Many CEnet staff are known to member dioceses either as writers of emails, voices on phones or participants in Zoom meetings.
Readers gained insights to how some of our staff found their way to CEnet in our International Women's Day edition of the CEnet Bulletin.
This week we are commencing a series of articles on members of the CEnet team who have worked in member dioceses, starting with our longest serving and one of our newest members.
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Chris Burrows
Manager, People and Culture
May 2020 marked the significant milestone of my 20-year anniversary working in Catholic Education. I feel blessed to have held numerous and varied roles within a number of Catholic organisations, providing me with the privilege of serving Catholic schools and their communities for over two decades.
I began my career in the K-12 Catholic education sector working in a technical IT support role within schools in the diocese of Wollongong.
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This was followed by five years working at the Wollongong Catholic Education Office where I took on the role of project coordinator and support officer throughout the development and rollout of the original CASTnet initiative, a joint venture between the Dioceses of Wollongong, Broken Bay and Wagga Wagga.
As CASTnet’s success was becoming more and more evident and attracting more members, it was decided that a new company be formed and in 2007, CEnet was incorporated. At this time, I accepted an IT Service Delivery management role at CEnet. Over the following years, as CEnet’s services catalogue grew along with our member base, so too did our number of employees.
Coupled with the need to support CEnet's most valuable assets, whilst ensuring our people and culture are enabling CEnet to achieve its strategic and operational goals, in 2019 I accepted an opportunity to take on the role of Manager, People and Culture. My current role is diverse, encompassing management of the employee lifecycle from onboarding through to off boarding, WHS, facilities and organisational culture development.
I get to work with great people and often benefit from the advantage of working for a smaller organisation. I am constantly able to expand on key areas of focus including leadership, strategy, risk management, corporate governance, and legal and compliance. The most recent additions to my remit include taking on the role of CEnet’s Privacy Officer and our Modern Slavery Liaison Officer.
As I reflect on my 20 years of service, I am grateful for the opportunities I have been presented with and I am proud to work for CEnet, serving our Member Dioceses, their schools and communities.
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Josh Obst
Integration Specialist
I started work at CEnet early 2020 - mid Covid19!
It was a strange experience starting a new job and not physically meeting your colleagues for many months. Fortunately for me, I had spent four years prior working for the Catholic Diocese of Wagga Wagga and had gotten to know my new team and extended team quite well over that time.
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It was also strange leaving one workplace and starting a new job from the exact same desk!
Working from home in Wagga has its perks; perfectly manicured lawn, lunch time fitness, less travel time, more family time. It also comes with some challenges; social isolation, cabin fever and distractions. I do feel lucky in a sense, that when starting my new job, I was not the only person stuck on Zoom all day!
From my experience, starting a new job can be daunting, particularly when it comes to internal jargon, acronyms and systems. Whilst the CEnet world was new, it was not foreign for me. I was able to get involved a lot quicker than I thought. Along with a supportive team, the transition from the Diocese of Wagga Wagga to CEnet was enjoyable. Having experienced CEnet systems from the member’s side, I enjoyed learning how the pieces fit together to ‘just work’.
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CEnet Staff Feedback
Have you had a positive experience with a CEnet staff member?
Please tell us via this form, we'll be sure to let them know.
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National Program Involvement
CEnet holds a unique representative role in the context of national K-12 education. Through the support of seventeen Catholic School Authorities across multiple states and territories, CEnet has a deep understanding of the diverse Information Technology environment that exists within Catholic education. This provides a strategic opportunity for CEnet to represent in a range of national forums.
Through the National Catholic Education Commission (NCEC), CEnet has been providing strategic oversight and advice on the development of a number of national initiatives for the schools sector including the National Unique Student Identifier (USI) project, and the Safer Technologies for Schools (ST4S) programme.
The National USI is one of eight national policy initiatives set out in the National School Reform Agreement. Under the agreed milestones, all Australian school students are to have a Unique Student Identifier (USI) by the end of the agreement in 2023. CEnet’s role has been to assist in representing the Catholic sector on the USI Working Group which operates under the auspices of the Australian Government Department of Education, Skills and Employment (DESE).
The Safer Technologies for Schools (ST4S) programme is a nationally aligned activity charged with assessment of online educational products and services across a standard set of security, privacy, interoperability and safety criteria.
The Safer Technologies 4 Schools (ST4S) initiative is coordinated by the National Schools Interoperability Project (NSIP) with key assessment activities performed by staff from educational jurisdictions across each state and territory, including CEnet.
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Cybersecurity Practice
The Q1 CEnet Information Security report was delivered in March. The feedback on the report was positive with mention made of the oversight and visibility into the cybersecurity measures CEnet takes to protect the information of its member dioceses and schools.
The key areas of focus for this report were:
- Progress towards CEnet’s overall cyber security targets;
- Top three areas of exposure (Human Resource controls, Data Assurance controls, and Data Breach Reporting);
- IT security management reporting; and
- Operational security reporting including vulnerability and patching.
CEnet’s cyber security programme has established a set of activities in the form of a roadmap. These activities are aligned to global industry standards such as ISO 27000. The aim is to further strengthen the cyber security posture of CEnet and individual members, to deliver a safe and secure evangelisation and learning environment.
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CEnet Joins ACAN
CEnet has recently become a Participant in the Australian Catholic Anti-Slavery Network (ACAN).
CEnet joins an ever-growing list of Catholic entities to participate in this consortium and membership will aid CEnet in meeting its legal and moral obligations with regard to the Modern Slavery Act.
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As reported in the 2018 Global Slavery Index, 40.3 million people worldwide are enslaved, with the highest number in the Asia Pacific region. Modern slavery refers to situations of exploitation where a person cannot refuse or leave employment, because of threats, violence, coercion, abuse of power or deception.
Although modern slavery is illegal, millions of people continue to be trapped in factories, fields, fisheries and mines. People become trapped in modern slavery by poverty, vulnerability, corruption and systems that create the conditions and opportunities for it to exist and even flourish.
In December 2018, the Australian government passed the Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth) requiring Australia’s largest not-for-profit profit entities and for-profit businesses to take steps to assess and address modern slavery in their supply chains and operations.
Participation in ACAN equips participating Catholic entities with resources and tools to prepare their Modern Slavery Statement and to train and raise their employees’ awareness of Modern Slavery issues via e-earning modules. More details about ACAN’s Modern Slavery Risk Management Program can be found here.
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Did you know...
Sora offers dyslexic font and high contrast settings throughout the app’s interface and in individual ebooks.
Dyslexic fonts can help alleviate some symptoms of dyslexia, like the turning and swapping of letters.
For those with low vision, high contrast options can improve readability and app navigation.
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To turn on dyslexic font and/or high contrast mode in Sora, navigate to General settings under Sora’s main menu and select Dyslexic font and/or High contrast under Display.
Note: Some ebooks don’t have the dyslexic font display option.
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Upcoming Catholic Learning Online Events 2021
Upcoming Events:
Apple Teacher iPad
- May 13
The Apple Teacher iPad Virtual Check-in 5
Apple Teacher Mac
- May 6 - 3.30pm AEST
The Apple Teacher Mac 2021 Virtual Check-in number 3.
- May 20 - 3.30pm AEST
The Apple Teacher Mac 2021 Virtual Check-in number 4.
- June 3 - 3.30pm AEST
The Apple Teacher Mac 2021 Virtual Check-in number 5.
A Beginner's Introduction to PearDeck
- May 10 - 3.30pm AEST
- May 12 - 7.30am AEST
Google Fundamentals
- May 27 - 3.30pm AEST
- 17 June 3.30 pm
- 15 July 3.30 pm
- 29 July 3.30 pm
- 12 August 3.30 pm
Registration can be completed through Diocesan PD Registration Systems or by clicking here or using the button below to register interest.
Additional information will be made available in the Catholic Learning Online website closer to each event.
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Catchup On Catholic Learning Online Summit
If you or your colleagues were unable to participate in Catholic Learning Online Summit, workshop recordings can be found in the Catholic Learning Online Summit Resources page.
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Catchup On Catholic Learning Online Events Workshops
If you or your colleagues are unable to participate in Catholic Learning Online Events, workshop recordings can be found in the Catholic Learning Online Resources page.
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Book of the Week
The CEnet member dioceses ACEN eBook Consortium, with the assistance of Lisa Nash and Saba Maniar from the Digital Learning and Library Services in Catholic Education Diocese of Parramatta, provide the book of the week feature for students and staff who have access to the SORA eBook Library.
Each week, two reading recommendations for eBooks or audio books, with age guidance are published for primary school students and high school students and to make sure that no-one is left out, there is a recommendation for staff too.
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Click on any of the three options above to go straight to the recommended books and enjoy the read!
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Sora Sweet Reads
Sweet Reads is back in 2021 and will run from 5 May until 20 August.
Sweet Reads is a world-wide initiative run to promote reading in schools and is based on checkouts of a subset of the ebooks available to students.
For the last two years the CEnet ACEN consortium has been number 1 in Overdrive's global 'Sweet Reads' initiative with 24,010 checkouts in last years event.
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Reads for Grown-Ups eBook and audiobook collection in SORA.
SORA is not just for students!
The Reads for Grown-Ups offering is a carefully selected collection has been created for staff so that they too can enjoy the benefits of reading with SORA.
With over 170 popular Fiction and Non-Fiction titles there are titles to suit all tastes.
Click HERE to explore the new Adult Reading Collection.
A big thank you to Therese Fitzgerald, Information Literacy Consultant from the Diocese of Rockhampton for curating the collection.
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Share a Story
The CEnet Member Bulletin provides a great opportunity to share information about activities occurring in member dioceses.
If your diocese has an interesting story to share contact us.
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An archive of CEnet bulletin and other publications can be found in the CEnet website.
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