Tip: you can listen while you read along, or close your screen and treat it as a podcast on the drive home.
Why this is Module 4. Modules 1-3 gave you the production-manager's chair, the schedule, and the risk register. Module 4 is the paperwork stack that proves you actually did what you said you'd do — to the principal, the business manager, the auditor, the WorkSafe inspector if it ever comes to that, and to a court if (god forbid) it ever comes to that. Compliance is not glamorous. It's the thing that lets you keep doing the glamorous parts.
The BS-detection angle for this module: contractor "compliance documentation" line items are the most-padded line in production-hire quotes. Knowing what compliance you actually need vs. what they're billing for compliance theatre is worth four-figure savings per show.
School-theatre compliance breaks into seven categories. Most teachers don't realise it's seven and treat it as "WHS plus a couple of forms". The complete stack:
| # | Category | What it covers | Who owns it at the school |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | WHS / OHS | Risk register, SWMS, sign-on, incident reports | You + school WHS officer |
| 2 | Licensing for high-risk work | Working at Heights, EWP, rigging, electrical | You + contractor tickets-on-file |
| 3 | Insurance | School public liability, voluntary-worker cover for parents, contractor PI cover-confirmation | Business manager |
| 4 | Material licensing | Script rights (Origin Theatrical etc.), grand-rights musical, AMCOS recording, APRA performance | You + drama HOD |
| 5 | Performer + image release | Photography permissions, recording/streaming, archive use, social-media permissions | You + school communications office |
| 6 | Child safety | WWCC for parents, supervision ratios, reporting obligations, performer welfare | You + child safety officer |
| 7 | Audit / records | What you keep, for how long, and where it lives | You + business manager |
Each category has a minimum acceptable state. The school's auditor or principal will check what's in place if you ever have an incident — and the absence of a record is treated as the absence of the work.
Module 3 (Risk Assessment) gave you the framework. The compliance stack adds the document-retention side: every SWMS gets stored, every sign-on gets archived, every near-miss gets logged.
Log all of this in EasyRisk as you go — the SWMS register, the daily sign-on, and every incident/near-miss. Then, rather than re-keying anything into the school's WHS system, export or print the EasyRisk report and hand that to your school's WHS officer as the source record. EasyRisk is your reporting tool; the school's system just receives the printout. One entry, one source of truth, no double-handling.
The equipment test register (test-and-tag) belongs in EasyInventory — tag every technical item with its AS/NZS 3760 test date and next-due date, so the register lives against the gear itself and travels with it production to production.
Open EasyRisk Open EasyInventoryThree specific tickets matter for school productions:
Don't track tickets in your head or a shoebox of phone-photos. In EasyRisk → People & Licences, add each staff member, student crew and contractor, then attach their tickets — Working at Heights, EWP yellow card, rigging level, WWCC — with the expiry date against each. EasyRisk flags anything expired or expiring before your production dates, so "show me the ticket" becomes a status board you check once, not a scramble at the stage door.
Screenshots of the People & Licences board and the expiry flags are added in the resource pack below.
Open EasyRisk · People & LicencesMost independent schools carry: public liability (typically A$20M+), professional indemnity for staff, voluntary-worker coverage that extends to parent volunteers in school-sanctioned activities. Confirm with your business manager that the production is a covered activity — usually it is, but the moment the production is at an off-site venue, get it confirmed in writing.
The Certificate of Currency is a one-page PDF the contractor's insurer issues. Reputable contractors will email it without thinking. Contractors who delay, deflect, or claim "we're between policies" are a hard no — walk away.
In EasyRisk → Contractors, add the contractor company (you deal with one rep — say their salesperson). That rep then gets an upload link to:
Once the rep adds their crew, those individuals flow straight into EasyScheduler and the show-specific people lists — so on bump-in day your sign-on, your supervision count and your "who's on site" board already include the contractor's crew, fully credentialed. No re-typing names, no surprise faces at the door.
(The contractor portal is rolling out in EasyRisk Schools — see the demo screenshots in the resource pack.)
Open EasyRisk · ContractorsPerforming a copyrighted work in front of a paying audience without the right licence is, technically, copyright infringement. Schools get away with it because rights-holders rarely chase modest one-off productions. But it's not zero risk, and the cost of getting it right is small.
The school's standard photo/video permission forms cover classroom and routine school activities. They do NOT automatically extend to:
For each of these, you need a production-specific release form signed by the parent (for under-18s) and the student. Most schools have a template; if yours doesn't, the resource pack has one.
The single most-overlooked clause: opt-out per use, not per production. A parent might be OK with archive but not OK with social media. Your form should let them opt out of each channel separately. Treat each opt-out as binding.
| Document | Retention | Where stored |
|---|---|---|
| SWMS register (per task) | 7 years from production close | School WHS system + EasyRisk export |
| Daily sign-on logs | 7 years | Same |
| Incident reports | Indefinitely (no destruction) | School WHS system |
| Certificates of Currency (contractor insurance) | 7 years post-engagement | Production file |
| Grand-rights / licensing contracts | 7 years post-licence expiry | Drama HOD + business office |
| Performer / image release forms | Until student turns 23 (5 years post-school-leaving age) | School records office |
| WWCC verifications | 3 years from last engagement | School records office |
| Production financial records | 7 years (ATO requirement) | Business office |
At strike, use EasyRisk → Save / Archive Show to freeze the whole production into a single dated audit file — SWMS register, sign-on logs, incident reports, contractor certs and WWCC verifications, all bundled. From then on it sits in the Archive area showing how long each show has been in storage.
When an archived show reaches 7 years from creation, EasyRisk surfaces a "retention reached — delete?" prompt, so you clear out time-expired records deliberately rather than either hoarding everything forever or binning something too early. You decide; the system just reminds you on schedule.
Open EasyRisk · ArchiveA typical lighting hire quote might include "Compliance documentation: A$1,400 fixed fee" — separate from the actual work. What this CAN legitimately include:
Realistic compliance overhead for an experienced contractor who knows the venue: A$200-400. The remaining A$1,000-A$1,200 is what they bill because most schools won't push back.
The push-back: "Can you itemise the compliance documentation line? If it's SWMS + risk assessment, that's fine — please send them with the quote. If the venue documentation is already on file from your work here last year, can you reduce the line accordingly?"
Nine times out of ten, the line drops by 60-70% or disappears entirely. Reputable contractors will provide the SWMS and risk assessment as part of the quote — at no extra charge — because they need them anyway to do the work.
Everything in this module lives in one place. EasyRisk holds your people & licences, the SWMS register, sign-on logs, incident reports, contractor certs and WWCC verifications — and exports the lot as a single audit-bundle PDF when the business manager or auditor asks. EasyInventory holds the test-and-tag register for school-owned gear. EasyScheduler receives the credentialed crew so the day-to-day roster and supervision count are always current. The combination means that if a WorkSafe inspector ever walks in, you produce the complete compliance file in under 5 minutes rather than digging through filing cabinets — and because the whole production sits together in one system, you never have to reassemble it from scratch next show.
This one is hands-on in the tools, not a paper template — you're building the real thing you'll use this production. In EasyRisk, for an upcoming or hypothetical show:
This one is a drafting task. Take the annotated sample lighting-hire quote in the resource pack — the "Compliance documentation: A$1,400" line is the target. Using the compliance-line challenge template, draft a polite, specific email asking for itemisation + reduction where appropriate.
Save the email draft to your portfolio.
These are for your own reflection — not graded. Your answers save automatically to this browser.
1. A contractor's tech turns up to bump-in without their Working at Heights ticket. What's the correct response?
2. You want to stream opening night on the school's YouTube. Walk through the licence-check sequence.
3. A parent asks if they can drive students to a workshop session at the local hire warehouse. List the three compliance items you check first.
4. An incident on Saturday's bump-in causes a Year-11 student to need first aid for a minor cut. What records do you create, when, and where do they go?
5. A contractor's quote includes "Insurance Certificate of Currency administration: A$280". What's your response?
6. How long do you keep the SWMS for a production that closes in 2026, and what does EasyRisk do when that period is up?
Most of this compliance stack now lives inside the tools, so this pack deliberately doesn't duplicate them. EasyRisk holds the SWMS builder, the hazard library, sign-on QR, incident logging, people & licences, the contractor portal, WWCC gating and the audit archive; EasyInventory holds the live test-and-tag register. What's below is the genuine extras — the off-tool templates and reference sheets that sit alongside them. Open each in a new tab, print or save as PDF.
| Resource | What it's for |
|---|---|
| Certificate-of-Currency Request Email | Ready-to-send request for a contractor's PL + WorkCover Certificates of Currency — make it a condition of accepting their quote. |
| Compliance-Line Challenge Email | The BS-detector email — ask a contractor to itemise and reduce a padded "compliance documentation" line. Used in Exercise 4.2. |
| Production Image Release Form | Production-specific photo / video / live-stream release with per-channel opt-outs — the clause schools most often miss. |
| Licence-Check Decision Tree | Grand-rights vs small-rights vs streaming — which licence applies and when, decision-tree style. |
| Records-Retention Schedule | The retention table from this module, printable for the business office. EasyRisk enforces the 7-year prompt; this is the human reference. |
| Equipment Test Register (printable) | Paper AS/NZS 3760 test-and-tag sheet — the live register lives in EasyInventory; this is the off-line fallback. |
| Daily Safety Brief Template | The 5-minute pre-day brief to read verbatim at the stage door — what's on today, new hazards, "stop-the-clock" invitation. |
| Audit-Bundle Checklist | What to assemble at strike before you hit Save / Archive in EasyRisk — the human checklist behind the auto-bundle. |