Duty, Discipline and Disputes: Strengthening Legal Foundations in Schools – a schools law Power Pair of recorded webinars

This Power Pair comprises 2 popular schools law & regulatory webinars from earlier this year.

Webinar 1: Make it Worth the Paper it’s Written On: School Enrolment Contracts

School enrolment contracts underpin the relationship between school, student and their parents/care giver. With rising school fees and an increase in unpaid debts, these contracts are more crucial than ever—not just as legal documents, but as tools to help manage financial obligations. In this session, we will cover the key elements of school enrolment contracts and how they can be leveraged to recover unpaid fees, including:

• Does the parent/care giver have the legal capacity to enter into the enrolment contract?
• Identifying the correct contracting parties to the contract of enrolment.
• When might a contract be unenforceable?
• Is a school enrolment contract a consumer contract?
• The implications of the new unfair contracts regime under the Australian Consumer Law
• Strategies for using enrolment contracts to outline intervention processes and secure unpaid school fees
• Legal approaches to debt recovery and how to prevent escalating financial issues

Webinar 2: When Doing Nothing is Not an Option: School Liability for Bullying

Abuse and bullying, both in the schoolyard and online, in person or through social media, continues to severely impact student victims and leave schools open to liability for failure to act. This session will examine some recent cases and provide advice on proactive steps schools need to be taking to minimise the risks of harm to students and protect schools from claims, including:

• What constitutes bullying?
• Mental health issues and other consequences of bullying behaviour
• Duty of care of schools to prevent and deal with bullying - where does it begin and end?
• When does bullying become a crime?
• Bullying as a breach of anti-discrimination laws - are the responsibilities any different?
• What reporting obligations to authorities does a school have?
• Can the board, staff and/or students be personally liable?
• Financial and other consequences for schools for breach of their duty of care and statutory obligations
• Cases and examples of school failure to prevent bullying including Oysten v St Patrick’s College (No 2) [2013] NSWCA 310; Kaplan v State of Victoria (No 8) [2023] FCA 1092; Supreme Court of NSW (T2 (by his tutor T1) v State of New South Wales [2024] NSWSC 1347)

Special Purchase Offer – TEN’s 50th Birthday Sale

This pair of recorded webinars would usually cost $539, but as part of 50th Birthday Sale Offer you can buy the pair for only $330 if you order by 30.9.25.