The Registered and Accredited Individual Non-government Schools (NSW) Manual and the Registration Systems and Member Non-government Schools (NSW) Manual have been amended.

The most significant amendment is the requirement, as part of a safe and supportive environment, for non-government schools to have policies and procedures with specific reference to anti-bullying (Section 3.6.2 of the Individual Manual and 5.6.2 of the Systems Manual).

These amendments take effect with the publication of this Official Notice.

Non-government schools are also required to include in annual reports information about their anti-bullying policy. This amendment takes effect with the submission of the annual report on the 2012 school year to the Board of Studies by 30 June 2013. There is no change to the requirements for the 2011 annual report.

Other amendments to the Manuals relate to:

• replacing the term special provision examinations with disability provisions
• new work health and safety (WHS) laws, which replaced the occupational health and safety (OHS) laws in NSW on 1 January 2012.

As a result of this new WHS legislation, any reference in the Manuals to:

• ‘occupational health and safety’ is replaced by ‘work health and safety’
• ‘OHS’ is replaced by ‘WHS’
• Occupational Health and Safety Act 2000 is replaced by Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (as amended)
• Occupational Health and Safety Regulation 2001 is replaced by Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (as amended).
• OHS Regulation 2001 is replaced by WHS Regulation 2011 (as amended).

Tracked changes of the amended sections of the manuals are available in the ‘Reference Section’ of the Registration and Accreditation of Non-government Schools (RANGS) website. RANGS is accessed from the Board’s website via the following link www.rego.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au.

The amended manuals are available to download from RANGS.

Please note that the web versions of the manuals are the most up-to-date manuals at any time.

The following support materials are also available:

• Proformas for Document Audits for Individual Schools
• Proformas for Document Audits for System Member Schools

For further information:
Kim Owens
Senior Registration Officer
(02) 9367 8134
kim.owens@bos.nsw.edu.au