The School Council updates on the external concerns reporting process
| Posted 27 September 2024 External Review Statement In March 2024, Cranbrook School announced an external review of feedback and concerns reported through the reporting platform Your Call. This was an opportunity for anyone in the community to raise concerns, confidentially and anonymously if they wished. The School engaged the education specialist team at law firm Thomson Geer, working with distinguished educator Dr Amanda Bell AM, to review the reports made through Your Call. The School thanks everyone who engaged with this process, for their willingness to raise concerns, make submissions, share their experiences and seek to contribute to the improvement of the School for students and staff. We apologise for the past failings of the School and the impact this has had on those in our community. Members of the Cranbrook community had the opportunity to lodge reports from 2 April 2024 to 29 July 2024, and during that timeframe 76 reports were made. Some were positive. The majority raised concerns, either for the first time or that were already known to the School. The majority of concerns were raised by current and recent former students, parents and staff. Some issues involved events going back decades. No concerns of child sexual abuse were raised about current staff at Cranbrook. Dr Bell and Thomson Geer responded to each report on a case-by-case basis, taking into account the seriousness and urgency of the report, and any requests made by the participant. The School has addressed the vast majority of the individual reports. A small number of matters are ongoing or still with the review team. The School acknowledges that not everyone who has participated will be satisfied with the School’s responses. We are grateful to each of the participants for their courage in reporting and sharing their experiences. The School particularly recognises the lasting and damaging effects that abuse has on those who suffer it, and those around them. The School has offered, and continues to offer, support to those who have reported abuse as and when they may need it. The review has highlighted a number of areas of focus, which the School is actively addressing. We are committed to continuous improvement of processes, policies and aspects of the School’s culture for the benefit of students, staff and the whole community. The School is determined to continue to work to prevent behaviours which adversely affect students and staff, and to deal with them proactively when they occur. Specifically, the School: – has updated its Whistleblower Policy and will maintain an online system for reporting complaints to ensure that there is an additional mechanism for concerns to be raised with the School; continues to strengthen its Child Safe framework to ensure that it is consistent with best practice; – is expanding its student wellbeing and pastoral care programme through the AIS Wellbeing Initiative, including increased resources and training; – is strengthening its programmes and resources to better meet the needs of its diverse school population; – is reviewing its student related bullying and harassment processes and policies – directed to preventing bullying and for dealing with it proactively if it does occur. This includes increased and regular opportunities for students to share concerns through surveys and safe reporting mechanisms. There is also an expansion of targeted educative programmes addressing preventative and protective behaviours to foster an increasingly inclusive mindset and culture; – is introducing a new Respectful Relationships Policy and is providing a range of intensive professional development sessions across all levels, roles and areas (from the Executive leadership team to teaching staff to administrative staff), addressing how the School can establish and maintain a respectful, safe and inclusive workplace; and – is reviewing its processes and policies concerning bullying and harassment of staff, with the aim of introducing improved practices in preventing its incidence, and for dealing with it proactively when it does occur. Once again, the courage of many participants is acknowledged. The School sincerely hopes that, in light of the external review and the actions the School is taking and will take, those most affected have renewed faith in the School’s ongoing commitment to a positive, safe and respectful environment and culture, and to making continuous improvements where necessary. The School’s priority is the wellbeing and education of each of its students, and the wellbeing of its staff. The concerns raised by the participants have provided an important and valuable opportunity to reflect on and improve how we achieve that outcome for our School community. The School and the School Council continue to work in partnership to deliver on the School’s vision, which encourages and enables all of its students to explore, enjoy and fulfil their potential. We are guided by our values and operate within an environment grounded in care, kindness, respect and honesty. We are grateful to the community for its ongoing support of the School. Geoff Lovell (President, Cranbrook School Council) |
| Posted 1 August 2024 New Online Platform for Reporting Concerns Further to last week’s message regarding the closure of the external review process to new reports, which has now come into effect, the School has opened a new online platform for the reporting of concerns. The online platform can be accessed via the Feedback page on our website here. Yours sincerely, Geoff Lovell (President, Cranbrook School Council) Michele Marquet (Acting Head of School) |
| Posted 4 July 2024 School Community Update on the External Review Process The School Council and Mrs Michele Marquet would like to thank the School community for its engagement with the external process established in early April this year for the reporting of concerns or otherwise give feedback. This has enabled valuable feedback to be gathered which will inform and improve the educational environment within the School. The Your Call platform used for the reporting of serious concerns, which are then reviewed by Dr Amanda Bell AM and law firm Thomson Geer, will remain open for new reports until 29 July (i.e. the start of Week 2 Term 3). When it closes, the School will transition to a new ongoing whistleblower/serious concerns mechanism, the details for which will be provided in due course. Any reports lodged with Your Call under the current process will continue to be managed to their appropriate conclusion with the assistance of Dr Bell. Recommendations resulting from this external process will be shared with our community. This is expected to be done approximately once month after the closure of the current process, to enable the School to progress satisfactorily all reports that have been made. The School’s policies continue to be reviewed in order to ensure policies are reflective of best practice and to assist staff in understanding the intersection between various policies. The School’s Whistleblower policy has been prioritised to be revised and then other policies will be revised progressively thereafter, as required. Ongoing familiarisation and professional development initiatives will be implemented to ensure our staff understand policies and the procedures for their implementation. As reminder, to report any new concerns up until 29 July you can either complete and submit a form on the Your Call platform, which is called Rely and 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. Thank you again for your contribution to enhancing the educational environment at Cranbrook. Yours sincerely, Geoff Lovell (President, Cranbrook School Council) Michele Marquet (Acting Head of School) |
| Posted: 2 April 2024 The School Council has established an external process for our community to report concerns or provide other feedback. For this purpose, the School Council has engaged Your Call, which offers an external, confidential and secure platform for receiving and managing concerns and feedback. 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 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 through Your Call. To do this, you can either complete and submit a form on the Your Call platform, which is called Rely (and which can be accessed by clicking below), 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 who 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. It is a priority for the School Council to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the School’s students and staff. The School Council is committed to seeking to resolve all matters of serious concern reported by past and present members of our community. |