ARCO News

Meet the Ben Venue ARCOs

Anti-Racism Contact Officers, or ARCOs, work collaboratively with the Principal to implement the Department of Education’s Anti-Racism Policy. Ben Venue has two trained ARCOs working in the role this year - Mrs Kellie Divall and Mrs Nicole Frost. 

At Ben Venue, we reject all forms of racism and are committed to creating a safe learning and workplace environment where students, staff and visitors are free of all forms of racism. ARCOs help guide schools to eradicate expressions of racism and challenge the attitudes that allow them to emerge. They help staff and students work together to eradicate racism by promoting acceptance of Australia’s cultural, linguistic and religious diversity. 

An important component of the ARCO role is to provide clear procedures to support those experiencing racism, to address incidents of racism and to assist the principal to lead anti-racism education. 

Mrs Divall and Mrs Frost manage complaints of racism made by students against other students in accordance with the Behaviour Code for Students and the school’s discipline and wellbeing procedures. They provide impartial support to staff, students and members of the school community who wish to make a complaint of racism and support the complainant during the complaints handling process to increase the likelihood of a satisfactory outcome.

To support anti-racism education, students in K-6 will be participating in anti-racism sessions over the coming weeks which will focus on diversity, acceptance, an awareness of the effects of stereotyping and the promotion of upstander responses to incidents of racism. An upstander is someone who supports a person who is on the receiving end of a racist remark or action and who speaks up to address the racist behaviour. 

At Ben Venue we are working to build awareness and understanding of the impacts of racism.

Kellie Divall and Nicole Frost