Navigating Legal Exposure in a Changing Environment & Implementing Best Practice
| Date | 20 May 2025 |
| Time | 12.00pm-4.35pm AEST (Syd/Mel/Bris time) |
| Venue | Live Online with recording available (recording expires 20 June 2025) |
| Pricing | $440 Prices includes gst. |
| CPD | Addresses 7.2 of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers |
| Other related LawSense Events |
12.00 LawSense Welcome
12.05 Chairperson’s Introduction
Paul La Cava, Head of Sport, Geelong Grammar School (Victoria)
Shaun Nodwell, Director of Sport, St Peters Lutheran College (Queensland)
12.10 Case Studies – Student Supervision – After Training or Games, Transport, First Aid:
Supervision of Students – Examining Your Obligations Regarding Transport and After Training or Games
- Exploring key laws and duties applying in student transport with school sport, including where:
- buses are owned or chartered by the school
- teachers are driving school buses
- students use public transport or drive themselves
- Understanding supervision requirements:
- supervision during transport – do you need to have a teacher supervising every time? What are appropriate staff ratios? When is teacher supervision, not required?
- safety during the trip, including seat belts
- examining supervision requirements after school sport – obligations to supervise until students are collected by parents or have other appropriate transport home
- Students driving themselves:
- Exploring liability exposure from students driving themselves to training or games
- Implementing best practice in managing students driving themselves. What work-arounds have schools implemented? Should you implement specific contracts with the student or student’s parents?
Offsite Events Run by Other Schools or Organisations: Managing Your Obligations in Supervision of Students and First Aid
- Examining the duty of care in practice at an event hosted by another schools or sport organiser, including:
- obligations of the event/competition organiser and what they should be doing in practice
- examining what a school participating in the event/competition is responsible for and should be implementing
- understanding obligations of a school where it provides students to representatives matches
Leighton Hawkes Principal, McCabes Lawyers
1.10 Break
1.20 Return to Play or School After Concussion and Injury: Obtaining and Assessing Adequate Medical Evidence
Return to Play or School After Concussion
- Examining the current state of evidence and notable court proceedings regarding concussion in sport
- Outlining current obligations and guidelines applying to concussion in school sport
- Understanding the nature and extent of medical evidence you should require to:
- allow return to play outside timeframes in school polices or guidelines, including return to limited or restricted sport participation
- return to school, particularly where the student needs to undertake school assessments or exams
- Responding to deficient or non-specific medical evidence – what questions should you ask or what other information should you obtain
- Dealing with parents who do not wish to obtain any or further medical evidence
Obligations and Other Injuries
- Assessing and managing return to play with other injuries – when can you be exposed to potential liability?
Dr David Maddocks, Partner, Perry Maddocks Trollope Lawyers; Former Neuropsychologist
2.20 Break
2.30 Staff & Parent Issues
Staffing: Navigating Contractor Vs Employee Vs Casual Vs Hobbyist in School Sport – Determining the Right Classification and Understanding Your Liability
- Exploring the different types of staff used by schools, including the pros and cons for schools of each type
- Examining the definition of a contractor and checklists
- How do definitions of contractors and checklists apply in practice to coaches in schools sport – are your contractor coaches actually employees?
- Updating contracts and work arrangements to ensure coaches are independent contractors and managing potential retrospective claims
Managing Qualifications, Skill Mix and Assessment of Staff, Coaches, External Providers and Volunteers
- Understanding your obligations in assessing what skills mix is required and assessing the relevant skills, experience or fitness of school staff, contractors, such as ex-students, and volunteers
- Exploring the extent of requirements to include staff with medical training at different times
- What information should you request or obtain about staff of external venues or contractors?
- Understanding your rights and obligations when parents or other volunteers are involved
Coaches and Supervision
- Exploring what expectations should be imposed on coaches regarding supervision and professional boundaries
- Managing supervision of coaches
Difficult Parents: Managing Difficult Parents and Examining the Extent of Obligations to Train Coaches to Deal with Them
- Exploring the range of behaviour encountered by school sport staff and coaches
- Examining options in dealing with difficult parents
- To what extent should you train your coaches to manage difficult parents?
Ben Tallboys, Principal, Russell Kennedy; Legal Counsel, Association of Heads of Independent Schools Australia (AHISA)
3.30 Break
3.40 Case Study: Learnings from School Sport Documentation That Successfully Defended Legal Claims Against a School
In Mersal v Georges River Council & Anor [2021], a student that sustained an ACL injury during school sport sued the school, the competition organiser and the local Council. The records and documentation used by the organiser and school were a crucial part of the defence in this case and ultimately the claim by the student did not succeed. This session examines the documentation used in this case and learnings for schools in implementing best practice documentation and records to defend any legal claims. The session is presented by the competition organiser involved in the case.
Sonia Berry, CEO, Independent Girls’ Schools Association (incorporating IGSA Sport)
4.30 Chairperson’s Conclusion
4.35 Event Close
Presenters / panelists include:
Paul La Cava has worked in education for over 20 years at Wesley College Melbourne, Camberwell Grammar School and more recently at Geelong Grammar School on the Campus Management Team as the Director of Sport. As the APS Delegate he has had much experience in managing and leading all aspects of School sport. During this time, he has also been on the board of ACHPER and Co-Author of Sport Education Coaching.
For the past 10 years, Shaun Nodwell has been the Director of Sport at St Peters Lutheran College. St Peters has one of the largest co-educational sporting programs in the country. This program is a P-12 Sporting Program involving of 3000 students across two Brisbane Campuses. Shaun has overseen the St Peters Swimming Program, which is the most successful program in Australia and has recently been described as the strongest school swimming program in the world. He has regularly organised and facilitated many internal and external carnivals, both domestic and international sporting tours.
Leighton Hawkes commenced his career in claims management and other technical roles with a major Australian insurance. Leighton has acted for the NSW Department of Education for a large number of years. Presently he acts in a diverse range of matters, including claims arising from public liability, property damage to NSW schools, historical sexual abuse, discrimination (employee and disability), and Coronial enquiries.
David Maddocks has many years of experience dealing with issues relevant to schools. He has acted for schools in major legal cases, including Royal Commissions, Coronial Inquests and personal injury claims. Aside from acting for schools, David also works in sports law and acts for doctors. He has provided legal advice to the AFL and the AFL Doctors Association and was involved as a lawyer in the AFL - Essendon Football Club supplements matter. David is also a former Chairman of Cricket Victoria. Prior to law, David worked as a Neuropsychologist. He has conducted internationally recognized research into the diagnosis and recovery from concussion in sport. Aspects of this research have been adopted by the IOC, FIFA and American NFL.
Ben Tallboys provides sector-specific, practical legal solutions to schools across Australia. Ben is a passionate and effective advocate for principals dealing with complex matters relating to parents, staff and students, as well as their own employment.
Sonia Berry joined IGSA as the Executive Officer in 2016. Sonia is a lawyer, mediator and consultant who has worked within the school sector for over 25 years. She has a passion for the education of girls.