New Actions
2026 School Professional Development Days
For: Principals
Due: Now
Contact: Nicole Ryan (ryann03@dow.catholic.edu.au)
First notice
To assist in your planning for the 2026 school year, we've compiled the schedule of gazetted school term dates, and the allocation of professional development days for 2026. This document provides information regarding pupil-free days, including the flexibility for converting one Professional Development Day into twilight sessions, and outlines the required processes for planning and communicating these dates.
Action: Please read the 2026 School Professional Development Days communication here.
Fostering Respectful Workplaces: Leaders’ Positive Duty Obligations
For: Principals and CEO leaders
Due: Now
Contact: Nicole Ryan (ryann03@dow.catholic.edu.au)
First notice
As we continue the conversation around fostering respectful workplaces, we want to reinforce our shared responsibility to take meaningful steps to eliminate or reduce sexual harassment, sex-based discrimination, and other unlawful conduct within our workplace.
Legislative changes at both the federal and state levels established a positive duty on employers to take proactive measures to prevent these behaviours. Key developments include:
- The Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth), which places a positive duty on organisations to eliminate, as far as possible, unlawful conduct such as discrimination on the basis of sex, sexual harassment, sex-based harassment, and victimisation.
- Amendments to the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) in March 2023, which explicitly prohibit sexual harassment in the workplace.
- Reinforcement under Work Health and Safety (WHS) legislation, which requires all employers to provide a work environment that is safe and free from harm, including psychological harm.
Under the Sex Discrimination Act, employers must take reasonable and proportionate measures to eliminate, as far as possible:
- Discrimination on the grounds of sex
- Sexual harassment
- Sex-based harassment
- Conduct that creates a hostile workplace environment on the grounds of sex
- Acts of victimisation relating to any of the above
To support a consistent understanding of these obligations in practice, People and Culture has developed an information article for school leaders. This resource builds on the content presented at the Principals Training Day on 8 May 2025 and complements existing CEDoW policies in this area, which are currently under review.
Action: Please read the information article, Fostering Respectful Workplaces: Leaders’ Positive Duty Obligations, here.