School Law Series
It’s imperative school leaders have a comprehensive knowledge of the many legal obligations that school are required to understand and implement. In one neat package at the special price of $995, this School Law Series will provide you with 15 hours of critical legal information about a school’s legal risk for workplace health and safety, offsite risk, child protection, protecting whistleblowers, family law, workplace law in relation to employing casuals, avoiding claims for wage theft and much more.
Description
This program is applicable to practitioners from All States & Territories.
- Register for all five School Law programs for only $995 and save!
- As well as online attendance, all delegates will receive recordings of each of the sessions after the live and online session that can be viewed again at any time or shared with colleagues at the same school.
- There will be the ability to ask questions at the conclusion of each live and online session via the online question portal.
If you register for the full series as a live online product after the date of an individual session, you will be sent the recording for the sessions that have passed. Alternatively, you can register for individual sessions by following the links below.
Session 1
School Law: Managing Whole of School, WHS and Offsite Risks
Tuesday, 28 July 2020
Gain guidance on how to design, implement, and monitor an effective school-wide risk management system in your school. Master how to identify, assess and control workplace health & safety risks at your school. Explore what you need to do to avoid and manage legal risks related to offsite activities.
Chair: Jim Laussen, Principal, Overnewton Anglican Community College
9.00m to 10.00am: Practical Tips for Implementing a School-wide Risk Management Program
- Understanding the separation of operational and strategic risk
- Risk reporting across your school
- Managing emergencies: bushfires, pandemics & other incidents
- Use of risk control effectiveness surveys
- Board risk reporting
Presented by James Field, Chief Executive Officer, Complispace
10.00am to 11.00am: Identifying, Assessing and Controlling Workplace Health and Safety Risks at School
- Have you assessed all your risks arising from the school undertaking?
- How far does the school undertaking reach in a WHS context?
- Managing recent risks & being prepared if they return
- Remote learning for teachers and students, working from home, and isolation arrangements
- Managing the risk of remote learning, both for teachers and students
- Establishing adequate controls to manage the mental health risk of students and staff
- Meeting the requirements of Work Health and Safety laws and regulations
Presented by Greg McCann, Partner, Colin Biggers &Paisley
11.00am to 11.10am: Break
11.10am to 12.10pm: THE STUDENT DUTY OF CARE RISK: MANAGING OFFSITE RISK
Offsite Activities and Risk
Identifying offsite activities and risks for
- Camps (local & overseas including remote locations)
- Excursions
- Sports (including contact sports)
- Adventure activities (e.g. rock climbing, water sports, hiking, orienteering etc.)
- International ‘exchange’ programs
Issues to Consider and Navigating the Risks
- Extreme weather
- Medical conditions
- ‘Joint’ activities with other schools
- Third Party providers
- Student conduct & discipline
- Managing crises
Presented by David Maddocks, Partner, Perry Maddocks Trollope Lawyers
12.10pm to 12.15pm: Final Q&A and Closing Comments by the Chair
Register here for Session 1 only
Session 2
School Law: Child Protection, Whistleblowers & Family Breakdown
Tuesday, 4 August 2020
Examine your school’s child protection obligations, the legal risks involved, and how to design and implement child safe risk management, controls and reporting. Identify your school’s employment law requirements related to whistleblowers and the policies you need to implement to meet your legal obligations. Gain a practical guide to the many legal risks arising from a family breakdown and what your school must do to navigate these difficult and fraught situations.
Chair: Henry Grossek, Principal, Berwick Lodge Primary School
9.00am to 9.10am: Opening Address by the Chair
School leaders have been under enormous pressure since the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. As each week passed the impact of decisions made on staff and families increased in various ways. Take this opportunity to reflect on the impact of working remotely for schools and how that may contribute the various types of risks that schools will confront in the future.
9.10am to 10.05am: Family Breakdown Risks: Family Law, Urgent Family Violence Orders, and Children’s Court Scenarios
- What you need to do to comply with Family Court rules: processes and strategies to provide effective management of court orders
- Family Violence and Intervention Orders and the newly established list to fast track applications
- Parental rights to information when court orders are on foot and when they are not
- What you need to know about the operation between the Family Court, the Children’s Court and Intervention Orders
- What you need to know about responding to subpoenas
Presented by Rebecca Dahl, Partner, Nicholes Family Lawyers
10.05am to 10.15am: Break
10.15am to 11.05am: Supporting Whistleblowers: Your Risk Backstop
Is your school ready to support whistleblowers? Whether or not your school is one whose policy must comply with the requirements set out in the Treasury Laws Amendment (Enhancing Whistleblower Protections) Act 2019, you will learn about:
- The main changes to the law
- How to implement a workplace policy and what it should include
- Practical tips for training staff on whistleblower protections
- What to do if a disclosure is made, including conducting an investigation, employer obligations on reporting the misconduct, how to deal with the whistleblower and victimisation
Presented by Cecelia Irvine-So, Partner, Moores
11.05am to 12.05pm: Managing Child Protection Risks in Your School
- Source of child safe risk management obligations
- Design of a Child Safe Risk Framework
- Child safe risk hierarchy
- Examples of common child safe risks and controls
- Child safe risk management reporting
Presented by Nick Duggal, Partner, Moray & Agnew
12.05pm to 12.15pm: Final Q&A and Closing Comments by the Chair
Register here for Session 2 only
Session 3
School Law: Spotlight on Workplace Law
Tuesday, 25 August 2020
Examine the many legal risks, rights and obligations related to mental health in the workplace at your school, including what you must do to remain legally compliant while supporting your staff. Identify and consider how to navigate new legal risks related to casual employees in schools. Work through the key steps you need to follow in any situation involving a workplace investigation at your school.
Chair: Dr Steven Middleton, Head of St Margaret’s and Berwick Grammar School
9.00am to 9.45am: New Legal Risks in Schools Covering Casual Employees: Unpacking Workpac
- What does the WorkPac v Rossato decision mean for casual employees in schools?
- What sorts of claims are being brought against schools by plaintiff law firms?
- How to assess which staff members you believed were casual are now considered permanent
- What to do with current casual employment contracts
- Reconsidering your current policy regarding the engagement and rostering of casuals to comply with the new definition
- Future legislative or High Court change
Presented by Paul O’Halloran, Partner, Colin Biggers & Paisley, Accredited Specialist in Workplace Relations
9.45am to 10.30am: Navigating Workplace Mental Health in Schools: It’s OK not to be OK
- Legal and HR issues to be aware of when a staff member is confronting a mental health issue
- The impact on staff member’s mental health arising from the sudden change from face to face to remote learning and identifying the school’s obligations to provide support
- Examining where the boundaries are
- Practical insights on the different ways to deal with mental health issues at work
- Knowing what your legal obligations are when a staff members mental health impacts other staff members and students
Presented by Tony Houey, Lawyer (in another life), Deputy Principal (retired) and Legal Studies teacher (unretired), Pembroke School
10.30am to 10.45am: Break
10.45am to 11.30am: Wage Theft for Schools
- Federal underpayment laws
- Common underpayment issues for schools
- Record keeping requirements
- Non-compliance and penalties
- Potential criminal consequences including a discussion of Victoria’s Wage Theft Act 2020
Presented by Abbey Burns, Senior Associate, Russell Kennedy Lawyers
11.30am to 12.15pm: Managing Workplace Investigations in Schools: New Trends & Developments
- How COVID-19 has impacted workplace complaints and incidents that require investigation, including psychosocial issues
- Practical and legal issues impacting workplace investigations right now in the ‘new normal’
- The long-term ramifications for schools and how to successfully conduct a workplace investigation in the current environment and going forward
Presented by Georgina Alexandrou, Special Counsel, Corrs Chambers Westgarth
Register here for Session 3 only
Session 4
School Law: Student Violence, Informed Consent & the School Counsellor’s Role
Tuesday, 8 September 2020
Identify your school’s legal rights and obligations when students are violent either at home or at school, and what you can and should do to support families, students and staff. Delve into the school counsellor’s perspective and what they can do to manage student violence. Gain a step by step guide into when you should involve the police, what will happen, and what you need to know and do throughout the process. Finally, consider informed consent, what it means for your school, and your school’s legal duties.
Chair: Natalie Blok, Barrister, Howell’s List
9.00am to 9.30am: The Legal Response to Adolescent Violence: Analysis of the Policy and Legislative Drivers
- Explore the findings of the CIJ's Positive Interventions for Perpetrators of Adolescent violence in the home (PIPA) project
- Identifying the common themes in the lives of many adolescents using violence against family
- Understanding what an effective response to violence looks like in the context of the policy and legal settings
- What the future holds in a legal sense
Presented by Elena Campbell, Associate Director, RMIT Centre for Innovative Justice and Principal Chief Investigator of the ANROWS funded PIPA Project
9.30am to 10.00am: Managing and Supporting Families and Students who are Violent in the Home or at School
- Breaking the cycle of violence; understanding the reasons why young people might use violence and how to support them to behave differently including risk factors and vulnerabilities
- How to hold young people responsible and accountable for their actions while also attending to and strengthening the relationship between the student, parents and the school
- Identifying resources for schools and school counsellors to support the work you do to assist violent students to take responsibility for their use of violence
Presented by Larisa Freiverts, Team Leader and Senior Family therapist at Meridian Youth and Family Therapy Team, Anglicare Victoria
10.00am to 10.10am: Break
10.10am to 10.35am: Student Violence: the School Counsellor’s Perspective
It is important to be able to provide effective interventions with young people and their families to impact this pattern of behaviour. This presentation will explain how a counsellor can use a collaborative approach to violence to empower young people to make different choices in their lives and enable families to take a strong stand against violence.
Presented by Bianca Moran, School Psychologist, St Margaret’s and Berwick Grammar School
10.35am to 11.05am: When the School Should Involve the Police, What to Expect and Your Role Once Police are Called
- Police strategy and training in response to adolescent violence in the home
- What the research tells us about adolescents who use violence (there’s generally a trauma history)
- Police response framed as a child safety issue
- Some key aims of the police’s Enhanced Youth Outreach program to engage with youth offenders and their families in order to understand what needs to change, to divert from future offending
- How police can partner with school leaders and counsellors as part of the interventions taken to deal with issues like disengagement from education/employment and cognitive disorders
Presented by Senior Sergeant Dagmar Andersen, Victoria Police, Leading Senior Constables Grace Buckley and Julianne Prenc, Victoria Police -Enhanced Youth Outreach Program
11.05am to 12.05pm: Informed Consent from Students and Parents in the School
- Informed consent
- What is it?
- When do you need it?
- How do you obtain it?
- When can a student consent to counselling services?
- Exploring practical challenges
- Generic and template consent forms: the pros, cons, what works and what doesn’t
- What happens when parents refuse consent?
- What do you do if one parent says ‘Yes’ but the other parent says ‘No’
- Obtaining consent under family law rules
Presented by Cecelia Irvine-So, Team Leader, Moores with commentary by Bianca Moran, School Psychologist, St Margaret’s School and Berwick Grammar School
12.05pm to 12.15pm: Final Q&A and Closing Comments by the Chair
Register here for Session 4 only
Session 5
School Law: Legal Issues in Business Management
Wednesday, 16 September 2020
If you are responsible for the business management of your school then this webinar is just what you need to avoid the risks that come from an incomplete understanding of the law. Ensure your school complies with key privacy laws; protects its intellectual property and avoid legal risk in managing the hiring out of school facilities.
Chair: Dr Steve Middlteon, Principal, St Margaret’s and Berwick Grammar School
9.00am to 9.45am: The Complexities of the Privacy Legislation and Safeguarding Against Non-Compliance
- Understanding your legal privacy requirements
- Reviewing the current Federal privacy laws, recent amendments and obligations to report infringement
- Reviewing and working with privacy policies, processes and guidelines
- Identifying practical steps to tighten up gaps in your privacy policies
- Examining recent cases and lessons to learn to prevent a potential breach
- Remediating against further privacy breaches
Presented by Andrea Beatty, Financial Services & FinTech Partner, Piper Alderman
9.45am to 10.30am: Managing Your School’s Reputational Risk During a Crisis: The Gift and the Curse of Social Media
- Policies and rules for establishing social media in a school environment
- The role of social media in managing reputation and risk
- Planning and managing a critical incident: practical steps
Presented by Tracey Cain, Managing Director, Australian Public Affairs
10.30am to 10.40am: Break
10.40am to 11.25am: Protecting Your Brand and Your Assets: Intellectual Property Concerns For Schools
- What a school can and can’t protect: an overview
- How to protect it: copyright, confidential information and know-how, domain names, registered and unregistered trade marks
- How to bring stakeholders into the fold: licensing existing support groups and clubs
- Brand management on a practical level
- School employees and rights around confidential information, know-how, and development of new materials
Presented by Peter Campbell, Partner, HWL Ebsworth
11.25am to 12.15pm: Legal Issues Associated with Hiring out School Facilities
- Risk considerations in hiring of school facilities
- Potential liability in contract, tort and statute
- Insurance considerations
- Common scenarios and case examples
Presented by Justine Siavelis, Principal, Gilchrist Connell
Register here for Session 5 only
Each session will provide you with:
For Teachers:
Attend and earn 3 Professional Development Hours (NSW)
Completing this conference will contribute 3 hours of NSW Education Standards Authority PD addressing 6.2.2 from the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers towards maintaining Proficient Teacher Accreditation in NSW
Attend and earn 3 CPD points (QLD, WA, SA)
Attending this conference will contribute 3 hours of CPD addressing the standards as listed from the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers towards maintaining teacher registration
7.2 Comply with legislative, administrative and organisational requirements: understand the implications of, and comply with, relevant legislative, administrative, organisational and professional requirements, policies and processes.
Attend and earn 3 hours of PD (VIC)
Attending this conference will contribute 4 hours of PD addressing the standards as listed from the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers towards maintaining
Proficient Teacher registration in Victoria.
7.2 Comply with legislative, administrative and organisational requirements: understand the implications of, and comply with, relevant legislative, administrative, organisational and professional requirements, policies and processes.
For Lawyers:
Attend and earn 3 CPD units in Substantive Law