Sharing of School Facilities
Guidance for assessing applications from the community, not-for-profit entities and commercial organisations to use school facilities.
Changes since previous version
2023 Feb 06 - updated contact details.
Document history
2022 Oct 17 - updated the implementation document, Sharing of School Facilities Procedures, to reflect changes to Share our Space, which will now operate during term time outside of schools hours, as well as during school holidays.
2022 Jul 25 - updated the implementation document, Sharing of School Facilities Procedures, to include information on how local government can manage the shared use of school facilities outside of school hours. Councils will have a licence agreement to access school assets outside of school hours, relieving principals of managing and maintaining these assets. Schools will continue to receive the financial benefit of school asset utilisation. Changes have been made to Table 1 (about this document) and sections 3.3 (licence or lease) and 5.10 (other commercial activities or where the use is for a period of greater than 12 months.
Also included additional information for schools on canteen and uniform licencing. For outside school hours care (OSHC), Category A providers will now be limited to parents and citizens associations incorporated under the Parents and Citizens Associations Incorporation Act 1976. Category B providers with OSHC licences must go to tender on the expiry of their current licence.
2022 May 02 - updated the implementation document: Sharing of school facilities procedures. Updated to include information on how local government can manage the shared use of school facilities outside of school hours. Councils will have a licence agreement to access school assets outside of school hours, relieving principals of managing and maintaining these assets. Schools will continue to receive the financial benefit of school asset utilisation. Changes have been made to Table 1 (about this document) and sections 3.3 (licence or lease) and 5.10 (other commercial activities or where the use is for a period of greater than 12 months).
2021 Oct 01 - update to policy statement and implementation document: Sharing of School Facilities Procedures. Both updated to reflect renaming of the Community Use of School Facilities policy to Sharing of School Facilities policy, incorporating content from the Joint Use of School Facilities and Land policy and the Mobile Telecommunications Facilities policy, and moving the instructions for advertising on the school perimeter from the Commercial Arrangements School- Based Activities policy.
2021 Apr 14 - updated Electoral Commission MOU information in implementation procedures.
2021 Mar - updated Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for federal, state and local elections.
2021 Feb - Policy maintenance, which may include but not limited to, updated contact details, business unit or position titles, typographical, text and style changes and repairing hyperlinks.
2020 Nov - Minor review to existing documentation to align policy and website content with current issues related to changes in procedure and departmental structure.
2020 Jul - Minor formatting changes along with updated contact details and repairing broken links to the policy and the implementation procedural document.
2019 Oct - Minor text and style changes along with updated contact details made to the policy and the implementation procedural document.
MOU for Federal elections updated 7 March 2019.
MOU for State and Local elections updated 13 July 2018.
Implementation procedures now contained within one document.
Amalgamation of the Community Languages Schools Free Use of Government School Facilities Policy.
Superseded documents
None
- Policy statement
- Schools are valuable community assets that should be available for community use, when not required for school purposes.
- School facilities must only be used for activities that do not interfere with the school's teaching and learning programs.
- School facilities must only be used for activities consistent with the values of public education.
- Community use applications are assessed on whether facilities are fit and available for the proposed use, the proposed use is appropriate and the proposed community user is suitable.
- Where there is competing demand for use, priority is determined according to the instructions provided in the Sharing of Schools Facilities Procedures.
- Any necessary consultation between the school principal, other departmental officers, the shared use applicant and other key stakeholders should be conducted prior to any agreement being signed.
- An executed written agreement for the use of school facilities is made to specify the rights and obligations of both parties.
- Shared use of school facilities should not be a financial burden to the school or the department. Appropriate fees may be charged for the shared use of school facilities. Free use may be provided as described in the Sharing of Schools Facilities Procedures.
- Audience and applicability
- The policy applies to all NSW public schools
- Context
- School facilities are primarily for educating children and young people, however there are many times when school facilities are not in use.
- Schools support families and communities by making facilities available for children's services.
- Sharing resources strengthens the partnership between schools and local communities.
- Shared use of school facilities benefits both schools and their communities through:
- access to services to support families and communities
- enhanced cooperation and goodwill between the school and the community
- the provision of additional extracurricular learning opportunities
- opportunities for parents and the broader community to become better informed about and participate in the school's operation and activities
- more effective use of valuable school facilities
- opportunities for the community to play a positive part in school security through out-of-hours use of the facilities.
- Responsibilities and delegations
- Principals:
- work collaboratively with the local community to address identified needs through the use of school facilities.
- plan, promote and manage shared use of school facilities for the mutual benefit of the school and the community, in line with the Sharing of School Facilities Procedures
- adopt a risk management approach when assessing applications for community use of school facilities, including conducting a risk assessment, before approving any application
- sign community use agreements consistent with their delegation
- refer shared use arrangements involving upgrading of facilities, outside school hours care, commercial ventures (including canteens, uniform shops and markets), or uses exceeding 12 months' duration to School Infrastructure NSW.
- Directors, Educational Leadership:
- liaise with the school and the community to resolve issues of availability or management of shared use of school facilities and assist in dispute resolution where the dispute cannot be resolved by the school principal
- support the effective implementation of this policy and procedures.
- School Infrastructure NSW:
- manages all aspects of agreements of a commercial nature, leases, licences (including for canteens, uniform shops, out of school hours care, markets), project deeds, and mobile telecommunications facilities, in consultation with school principals and Directors, Educational Leadership.
- Principals:
- Monitoring and review
- The Chief Executive, School Infrastructure NSW monitors the implementation of this policy, regularly reviews its contents to ensure relevance and accuracy, and updates it as needed.
- Contact
Community use agreement enquiries - call EDConnect on 1300 32 32 32 (select option 1 Finance and business services and then option 4 Other)
Department staff with operational and implementation enquiries call the local asset management unit on 132 779 from a landline phone
Community Languages School Program funding enquiries 02 7814 2528
Details on how to apply for grants for use by Community Languages Schools visit the Community Languages School Grants website
General enquiries email School Infrastructure SINSW
Asset.Activations@det.nsw.edu.au