An Update from Chris Woolley, Chief Executive Officer | EREA Colleges Ltd Term One | 2025

Key Messages

As Church leaders ask us to join in prayer for the health of Pope Francis, we reflect on his invitation in the 2025 Jubilee Year to be Pilgrims of Hope. 2025 also provides a special opportunity to reflect on the hope that education has offered to thousands of students, as we commemorate 150 years of the Christian Brothers commencing education ministry in Queensland. This remarkable journey reflects a legacy of transformative education rooted in the principles of hope, faith, community, and love. From humble beginnings to a global impact, the EREA story has empowered generations of learners to lead with integrity, compassion and purpose.  

As Pilgrims of Hope, we celebrate this milestone, and we honour the vision of Blessed Edmund Rice and the countless educators who have carried forward our mission. The first Queensland EREA school (St Joseph’s Gregory Terrace) started at Pugin’s Chapel in the centre of Brisbane in 1875 (adjacent to where St Stephen's Cathedral now stands). On 7 February 2025, I was fortunate to join the Terrace Family at the Terrace 150 Community Mass to mark the College’s sesquicentennial year. This anniversary will be marked in a variety of ways throughout the year by both the Christian Brothers, EREA and the St Joseph’s Gregory Terrace community. 

Upon the return to the school year, we also celebrated the young EREA leaders paving the way for a brighter future. EREA, together with EREA Colleges Ltd and EREA Flexible Schools as joint hosts, welcomed over 70 young leaders from our schools to St Joseph’s Nudgee College for the 2025 EREA National Young Leaders’ Gathering. Spanning three days, the theme centred on Voice and Agency: Listen, Reflect, and Lead. We wish our 2025 Young Student Leaders all the best as they guide and inspire their school communities this year. 

It has also been a historic moment for St Edmund’s College Ipswich, with 2025 marking the reintroduction of Years 5 and 6. Prior to 1988, St Edmund’s College also catered to primary-aged students. Now, after 37 years, the College proudly welcomes back 112 Year 5 and 6 students, an exciting milestone for the entire community. With brand-new classrooms and state-of-the-art renovations now complete, these students are stepping into a fresh, dynamic learning environment designed just for them. 

The EREA Colleges Ltd Board had their first in-person meeting for the new year in early February and had the privilege of attending St Edmund’s College in Canberra and meeting new Principal, Mr Tim Cleary. I thank the Eddies team for their hospitality and support. Our Board plays such a vital role in guiding our organisation who selflessly give their time, expertise and passion and are the backbone of impactful decision-making and strategic growth.  

Whilst I share these important and significant milestones, I do want to reflect on the challenges presented to our colleagues in North Queensland with a natural disaster impacting the Townsville community and Ignatius Park College. Fortunately, the College sustained no significant damage, and I commend Principal Luke Thomson and the leadership team for their efforts during this time as the college was used as an evacuation centre to support the local community. Our thoughts and prayers are with all communities impacted by this event. 

Mr Chris Woolley
Chief Executive Officer

Financial Matters

EREA Colleges Business Manager’s Forum – Pilgrims of Hope 

The EREA Colleges Business Managers’ Forum will take place from Monday 18 March to Tuesday 19 March 2025, at Rostrevor College, Adelaide. 

The forum will feature updates from the CEO, CFO, and other EREA Colleges leadership team members, including Peter Simpson and Ben Foley, on the redress scheme, professional standards updates and HR matters. 

Additionally, Jeff Hunt, General Manager – Capital Assurance and Strategy, will be in attendance to meet with Business Managers and provide updates on Capital Reporting, processes, and master planning. 

Christina Longmire, Director of Risk and Compliance, will share insights on the annual insurance program, privacy updates, and the attestation program. 

From the TEREA office, John O’Connor and Jan Hurley will present updates on the new Accurri financial reporting software and Modern Slavery compliance. 

Guest speakers include: 

• Tim Smith from McInnes Wilson Lawyers, who will discuss split accounts and enrolment contracts. 
• Representatives from the Australian Sports Foundation, who will explore fundraising opportunities in sports.  

The new Business Manager, Mark Gray, will provide a guided tour and history of Rostrevor College.  A special thank you to Shana, Mark, and the Rostrevor team for hosting this forum. 

External Audit Update 

The new external auditors, Grant Thornton, have commenced the 2024 financial year audit. Interim audits were completed in 2024, and final audits are underway, with completion expected by March at the school level. 

Key areas of audit focus include: 

• Revenue recognition 
• Employee costs and entitlements 
• Valuation and recoverability of fee debtors 
• Leases 
• Financial statement disclosures 
• Management override of controls  

The consolidated annual financial reports are scheduled for completion by the end of April, in preparation for review and signing at EREA College Board meetings in May and early June. 

Safeguarding

As previously flagged, the EREA Colleges safeguarding conference will be held on Thursday 8 May 2025. We are grateful to Nudgee College for providing the venue for this event.    

The conference seeks to provide relevant, practical and targeted training to all staff who perform safeguarding functions in your College/Early Learning Centre (ELC).    

What: EREA Colleges National Safeguarding Conference 

When: Thursday 8 May (8:30 – 3:00) 

Where: Ryan Hall, Nudgee College 

RSVP: Registrations are welcome via this link   

The conference will feature Mr Ben Foley (Legal Counsel, EREA Colleges) who will speak to matters of professional conduct and practice: legal considerations and implications.    

We are also pleased to welcome Griffith Youth Forensic Service, who have generously agreed to share their practice wisdom in a session at the conference.  Griffith Youth Forensic Service (GYFS) provides specialist forensic psychological assessment and treatment to youth who are sentenced in courts in relation to sexual offence matters. Specifically, GYFS will address the management of student-on-student risk in a school environment, including supporting children and families where a young person may be engaging in problematic sexual behaviour.    

Sharing Practice: EOI to present at the Safeguarding Conference 

One of the strengths of face-to-face events includes the sharing of ideas. In 2025 we are seeking to capitalise on the strength of practice that we have seen across our Colleges and Early Learning Centres through the sharing of wisdom within the Safeguarding Conference. In particular, the Conference is looking to include a session focused on practical implementation of safeguarding initiatives in Colleges and ELCs, and would be grateful for Expressions of Interest as to whether your College or ELC would prepare a 20 minute presentation showcasing such local initiatives. Rest assured, this is not about ‘perfect’ initiatives but rather, a space to share what is working and perhaps reflect on what has a way to go. The Expression of Interest responses are due by COB Friday 21 March 2025.  

Mandatory Training 

Colleges and ELCs are reminded that mandatory training is an annual requirement for staff, volunteers and (where required) contractors. A reminder that Ideagen/Complispace are available to assist Colleges and ELCs to establish a volunteer/contractor platform that facilitates self-sign on by volunteers/contractors. This initiative is intended to assist Colleges in managing the workload associated with managing large cohorts of individuals. Alternatively, please contact Shannon O’Gorman (shannon.ogorman@erea.edu.au) if you would like to learn more about this option. 

Risk and Compliance

Queensland Schools & Early Learning Centres – New WHS Sexual Harassment Laws 

The Queensland Government has introduced changes to the Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (WHS Reg) regarding the prevention of sexual harassment and sex or gender-based harassment at work.  

The new provisions are outlined, as detailed in the fact sheet below. 

Ideagen CompliSpace 

Further to the consultation conducted by Christina Longmire, Director of Risk & Compliance and Peter Simpson, Director of Safeguarding & Professional Standards in 2024, the consensus indicated their desire to retain each of the Ideagen CompliSpace platforms currently utilised.  Feedback on the three platforms can be summarised as follows: 

1. PolicyConnect – Schools value this as a ‘single source of truth’ for policies and procedures, providing the necessary oversight for governing bodies. There’s strong support for reducing content volume in modules and making it more user-friendly, with clearer, less legalistic language. 
2. Assurance – Schools want to retain this platform but request more training on risk assessments, forms, registers, reporting, and data analytics to support decision-making and compliance reporting. It’s noted that the platform is currently underutilised in these areas. 
3. CompliLearn – Schools appreciate EREA Colleges Ltd’s efforts to deliver targeted, concise online compliance training, which complements new face-to-face sessions. While schools wish to keep the platform, they remain open to exploring alternatives in the future. 

The current Ideagen CompliSpace agreement covers 2024 and 2025, with the option to reduce PolicyConnect subscriptions in 2025. Based on 2024 feedback, we’ve informed Ideagen that we’ll discontinue subscriptions to the Complaints, Privacy, Risk, and Compliance modules for all schools in 2025, resulting in significant cost savings for both the group and individual schools. Christina has downloaded each school’s modules and provided secure access to each school’s risk and compliance staff for copying, as the content may be needed for future purposes.  She will continue to work with each school to redirect access to EREA Colleges Ltd and school policies and procedures in these areas. 

Further consultations with schools will take place this year to review remaining PolicyConnect modules, as the current agreement ends in 2025. This process will start with a survey, followed by meetings with selected schools based on survey responses. Principals will receive more details by the end of Term 1. 

Conference – 9 May 

The EREA Colleges Risk and Compliance conference will be held at Ryan Hall, Nudgee College on Friday 9 May 2025, the day following the Safeguarding Conference at the same venue. Further details and a registration form will be forwarded by the end of February.  

Attestation Program  

An Attestation Program is currently being drafted by Christina Longmire and Peter Simpson. The Program is focussed on non-financial and operational risk areas and will look to provide assurance for the governing body by evaluating compliance, risk management and operational effectiveness.  It will adopt a phased approach looking to progressively strengthen schools’ capabilities in meeting governance and compliance obligations, while providing ongoing attestations to EREA Colleges Ltd.  The specific areas of focus for 2025 will be: 

• Safeguarding and child protection; 
• Work Health and Safety; and 
• Cyber security and data governance 

Further information, including the processes and timeframes, will be forwarded to Principals by the end of February.  It’s envisaged that the Program will commence in Term 2.  

Overseas Excursions 

Just a reminder to complete an online ‘Overseas Excursion’ form for your school for any overseas trips planned for students in 2025 if you haven’t already done so.  Please see the EREA Colleges Ltd   Overseas Travel Policy and Procedures for further information.  All overseas travel for students must be approved by the EREA Colleges Ltd CEO under current delegations. 

Around the Grounds

29 January 2025 | CEO Meeting at the new EREA Flexible Schools Head Office at Eagle Farm 

31 January 2025 | Commissioning Mass for Patrick Harmer (St Paul’s College, Gilles Plains, SA) 

5 & 6 February 2025 | EREA Colleges Leaders Formation and Planning (Guest Facilitator: Lee-Anne Perry, David Hutton and Peter Chapman) 

7 February 2025 | Commissioning Mass for Amber Hauff (St Patrick’s College, Shorncliffe, QLD)  

7 February 2025 | Terrace 150 Community Mass  

10 February 2025 | EREA Colleges Ltd Board Meeting (St Edmund’s College, Canberra) 

11 February 2025 | QCEC Opening Mass   

20 February 2025 | Commissioning Mass for Tim Cleary (St Edmund’s College, Canberra, ACT) 

21 February 2025 | Commissioning Mass for Andrée Rice (St James College, Spring Hill, QLD) 

Commissioning Mass | Patrick Harmer | St Paul’s College, SA

Commissioning Mass| Amber Hauff | St Patrick’s College, QLD

150 Years Community Mass | St Joseph's College, Gregory Tce, QLD

Commissioning Mass | Tim Cleary | St Edmund’s College, ACT

Commissioning Mass | Andrée Rice |St James College, QLD

Staffing Updates

Payroll Officer – EREA Colleges Ltd.  

Mrs Vanessa Thompson commenced with EREA Colleges in January 2025. Vanessa has over 15 years’ experience working in payroll services. Vanessa will support our team of four to prepare and process the delivery of payroll to all EREA National, QLD Schools and Flexi Schools employees in a timely and accurate manner.  

Senior Education Officer (Expression of Interest) - EREA Colleges Ltd.  

Late in 2024, EREA Colleges sought Expressions of Interest for secondment to the role of Senior Education Officer.  This role is specific to Queensland and commences in Term 2 2025.  

I am pleased to advise that following the EOI process Ms Kirsten Wardrop was the successful candidate. Kirsten has a strong background in educational leadership and 19 years’ experience with EREA and currently is the Dean of Logistics and Analytics at St Laurence’s College.  Kirsten has held a variety of Senior leadership positions at St Laurence’s including being the acting Director of Teaching and Learning.  

During the 12-month secondment Kirsten will be responsible for the oversight of Skills & Training, which is an important dimension of Senior Schooling in our schools. In addition, the role will support initiatives aimed at school improvement initiatives, including assisting schools with National Consistent Collection of Data (NCCD), school performance data (including Yr 12 exit results & certification), and the analysis of other relevant educational data to inform strategic planning.  

I extend my thanks to Ms Marie Previte who previously supported the Skills and VET work within EREA Colleges.  At the start of this year Marie commenced a new VET/Skills focussed role with EREA Flexi Schools Ltd. 

Policy and Publications

South Australian Schools – adoption of CESA Child Safeguarding Policies 

The EREA Colleges Ltd Board has approved the adoption of the Safeguarding Children and Young People Policy (Archdiocese of Adelaide) and CESA Duty of Care Policy at their February meeting.   

DHS have endorsed the inclusion of the EREA Colleges Ltd (EREAC) Code of Conduct and Child Safeguarding Policy, as part of the suite of combined documents with CESA, required to support the Annual Compliance Statement.  The EREAC documents will be adopted in parallel with the corresponding CESA documents, noting that there is no conflict as to content. 

Peter Simpson will be sending more detailed information directly to Principals to outline next steps. 

Queensland – Child & Youth Risk Management Strategy 

EREAC has reviewed its strategy for 2025, updating the document to be more concise where possible and framing the content with the new EREA Colleges Ltd branding and logo.  Schools’ PolicyConnect sites will be updated with the 2025 version by the end of February. 

EREA Colleges Workplace Discrimination, Harassment and Bullying Procedures – updated 

The current EREAC Workplace Discrimination, Harassment & Bullying Procedures have been ‘retired’ and replaced with two distinctly titled sets of Procedures: 

• Procedures for Addressing Workplace Discrimination & Bullying; and 

• Procedures for Addressing Sexual Harassment. 

These changes have been prompted by the recent legislative changes in relation to an employer’s ‘positive duty’ under the Discrimination Act and are aimed at demonstrating our commitment to the prevention and elimination of sexual harassment in the workplace.  These updates will be uploaded to schools’ PolicyConnect sites by the end of February.   

EREA Colleges Notifiable Incidents Policy  

Please remember to submit notifications in CompliSpace Assurance where an incident meets the reporting thresholds in the EREA Colleges Ltd Notifiable Incidents Policy.  Please contact christina.longmire@erea.edu.au should you have any queries or would like assistance. 

Privacy Legislation - Amendments 

On 10 December 2024, the Privacy and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2024 (Cth) – the first stage of Australia's long-awaited privacy law reforms – received Royal Assent. Now known as the Privacy and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2024 (Cth) (Amendment Act), it introduces several significant amendments to the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act), many of which came into effect immediately upon assent.  They are: 

The EREA Colleges Ltd Privacy Policy and Procedures will be updated to reflect these amendments as they become effective.  The updated versions will be loaded in your PolicyConnect sites with a corresponding communication forwarded to all schools and early learning centres. 

Upcoming Events

• EREA National Principals’ Conference – 3 & 4 March: Brisbane. State Library of Queensland.
• EREA Principals’ Mass and Dinner – 3 March:   

Mass 6.00pm at St Stephen’s Chapel, 259 Elizabeth St, Brisbane 
Dinner 7.15pm at Customs House, 399 Queen St, Brisbane 

EREA National Events Team are currently finalising the program and will be shared in the leadup to the conference.  

• EREAC Business Managers Forum – 17-18 March:  Rostrevor College, Adelaide  
• EREAC Deputy Principal’s Gathering – 31 March & 1 April:  CBC Adelaide  

Colleges & Early Learning Centres Photo Gallery