Back to that wonderful program “School Leaders and the Law” presented by The Brown Collective and Colin Biggers & Paisley in Darwin at the end of February. I want to return to that section “Governance, Risk and Compliance”.

As Principal it is so valuable to have a clear, known definition of these three factors and not simple to look this up just before a board meeting. A shallow understanding is not helpful - it is essential for a principal to really engage with this and to encourage their board to as well. It is also important that staff are encouraged to be able to recognise issues and for students to be observant. It is of no value for the Principal to understand it and keep it hidden.

I recall being asked at an annual review, about 15 years into my Principalship what I considered to be the most important pillar of the school. I replied, “School Culture” and added that it was extremely fragile and could be easily crushed as one could crush a fine wine glass.” This reply was well accepted but I now believe I should have been asked to really describe it and to articulate how the school was presenting in relationship to it. That conversation should not be a remote one but always front of mind. School Culture is fundamental to how effectively the school runs. It is also an on-going exercise for a Principal to think in detail how the Culture is faring.

Beyond that a useful exercise is to describe how the school presents culture. Does your Principal’s office in some way illustrate something of the School’s Culture so that if staff or students visit your office they can understand the relevance of items , illustrations, colour or whatever. You might incidentally ask how they think something illustrates an aspect of the school.

Obviously affirming the Culture at staff meetings or gatherings of student bodies is an ongoing process of understanding, clarification, affirmation that builds an acceptance and pride for the School.

I believe it is obvious when schools have a strong culture and as I wrote last time, it can in fact be felt .

Following on from last weeks “Thoughts” , I wanted to expand on the issue of Assessing Risk using the material presented at our seminar by lawyer Megan Kavanagh. My engagement with several Boards has highlighted to me the struggle Boards have in Assessing Risk. Previously a board would remove themselves from analysing some of the Risks by saying, “That’s an Operational issue not a Board Issue.” That is certainly not the case today as the Board has the responsibility to ask those searching questions about Operational Risk. I strongly believe School Culture should be included in this. If the Principal is having difficulty answering about Culture then there is a problem. A Principal who pays no attention to School Culture can damage the school. The Principal must always model the School’s Culture because there is nothing more damaging than obvious insincerity regarding Culture. Boards must also understand the Culture and have this at front of mind when making decisions.

Boards will sometimes gravitate to issues with which they are more comfortable, such as the accounts, and side step some of these trickier considerations like Culture. A Good Wise Board Chair has such an important Job with far reaching consequences.

Megan Kavanagh lists four factors that should be considered when Assessing Risk:

• The severity of harm, risk could cause (from Discomfort to Serious Injury or Death)
• How likely the harm is to occur (from Certain to Unlikely or Rare)
• What controls are already in place to reduce the risk of harm.
• How urgently additional action needs to be taken.

In Controlling the Risk, relevant Controls Legally must be implemented that remove the Hazard or reduce the Risk most effectively. The Board must understand how these will do this.

In all this process the Principal and the Board must be sensitive to Risks including those being identified by Staff Members, Students and maybe Parents. The key result should be that the risk is identified and as much as possible controlled. Risk, therefore should be an item at each Board Meeting.

There is no room with Risk for “She’ll be right Mate.” There is also no room in either the Principal’s Thinking or Board Consideration that “We Can’t Afford It”. In reality it is a case of “We can’t not afford it.”

In my first Six Months as Principal I was confronted with the College swimming pool unfenced. There was no law at that time for swimming pools to be fenced. Dramatically my Deputy’s toddler fell in and almost drowned. Fortunately with quick action and First Aid he came to and lived. The horror of this is indelibly printed on my memory. We had no money, but raised sufficient funds quick smart to buy the materials for the appropriate safety fence. Staff and students “got to it” and had it safely fenced in two weeks. It has now been safe for 38 years!

In this day and age records are so important . You have to have them and simply committing “stuff” to memory is not good enough. Megan Kavanagh strongly notes, amongst other issues that:

• Boards/Principal must acquire and keep up-to-date knowledge of Work Health and Safety Matters.
• To ensure that the Board/Principal has available for use Appropriate Resources and Processes to eliminate Risks to Health and Safety.
• To ensure that Board/Principal has Appropriate Processes for Receiving and Considering Information regarding Hazards and Risks so that they may respond in a timely way to that information.

Megan was “cast iron” on the need to record Risk Management Processes and Outcomes. “The Records should include:

• The Outcomes of Consultation
• The Hazards You Identified
• How you Assessed the Risks
• The Control Measures Implemented
• The Training Provided

IT is also useful to record the Processes used to Investigate and Resolve Issues.

These requirements today are really not negotiable and to not follow them is to place the school at significant risk.

Remember, don’t forget Culture, don’t ignore Risks, do the best to solve the Problem, Document and report to the Board.