Further to our messages to the Cranbrook School community on 11 March and 14 March, I am writing on behalf of the School Council to provide more information about the external process we have established for our community to report concerns or otherwise give the School Council feedback.
The School Council has engaged Your Call, which offers an external, confidential and secure platform for receiving and managing concerns, to provide the mechanism for that feedback. Your Call has worked in the education sector for some years.
Concerns received by Your Call will be reviewed by experienced education leader Dr Amanda Bell AM, working with law firm Thomson Geer, who will advise the School about those concerns. Your Call is the intermediary between you and those managing your submission and plays no part in investigating or determining the outcome.
The School Council has already received messages of feedback and/or concern via the email address councilsecretary@cranbrook.nsw.edu.au, and we have addressed most of those messages. Members of the School community who have already reported a concern may choose to resubmit their report via Your Call, if they wish.
The School Council encourages current and former staff, students and parents of Cranbrook, and anyone else who believes they have relevant information, to report concerns (or other feedback they wish to convey) through Your Call. To do this, you can either complete and submit a form on the Your Call platform, which is called Rely (which can be accessed by clicking HERE) or make a verbal report to a Your Call Officer by calling 1300 921 116 between the hours of 7am and midnight (Sydney time) on business days.
When making a report via Your Call, you may choose your level of anonymity – that is, you might choose to share your contact details with:
- nobody – in other words, maintain full anonymity;
- only Your Call, or Your Call, Dr Bell and Thomson Geer; or
- Your Call, Dr Bell and Thomson Geer and people at Cranbrook that you approve.
You might also decide to report anonymously at first, but then change your mind about maintaining anonymity (or the level of confidentiality) at a later point.
Initially, the School is engaging Your Call for a three month period.
The School Council has also set up a page on the School’s website with the information above, which can be accessed by clicking HERE.
As part of the external review, Dr Bell and Thomson Geer will provide advice to the School on its policies and procedures relating to child protection, workplace health and safety, whistleblowing, and discrimination and bullying.
I reiterate that it is a priority for the School Council to do what we can to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the School’s students and staff, and that we are committed to seeking to resolve all matters of serious concern reported by past and present members of our community.
Yours sincerely
Geoff Lovell
President, Cranbrook School Council
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