Victorian schools are required under the Child Safety and Wellbeing Act to ensure that they implement compulsory child safe standards to protect students from harm. Hartwell Primary School is committed to child safety. Regular articles will appear in the newsletter and on our website to promote our commitment to the Child Safety Standards.
The Child Safe Standards set out to create safe places for students to fully and actively participate in the life of the community benefiting everyone. Hartwell Primary School will ensure that the students in its care are protected to the best of its ability and in line with their duty of care and the compulsory child safe standards.
As a community we want students to be safe, happy and empowered. We support and respect all students, as well as our staff and volunteers. We are committed to the safety, participation and empowerment of all students. There is zero tolerance of child abuse, and all allegations and safety concerns will be treated very seriously and consistently with our robust policies and procedures. We meet our legal and moral obligations to contact authorities when we are worried about a child’s safety, which we follow rigorously.
Hartwell Primary School is committed to preventing child abuse and identifying risks early, and removing and reducing these risks. We have robust human resources and recruitment practices for all staff and volunteers. Our school is committed to regularly training and educating our staff and volunteers on child abuse risks. As a community we support and respect all students, as well as our staff and volunteers. We are committed to the cultural safety of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, the cultural safety of students from a culturally and/or linguistically diverse backgrounds, to providing a safe environment for vulnerable students and students with a disability. Hartwell Primary School has specific policies, procedures and training in places that support our leadership team, staff and volunteers to achieve these commitments.
At Hartwell Primary School:
- Everyone connected to our school can help students be safe.
- We have zero tolerance for any abuse of students.
- We already have policies and processes in place to protect the care, safety and welfare of students. These are being strengthened to ensure a zero tolerance approach to child abuse. As policies are ratified at school council, they will be made available to your through the newsletter and on our web page.
- Below is our Child Safe Policy and other related documents.
- There are clear boundaries about how adults in our school community interact with the students at Hartwell. These are set out in our school’s Child Safe Code of Conduct.
Related Documentation
- Child Safety Policy
- Child Safety Code of Conduct
- Responding to and reporting suspected child abuse
- School Child Safety Officer
- Safety of Children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds
- Cultural Safety for Aboriginal Children
- Safety of children with a disability
- Duty of Care Policy
- Protecting Children from Abuse: For Parents and Carers
- How to keep children safe
- Teach your child how to keep themselves safe
- Older children home alone