Out of the Box

Assistant Principals' Updates 

 Kellie Ind

Child Safety

Box Hill High School is committed to a child safe environment for all students.  To create and maintain a child safe organisation, Box Hill HS ensures compliance with The Child Safe Standards, so that we as a school and a community are well prepared to protect our students. 

 

There are seven standards plus a principle of inclusion:

Standard 1Strategies to embed an organisational culture of child safety
Standard 2A child safety policy or a statement of commitment to child safety
Standard 3A child safety code of conduct
Standard 4Screening, supervision, training & other practices to reduce risk of abuse
Standard 5Procedures for responding to and reporting suspected child abuse
Standard 6Strategies to identify and reduce or remove risks of child abuse
Standard 7Strategies to promote child participation and empowerment

Principle of inclusion: Schools must take account of and make reasonable efforts to accommodate the diversity of all children in implementing the Child Safe Standards, including (but not limited to) Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, children with disabilities, and children who are vulnerable.

How do we create a culture of child safety at               Box Hill High School?

All staff at Box Hill High School who are mandatory reporters (e.g. principals and registered teachers) must complete mandatory reporting training annually. We also ensure that all volunteers, staff and adults who work directly with our students have a valid Working with Children Check. Staff are informed about the Child Safe Standards as part of their induction into the school. Students are not left unsupervised in classes and teachers are on duty also in the yard before school, recess, lunch and after school. We have CCTV across most of the school as well. 

We promote child safety to our students through a range of mediums including open discussion, news items, information posts and a number of child safe posters that are displayed around the school, including the student engagement team offices and Wellbeing Centre and in student assemblies.

We are currently in the process of reviewing our Child Safety Code of Conduct which will be presented to School Council at our next scheduled meeting in term 3.  In the meantime you can find our current Child Safe Policies on the Box Hill High School Website.

Staying Safe Online

This year has also involved periods of remote learning, and it is important that we are vigilant about keeping our students safe online. While onsite, inappropriate sites and material are blocked by our inline firewall Fortigate. Most families would have some kind of active firewall or parental controls on at home. 

You should also be aware of our Digital Technologies Acceptable Use Agreement (DTAUA) which can be found on Compass via:

 

              School Documentation> students and parents> laptop and ICT Program folder 

 

The following is part of our school statement contained in this agreement but you can also refer to the full document, via Compass, to become familiar with the expectations we have for our students.

 

At Box Hill High School we:

  • Support the rights of all members of the school community to engage in and promote a safe, inclusive and supportive learning environment.
  • Have policies in place that outline the values of the school and expected behaviours when students use digital technologies and the internet.
  • Educate our students to be safe and responsible users of digital technologies.
  • Raise our student’s awareness of issues such as online privacy, intellectual property and copyright.
  • Supervise students when using digital technologies for educational purposes.
  • Provide a filtered Internet service but acknowledge that full protection from inappropriate content can never be guaranteed.
  • Respond to issues or incidents that have the potential to impact on the wellbeing of our students.
  • Know that some online activities are illegal and as such we are required to report this to the police.
  • Provide parents/guardians with a copy of this agreement.
  • Support parents/guardians to understand the importance of safe and responsible use of digital technologies, the potential issues that surround their use and strategies they can implement at home to support their child.

The following resources provide current information from both the Department of Education & Training and The Children’s eSafety Commission:

The eSafety website has a number of resources for parents including free webinars and helping to establish parental controls are in place at home. We encourage all our families to strengthen their understanding and knowledge in this area, and continue to talk to your children about their interactions online and what they are doing online.