Assistant Principals' Report
Hello and welcome to our newsletter item for this week.
The Heidelberg Primary School Child Safety and Wellbeing Policy demonstrates our school’s
commitment to creating and maintaining a child safe and child-friendly organisation, where children and young people are safe and feel safe. The purpose for the policy is to provide an overview of our school’s approach to implementing Ministerial Order 1359, which sets out how the Victorian Child Safe Standards apply in school environments. It informs our school community of everyone’s obligations to act safely and appropriately towards children and guides our processes and practices for the safety and wellbeing of students across all areas of our work. It can be found at: https://www.heidelbergps.vic.edu.au/publications-policies
At yesterday’s Banyule/ Nillumbik Principal Network Meeting, we had guest speakers from the School Compliance Unit speak to us as a group. Reminding us of our reporting obligations and changes to the Department of Education (DET) PROTECT guidelines and procedures, which came into effect in April this year. All our HPS child safe policies have been updated aligning to the changes and new signage appears around the school. In each classroom, a new poster hangs for students with photos of those staff you can go to if someone is hurting you or making you feel unsafe. Of course, we would encourage students to seek support from any adult they feel comfortable talking to in the school. Every year we conduct Child Safety professional learning through staff meetings and mandatory reporting modules are an annual compliance for all staff. All our parent volunteers and third-party workers entering our school complete child safety and OHS induction. We work hard at HPS to ensure that we keep students’ safety and wellbeing a priority and are also continuing to reflect and improve our processes and procedures at school as well.
The Victorian Child Safe Standards have 11 mandatory standards designed to embed a zero-tolerance culture for child abuse and protect children across all organizations.
The 11 Child Safe Standards at a Glance
Standard 1: Establish a culturally safe environment in which the diverse and unique identities of Aboriginal children and young people are respected.
Standard 2: Ensure child safety and wellbeing is embedded in leadership, governance, and culture.
Standard 3: Children and young people are empowered about their rights, participate in decisions affecting them, and are taken seriously.
Standard 4: Families and communities are informed and involved in promoting child safety and wellbeing.
Standard 5: Equity is upheld and diverse needs are respected in practice.
Standard 6: People working with children are suitable and supported (including robust recruitment, Working with Children Checks, and inductions).
Standard 7: Processes for complaints and concerns are child-focused, transparent, and user-friendly.
Standard 8: Staff and volunteers are equipped with the knowledge, skills, and awareness to keep children safe through ongoing education and training.
Standard 9: Physical and online environments promote safety and minimize the opportunity for abuse to occur.
Standard 10: Implementation of the Child Safe Standards is regularly reviewed and improved.
Standard 11: Policies and procedures document how the organization is safe for children and young people.
For more information on the department's PROTECT guidelines and informatuion for parents go to: https://www.vic.gov.au/protect
Have a great weekend and week ahead.
Warm Regards,
Helen Thomas & Monique Rankin
Assistant Principals
Heidelberg Primary School