Schools must consider the latest COVID-19 advice prior to undertaking any curriculum activity. State schools should search 'COVID-19 Information for school operations' to find the latest advice on OnePortal.
The
Managing risks in school curriculum activities procedure supports schools in identifying potential hazards, assessing risks and implementing control measures. This helps to keep everyone safe when conducting
curriculum activities as part of the delivery of the Prep to Year 12 curriculum in Queensland state schools.
The procedure outlines the responsibilities of departmental employees and provides the minimum process to be followed by all state schools. Summaries of the CARA process are provided on the CARA planner (below) and the
Managing risks in school curriculum activities flowchart (PDF, 417KB).
Non-curriculum activities are not supported by the CARA procedure. These activities are conducted as part of school operations but are not aligned to the delivery of the curriculum in Prep to Year 12 (e.g. bus travel, school fetes, out-of-school activities for Education Queensland International (EQI) homestay students, and sport representation conducted through Queensland School Sport). Refer to the
Enterprise Risk Management framework to complete a risk assessment for these non-curriculum related activities. If necessary, non-curriculum activities can be recorded as ’Other’ in OneSchool and added as an attachment.
Training
The CARA training course is to be completed annually by school-based staff involved in the delivery and approval of curriculum activities in schools. Staff must log into The Learning Place and search for 'curriculum activity risk assessment'.
Additionally, school-specific annual induction/refresher training must be completed after completion of the online training. A
CARA PowerPoint template (PPT, 1.7MB) is available for this purpose.
Planning curriculum activities
Collaborative planning of curriculum activities is strongly encouraged. Teachers and adult supervisors involved in the activity should use the
CARA planner (DOC, 423KB) during the planning phase of an activity. This planner provides support in identifying hazards, assessing the risks, determining an inherent risk level, deciding on control measures and documenting the risk assessment for the activity.
To assist Queensland state schools to conduct and prepare risk assessments,
CARA guidelines are available for a wide range of activities that may be part of delivering the curriculum in Prep to Year 12. The guidelines are developed to align with policies, regulations and guidelines of state and federal governments, and the standards and processes of peak bodies within Australia. In addition, they are regularly reviewed and undergo a comprehensive consultation process with schools and regions.
A sample
parent consent template (DOC, 337KB) is available to assist schools in their planning for high and extreme risk activities.