Child Safety
Child Safe:
St Fidelis' Learning Community is committed to the wellbeing and safety of all children. Our interaction with all our community is founded on respect for each person. Within a Catholic community, this respect for each individual is rooted in the belief that each person is made in the image and likeness of God.
Over the next eleven weeks, each of the Child Safe Standards will be highlighted with examples of how the Learning Community of St. Fidelis school promotes a culture of child safety.
Child Safe Standard 1
- Organizations establish a culturally safe environment in which the diverse and unique identities and experiences of Aboriginal children and young people are respected and valued.
- Acknowledgement of Country is visible and used in classrooms, assemblies, liturgies and professional learning.
- Each class have their own personalised Acknowledgement of Country
- Indigenous perspective embedded in relevant units of inquiry, including opportunities for incursions related to Indigenous culture awareness. e.g Harmony Day, Reconciliation Week
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait and Australian flags fly in the school playground
- The enrolment pack has a First Nations component for families and students to be identified
- Staff Meetings about Child Safe are scheduled throughout the year
- Staff induction training online on Child Safe Standards
- St Fidelis' Child Safety & Wellbeing Policy outlines the controls in place to establish a culturally safe environment and is implemented.
Documents that address Aboriginal cultural safety, such as:
(a) Child Safety & Wellbeing Policy
(b) MACS Pastoral Care of Students Policy
(c) Student Behaviour Policy
(d) Anti-Bullying Policy (including Cyber Bullying)
The above actions and policies assist our community to grow in understanding of the culture of Australia's first peoples. Through these actions, we support and value the cultural diversity of members of our community who wish to identify as a person of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent.
Child Safe Standard 2
- Child Safety is embedded in organizational leadership, governance and culture
St Fidelis' Primary School, is a school which operates with the consent of the catholic Archbishop of Melbourne and is operated by Melbourne Archdiocese of Catholic Schools (MACS) have a public commitment to child safety.
This is visible in our policy documentation and through the processes and procedures that ensure our school is a child-safe place. Staff and volunteers are required to follow a code of conduct related to behavioural standards and responsibilities. Our school policies are readily available on our webpage, and they outline and promote a culture of child safety.
Child Safe Standard 3
- Children and young people are empowered about their rights, participate in decisions affecting them and are taken seriously.
Through our Inquiry Units of work and our Religious Education lessons students are empowered to consider what it means to be safe and ways that they can seek help or report when they feel unsafe. In particular our Inquiry unit “learning to Learn” highlights how we can remain safe at school and seek student voice in developing and unpacking the Agreed Ways of working and living at St Fidelis.
In addition, students unpack and discuss the ‘St Fidelis Child Friendly Child Safe Policy”. Students participation and engagement in the Body Safety Australia Incursion and program empowers and educates students to understand and communicate their right to bodily autonomy. Our Inquiry related to health and human relationships further assist parents and children to engage in dialogue about human development. This learning within school supports parents in this role. Through accessing various external experts such as Kids Helpline children from Foundation to Year 6 are assisted to consider their voice and positive relationships with others.