Welcome to Term 2! The year is flying by, and I have some important information to share with you in this edition.
Chaplaincy Vacancies and COVID-19 Vaccination Requirements
I’d like to make special mention of the Queensland health directive regarding vaccination status. The mandate remains unchanged at this stage, so for now, all chaplains contracted to schools must be double-dose vaccinated.
This news, which came out towards the end of 2021, has had ramifications across many sectors and I wanted to take a moment to thank our wonderful LCCs and Principals who have been so helpful working with us last term to help fill the need in our communities. Your support has been greatly valued, and I want to assure you we are still working hard with every chaplaincy service to fill vacancies created by the health mandate.
At this stage, we do still have a number of chaplaincy vacancies. If you know someone who has a heart to serve our young people and who meets the updated requirements, please let them know they can express their interest by clicking the link below.
Click here for current chaplaincy vacancies
Fundraising – An Important Update
I wanted to let you know that the Department of Education has advised us about some updated fundraising requirements for your chaplaincy service.
We’ve been informed that fundraising activities held within schools need to be communicated to the school community and the purpose of the activity needs to be clearly explained, along with how the activity will be conducted and where the proceeds will be allocated. Fundraisers must also be mentioned in your chaplain’s workplan, and conducted in accordance with the Department of Education’s fundraising procedures.
Please don’t hesitate to contact us at support@su.org.au if you have any further questions about these requirements.
Principal Surveys
At the end of Term 1, many school principals were surveyed regarding their chaplaincy service in preparation for the new NSCP funding round that commences at the end of 2022. Once we’ve heard results from this, we will be sure to let you know.
In the survey that was conducted late last year, 86% of Queensland school principals described their chaplaincy service as ‘good’ to ‘excellent’ so we are looking forward to hearing the latest results from our valued principals! New contracts will be issued to our chaplains at the end of this year when NSCP processes are finalised.
Chappy Conference
Another exciting event that’s coming up in the second week of the winter holidays is the Schools Ministry Conference! This conference will be held from July 5 – 8 at the Novotel on the Sunshine Coast, and expenses are fully paid for by SU Australia.
Due to COVID-19, we have been unable to hold our annual chaplaincy conference and we are buzzing with excitement to have everyone in the same room together again. This is the first time we’ve done something of this scale since becoming SU Australia, so we’re looking forward to a great time of personal development and encouragement.
Chappy Week 2022
It’s Chappy Week in a few short weeks (from May 22 – 29). This yearly tradition is a great way to celebrate your chaplain and thank them for the contribution they make in your community.
Chappy Week is all about raising the profile of school chaplaincy, doing some fundraising and having fun with the students in your community.
In-service days, LCC forums and LCC Zoom training
Many of our natural rhythms have been interrupted over the past few years because of COVID-19, and we’re slowly getting back on our feet with regular face-to-face meet-ups. For the term ahead, we are planning more in-person in-service days for your chaplains, and there will also be LCC Forums and LCC Zoom training sessions run by your Regional Manager. Keep your ears open for more details on these.
Back-end support and Financial Updates
When we merged to become SU Australia, one of the key goals we wanted to achieve was better back-office support. It’s wonderful to share that in Term 1 we were able to meet this goal and deliver improved support for LCC services.
One of the new updates is that all provisional month-end statements for your chaplaincy service will now be delivered by the 8th of the following month. This includes all Donations, Chaplaincy Charges, Government NSCP and State Funding distributions (as applicable to your service) and any additional funding from schools (as applicable to your service). Expenses and interest will take a little longer to process each month.
Statements are now available on your community dashboard – found in the ‘Reports’ section of your chaplaincy service on my.su.org.au. Please don’t hesitate to contact the Support team at support@su.org.au if you have any questions or require assistance.
That’s it for now! Thank you for reading and all the best with the term ahead,
Jenni Dobbin