Welcome to our last TSAA Bulletin for 2019!

The end of the year is such a busy time in our schools, with assemblies, presentation evenings, excursions, picnics and the like; a time for reflection, celebration, farewells and planning for the year ahead. As we head towards the last few days of term I would like to thank you all for your hardwork and commitment to your school community throughout 2019. 

News from our recent meetings with DoE Corporate;

• Our Finance Team are negotiating dates and training providers for customised gst training sessions across the state in 2020. Stay tuned to SASP updates for further information in Term 1.
• Our HR & Payroll Team will be creating a new register early in 2020 specifically for permanent part-time EFA's who would like to pick up additional hours. Expressions of Interest will be invited from our part-time EFA's seeking additional hours in their current school and / or nearby schools. Formal advice will be released next year.
• The pilot stage of the Relief Absence Management System is progressing well with eight schools state-wide taking part in this pilot. Training will be rolled out across the state early next year with a view of full implementation from March / April 2020. Please watch out for further updates and correspondence from Glenn Cassidy and his team.
• Our Business Operation Advisor Teams will be running more Skype sessions for schools in 2020. The sessions in Term 4 covering; Developing your Budget, End of Year Budget Projections and SRP Overview can all be accessed through Canvas. These sessions have been very successful with 100 plus participants in each session. Amanda and her team will look at 'hot topics' for 2020 covering a range of areas. 

We wish everyone a safe and happy festive season, take the opportunity to relax, enjoy time with family and friends ready to come back feeling refreshed and fabulous for 2020.

Merry Christmas & a Happy Holiday from the TSAA

Cynthia Pearce

Chairperson 

The Provisional Co-location Policy and Process (the Policy) has been developed to support Department of Education (DoE) schools and services and Education and Care (E&C) services to work together for the benefit of children and families.

There have been delays in recent months to implementing the Policy, due to a need to reallocate responsibilities internal to DoE and streamline some processes. An updated Policy is now available for implementation.

All DoE schools and services with co-located E&C services (e.g. after school care, Long Day Care etc) that have expired leases and licences in 'holding over', or which are expiring in 2019, must transition to new arrangements by the end of Term 1, 2020. To commence the transition, a ‘review of existing arrangements’ must be undertaken, as detailed from page 10 of the Policy. A mutually agreeable time to go through this process should be negotiated with the E&C service.

If you have a lease or licence in holding over, or expiring in 2019, you should have received a direct email with additional instructions in November (please contact strategicpolicyandplanning@education.tas.gov.au if you have been missed). Information was also included for all schools in the October 30 edition of Principal Matters.

DoE schools and services with current leases or licences that have not yet expired should move to the new arrangements as these approach their time of expiry.

If you have any further questions about the Policy, please refer to the overview of roles and responsibilities here for the appropriate contact.

All employees engaged within the department, whether permanent, fixed term or relief, can only be paid the salary due for the work performed via the HR system Empower through the payroll. No school or business unit is to attempt to pay an employee through any other means.

There are a number of reasons why all salary payments have to be made via the payroll, including ensuring that the:

• correct rate of pay is made in accordance with the applicable industrial instrument;
• appropriate rate of taxation is deducted according to the ATO guidelines;
• right amount of superannuation, including the employer contribution, is made.

The department runs a fortnightly payroll process through which employees receive salary payments, including relief. It is understood that on occasion some salary payments may need to be made urgently and there is capacity to do an off-line payment in certain circumstances. Any questions regarding the processing of salary payments, including requests for an off-line payment, should be directed to the HR Payroll and Systems team via the general email: hroperations@education.tas.gov.au

I hope that you have had a chance to look around the new intranet site and test that you can find your most used information and systems.

School’s that have their own intranet site are reminded that you will need to update links you may have to the old intranet to the new intranet. This is an important step to make sure that you are accessing the most up-to-date information, contacts and documents. If you require assistance with this, please contact your local IT Support Staff member.

The new intranet site link is https://doeintranet.education.tas.gov.au/

You will notice that the search function is much improved and you can now search across the intranet content and document centre from the same location. There is no need to go to the Document Centre site to search for documents, forms, or templates.

The site has been live for nearly a week now and we have received good feedback from users around the Department. But this is not the end of our work. In the new year we will continue to improve the way staff find information based on feedback from our users, particularly school-based staff.

If you have feedback or ideas about how we can meet your needs better, please don’t hesitate to send this through to intranet@education.tas.gov.au. Or feel free to call me (Diana Reale) 6165 6376.

If you want to learn more about the new intranet, please see the Intranet help and FAQs page https://tasedu.sharepoint.com/sites/intranet/SitePages/Intranet-tips-and-faqs.aspx

There are also Intranet demonstrations and Q&A skype sessions that you can join over the next two weeks. Details are on the Intranet tips and FAQs page.

Diana Reale and the Intranet Team

1. Did you know that DoE employees  and students have access to download Office 365 for personal and Department use. Ask your School IT Personnel if you need assistance with this

2. Holding Windows+Shift+S at the same time allows you to select a part of your screen to take a photo, which automatically copies to your clipboard

3. Holding  Windows+X and then pressing U twice will quickly shut down your computer


Interesting fact - The average House mouse weighs 19 grams!