Visitors Policy

Policy: Visitors Policy School Council Approved

Date: June, 2019 Review: 2021

Purpose

To provide a safe and secure learning and teaching environment for students and staff by establishing processes to monitor and manage visitors to Numurkah Primary School.

Scope

This policy applies to any visitors who may attend school grounds when the school is open for instruction between the hours of 8:30am to 4:00pm. Outside of these times, our front office is not staffed and the only visitors who are permitted on school grounds are parents/carers or their delegates who are dropping off or picking up students from school events such as parent teacher interviews, homework club, sport or other school activities, and community and other groups who have entered into contracts or agreements with the school to use school premises outside of school hours.

DEFINITIONs

Child-related work: As defined by the Working with Children Act 2005 (Vic), child-related work is work that usually involves direct contact (including in person, over the phone, written and online communication) with a child that is a central part of that person’s duties. It does not include work that involves occasional contact with children that is incidental to the work.

Policy

Numurkah Primary School strives to create an open and inclusive school community, and encourages parents and carers to be actively involved in their child’s development and education. We also strive to foster strong partnerships with local community services, schools and other organisations.

Numurkah Primary School is not a public place. The principal has the authority to permit or deny entry to school grounds, and encourages all visitors to familiarise themselves with our school’s Statement of Values, Child Safe Policy, Statement of Commitment to Child Safety, Child Safe Code of Conduct, Duty of Care Policy, Child Safety Responding and Reporting Policy, and Student Engagement and Wellbeing Policy.

From time to time, different members of the public may visit our school. Visitors may include, but are not limited to:

Parents
Volunteers – see our school’s Volunteers Policy for more information
Prospective parents, students and employees
Invited speakers, sessional instructors and others addressing learning and development
Public officials (e.g. Members of Parliament, local councillors)
Persons conducting business e.g.: uniform suppliers, booksellers, official school photographers, commercial salespeople
Tradespeople
Children’s services agencies
Talent Scouts
Department of Health and Human Services workers
Victoria Police
Persons authorised to enter school premises (e.g. Worksafe inspectors, health officers etc)
Other Department of Education and Training staff (including allied health staff) or contractors
NDIS therapists or other allied health or health practitioners

Sign in procedure

All visitors to Numurkah Primary School are required to report to the school office on arrival (see exceptions below in relation to parents/carers). Visitors must:

Record their name, signature, date and time of visit and purpose of visit in the visitors book
Provide proof of identification to office staff upon request
Produce their valid Working with Children Check where required by this policy (see below)
Follow instruction from school staff and abide by all relevant policies relating to appropriate conduct on school grounds including: Child Safety Code of Conduct, Sexual Harassment Policy, Workplace Bullying Policy, Health Safety and Wellbeing Policy, Inclusion and Diversity Policy, and the School Statement of Values.
Return to the office upon departure, sign out.

Numurkah Primary School will ensure that our school’s Child Safety Code of Conduct/Child Safety Statement of Commitment are available and visible to visitors when they sign in.

Requirements for visitors to produce a valid Working with Children Check card

For Working with Children Check (WWC Check) and other suitability check requirements relating to parents/carers and other volunteers working with students please see our Volunteers Policy.

All visitors who are engaged in child-related work (see definition above) must have a valid WWC Check.

In some circumstances, visitors to Numurkah Primary School who are not engaged in child-related work will also be required to produce a valid WWC Check depending on the particular circumstances of their visit. For example, Numurkah Primary School will require a valid WWC Check for:

visitors who will be working regularly with children during the time they are visiting, even though direct contact with children is not a central part of their normal duties
visitors (e.g. contractors), who will regularly be performing work at the school and in circumstances where they will be performing their work in an area where they will be unsupervised and around children.

Further background checks, including references, may also be requested at the discretion of the principal.

Visitors who will be working in areas away from students (e.g. a visiting auditor who will be located in the front office with administration staff) or who will be supervised and accompanied by a staff member during their visit (e.g. a Member of Parliament, a journalist, a prospective parent on a school tour) will not be required to have a WWC Check.

Sworn Victoria Police officers or sworn Australian Federal Police officers are exempt from requiring a WWC Check, but may be asked to verify that they are sworn officers by providing proof of identification.

Invited speakers and presenters

On occasion, Numurkah Primary School may invite external speakers or providers to deliver incursions, presentations, workshops and special programs for our students. Consistent with Department of Education and Training requirements, Numurkah Primary School will:

ensure that the content of presentations and programs by external providers contributes to the educational development of our students and is consistent with curriculum objectives</

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