  • Schools can now livestream a school event (such as a graduation ceremony or sports event), where live or recorded music is being played, from more places than the school’s own website (which was the previous limitation). The interim Licence now also allows schools to livestream via a social media platform (eg Facebook Live, YouTube) or a video conferencing platform (eg Zoom). This also extends to livestreaming events which feature electronic presentations or videos set to music.
  • Schools can now also upload recordings of school events where live or recorded music is being played onto more places than the school’s intranet (which was the previous limitation). Now, schools may also upload these recordings to the school’s website, school’s official social media pages, and Apps used for school communications (only where used for educational purposes). Schools can also email/message the recordings to the school community or distribute physical copies (eg via USBs) for no cost or on a cost recovery basis only.

Where social media platforms such as YouTube or Facebook are used, even though the interim Licence allows this, it is still possible that it will be taken down or muted by the relevant platforms. This is not due to a breach of copyright or the terms of the Licence, but rather, is due to ‘default’ defensive actions taken by the platforms to ensure that it does not broadcast anything which breaches copyright.

Schools should remember to comply with the other terms of the Licences when using these expanded rights (for example, labelling and crediting the works) and also ensure that their privacy consent forms are up to date and cover the use and distribution of student personal information that may be included in these livestreams or recordings.

Click here for more information on the interim Licence.

In addition to this, APRA/AMCOS/ARIA is currently working with the NCU to put in place a new (permanent) Licence agreement for schools in 2021, which is expected to include those expanded rights plus other changes to the current Licences. We will provide further updates as they become available.

Annual School Reports due 9 October 2020 (Ref: 206/20)

Refer to NESA 24/20
4 September 2020.

Non-government schools must publish and submit their 2019 annual report to NESA by 9 October 2020.

Annual reports can be submitted to RANGS Online on or before the due date.

If you require assistance in accessing RANGS Online please contact Senior Registration Officer, Bernardine Knorr on (02) 9367 8873.

NESA has advised previously that the following information required to be included in the Annual School Report is sometimes overlooked:

  • A description of how the school manages student non-attendance
  • A summary of professional learning
  • Student attendance rates for each Year level, and the whole school
  • A summary of policies for student welfare, anti-bullying, discipline and complaints and grievances with information on: changes made to these policies during the reporting year and how these policies are disclosed publicly
  • The full text or a link to the full text of the school’s enrolment policies including all prerequisites for continuing employment
  • Details of the teacher accreditation status of all teaching staff (as defined by the TA Act), that is

(a)  provisional accreditation under Division 3,
(b)  conditional accreditation under Division 3,
(c)  accreditation at proficient teacher level under Division 3 or 5,
(d)  accreditation at highly accomplished teacher level under Division 5
(e)  accreditation at lead teacher level under Division 5.

  • Priority areas for improvement as selected by the school including comments on the achievement of priorities for the previous year.

If you require clarification about the content of your report, please contact Jason Cheers, Inspector, School Registration and Accreditation Directorate
[email protected], (02) 9367 8854

 

Ordering your Transport Concession Entitlement Cards (Ref: 209/20)

Ordering your Transport Concession Entitlement Cards (Ref: 209/20)

Transport for NSW (TfNSW) is rolling out a simpler way to issue student transport concession cards. New Transport Concession Entitlement Cards will replace the older-style cards. The new cards are more durable, which should mitigate the need to order replacements. There are no changes to students’ eligibility for the cards. Cards for 2021 will be ordered via the TfNSW School Portal and TfNSW has developed the following resources to help schools with ordering cards: