Deputy Principal Update

Term 3 is always a busy time for the school community and 2024 is no exception. I would like to focus on two main areas for this article:

1. Child Safeguarding and National Child Protection Week

2. Co-Curricular Program

Child Safeguarding

Child safety is and always will be the number one priority of the School. In recent years, we have devoted a lot of time and resources to developing new policies, guidelines and procedures for community members, volunteers, contractors, staff and the students, that align with the new federal and state legislation. At the start of 2024, the Department of Justice and the Child and Youth Safe Organisations Framework set up a new state authority called the Office of the Independent Regulator.  

As a school, we have been working closely with this new authority and have updated our policies and procedures to ensure we follow the new guidelines that have been outlined for all organisations that work with children.

In addition to reporting to Strong Families, Safe Kids and the Police, we are now also required to report an incident to the Teachers’ Registration Board of Tasmania (TRB) if an alleged incident involves a teacher.

Since 2019, the School has placed a major focus on updating, creating and fine tuning our policies, guidelines and training for child safeguarding. We have worked very hard to ensure that all volunteers, contractors and staff are aware and fully compliant with federal and (new) state legislation. At the end of 2022, a survey was completed by staff, students and parents to examine how aware our community members are with these requirements and expectations and we have been very happy with the results from the staff. However, we found that our students and parents did not describe similar levels of awareness.  

In 2023, we implemented some more strategies with students and parents to emphasise the importance of child safeguarding and what steps these stakeholders can take to increase awareness throughout our community.  In alignment with the nationwide efforts to prioritise the safety and wellbeing of our children, The Friends’ School announced a series of engaging and impactful initiatives in support of National Child Protection Week, over and above our daily child safeguarding practices. This week-long campaign took place from 3-9 September and encompassed a range of activities and programs, reflecting the school's unwavering commitment to the wellbeing and protection of its students, staff and visitors.

This year, we are once again highlighting child safety and wellbeing during the first two weeks of September. A range of child safeguarding curriculum and co-curricular activities will be undertaken as part of National Child Protection Week (1-7 September), Wellbeing Day, as part of Wellbeing Weekend (Monday 9 September) and RUOK? Day (Thursday 12 September).

You can view more information about child safeguarding at Friends' here.

Co-Curricular Program

Moving into the second semester, new and ongoing co-curricular activities across sport, music, service and enrichment have commenced in Term 3.  

As a result of the recent communications survey, the School is attempting to solidify our co-curricular information into a platform that is more user-friendly and easier to find information. This information will be continually updated as the term progresses to provide students and parents with clear information about the current and upcoming activities. Please note that some rosters for sports or other activities are dependent on other schools/clubs supplying their information before an accurate roster can be produced. Also, some activities are only formed based on student interest and numbers.

Shaun O'Rourke - Deputy Principal