Executive Director’s Update to Principals #34 - 22 August 2024

Jack Lenaghan - resignation

Jack Lenaghan, Principal of Sacred Heart Primary School, Colac has advised he will conclude his employment at the end of the school year.

The word legend is sometimes thrown around loosely, but in Jack's case, it is an understatement !  

Jack has served as a Principal in our Diocese for 29 years - 6 years at St Malachy’s, Edenhope and 23 years at Sacred Heart. Throughout his career, he has been a passionate and innovative educator. He has shown great commitment to the wellbeing of all in the Sacred Heart community, working tirelessly to build a strong sense of engagement and belonging, and placing great importance on the development of the 'whole person' and having 'fun' through learning and participation.

Jack has lived the values of respect for the life and dignity of each person and, through his generous and caring nature, has truly known his students and their families through a genuine interest in each individual. 

While much more will be said later, we thank and congratulate Jack sincerely for his service, and offer him every best wish for the future.   

Please see below a letter provided to the Sacred Heart school community yesterday. 

Ashley Wiseman - resignation

Ashley Wiseman, Manager of Planning and Infrastructure, has resigned from his position with DOBCEL. Over the past seven years, Ash has been an invaluable leader and colleague, and his contributions have been deeply valued.

Ash will be leaving us on September 13 to take on a new role with the Victorian School Building Authority.

We extend our heartfelt thanks and best wishes to him for this exciting new chapter in his career.

A recruitment process will be launched shortly. 

HINT - Incident Reporting Changes

Escalated Student Behaviour

Our HINT incident reporting system has been updated to better capture and reflect incidents of escalated student behaviour.

There is now an incident category dedicated for escalated student behaviours. This is defined below:

Although some incident categories in HINT are automatically flagged as serious (including fractures and concussions) this is not the case for escalated student behaviours.  To remedy this a change has been made on the classification step to capture whether the escalated student behaviour is deemed as serious or non serious as per the below definitions.

Please note that this change is only to capture the impact of the escalations on others and the standard reporting that occurs for students in the social behaviour platform should still continue.

Incidents of escalated student behaviours that are logged as serious will be reviewed by the OHS Coordinator and flagged with the relevant Education Consultant in the first instance.   

Major Incident Wording Change

The major incident category will be updated to Critical Incident to align with the language used in the current procedures and processes.

If you have any queries, please contact Leah Crough, Occupational Health and Safety Coordinator lcrough@dobcel.catholic.edu.au .

Timetable templates

With planning commencing for the 2025 school year, it is timely to remind you of the availability of resources that will assist with ensuring your timetable allocation of hours for the 30 + 8 model is compliant with the requirements of the CEMEA 2022. 

These templates are available via Knowledge Banks 'School Finance & Administration Resources' folder or via the below links:

Primary 30+8 Timetable Template

Secondary 30+8 Timetable Template

 If you have problems accessing the templates go here for more information or contact the SIMON Help Desk on support@simonschools.net    

Please reach out to Jo Huntley (HR Advisor) jhuntley@dobcel.catholic.edu.au  or Ph 0429 598 163 or Jordan Smith (Financial Accountant) jsmith@dobcel.catholic.edu.au for any assistance or training in the use of the timetable templates. 

Schoolzine - new offerings and opportunities

Schoolzine is working to support and help uplift your schools’ digital communications capability. They have provided the following update on new services and opportunities.

To access any of the Schoolzine services or just have a chat about your needs, simply fill out the DOBCEL onboarding form.

Any queries, please contact Gerard Delaney (Manager Communications and Marketing) on gdelaney@dobcel.catholic.edu.au or Ph 0413 274 176 ______________________________________________________

We’re excited to bring you some great news as part of our ongoing partnership with DOBCEL. We’ve introduced a new feature that’s available to your school exclusively - SchoolTV is now integrated into your Schoolzine eNewsletters!

What’s New ?

• Newsletter Integration with SchoolTV: If you’re already using our eNewsletters, SchoolTV is now enabled and ready to use. This powerful tool provides expert mental health and wellbeing content that you can easily include in your newsletters to support your school community. Simply log in to your content builder, select the SchoolTV option, and start sharing these valuable resources. The best part? As a DOBCEL school, you’re the first in Australia to use this exciting new feature! 

Enhance Your Digital Presence with Our DOBCEL Offerings:

As a DOBCEL school, you also have access to exclusive offerings designed to elevate your school’s online presence:

• Website Development: Create a brand-new website with our professionally designed templates, ensuring your school’s digital presence is both engaging and effective.
• Existing Website Refresh: Already have a Schoolzine website? We can help you keep it fresh and engaging with our website refresh services, tailored to meet your school’s needs.
• Reliable Hosting and Support: Benefit from secure website hosting, professional digital newsletters, and ongoing support, including free maintenance and content upload assistance.

Not Using Our eNewsletters Yet?

This is the perfect time to join the Schoolzine community! By signing up for our eNewsletter service, you can take full advantage of the new SchoolTV integration and all the other powerful tools we offer to help you communicate effectively with your school community.

Ready to Get Started or Want to Chat About Options?

Whether you’re looking to integrate SchoolTV, upgrade your website, launch a new digital presence, or just have a chat about your options, we’re here to help.

Simply fill out our DOBCEL onboarding form and we’ll guide you through every step of the process.

New Finance and Payroll Systems for DOBCEL

Following a thorough process of due diligence and vendor selection, we are pleased to announce we will shortly begin a project to migrate to the following new Finance, Payroll and Core HR Systems:   

Finance: Microsoft Dynamics Business Central

Payroll & HR Core: Aurion

With useability for schools at the forefront of thinking, these platforms represent the best technology, people, and ethical standards that align with DOBCEL’s current and future needs and vision.

SIMON will also be integrated into the Nexus Finance Platform to enable seamless management of family payment rules and processes. A payment gateway will also be scheduled for implementation to provide the option for schools to facilitate online payments for families.

The implementation project - “Project Nexus” - will commence shortly and further details will be provided ASAP.  

We trust you share our excitement to be commencing this next technological phase of DOBCEL’s growth in delivering ‘best in class’ support to our schools and community.

If you need more information, please contact Danny Gruber dgruber@dobcel.catholic.edu.au or Ph  0419 339 000

Training Opportunities - ADDRESSING STAFF PERFORMANCE, KNOW YOUR AGREEMENT

ADDRESSING STAFF PERFORMANCE 

Date: 26 August 2024 

Time: 10.00am – 12.30pm

Location: Online

Cost:  Free

Try-Booking Registration: https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1264852

This online session designed for Principals and team leaders will provide practical skills to assist in addressing staff performance issues both formally and informally. It will cover the clause 13 process, what support is available and Enterprise Agreement obligations to be aware of.  

KNOW YOUR AGREEMENT

Date: 13 September 2024 

Time: 10.00am – 12.00pm

Location: Online 

Cost:  Free

Try-Booking Registration: https://www.trybooking.com/CTZGY

Do you want a better understanding of specific clauses the Catholic Education Multi-Enterprise Agreement 2022?

This session will cover:

• Parental Leave
• Time-in-lieu

This session is designed for principals, team leaders and administrators who are involved in the application of parental leave and TIL.

At the end of the session there will be time for general CEMEA 2022 questions.

For any enquiries about these programs, please contact Jo Huntley HR Advisor 0429 598 163.  Additional sessions are scheduled to occur later in the year.