Our staff

Human Resources Management and Staff Support

The Director of the Lauriston Institute and HR (Teaching) is responsible for managing the recruitment and retention of highly qualified and motivated teachers. This management responsibility also includes ongoing professional development, probation, and confirmation of ongoing employment. This function is carried out in conjunction with the School Executive, which has a strong commitment to ensuring that staff have appropriate pedagogical skills and a capacity to form meaningful relationships with students and with their colleagues.

Our former People and Culture Manager provides coaching services to nominated members of the school staff across the leadership and practice dimensions. During 2022 the school also recruited a specialist human resources operations officer to assist the Business Manager and the Director of the Institute and HR (Teaching) in the refinement of our onboarding systems.

In addition to the provision of a broad range of professional learning the Director is responsible for a range of human resource functions which includes performance management, the School Employee Assistance Program (EAP), study support and staff welfare generally.

In conjunction with the Executive team and the Principal and Deputy -Principal programs focused on child safety are regular agenda items on professional development days. Lauriston takes very seriously its responsibilities for child safety and for duty of care generally. Policy guidelines exist within the school in relation to staff, student and parent conduct and staff are regularly briefed on their responsibilities.

The Business Manager and the Director of the Lauriston Institute and HR (Teaching) are the employer representatives on the Certified Agreement Bargaining Committee which negotiates the Certified Agreement for submission and approval of Fair Work Australia. Lauriston will begin negotiations for a sixth Certified Agreement in early 2023.

Feedback on Performance

As indicated in last year’s annual report, Covid 19 and its aftermath had a material effect on our capacity to put a refurbished performance feedback system in place. Our planned refinements to the Lauriston Professional Recognition Program (LPRP) included retraining staff in the use of a classroom observation template based on Quality Teaching Rounds (QTR).

We made considerable progress with the training component but the observation and discussion component was delayed by our incapacity to see teachers at work in classrooms. In the earlier iteration of the LPRP there was considerable scope in terms of teacher choice of topic for the review process, but we have now chosen to move to a model based around the QTR template. The observations are shared and discussed and out of that comes a conversation which guides future professional learning activities.

Broad Participation in Decision Making

During 2022 we took the opportunity to elect a new representative Staff Consultation Committee which is based on the consultation principles set out in the current Certified Agreement. The committee meets once a term and has the option of calling additional meetings should any key issues need advice to be provided to the Principal of Lauriston Girl’ School. While the various school sectors are represented on the committee individual staff members are also able to agenda items for discussion and attend the meeting.

As part of the formal operations of the school regular whole school and section staff meetings are scheduled on the term-by-term calendar. We also operate ad hoc project and advice committees as the need arises.

The other major consultation process for employees is the negotiation of the certified agreement. As the current agreement expires on January 31, 2023, planning is proceeding to establish the new negotiation committee for an agreement to cover the next three or four years. The Director of the Institute and (HR (Teaching) chairs the committee and is supported by the Business Manager in the negotiation process as employer representatives.