Development

2020 was a significant year in the Compliance and Policy space at Ignatius Park College. This was the first year in which we were fully able to implement training and projects to support the compliance work at IPC. In brief, the work this year involved embedding the processes begun in 2019. COVID-19 COVID 19 was clearly a disruption for everyone in the IPC community and beyond. It was pleasing to see the way that the College “pulled together” in a very difficult time for many families and students. In regards to staffing, our Principal Shaun Clarke produced a teaching staff roster that was used to regulate which staff came into and out of the College campus during the period. One any one day, about 20 teaching staff (out of about 90 total) were onsite to supervise students who were children of emergency workers as defined by the State Government. Most other teaching staff were at home and expected to be working from home during this period. The Principal and other Deputy Principals were onsite each day during the period at IPC. A teaching and learning platform called STILE provided the school with the opportunity to create high quality lessons, resources and learning experiences in an efficient manner delivered to students. The feedback mechanism provided by STILE was also easy to use for both students and staff. It was pleasing to see the response of students during this time, as they benefited from the regular feedback provided by our teaching and support staff on STILE. I want to take the opportunity to thank our support staff for their work, especially during this time. It was especially challenging for our support staff, who were unsure at times about their employment status because of the work disruption. However, each and every employee continued to provide quality work. They did this without complaint. A special recognition to our Property and Services Manager, Trevor Rethamel, and our cleaning team for the College. Together they worked tirelessly to provide a clean and safe environment for the IPC community day after day. Their work changed almost on a daily basis during this period and each member of the team stepped up to provide care for our students and staff. To me, this is a wonderful reflection of the positive culture at IPC. CompliSpace During 2020, the training and work in CompliSpace continued. CompliSpace is the main interface between IPC employees and volunteers and the risk management and compliance area of the IPC Community. Training continued this year online, which was especially helpful during the disruptions caused by COVID. The training involved repeating some modules and units from 2019 and attempting new units in the Child Safeguarding Framework supported by EREA. COVID-19 gave us the opportunity to ramp up the training required to be compliant with EREA requirements during 2020. OnGuard Safety Training As part of our priority to improve safety and compliance in the community, we encouraged all departments that had a significant concerns around safety to complete OnGuard safety training. OnGuard is an online platform that contains small safety modules for use by students but also staff if required. For most departments, OnGuard was used to help students to understand the importance of safety in their chosen subject area. Faculties such as Physical Education, Industrial Technology, Hospitality and Science used the software and training to help students and staff from all year levels at the College. One of my main concerns as a person who works in this space is that it is important to change to a safe working culture at IPC. Completing the training is good, but changing our practices so that we appreciate the safety of all in the community is more important. Our work with OnGuard is a part of this journey. Academic and Wellbeing Advisory Group (AWAG) The AWAG group was formed by the College Principal with an attempt to bring the different arms of the school together regularly on some strategic thinking and planning. The group involved the myself as EREA Deputy Principal, John Doolan as DP Pastoral, Allison Elcoate as DP Curriculum, Shane Dove as Dean of Teaching and Learning and Craig Brown as Dean of Wellbeing. Our agenda comprised of the significant strategic agenda items for the year to be considered. These included items such as a new Teaching and Learning Framework, College Wellbeing Framework, Academic Data and the new Pastoral Care approach being considered by the Pastoral team. And finally… I would like to thank the support and teaching staff in my time at Ignatius Park College. Most importantly, to Kayleen and Kim in the Edmund Rice Room, your continued assistance to me and to the College community is an inspiration to me and my work – a sincere thank you. Kayleen and I worked very closely on replacing sick and absent staff this year and I am happy to share that Kayleen did most of the work! Kayleen is committed to her role and provides a high level of support to the College Leadership Team at all times in her work with relief staff and the operational aspects of the College timetable. I wish all students, families and friends of the College a happy and holy festive season and I thank you for your support of me during my time at Ignatius Park College. Brendan Stewart | Deputy Principal