Child Safe Standards

Goals & Intended Outcomes

In complying with Ministerial Order 1359, Mazenod College has initiated its own Child Safe Policy that specifically designates responsibility to all members of Mazenod College in providing a safe learning environment for all of its students. All community members have a responsibility to minimise the risks that students may be subjected to and have been instructed to immediately act upon any issue that comes to their attention.

Achievements

Specifically, Mazenod College has:

• Attended in-service activities conducted by Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority (VQRA). The Department of Education Training Victoria and Catholic Education Melbourne have guided the Executive in developing the Child Safe Policy.

• In-serviced staff as to their specific responsibilities in regard to Child Safety.

• Developed a Code of Conduct that adheres to the guidelines set down by Government Bodies and ensured that this Code was signed and available to all staff members, volunteers, and contractors.

• Advertised our Code of Conduct on Mazenod College website and the wider community through our weekly newsletter and parent emails.

• Reviewed the recruitment and on-boarding of staff to ensure the safety, wellbeing and inclusion of all students in our care.

• Ensured that our hiring practices comply with Child Safe Standards as set out by MACS.

Leadership

Goals & Intended Outcomes

Mazenod College goals and intended outcomes for 2022 were:

• Leadership development.

• Streamline and coordinate across the College, its data systems and HR functions –particularly on-boarding, contract variation and exiting.

• Integration of Annual Reviews with Staff Professional Development processes and automation of workflow.

Achievements

• The year commenced with the appointment of our second lay Principal, Dr Paul Shannon, and the gathering of the College Leadership Team for two days in Camberwell.

• Dr Paul Shannon prioritised the leadership development of our staff by creating the new role of Director of Leadership and Coaching. Mr David Sutton was appointed to the position in Term 3 and has been predominantly working with the members of the College Executive team and the College Leadership team. He has now commenced work with the Middle Leaders, consisting of faculty heads and year level coordinators.

Mr Sutton began by introducing a Reflective Practice Leadership Program, designed to develop an understanding of individual leadership styles. Program participants completed a DISC assessment, which is a psychometric assessment tool focused on the four main personal styles: dominance, influence, steadiness, and conscientiousness.

The tool aims to build personal leadership style, and awareness and improve communication and understanding between respective team members. After unpacking the survey results and reflecting on the findings, participants were then invited to construct their own leadership-focused questions to seek feedback from their colleagues. Consequently, it is anticipated that the feedback will heighten selfawareness, affirm successes, and identify opportunities for improvement. We look forward to working with David on developing our leadership skills and behaviours which will ultimately impact the growth and trajectory of the College.

Leadership Activities and Development for 2022

• Ten members of College Leadership, including nine female leaders, participated in the annual Women in Leadership conference run by the VCSSDPA.

• Four staff members attended the Resilient Educators’ program. This was a three day program run by Springfox.

• Visible Wellbeing Staff Professional Development was run in-house with a focus on coping strategies.

Implementation of HR Tracking and Workflow Systems:

• A group of key staff worked together to develop an in-house system to integrate and track HR function; including the recording and notification to all stakeholders of new staff, contract variations and exiting staff. By the end of 2022, this system was ready to be implemented.

Implementation of Integrated Annual Review process and workflow:

• Our new human resources staff records system, EMS360, was utilised to track staff professional learning goals and support the workflow for the staff Annual Review meetings.

Expenditure And Teacher Participation In Professional Learning

Description of Professional Learning undertaken in 2022

All teachers at Mazenod College undertook a variety of professional learning activities in 2022, predominantly focused on our twin PL priorities, Visible Wellbeing and Visible Learning. Staff again worked in Professional Learning Teams (PLT) as part of the Staff Development Program and also participated in external professional learning activities that complemented the focus of their PLT.

The Visible Wellbeing program addressed in a series of externally facilitated, whole staff PL sessions, drawing on the work of Professor Lea Waters. These sessions focused on introducing and applying the SEARCH framework. Staff also enjoyed 24 short sessions introducing each of the Character Strengths in the VIA framework.

The Visible Learning Program saw each teacher complete a range of personal learning activities to develop a working knowledge of the High Impact Teaching Strategies, which seek to operationalise Hattie’s evidence-based teaching practices into classroom ready principles. These activities included:

• A student survey of teacher practice, completed in Term 2;

• Self-nomination of one focus strategy;

• Structured professional reading and reflection;

• Peer observation of classroom practice (both internally and externally);

• The application of new learning to classroom environments;

The flexibility enabled by this personal approach to the activities of Professional Learning saw teaching staff choose to focus on an area of pedagogy they identified through the student survey. These projects became the basis of an individual staff ARM in Term 3.

A highlight of the Visible Learning program was the annual full day peer sharing showcase day in Term 2 during which staff present exceptional practice in a range of seminar sessions. Dr Paul Shannon presented the key note on this day.

As well as individual professional learning tailored to particular teaching staff, staff also completed a number of workshops and online training modules including:

• Faith and Charism formation

• First Aid level 2

• Anaphylaxis Training

• Disability Standards for Education online e-learning modules

• Protecting Children - Mandatory Reporting and other obligations

• Compliance standards - becoming compliant with Ministerial Order 1349

• Best Practice School Marketing and Reputation

• Spring Fox Resilient Educators Program

• NCCD briefing for leaders and training for all teachers

• Certificate IV in Training and Assessment (VET Teachers)

18 staff members assessed VCAA examinations and the GAT and participated in the review and writing of VCE Study Designs. They also attended a range of subject association annual conferences and targeted PL. Such professional development provides genuine benefits, both to the teachers involved but also to other teachers at Mazenod College.

135 teachers participated in PL in 2022 for a total expenditure of $187,714 which is approximately $1,365 per teaching staff member. This was higher than in 2021 and higher than in typical years, partly because of a final payment for the Visible Wellbeing professional learning implementation.

Teacher Satisfaction

Mazenod College enjoys high staff morale, and this is reflected in several ways:

• The attendance rate for teachers is 89.7%. This is slightly lower than normal, largely due to COVID-19 illness.

• The low movement of permanent teaching staff members each year with a teacher retention rate of 92% between 2021 and 2022 and 90% between 2022 and 2023. Of the 13 who departed at the end of 2022, 4 retired, 4 moved interstate or overseas, 1 moved to another industry, and 3 moved to other schools.

• The high level of qualifications gained, and further study being undertaken.

• A very active staff social committee.

• A strong sense of support and belonging as fostered by the presence of the Oblate Religious Community.

Our teaching staff show a great sense of self-efficacy, and express trust in our school culture, as borne out by results in the MACSSIS survey. Negative ratings in many categories are below 10% including student safety, school climate, staff leadership relationships, support for teams, collective efficacy, and Catholic identity. It is worth noting that while feedback scores were low, the College has moved to offering an annual review meeting with each staff member each year. We anticipate that this will lead to a greater sense of individual feedback.

Current Staff Years of Service

In 2022 there were 23 teachers (and 32 total staff) with more than 20 years of service to the College

Staff Service Presentations 2022

The following number of staff were awarded service presentations at the end of 2022

Teaching Staff Retention

This high percentage Teaching Staff retention rate of 90% is testament to the very positive teacher satisfaction rate.

Recruitment of Teaching Staff

Workplace Profile 2022

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Staff Attendance

Average percentage attendance rate for the 123 teachers was 89.7%. This represents an average of 19 days leave for all reasons per teaching staff member. The average number of sick, extended illness and maternity leave days per teaching staff member was 10.2 days.