Child Safety

Child Safety at St Agatha’s

Protection of children and young people is based upon the belief that each person is made in the image and likeness of God, and that the inherent dignity of all should be recognised and fostered.

St Agatha's is committed to child protection strategies and procedures to ensure the care, safety and protection of all students at St Agatha's School and safeguarding students against sexual, physical, psychological and emotional abuse and/or neglect.

St Agatha's is committed to complying with Ministerial Order 1359

At St Agatha's the Child Safe Champion is Liam Doherty. Liam meets with the Child Safety team at least twice per term and more often as required. This team consults on all matters child safety and especially in complying with each of the eleven Child Safe Standards.

The Child Safety Standards

Each newsletter we will focus on one of the Child Safety Standards and reflect on how that standard is reflected at St. Agatha’s. This week we will look at Child Safety Standard Two.

Child Safe Standard 8 – Staff and volunteers are equipped with the knowledge, skills and awareness to keep children and young people safe through ongoing education and training

All staff complete the online module for Mandatory Reporting each year. Training for Information Sharing and Record Keeping is provided to key staff. All volunteers and contractors undergo an induction session prior to working or volunteering at the school each year. The induction includes key information related to child safety and how to respond to a concern or an incident/disclosure.

Child Safe Standard 9 – Physical and online environments promote safety and wellbeing while minimising the opportunity for children and young people to be harmed

All students must sign the ICT Acceptable User Agreement at the beginning of each school year before being permitted to use the school internet or devices. The school has secure firewalls however students learn about how to be a cyber safe each year and what to do if they come across inappropriate material at school or at home.

The Cyber Safety Project and Parent Webinars

The Cyber safety Project team attended St Agatha's on Tuesday 22nd August to run special sessions for our students in Years 4, 5 and These sessions focused our students on the need to be safe online and strategies and steps that they can take to  stay safe. Our students were very engaged and active in their participation. Please discuss these sessions with your children.

They also provided a fantastic staff PD for our staff meeting that day. It was an eye opener for all of us and we all learned a great deal about staying safe in the digital world.

The Cyber Safety Project offer all parents and carers in the St Agatha’s community access to invaluable cyber safety webinars online. 

The first three of these webinars can be accessed immediately on-line and the remaining two session can be viewed live on the dates and time provided, or played back at a later time. Feel free to watch these webinars as often as you need.

I strongly encourage all parents and carers to register for the online seminars as they will provide you with the knowledge to ensure that your children’s digital experiences will be positive and beneficial. If you have any questions about this program don’t hesitate to contact me at ldoherty@stacbourne.catholic.edu.au.

These webinars can be accessed immediately on-line using this QR Code .

I encourage all parents and carers to register for the online seminars as they will provide you with the knowledge to ensure that your children’s digital experiences will be positive and beneficial. If you have any questions about this program don’t hesitate to contact me at ldoherty@stacbourne.catholic.edu.au.

Child Safety and Wellbeing Policy 

The Child Safety and Wellbeing Policy has been updated to reflect practices that encourage student voice. This includes students participating in Class Meetings where they can raise issues that concern them both on the playground and in the classroom. The issues are discussed as a class and the students with their teachers work to find solutions. 

Our Child Safe Champion - Mr Doherty will meet with a student representative from each class (Years 3-6) to listen to the issues that had been discussed and their solutions. Mr Doherty can also ask the representatives to take important Child Safety messages back to their classrooms.

Click on the link to read the Child Safety and Wellbeing Policy. If any parent would like to discuss the policy or provide input into the processes that surround it, please contact Liam Doherty via ldoherty@stacbourne.catholic.edu.au 

Child Safe Code of Conduct

All staff, visitors, contractors and volunteers must adhere to the Child Safe Code of Conduct. The purpose of this document is to keep our students safe when at school. It is an expectation that visitors, contractors and volunteers read and agree to follow this at all times when at St Agatha's School or when on an excursion. 

Please don't forget that anyone visiting the school must have a current Working With Children Check card with them and show this at the time of signing in. Sign in occurs at the front office.