Home / Scholaris / Scholaris – 13/07/2021

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Your weekly Catholic Schools New South Wales ebulletin

Issue 13/07/2021

Contents

Priority Items Professional Learning Legal/Compliance School Newsletter
Priority Items

National Australian teacher survey opens (Ref: 185/21)

The Teachers Report Card survey is now open.

Organised by the Australian College of Educators (ACE) in partnership with The NEiTA Foundation and administered by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), the survey asks teachers about the challenges they face in their day-to-day work and to share their ideas on how to improve Australian education.

For more information visit here.

Grattan Institute surveys (Ref: 191/21)

The Grattan Institute is running a survey about pressures on teachers’ time.

Principals, deputy or assistant principals are invited to take part in the school leader survey here.

Primary and secondary teachers are invited to take part in the teacher survey here.

The survey is anonymous and will take around 10 minutes. Your responses will help the Grattan Institute to develop a better understanding of issues affecting Australian teachers’ time.

Professional Learning

AEDC NSW 2021 Research Symposium (Ref: 175/21)

For educators, school leaders and policy makers the AEDC NSW 2021 Research Symposium is taking place Thursday 12 August 2021.

Event Title: We collected the AEDC data, we have our School’s Preliminary Report – what next?

Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) NSW invites you to their 2021 research Symposium. This symposium will show case how different stakeholders utilise AEDC data and the value of the dataset in informing policy and practice.

We look forward to welcoming you to this forum as we explore the value of AEDC datasets and how we can respond to school level, community level, state level and national data from the 2021 AEDC data collection.

Presenters include representatives from Local Councils, Telethon Kids Institute, Schools, Early Childhood Education Directorate, NSW Department of Education Educational Standards Directorate and UNSW Researchers.

Venue: The event will take place online using Zoom platforms.

Date and time: Thursday 12 August 2021 from 8:30am

Cost: There is no cost to participate in this event.

Target Audience: educators, school leaders and policy makers, researchers and community workers from schools, preschools, childcare centres, government agencies, university researchers and research institutes.

Enrolment: Register your interest to attend this event by 10 August 2021

Please complete the enrolment form using this link: https://nsweducation.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_rxTf04l2T0K19vuH-kUmlg

More information is available on the symposium event  page and this will be updated to include the agenda at the start of Term 3 2021.

Forward

Deadline extended: Instructional Strategies Systematic Instruction - Short Course Term 3 (Ref: 169/21)

We appreciate how busy the end of term is for school staff, so we extended the deadline for applications in the next short course with Dr Bree Jimenez (University of Texas).

This professional learning short course targets the evidence-based instructional strategy of Systemic Instruction for students with disabilities.

What is Systemic Instruction?

This course will cover a series of systematic instructional strategies such as time delay, choral responding and task analysis that are evidenced based for having highly effective outcomes for students with autism and intellectual disability. Using universal design principles, these strategies will allow all students to better engage with age and stage appropriate curriculum content.

By the end of this course, participants will:

  • be proficient in the use of systematic instruction as an instructional strategy to support students
  • through one-to-one live coaching, develop the tools to successfully implement response prompting procedures within their classroom
  • trial systematic instruction procedures in their classrooms with selected students and collect student data to identify how students are responding to the instructional strategies

AUDIENCE:

Teachers (specialist or otherwise) in both systemic and non-systemic schools, who have direct daily contact in classrooms with a consistent cohort of students

REGISTER YOUR INTEREST:

Sound like a teaching strategy you would like to implement in your classroom?
Learn more HERE and complete a short application to apply.

APPLICATIONS EXTENDED: Friday 16 July

Forward

Legal/Compliance

COVID-19 School Lockdown - Revised Copyright Guidance (Ref 190/21)

  1. Where possible, use the many free legal sources of content for students to access without teachers needing to make copies for, or send copies to, students. For example, if a music teacher needs students to listen to a particular song, consider whether it is available for students to access themselves legally via services such as Spotify or YouTube? If you want students to listen to a news item, consider whether it is available for students to view on a catch-up TV service such as ABC iView that students can access themselves? If so, use those freely available sources.
  2. If students need to read or view content that is available on the internet, send students an email or document with links to those resources rather than sending students actual copies of the resources (i.e. in word or PDF form) or making copies for them. Where possible, students should use their home internet connection to access research reports, newspaper articles or instructional videos from the actual websites where these resources appear (rather than a teacher making a copy of these resources and sending them to students).
  3. Consider the many subscription services that students can access from home. For example, if the school has a subscription to services such as Hot Maths or Reading Eggs, students should be able to access those resources by logging in from home (rather than teachers copying the content for students).
  4. If the above options are not possible or suitable, you may be able to provide copies of copyright materials to students (e.g. via a DTE), however different rules apply depending on the type of material you are using as part of your teaching. Some guidance on the different types of material are set out below.
  5. If you are teaching remotely and need to use copyright material in your lessons (either held via a video conferencing platform such as Zoom or recorded for students to watch later), there is no clear permission in the Copyright Act that allows you to do so. However, you can take the following steps which may lower (if not in some cases eliminate) the risk of copyright infringement:
  • ensure that you only use copyright material where it is for the educational purposes of the school or for the purposes of educational instruction
  • only use a small amount of copyright material (i.e. extracts) not the whole of a work, video or song etc
  • ensure the lesson or any recording is only made available to those students who need it as part of their studies (e.g. via a username and password in a closed environment not on an open internet page) rather than making it available to the whole school
  • instruct students, where possible, to only watch the lesson or recording when physically located in their homes, not in a community space or their parent’s workplace
  • make the lesson or recording “view only”, so that no further copies can be made or downloaded
  • only make recordings available for the period of time for which they are needed
  • archive or disable access by students to recordings once they are no longer needed (e.g. when normal teaching resumes)

(https://smartcopying.edu.au/covid-19-school-lockdown-copyright-guidance/)

In addition, the National Copyright Unit has published a number of FAQs to assist schools. Of note:

  • Teachers can hold virtual classes or lessons for students to watch in real-time, using copyright material, so long as the rules outlined at 5. above are complied with).
  • When making recordings of lessons for students to view ‘on demand’, these rules should also be complied with as well as including a notice for students about the restricted use of the copyright material.
  • There are specific rules for which material can be uploaded to a DTE for students to access (with the same rules applying to material mailed to students or made available in hard copy). These specific rules vary depending on the material, but the underlying principle is that it should only be made available for educational purposes, and restricted to those students who need it and for the time they need it. For materials from textbooks and resources, this should only be a short extract (ie less than 10% or a chapter).

The FAQs can be accessed in full here.

Also bear in mind that the School Storytime Agreement which was in place during 2020 has now expired, meaning that schools are restricted in the ways they can read Australian stories to students. Now, teachers can only virtually read stories to students when required for educational instruction (such as in a virtual classroom) and only via password protected digital teaching environments.

For further clarification or help on the revised guidance, you can also contact the Catholic Schools NSW Legal Hotline on 1800 4Catholic Schools New South Wales (1800 427 679).

Forward

Change in financial reporting requirements for ACNC-registered charities (Ref 189/21)

The Assistant Treasurer has announced a number of reforms to the financial reporting requirements for charities registered with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC). These reforms are as follows:

  • Change in the annual financial reporting thresholds which will become effective from 1 July 2022 (reporting against the 2021-2022 financial year), as follows:
    • Small charities will increase to under $500,000 annual revenue
    • Medium-sized charities will increase to under $3 million annual revenue
  • Large charities with two or more key management personnel will be required to report remuneration paid to responsible persons (directors) and senior executives on an aggregated basis in their 2022 Annual Information Statement. This change will become effective from 1 July 2022.
  • All charities will be required to report related party transactions in their annual reporting to the ACNC from 1 July 2023. The purpose of this change is to increase the transparency of transactions with related people or organisations that pose a higher risk of conflicts of interest.

All entities which are ACNC-registered charities should start preparing for these changes, and speak to their accountant or auditor to find out how the changes could impact them. The ACNC will issue guidance later in the year for charities on implementing these reforms. More information here.

Forward

COVID-19 guidelines for Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) services (Ref: 192/21)

Click here for the latest guidelines for ECEC services. Read the latest communication to services on the current public health orders including answers to FAQs.

These guidelines are to help early childhood education and care (ECEC) services prepare for, prevent and manage an outbreak of COVID-19.

Forward

School Newsletter

Students Enrolling to Vote (Ref:193/21)

Voting is a democratic process that gives Australian citizens aged 18 years and older the right to have their say in federal, state and local government elections. While the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) encourages students to learn about this democratic process, the AEC has become aware of suspicious enrol to vote applications submitted by students undertaking a curriculum activity.

For the most part, students follow a teacher’s instructions and complete the enrol to vote application available on the AEC website without submitting the application. Unfortunately, in some instances, the AEC believes students have acted fraudulently, entering false details and submitting the enrol to vote application.

When completing an AEC enrol to vote application, students need to be aware that it is a criminal offence under section 137.1 of the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth) to provide false or misleading information to a Commonwealth entity.

National Meals on Wheels Day Campaign Kit for Primary Schools (194/21)

For over 60 years, Meals on Wheels has been supporting the health and wellbeing of older and vulnerable people within the community. Every year, Meals on Wheels celebrates National Meals on Wheels Day on the last Wednesday in August.

Meals on Wheels are also looking to inspire ‘the next generation’ of volunteers by collaborating with Australian primary schools.

In the lead up to, or during the week of National Meals on Wheels Day on Wednesday the 25th of August, primary school students are encouraged to create ‘thank you’ cards, for volunteers at their local Meals on Wheels service.

More information on this activity, including a downloadable campaign kit can be found on the Meals on Wheels Australia website.

Campaign Kit