Examining Best Practice to Ensure You Meet Your Obligations, Minimise Legal Exposure and Can Defend Your Legal Position
| Date | 29 May 2026 |
| Time | 12.00pm-3.55 pm AEST (Syd/Mel/Bris time) |
| Format | Live Online & Recorded. The recording can be viewed until 29 June 2026 |
| Pricing | $440. Prices includes gst. |
| CPD | This PD addresses 7.2.2. of the Standards |
Register
Program
12.00 LawSense Welcome
12.05 Chairperson’s Introduction
Brenton Harty, Director of ICT and Privacy Officer, Presbyterian Ladies’ College (Victoria); President, MITIE
12.10 Note-Taking, Recordings, AI: Examining Best Practice to Ensure You Meet Your Obligations and Can Defend Your Legal Position
When You Should Take Notes and Using Recordings and AI
- Examining rights, obligations and best practice in using of notes, including:
- when to take notes or incorporate note-taking into school processes
- using recordings instead of, or in addition to, notes
- using AI to take notes of meetings, incidents and interactions
Note Taking to Optimise / Defend Your Legal Position – What to Include/Exclude
- Outlining note-taking and record keeping obligations and guides affecting schools
- Examining key aspects of note-taking to meet legal risk and avoid criticism by Courts:
- level of detail or clarity
- ensuring you cover key aspects
- “loaded” words from which inferences could be drawn about the writer
- writing what you observe versus what you think is happening
- properly and clearly setting out the basis of any opinions expressed
- accurately recording conversations, including hearsay
- making changes to notes after they were originally written
Avoiding Pitfalls from Digital Note-Taking
- Managing areas of potential legal exposure with electronic notes, including:
- cutting and pasting from previous records
- consistency with handwritten notes or other records
Case Studies and Examples – Best Practice Notetaking in Different Areas
- Learning from case studies/scenarios in different areas, including note-taking involving:
- student bullying – notes of incidents; reports from students, parents or staff; notes of parent meetings
- notes of meetings with parents about student discipline and expulsions
- notes of incidents and accidents
- staff performance management – taking notes of meetings or interactions, recording your observations, recording interactions reported by other staff
David Scanlan, Employment Law Lead – WA, Mapien Law; Former, Director of People and Culture, St Hilda’s Anglican School for Girls, WA
1.20 Break
1.30 Privacy Law Update: Examining School Obligations and Challenging Scenarios, Including Records Involving Multiple Students, Parents Recording, Releasing CCTV, Redacting Documents, Separated Parents, Sharing with Contractors, Obtaining Student Health Information and Disclosure of Staff Issues
Key Privacy and Confidentiality Laws, Rights of Parents and Students
- Outlining key laws applying to privacy, confidentiality and information sharing and release inside and outside school
- Examining the rights of parents and students regarding information held by the school, including information regarding staff
Potential Privacy Reforms
- Examining potential privacy reforms and impacts on schools
Learnings from Recent Privacy Cases, Including Cases Against Schools
- Examining learnings for schools from recent privacy cases
Examining Challenging Scenarios:
Rights of Separated Parents to Information
- Navigating rights and obligations to information where there are separated parents
Rights of Student Mature Minors to Prevent Release/Sharing of Information
- Navigating student consent and release or sharing information. Determining when a student has capacity to consent and navigating requests from the student not to have information shared with parents
Release of Records That Include Multiple Students
- Understanding your obligations where a record you are considering releasing relating to one student also contains images or data regarding other students or parents. What are your options regarding redaction or obligations to seek permission regarding others appearing in the records
Effectively Managing and Releasing CCTV Records
- Understanding the limits of how you can use CCTV in schools
- Providing CCTV to:
- other staff members
- parents, including where there has been an incident such as bullying
- police or other agencies
- Examining best practice in developing and communicating CCTV policies
Parents or Students Recording Meetings or Other Activities
- Understanding rights and obligations where parents or students record school meetings, staff or school activities
Disclosure/Sharing Regarding Staff Issues
- Understanding what you can disclose to staff when you are dealing with complaints they have made against other staff
- Examining what you can disclose to other staff when a staff member is being investigated or has been subject to internal or external disciplinary action
- Examining what information you can disclose to staff about the mental health issues of other staff
- Exploring what information you can provide school staff about disputes with parents
Information to or From External Contractors or Student Health Teams
- Understanding the extent to which you can disclose student related matters to external contractors or organisations interacting with the student
- Managing disclosure to external experts dealing with student mental health, disability or behaviour issues
- Obtaining information from a student’s external healthcare team
Redacting Documents Required by Subpoena or Where There Are Other Legal Processes
- Exploring when and how a school would consider redacting records requested by a subpoena or where other legal issues are involved
Fiona Manderson, Principal, Aloncaws Mediation & Investigation; Inhouse Counsel, Hillcrest Christian College
2.40 Break
2.50 Record Storage, Retention and Destruction: Understanding Obligations and Managing Records to Ensure Legal Compliance, Including Use of AI
Laws Regarding Document Retention and Destruction
- Outlining laws applying to document storage and retention in schools
Use of AI in Records Management
- Exploring uses of AI in document management, including classification, search and summaries
- Managing legal and compliance risk in using AI in records management
Effectively Managing Document Storage, Retention and Destruction
- Managing records in different formats – email, text, social media, paper
- Exploring best practice in how records should be kept, integrated or organised
- Clarifying what types of documents need to be kept and for what period, including:
- student email and laptop data
- behaviour and discipline records
- accident records
- medical and mental health information
- disability and support
- investigations
- job applications and other staff data
- Understanding your obligations to destroy or de-identify particular data. What is effective de-identification?
- Exploring measures to accurately classify or categorise documents to assist compliance with document destruction and retention requirements, including modifying existing archivist templates for your school context
Elena Totino, Founder, Director and Principal Lawyer, Safety Quality & Care Legal Services
3.50 Chairperson’s Conclusion
3.55 Event Close
Presenters / panelists include:
 | Brenton Harty has four decades of experience in education, spanning roles as a teacher, digital learning manager, and ICT Manager within both government and independent schools. Presently, he holds the dual roles of Director of ICT and Privacy Officer at Presbyterian Ladies’ College Melbourne, while also serving as President of MITIE, a national organization dedicated to representing ICT professionals in the education sector. |
 | David Scanlan is currently a Senior Employment Lawyer at Mapien Law heading up their WA office, having commenced in September 2025. Prior, David was the Director of People & Culture at St Hilda’s from 2020. In this role he drove the people development, cultural development, talent acquisition and compliance functions of the School. |
 | Fiona Manderson has been a practicing solicitor for more than 20 years working in traditional law firms and Legal Aid Queensland before a nearly six-year stint as Head of Compliance, Risk & Legal at Hillcrest Christian College. She has now opened her own business – Aloncaws Mediation & Investigation and is transitioning out of her inhouse role at Hillcrest. |
 | Elena Totino has been a practising lawyer for over 24 years. During this time, Elena has advised and supported children and young people, other vulnerable people, service providers, government departments, agencies and regulators. Elena's work has included as Principal Lawyer and Manager of the Department of Education VIC and as Senior Legal Advisor and Acting General Manager, Reportable Conduct at Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools. |