Glen Education Caulfield Primary Kindergarten
Every Day Practices to Create Safe Environments
Nanako Kamei, Early Childhood Language Teacher
Nao Ikoma, Early Childhood Language Teacher
It felt as if term two went just like a flash of light! Winter is here, and all of us are feeling the crisp chill air in the morning, and little dew drops on the falling leaves. Children have been busy exploring indoor learning spaces and outdoor settings. Regardless of where learning experiences take place, one of the most crucial components of an early childhood setting is child safety. For the children’s learning to excel, all educators need to understand and practice these procedures to keep children safe. When children, staff, families and the community feel that Caulfield Primary Kindergarten is a safe place to learn, a sense of calmness is created within, thus supporting children’s learning ability.
From 1st of July, the Child Safe Standards in Victoria will be updated. The new standards set out minimum requirements and outline the actions that organisations must take to keep children and young people safe. It provides more clarity for organisations’ consistency with Standards across Australia. In this article, we will focus on the new child safe standard 9:
"Physical and online environments promote safety and wellbeing while minimising the opportunity for children and young people to be harmed"
We will share what the standards look like in practice and how Glen Education ensures the safety of children in our services.
In terms of the physical environment, we work to minimise risks for children by undertaking the following practices to provide children with a safe and secure learning environment. Every morning, a staff member completes both the indoor and outdoor safety checklists that include inspecting the condition of equipment, identifying hazards, and checking the temperature of the service and outside UV level.
When a hazard or maintenance issue has been identified, we immediately contact management to ensure these are fixed. Throughout the day, we regularly observe and assess each child’s physical development so that developmentally appropriate learning experiences are planned and implemented. Those learning experiences are equally important as they are both safe and challenging for the individual. Moreover, during each session, we ensure the front door is locked to prevent unknown individuals from accessing the service. Only authorised people are permitted to pick children up.
We also ensure a risk assessment is carried out before children are taken outside the service premises on an excursion including a library visit to Caulfield Primary School. We assess and analyse any risks that may occur during an excursion and implement appropriate risk management plans beforehand. We also discuss safety with the children on the day so that they can actively be aware of how to attend the learning experience safely.
On the day of an excursion, we take attendance before leaving the premises, after arriving at the destination, and when we begin our return to the service.
All our educators and teachers are qualified to safely work with children and are trained to be able to provide them with a child safe environment. Each year, all our staff members participate in Child Protection in Early Childhood training and update our knowledge. Glen Education’s Policies, such as the Child Safe Environment Policy, Work Health and Safety Policy, and Supervision of Children Policy are also followed throughout the day, and these policies are easily accessible via the Glen Education website.
In regards to the online environment, Glen Education’s policies, such as the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Policy and Website Privacy Policy, are followed through at our service and also several practices are undertaken. These approaches contribute to protecting children’s privacy, minimising risks of accessing harmful online contents, preventing other unknown third parties from contacting the children, and promoting children’s awareness of online safety. Our centre occasionally incorporates ICT in our program, so we discuss with children about the safety of using iPad or laptops during group time prior to such learning experiences and ensure that the children are supervised all time while they are engaging in ICT.
The teachers and educators here at Glen Education Caulfield Primary Kindergarten will continue promoting children’s safety in our learning environment. As stated in the standards, it is indeed a child's right to be safe. Safety does not just happen, and it requires deliberate steps to safeguard children from harm. We are happy to answer any questions and provide assistance to families who attend our services.