Message from the Headmaster

Message from the Headmaster

‘The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!”…’

1 Corinthians 12-21

Dear Students, Parents and Carers

Accountability and Compliance – The Spirits of the Age

It is often alleged that independent schools are not accountable. In fact, accountability structures dominate much of our time. These structures are for a very good purpose, ensuring integrity and safety, but are very pervasive. Compliance functions require a whole layer of staff in an independent school to undertake what schools within systems are able to cede to their head offices. 

Shore, in combination with other schools of its type, is highly accountable. Entities to which we report on an annual basis include the:

  • NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA), particularly in terms of teaching the specified curriculum and conducting assessment items in accord with NESA policies. Our Annual Report to NESA is a public document, the 2023 edition of which will shortly be uploaded to our website (required for submission to NESA annually by the end of June in the following year).
  • Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), monitored through NESA. One of the main activities of ACARA is the annual National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) testing. ACARA controls the administration of NAPLAN. ACARA also controls the Australian participation in the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), where schools are selected at random, except that Shore is always selected!
  • Australian Government Department of Education, in terms of the disbursement of federal funding.
  • NSW Department of Education, in terms of the appropriate application of state funding. 
  • Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students (CRICOS), in terms of the appropriate enrolment and education of overseas students with nationality other than Australian, of whom Shore currently has three.
  • Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC), again in terms of appropriate financial arrangements. 
  • Requirements of the third tier of government: we are constrained by local government regulations, such that any major changes on site require approval of development applications.
  • Annual Anglican Synod, the “parliament” of the Anglican Church. As a former member of Synod, I can attest to the fact that Synod’s only interest is whether schools are financially viable (Shore is).
  • Bank, who require us to maintain various covenants and ratios in terms of our balance sheet.
  • Auditors. All our accounts are audited by an independent, top tier school audit specialist.

The federal funding comprises 7% of our budget and state funding represents 2%. 

An increasing consciousness within our society of risk drives all kinds of accountability, both internally and externally. Some of this is not very interesting (!) and, indeed, can be mind numbing, but certainly serves a good purpose. As I am given to remark to staff, very few of us entered teaching in order to fill in forms! The Headmaster of a school, as the Head of Agency, is invariably drawn into issues of accountability reporting and compliance. Perhaps an allusion to Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels is apt, where Gulliver was tied down by the multiple cords of the Lilliputians (possibly the bureaucrats of his time?). The second allusion which occurs is from the English Romantic poet, William Blake, who found his “binding with briars my joys and desires”. Compliance is certainly not joyful and it would be rather good, to understate the case, to invest this time into something student focused. This is not to deny the importance of compliance; whether we need to go to the nth degree is a moot point.

One of the most significant aspects of accountability is the five-year (maximum) cycle of NESA inspection of all independent schools for registration (licence to operate as a school), accreditation (permission to offer the HSC) and CRICOS (authority to enrol overseas nationals). The regime is so cumbersome that it is necessary to commence preparing the required documents up to 18 months before the inspection. The inspection consists of a very thorough desktop audit of documents submitted online in March of the year in which currency of registration ceases. These relate not just to curriculum and assessment but to every potential area of risk and compliance in the operations of a school. The final aspect of the process is a site visit, where the claims of a school are tested by artefacts collected, such as student work samples and, indeed, the eagle eye of the inspectors as they walk around and interview key staff.

The glad tidings of the moment are that last week Shore once again received the maximum available five-year extension of its registration, accreditation and CRICOS authority. Producing the necessary documentary evidence was a collaborative effort across many staff, for which I am very grateful. Shore will next be due for inspection in 2029. 

In short, the level of accountability of independent schools is very substantial indeed. It has been calculated that there are 46 separate pieces of state and federal legislation with which schools must be compliant. Much of this can be termed “the back room” of the School, not really visible to students or parents but essential for the conduct of the School. 

What then do all the non-classroom teaching staff busy themselves with? Essentially, the above and more. They represent units which are responsible for enrolments, financial management, risk identification and mitigation, EAs to those responsible for functional units, human resources, information technology, library services, community engagement with publications and events, educational services, laboratory technicians, buildings and maintenance, landscaping, peripatetic instrument tuition, strength and conditioning, medical centre, counselling, cadets, the Foundation, the Old Boys’ Union (OBU), support to our Music and Drama departments, catering and housekeeping in our Boarding Houses, sports coaching and the uniform shop. Shore is a huge operation! Many of those within these roles have been part of the team of people organising the necessaries for our NESA audit. This is the time to acknowledge them but also to say that all of these roles are essential in maintaining a quality school. The New Testament writer, Paul, captures this interdependence of people brilliantly with his organic image of all parts of the community being necessary for the function of a body. ‘The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!”…’ (1 Corinthians 12-21).

I am very appreciative of all the eyes, hands and other components of the staff body of Shore, and appreciate their diligence and commitment to excellence.

Dr John Collier
Headmaster

Please note: We encourage expressions of opinion by our Student Editorial Team without necessarily endorsing or embracing them as a School position; furthermore, boys write in a range of styles, including satirical, and not every critique should be taken literally.