When COVID strikes your school: communication and management strategies

Vaughan Couillault, Principal of Papatoetoe High School, shares his experience of navigating an outbreak of COVID that directly impacts a school and community. Papatoetoe High School, a co-educational year 9–13 school in South Auckland, was thrust into the limelight during the February 2021 COVID outbreak. At 11.30am on February 14th Vaughan received, “a very unpleasant phone call from a very lovely person” and embarked on, “a month’s worth of pain.” A representative of Auckland Regional Public Health Service (ARPHS) notified Vaughan that there was a student with a positive COVID result at the school and there would be an announcement by the Director General Ashley Bloomfield that afternoon. Vaughan was advised that he would be able to notify the school community thirty minutes prior to the official announcement, giving him about two hours to co-construct a communication with ARPHS. Read more…

Professional Boundaries course – the dos, the don’ts and the in-betweens

 

There are some spaces left in a new professional development course on Professional Boundaries for teachers.  The course is running online on Wednesday 6 April or Wednesday 4 May 2022 (half day).  The interactive course includes discussion about: What is a professional boundary? What happens when a boundary is breached? What are the impacts of a breach? Where are the dangerous areas? Where is the edge? Social media – why is this so risky? How do you recognise if you (or someone else) might be breaching a professional boundary? What to do if you have concerns about yourself or another teacher?

 

The course is presented by presented by Rachel Kent and Bindy Tatham. Rachel and Bindy are directors at Professional Insight and are both licensed private investigators investigating professional misconduct. Rachel has worked in professional regulation for over 10 years. She is an enrolled barrister and solicitor of the High Court and a registered social worker. Rachel has experience working with several professional regulators, including the Medical Council, Social Workers Registration Board and the Teaching Council.  Bindy is also an enrolled barrister and solicitor of the High Court and has investigation experience across a number of professional regulators.  Assisted by Kathy Moy-Low, who is a registered teacher with over 25 years teaching experience (including as Principal).

 

Further course information and booking details - https://professionalinsight.co.nz/

Ngā mihi 

Bindy