WHEELERS HILL PRIMARY SCHOOL

Assistant Principal's Report

Katrina Spicer - Wellbeing and Inclusion

15th August 2025

CHILD SAFETY

All organisations who work with children in Australia must abide by eleven mandatory Child Safety Standards. These standards ensure organisations have policies and processes in place to protect children from abuse.   

 

Our school's commitment to Child Safety and the eleven Child Safe Standards are outlined here on our website. The Child Safe Standards are outlined in detail here.

 

Our school has a number of processes in place to ensure the safety of our students. Staff (teachers and support staff both permanent and casual) and School Council members receive Child Safety Standards training every twelve months. 

 

Contractors, tradespeople, visiting therapists, and other visitors such as visiting educators and presenters must hold a valid WWCC.

 

Volunteers, such as parent helpers, must provide the school with a valid Working With Children Check and must also complete the Volunteer Induction that is available on the school's website. 

MANDATORY REPORTING

All school staff undertake Mandatory Reporting training every 12 months. In this training we learn how to identify signs of child abuse, and we learn that child abuse can take on many forms including physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse and neglect. School staff members are Mandatory Reporters. This means that if a member of staff suspects a child has been abused or is at risk of abuse, they MUST report this to Child Protection, even if they are not 100% sure.

 

At school our students are encouraged to speak to a trusted adult if they feel unsafe. Students' concerns will always be taken seriously.

 

You may have noticed this Protect Poster on display in classrooms and in various locations around the school. Ensuring our children are safe is everyone's responsibility. 

 

If you would like further information around physical punishment of children go to the Australian Institute of Family Studies website here.

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Every year, all schools in Australia participate in the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD). The NCCD process requires schools to identify information already available in the school about supports provided to students with disability. These relate to legislative requirements under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and the Disability Standards for Education 2005, in line with the NCCD guidelines (2019).

 

Information provided about students to the Australian Government for the NCCD includes:

  • year of schooling
  • category of disability: physical, cognitive, sensory or social/emotional
  • level of adjustment provided: support provided within quality differentiated teaching practice, supplementary, substantial or extensive.

This information assists schools to:

  • formally recognise the supports and adjustments provided to students with disability in schools 
  • consider how they can strengthen the support of students with disability in schools
  • develop shared practices so that they can review their learning programs in order to improve educational outcomes for students with disability.

The NCCD provides state and federal governments with the information they need to plan more broadly for the support of students with disability.

 

The NCCD has had no direct impact on your child and your child has not been involved in any testing process. The school has provided data to the Australian Government in such a way that no individual student will be able to be identified – the privacy and confidentiality of all students is ensured. All information is protected by privacy laws that regulate the collection, storage and disclosure of personal information. To find out more about these matters, please refer to the Australian Government’s Privacy

 

 Policy (https://www.education.gov.au/privacy-policy).

 

Further information about the NCCD can be found on the NCCD Portal (https://www.nccd.edu.au).

 

If you have any questions about the NCCD, please contact Mrs Spicer.

 

Katrina Spicer

Assistant Principal for Wellbeing and Inclusion

katrina.spicer@education.vic.gov.au

 

HOW TO KEEP KIDS SAFE: BODY SAFETY CONVERSATIONS EVERY PARENT MUST HAVE

In recent months, terrifying revelations have appeared in our news feeds:

A Melbourne childcare worker (26-year-old Joshua Brown) has been charged with 70 counts related to the alleged sexual abuse of young children in his care. 

 

Because these are allegations, we must be careful about what we say on this platform. But make no mistake, these are the most serious allegations, including sexual penetration and producing child abuse material for use through a carriage service. (Additionally, this man – if we can call him that – has tested positive for a sexually transmitted disease, so over 1200 preschoolers now need to be tested as well.)

 

This comes hot on the heels of last year’s horrendous news story about another guy in a Brisbane childcare centre, Ashley Griffith, pleading guilty to over 300 charges related to child sexual abuse. 

 

For parents, this news fundamentally erodes trust in childcare. For men working in childcare, it intensifies the pressure to be beyond reproach.

 

To parents, I want to convey one central message: This is not your fault. You did nothing wrong. You couldn’t have known. Unless your child directly informed you of abuse and you ignored it, this burden is not yours.

 

If your child has been affected by trauma, your role is to provide the support, love, and guidance they need to flourish. Abuse survivors consistently demonstrate incredible resilience, and with your loving support, your child too can overcome this experience.

The majority of people reading this are unaffected by the circumstances described above – today. But EVERY parent needs to know how to talk with their children about body safety. Because we live in an imperfect world where people lie, deceive, and exist with horrible motivations, these conversations are not luxury items – they’re must-haves.

 

SO WHAT DO YOU SAY TO YOUR KIDS? HOW DO YOU KEEP THEM SAFE? 

I’m going to share five central ideas, and then I’m pointing you to the best resources I know that can help. 

  1. Always use proper terms for anatomy. If your child ever needs to disclose something, the words ‘penis’, ‘vulva’, ‘anus’, or ‘breast’ should always be considered safe and appropriate.
  2. Always remind them that areas of their body covered by swimwear – as well as their mouth and face – are private parts of their body and NO ONE should ever touch them there. Ever. (If they’re still wearing nappies, you may need to dilute that message a little bit for practical reasons… but the only people who should be touching them are ONLY doing it for cleaning and hygiene purposes and must have parent permission to do it.)
  3. Always remind them that touching can either be “safe” or “unsafe”. If they don’t want to be hugged or kissed or touched, they should be allowed to say “no” and have that respected. The term “my body, my rules” is a vital one here.
  4. Always ensure your child understands that there is a difference between a “secret” and a “surprise”. As Jayneen Sanders says, “Some secrets should never be kept”. This is something to remind our children about regularly.
  5. If a person says anything to me or does anything to me (or my body) that leaves me feeling bad, yucky, or guilty, I should tell my parents – even if I’m scared about it.

Let me finish with one quick story from many years ago…

 

When a family friend was a young girl, she told her mum that she had been sexually abused by a relative. The mother listened to every word from her young daughter’s mouth. 

 

After taking it all in, the mother slapped the girl in the face and warned her never to say anything about that incident again.

 

Such an attitude cannot be allowed to continue. Our children have a right to protection. Please, keep them safe.

 

HERE ARE A FEW RESOURCES I RECOMMEND:

 

Jayneen Sanders

Jayneen has written extensively about keeping kids safe. Her books include:

These books are ALL picture books for children. I love them and recommend them.

Jay also has loads of free resources on her site, Educate2Empower, including posters to guide your conversations with your kids. Visit her here: https://e2epublishing.info/

 

Holly-Ann Martin

Holly-Ann is a dynamo. With an OAM for her service to the community, her resources, much like Jay Sanders, are about life being “Safe4Kids”. 

 

Holly-Ann’s website is stacked full of her own books and those of others as well. Definitely take a look. https://safe4kids.com.au/

 

Jill Starishevsky

Jill has written a fun rhyming story called My Body Belongs to Me. It’s a great resource with illustrations that provide a sensitive way into a conversation about body safety. http://www.mybodybelongstome.com/

 

Michelle Derrig

I’m a fan of “Only For Me”, by Michelle Derrig. Act For Kids endorses the book, and it’s going to be useful for your conversations with your kids. Check it out here: https://www.onlyforme.com.au/

 

Kayelene Kerr

Lastly, Kayeleneis brilliant in this space and has loads of resources for you at esafekids.com.au.

 

For more info about resources or to get help, google government services in your local area. 

 

If you are concerned that your child has been harmed, or if you are aware of a child who has been abused, visit NAPCAN for help.