In this issue:

1. SACS Reports & School List Modifications

2. Relief Spreadsheet Update

3. Tuition Fees for School Aged Children of Temporary Resident Visa Holders

4. Updating SARIS VKey Roles

5. Providing Personal Information to School Photographers

6. Building Evacuation Plans and Emergency Exit Ways

SACS Reports & School List Modifications

Modified reports Information Validation 030A, 030DE and Absences for Archived Students – 006 will be installed in your school’s SACS database via the Data Warehouse extractor on Friday night, March 17th.

The Information Validation reports now have the student’s name in the section “Information about the Student”.  An error in the absence report has been rectified, it now displays data for the date range selected.

A new school list will be installed to include the new Northern Support School.  St Michaels and St Georges schools will remain in the list simply to keep history intact.  Please do not use these two records.

Colleges and some Early Learning Centres will receive the updates when their IT person does a manual install.

Relief Spreadsheet Update

The relieved category of Instrumental Musicians was inadvertently left off this year's relief spreadsheet. If you are going to pay relief for an Instrumental Musician, please contact the Service Centre on 1800 816 057.

Tuition Fees for School Aged Children of Temporary Resident Visa Holders

A reminder - students whose parents are holders of temporary resident visas are required to pay $5,500 to offset the costs of their general schooling expenses.  Difficulties will arise in providing support to students if we do not apply this policy consistently.

Further details can be found in the circular memorandum sent out through Infostream in February - http://www.education.tas.gov.au/infostream/department/2006/February/14February/Dependentsmemo.pdf

Updating SARIS VKey Roles

The SARIS User role is applied on a school by school basis and membership is not handled automatically by VKey.

Manual appointment guarantees that schools themselves control access to information about their students.

It is important that VKey Officers or Supervisors:

a) apply the SARIS User role to new teaching staff for 2006; and
b) remove the SARIS User role from staff no longer at your school in 2006.

Online Reference - Information on How to Assign or Remove Roles

http://staff.education.tas.gov.au/pages/imbvkey/roles/roles.htm

Please contact IMB Help should you require additional assistance.

Phone:   6233 6999
Email:   IMBHelpCentre@education.tas.gov.au

Providing Personal Information to School Photographers

The Personal Information Protection Act sets standards for the way schools collect and handle the personal information of students. One of the principles of the Act is that personal information can be used and disclosed only for the purpose for which it was collected, or a related purpose the person would reasonably expect.

Schools provide photographers with the names of students so that they can be printed on class and team photographs, and so that SACS can import the photographs. This practice has been part of school life for many years, and parents expect that the photographer will be provided with the student's name.

However, the photographic company should be made aware that student personal information is provided only for these purposes and should not be used or disclosed for any other purpose. A sample letter that confirms the conditions under which information is provided has been prepared for schools to use when they are engaging photographers.

http://www.education.tas.gov.au/deis/policies/pip/schoolguidelines/app4photographers.htm

Guidelines on applying the principles of the Personal Information Protection Act in schools and colleges are available at:

http://www.education.tas.gov.au/deis/policies/pip/schoolguidelines/default.htm

Building Evacuation Plans and Emergency Exit Ways

Schools that have not obtained full approval of their evacuation plan are reminded that they need to write to Tasmanian Fire Services with a proposed date to organise a supervised practice evacuation with Tasmania Fire Services. The brigades require at least 21 days notification prior to the event, and the contact is:

Peter Plummer
Building Safety Section
Tasmania Fire Service
GPO Box 1526
HOBART TAS 7001

If you have any questions or need to update your procedure due to additional after hours activities or building alterations please don’t hesitate to contact Alisa Gilbert on telephone 6233 7226 or email alisa.gilbert@education.tas.gov.au

Department has contracts underway to undertake the upgrade of exit lights and exit doors.

The contractors have been directed to report initially to the front office and provide contact information and an outline of the work required on each site.

The work varies from site to site but generally involves installing or adjusting the exit and emergency lights and modifying door positions and hardware as required to comply with current regulations. In some cases there may be existing locking arrangements that need to be reviewed. If there are aspects of the work that are of concern such as changes to the door hardware, please contact Alisa Gilbert or Greg Fahey on 0427 003 414 . Information is also available at the following web address: http://www.education.tas.gov.au/admin/ff/facmgt/guidlines/BuildingCompliance/BuildingCompliance.htm

Past BSS Banters

Want to have a quick look over some of the recent Banter articles?