Boarding School improves staff awareness by implementing the CompliSpace Boarding Program, mapped to the boarding standard.
Sacred Heart College (SHC) is a 7-12 college on two campuses (Somerton Park & Mitchell Park) with over 1,700 students and over 200 staff. The college has had a strong heritage in boarding since 1905 and today provides accommodation and care for 130 girls and boys in grades 7-12. Sacred Heart College is a member of Marist Schools Australia.
When the Boarding Standard for Australian Schools and Residences AS 5725:2015 (the Standard) was introduced, Marist Schools Australia were proactive in asking their schools to accept the Standard, even though the Standards were not compulsory by law.
The Principal, Steve Byrne and the Director of Boarding, Shane Hennessy, are committed to ensuring a safe environment for the SHC boarding community. The College has embraced this opportunity to review and improve SHC’s compliance practices and worked with CompliSpace to achieve that.
Shane shared that, “From a legal point of view, we wanted to do the most we could to make our boarding community as safe as possible for boarders and staff. And from a moral point of view, we are always striving to be our best and be accountable.”
In Term 2, 2018, SHC implemented the CompliSpace Boarding Program, with the goal of achieving compliance with the Standard, in order to ensure the safest possible environment for the entire boarding community.
Over 10 different areas of law apply to boarding facilities including WHS/OHS, Privacy, Child Protection, Contract, Overseas Students and more. The Boarding Standard for Australian Schools and Residences AS 5725:2015 (the Standard) address the key legal areas for compliance, giving schools a ‘road map’ of their legal obligations.
The CompliSpace Boarding Program is designed in accordance with the Standard. The Boarding Program provides policies and procedures to address each of the 100+ requirements in the Standard including: Boarder Child Protection, Boarding Staff Recruitment and Management and Overseas Boarder Management.
The CompliSpace Boarding Program also includes:
According to Shane Hennessy, Sacred Heart College has found the CompliSpace Boarding Program “...so effective because it is appropriate, it is linked to the Standard and it’s real when it comes to what actually happens in our boarding world.” He adds, “It’s thorough. We have a member of staff who crosses every ‘t’ and dots every ‘i’ and when he did the Program, he didn’t have a complaint, a criticism or a suggestion!”
One of the biggest concerns Shane had for the school was embedding understanding of the Standard with all members of boarding staff (over 20 staff), because their level of education and experience with this type of content and training was so varied.
Shane said, “We have a variety of boarding staff – including those who are undertaking or have completed tertiary studies to staff who are hesitant or less confident to engage with this type of content or online training. The training content in the CompliSpace Boarding Program, delivered via the Learning Management System, worked particularly well. It was well-received and achievable by all staff.”
According to Shane, the main result has been heightened awareness. He said that all staff are now more aware of workplace safety, duty of care of students and more.
“For example, we were using industrial strength dishwashing detergent and a member of staff raised the question about whether it was safe. Our WHS person reviewed it and determined we needed to be using a different kind of product. That’s a practical example of the heightened awareness amongst all staff that we didn’t have before,” Shane shared.
"Nothing was in there that the school wasn’t already doing. It was more about putting things in writing that were already happening in practice. And it gave the school a reference document for staff to go back to whenever needed."
Caitlin Galpin,
CompliSpace Consultant.
“There was a gap in our documentation and staff understanding before. Our place is now safer in reality and safer in legality, due to the Standards and the CompliSpace Boarding Program. This gives me confidence that we are doing everything we can to ensure a safe environment for our boarders and staff.”
Shane Hennessy,
Director of Boarding.