During 2021, the Department of Education, Skills and Employment (DESE) engaged each of the K-12 schools jurisdictions, including the Catholic sector, to undertake a pilot of the National Schools Unique Student Identifier (USI) platform.

The National Schools USI initiative supports the National School Reform Agreement that calls for a USI to be issued to all school students by the end of 2023, and also informs decisions about how the National Schools USI could work if it were to progress to a national rollout in 2023.

Recognised as a key provider of IT services across our sector, NCEC, via the state and territory Catholic education commissions in NT (CENT) and NSW (CS NSW), sought CEnet’s assistance in the preliminary planning, and technical engagement of the National Schools USI pilot project.

CEnet's involvement in this programme considered all CEnet members, placing emphasis on integrating CEnet's existing enterprise identifier, and identity management systems with the National Schools USI platform. This includes integration with the existing Catholic Education Identifier (CeId'er) provided through CEnet.

This work has resulted in a National Schools USI enterprise integration, and one that has been developed for use by all CEnet Member dioceses. This will assist greatly with issuing a USI to students within the CEnet network, and in turn, surface the USI locally to schools within each local Student Information System.

This puts the CEnet membership in a good position to further engage in the roll-out of the USI.

At a local level, there are a few things CEnet Member dioceses can do to help prepare each system of schools for the USI roll-out:

1. Become familiar with the National Schools USI and its purpose.
2. Ensure that at the local level, CEnet's existing local identifier (CeId'er) is managed consistently, noting that a local identifier is a key attribute for the issuance of a national USI.
3. Place emphasis on the importance of data cleanliness in source systems, with particular focus on the data inside your Student Information Systems.
4. Consider the potential for engaging in a national schools USI roll-out with your schools in the near term.

The roll-out of the National Schools USI is subject to further discussion and approval at the national level by the Education Ministers. For further information on CEnet’s involvement in this initiative, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us!

The CEnet Member Diocese CeSIS and CeFMS, integrated student information and financial management system implementation is continuing, with eleven dioceses with 100% of schools now using CeSIS.

The Dioceses of Armidale and Maitland-Newcastle have both added new schools to the central Ancestry database and financial management system recently, with the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle having one more school to onboard to join the six dioceses that have finalised 100% implementation of CeSIS and CeFMS in all schools.

​CEnet's CEO Mark Holyoake and CFO Brendon Miller took time recently to thank TechnologyOne's Scott McLean (second from the right)  for his service as he handed over the reins of Account Manager to Andre Pravaz (left).

TechnologyOne is at the core of the CeFMS service and Scott has been CEnet's primary contact at TechnologyOne since 2014.
Scott is moving to Kofax, another vendor used by CEnet Members to assist in their financial management activities.

We wish Scott every success in his new roll and welcome Andre Pravaz as our new primary contact.

Catholic Education, Diocese of Wollongong are hosting their Spotlight on Technology and Innovation event in October after being postponed for the last 2 years due to COVID.

This year's event will be held on 27th and 28th October in Wollongong.

​Spotlight 22 is a two-day event showcasing innovative teaching and learning in classrooms across the Diocese of Wollongong. This major event will feature keynote addresses, a student panel, competitions, outstanding teacher spotlight sessions as well as vendor displays and presentations highlighting the latest technology. 

As in previous years, CEDP Wollongong plans to extend the invitation to teachers outside of the diocese, and in acknowledgement of the ongoing challenges brought about by COVID restrictions, will be recording the sessions to provide a self-serve virtual conference. 

Keep an eye on the Spotlight website for updates.

​The CEnet Member Dioceses CeSIS and CeFMS rollout is continuing with two significant milestones achieved recently.

Schools in CeSIS pass 600
On 12 April, four schools went live with CeSIS from the Diocese of Lismore taking the total number of schools live in Compass to 601.

• St Joseph's Primary School - West Kempsey
• St Mary's Primary School - Bowraville
• St. Mary's Bellingen
• Mount St John Primary School - Dorrigo

Schools in Ancestry pass 450
On 19 April St Mary of the Angels Primary School, Guyra, in the Dicoese of Armidale became the 450th school to be promoted to Ancestry This brings the current total number of schools using CeSIS currently stands at 601, with the number of schools now using Ancestry being 451.  A great achievement by all who have been involved in the delivery of this significant CEnet Member Dioceses shared service.

Lismore, on the north coast of NSW has suffered a devastating flood in the last week or so, and with the Catholic Schools office and 6 schools being severely impacted, our colleagues in the Diocese of Lismore are doing their best to support staff and students.

There has been a good deal of media coverage of the catastrophe, but the image below, of the Cathedral from a video posted by Fr Bing Monteagudo paints a clear picture.

At least two companies from the CEnet community, Datacom and Google have stepped forward with offers of assistance and we thank them for their generosity.

Companies considering how they may assist this community in need can contact CEnet and we will pass on your details.

Details of the Diocese of Lismore 2022 Flood Appeal can be found in the CSO website.