Executive Director’s Update to Principals #132: Office Update | Critical Incident Support Over the Break | COVID Update - 13 Dec 2021
CEB Office Update
CEB Office Closure Period
All Catholic Education Ballarat offices will close at 4pm on Friday 17 December, 2021 and reopen on Monday 10 January, 2022.
New Ballarat Office Details
Please be advised that the Ballarat CEB office is relocating to Gillies Street North and will open on Monday 17 January, 2022.
The new street address and postal address will both be:
200 Gillies Street North, Lake Wendouree, VIC 3350
Map location
The new office phone number will be: 03 4344 4350
Download a one-page PDF of CEB 2022 contact and location details to print.
Accessing Critical Incident Support over the School Holiday Period
Catholic Education Ballarat’s (CEB) offices will be closed from 4pm on Friday 17 December, 2021 to Monday 10 January, 2022. To ensure continuity of service to schools, should an emergency or critical incident occur during this time, the following arrangements are in place, in keeping with the DOBCEL Emergency and critical Incident Management Policy.
| Nature of incident | Initial response | Follow up Action |
| An incident or emergency that can be resolved at the local school level | Principal or their delegate to manage as usual according to the school Emergency Management Plan (EMP). | Principal or their delegate to log an incident report via SIMON via the HINT tool. |
| A major or critical incident occurs that stretches school resources or experience | Principal or their delegate to phone Tom Sexton, Executive Director on mobile: 0448 512 831. Tom activates the support of CEB’s Critical Incident Management team. Note: from Monday 10 January, 2022 phone the CEB HR Team on mobile: 0436 460 275 to initiate Critical Incident Support or by email: critical.incident@dobcel.catholic.edu.au | Principal or their delegate to log an incident report via SIMON via the HINT tool. |
Definitions
Emergency – a serious, unexpected, and often dangerous situation requiring immediate action by the school or office location, drawing on their experience and available resources. This type of incident requires an immediate response because it can cause:
- Injury/illness;
- Asset/property and/or environmental damage;
- Local negative media interest only; or
- Disruption to workplace operations/recovery issues.
EMP – Emergency Management Plan is a plan developed by each school or office location to guide how an Emergency is managed.
Major incident – any incident where the location, number, severity or type of injuries and/or property damage requires extraordinary resources, that is likely to stretch the school or office location’s experience and capacity to its limit.
Critical incident – a serious, unexpected, and often dangerous situation that is beyond the experience or resources of a school or office location to manage without the assistance of CEB Directorate. These situations require immediate action to manage:
- A life-threatening injury;
- Significant asset/property and/or environmental damage;
- Significant local and national media interest; or
- Significant disruption to workplace operations/recovery issues.
COVID Update
Positive Start Program 2022
You will have recently heard the announcement of a new initiative designed to boost students’ physical and emotional health and wellbeing in the new school year.
The Victorian Government’s Positive Start in 2022 initiative will invest $112.9 million to support government and low fee non-government schools to provide additional camps, sports programs, swimming programs and cultural experiences for students following disruption from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Over the past two years, students have missed out on many of those extra-curricular activities that are such an important part of school life and their whole education.
Positive Start in 2022 is about encouraging students to be more active and to enjoy more time reconnecting with friends and making new ones. The initiative will give students the opportunity to engage in the wealth of experiences that Victoria has to offer – experiences that can enrich their lives in school and beyond, and help create lasting memories.
Through Positive Start, students will have more opportunities to attend camps with their peers and enjoy adventure activities such as abseiling, canoeing and rope courses. They will be able to visit museums, zoos, and galleries, and get involved in the visual arts, music production, drama and sport workshops.
CECV has prepared an FAQ for the program, as a starting point.
No action is needed at this time. DET will provide further information, including how to access Positive Start programs and experiences in Term 1, 2022. We will share this information with you as it becomes available.