Executive Director’s Update to Principals #43 - 8 September 2023
Announcement of Retirement- St James' Primary School, Sebastopol
I write to inform you that Mr Peter Fahey has indicated his intention to conclude his time as Principal of St James’ Primary School at the end of this year. Peter has made this decision in order to prioritise the needs of his family for the 2024 school year and will not be returning to St James’ beyond this period.
Peter is a passionate and innovative educator and has contributed significantly to the learning and teaching practices that exist at St James’ and which support the development and growth of both students and staff.
He has also been a valued contributor to the professional growth of his Diocesan colleagues through experiences such as Foundations of Learning and sharing his expertise in play-based education.
Garth Kydd will continue in his role as Principal of St James’ in 2024 with a Deputy Principal to be appointed as part of the leadership structure. A process will be undertaken early next year to consider the future leadership model for St James’ beyond 2024. This consultation will invite students, staff and families to have input at this stage.
As Executive Director of Catholic Education Ballarat, I offer my congratulations and gratitude to Peter for his wonderful contribution.
I ask you to join me in wishing Peter all the best as he concludes his time as an educator and leader in our Diocesan community.
Time in Lieu Guidelines
In June 2023, the Victorian Government announced that it would invest more than $130 million over four years to support schools meet their time-in-lieu (TIL) requirements associated with required attendance at school camps. We are confident our sector will receive its share of those funds via the commitment to fund non-government schools at 25% of the funds provided to government schools. However at this stage we still have no detail on the timing, amounts or distribution of these funds.
The announcement to provide the additional funding followed a decision at the Fair Work Commission (FWC) in relation to a dispute between the Australian Education Union and the Department of Education relating to the interpretation of the overnight on-call loading of 50% for employees who attend an overnight camp.
Victorian government schools were previously only providing the on-call overnight loading of 50% to designated teachers who were rostered to be on-call overnight. Other teachers who attended a camp, but were not designated to be on call on a specific night, were not eligible to receive the 50% loading. Employers covered by the Catholic Education Multi-Enterprise Agreement 2022 (CEMEA) were applying the on-call overnight loading in the same manner as Victorian government schools. However, it was agreed that this approach and the application by employers covered by the CEMEA were subject to the outcome of the decision at the FWC.
It was determined by the FWC, that the overnight on-call loading of 50% is applicable to all teachers required by the Principal (or delegate) to attend a camp. Therefore, all teachers who are required to attend a camp will be considered during the overnight period to be either:
- On-call and available to perform duties (50% TIL applies) or
- Performing duties (100% TIL applies)
Thus, teachers who are required by the Principal (or delegate) to attend a school camp and who are not performing duties will be regarded as being on-call and available to perform duties for:
- the overnight period between 11.00pm to 7.00am and will accrue TIL at the rate of 50% for this period
- A teacher who is required to perform duties during the overnight period (between 11.00pm to 7.00am) will be regarded as being on duty and will accrue TIL at 100% (instead of 50%) for the time they are required to perform duties.
The employers covered by the CEMEA will follow the decision by the FWC and this approach should be back dated to the start of the 2023 school year. Consequently, all teachers required to attend an overnight camp during 2023 and moving forward will be entitled to TIL at the 50% loading for the overnight periods and other periods when they are on-call and are not been performing duties.
The CECV implementation Guide- Teacher Time in Lieu has been updated to reflect the new agreed approach. The updated guide is now available on the CECV website together with other CEMEA implementation tools.
The new TIL arrangements for school camps recognise the important role of those camps in our students’ development and the hard work of our exceptional teachers to make those camps possible through their out of hours work.
If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact Maree Baker, Manager Human Resources on 0436 460 275 or Jo Huntley, Human Resources Advisor on 0429 598 163.
Thank you for your support in implementing the new approach and for your ongoing leadership of our school communities.