CEB Staff Newsletter #35 - 8 Oct 2021

Mandatory COVID-19 Vaccination Directions for CEB Staff

To limit the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) within the population of school settings, Victoria’s Acting Chief Health Officer has released COVID-19 Mandatory Vaccination Directions (No. 6). We have developed this Circular for CEB staff to provide an outline of the main points of the Directions, critical dates, and the obligations of CEB staff. 

All CEB employees must review the Circular, in particular noting the requirement of employees to provide evidence of their vaccination status in accordance to the key dates outlined in the Circular. Note that your vaccination status must be updated by Friday 14 October. 

CEB will continue to provide flexibility in enabling staff to make and attend vaccination appointments.

Further guidance and supporting materials, including an FAQ, will be provided early next week.

COVID Reminders for CEB Staff

Restrictions for working on-site and in schools remain unchanged from the last staff newsletter – see CEB Staff Newsletter #34 (Friday 1 October). 

CEB Staff Announcements

Murray Macdonald

After a long and exhaustive search, I am very pleased to announce that Murray Macdonald has accepted the role of Education Consultant: Northern Zone (read official announcement).

Murray has extensive experience in Catholic Education, having worked in the Archdiocese of Melbourne, Dioceses of Sandhurst, Lismore and Ballarat. Over his 40 years in Catholic Education Murray has been a successful Principal at St Mary’s Primary School, Cohuna (1991-1995), St Patrick’s Primary School, Tongala (1999-2010), St James’ Primary School, Yamba (2011-2013) and Lumen Christi Primary School, Delacombe (2014-2021). Murray was also Deputy Principal at St Augustine’s College F-10, Kyabram (1996-1998).

Murray holds the following qualifications: Bachelor of Education (ACU), Master of Educational Leadership (ACU) and Post-Graduate Certificate in Teaching Studies of Asia (University of Melbourne).

Murray originates from Mildura and is a former student of both Sacred Heart Primary School and St Joseph’s College, Mildura. He is looking forward to working in the Northern Zone and learning about the individual context to each school. Murray will be regularly working out of the Mildura and Swan Hill CEB Offices.

Murray will commence his new position at the beginning of next year. I offer him our congratulations on his appointment.

Emma Rutherford

I am delighted to advise that Emma Rutherford, Senior Education Officer: Learning and Teaching, has been seconded to St Paul’s Mildura for the 2022 school year. This will provide mutual benefit to both parties, giving Emma the opportunity to reconnect with a school community and put her learnings from the past 4 years as an Education Officer into practice in a classroom setting, as well as provide St Paul’s with some onsite expertise. 

Thank you to Vince Muscatello and St Paul’s for willingly accommodating this secondment.

A 12 month Education Officer secondment position for the Northern Zone  is currently advertised.

Trish Wilson

Trish Wilson, who has worked with the CEB payroll team since September 2019 has recently announced her resignation to pursue other career ambitions. Trish has been a wonderful personality and contributor within the Business Services team and will finish on 15 October. We wish her all the best for the future.

Tom Sexton
Executive Director, Catholic Education Ballarat

CEB Meeting Recordings

Recordings for this week’s CEB Meetings and IT sessions will be published in the next Staff Newsletter. 

Changes to CEB Team Meeting Dates

CEB team meetings are an important element of how we build community and journey together as a CEB Team. Aligned to our objective of exemplary service to schools, and as advised during the CEB Staff meeting on Monday, a review of CEB team meeting dates has led to two changes from previous invitations. 

This change is necessary to ensure that CEB staff are available to participate in our team meetings, and able to meet the needs of schools during term time; and is consistent with practice and custom for CEB in past years.

Date changes:

1. The CEB team meeting previously scheduled for February, has been rescheduled to Thursday 27 and Friday 28 January 2022. Unfortunately, with Australia Day falling on a Wednesday, it has made it difficult to provide a third day for service-team meetings.
2. The CEB team meeting, previously scheduled in October, has been rescheduled to Wednesday 28 September to Friday 30 September 2022.

Meeting times for CEB team meetings will reflect the need for staff to travel. 

We recognise some staff may already have applied for and had leave approved for January 2022.  In this case, your approved leave will continue to be honoured; please speak with your Team Leader and confirm that you will be unable to attend the CEB team meeting for this reason.  

There will be no CEB team meeting during the Term 1, 2022 school holidays providing the possibility of two consecutive weeks of annual leave at that time (Monday 11 April to Monday 25 April 2022).

End of Year Staff Dinner

As discussed at the CEB staff meeting earlier this week, plans are being made for our staff dinner on Friday 3 December. Please register your attendance and advise if your partner will be attending via this Google form to ensure an appropriate space is booked.

Staff Retreat Update

Thank you to all those who have registered for the CEB Retreat, currently we have 58 registrations. GOOD NEWS – if you have not registered there is still time! Register here.

At this stage, the CEB Staff Retreat on 15 and 16 December, is taking place, and is a face-to-face gathering together, at the Victorian Emergency Management Institute near Mount Macedon. By that date Victoria will have transitioned into the new ‘COVID normal’, with many restrictions lifted. Please keep an eye out for a google doc that will come out in the next week or so regarding descriptions of workshops that may assist with decision making.

The retreat will offer a diverse range of prayer, learnings and experiences from which participants may choose. The theme of this retreat is ‘Coming to the Mountain’. Participants will be invited to explore what encountering the sacred means in their own lives through a variety of workshops and experiences.

Please discuss with your Team Leader if you are planning to choose alternative spiritual nourishment/activity to this retreat experience.

Professional Learning

For those wishing to run Professional Learning in 2022, please send a completed request form and flyer to your Team Leader for approval by Friday 12 November. All requests will be collated and assessed with confirmation given to the organiser by the end of November.  Any requests made after this date will need to follow this same process and will be limited to spare dates on the calendar.

Staff Prayer

Staff Prayer will take place remotely on the morning of Monday 11 October at 8.30am. The google meet link and the prayer for the session will be on our SIMON homepage on Monday.

Flourish Wellbeing eMag – October edition

The October edition of the Flourish Wellbeing eMag is now available.

In this issue:

• Screen Fatigue
• Wellbeing in a time of social distancing
• Yoga Nidra
• Pets & the pandemic
• Growing your own fruit & vegetables
• Loneliness
• Sleep Mindfulness, and
• more

PD Opportunity – NCEC Enrolment Workshops

NCEC are holding two workshops on different approaches to enrolments. These free workshops are for educators and leaders across Catholic schools and education offices. The workshops will be facilitated by Strategy Coordinator Uby Faddoul from Catholic Education South Australia and members of the National Catholic Education Commission Enrolment Working Group.

Workshop 1: A strategic approach to enrolment

18 October 2021

This workshop explores a strategic and sustainable approach to school enrolment including:

• what makes a Catholic school unique
• developing a successful enrolment strategy
• enrolment trends and forecasting
• identifying opportunities and barriers to enrolment
• developing policies, processes and activities to support an effective enrolment strategy

Workshop 2: An evidence-based approach to enrolment and retention

16 November 2021

This workshop explores using evidence and data to inform enrolment and retention strategies including:

• measuring performance and success criteria
• understanding community/parent perceptions
• understanding preventable and non-preventable attrition
• identifying effective feedback tools and mechanisms
• evaluating enrolment and retention strategies

Registrations

Register for the sessions and download the Enrolment Toolkit.