Glen Education St John's 

Ensuring Educators know their Responsibilities

Liz O'Donnell, Early Childhood Educator 

Staff and Volunteers are equipped with the knowledge, skills and awareness to keep children and young people safe through ongoing education and training

- Child Safe Standard 8

All children have the right to feel safe and be safe at all times. This includes Aboriginal children, children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and children with a disability.

It is the responsibility of everyone at Glen Education to engage in child safe training.  Glen Education ensures that all new educators are provided with formal training in the beginning of each year.  This training is conducted through the organisation In Safe Hands: Child Protection Training . Child Protection training is an annual requirement for all staff. Mandatory Reporting training has been completed by all educators, on an annual basis since 2016. Through engaging in regular training, Glen Education ensures that all educators are aware of their responsibilities as Mandatory Reporters and the steps they would take to make a report.

All staff are currently being encouraged to join information sessions on the new child safe standards.  Facilitated by the CCYP (Commission for Children and Young People), "Implement with confidence: New CSS Early Childhood" information sessions are available for educators to further develop their understanding of the new standards and their impacts on service delivery.

Mental health has continued to be an area where educators have been developing their knowledge and their ability to support children. All teachers and educators completed two training sessions on the Resilience Project, and are currently completing ongoing learning with the children. This is assisting with the empowerment of children, which is an important component of the new child safe standards. 

All educators and volunteers must provide a current Working With Children Check (WWCC) or a Victorian Institute of Teaching (VIT) registration before they can work in a service. Through the WWCC and  VIT registration process  all educators are screened to ensure they are fit and proper people to work with children.   When educators invite members of the community into the kindergarten, such as incursion providers, they ensure that that person has received a WWCC or VIT card.

In addition to formal training, the Child Safety and Wellbeing policy is provided on induction and educators are encouraged to discuss these concepts at regular intervals.

In complying with Child Safe Standard 8, an organisation must ensure: that staff and volunteers are trained and supported to effectively implement the organisation's Child Safety and Wellbeing policy; Staff and volunteers receive training and information to recognise indicators of child harm, including harm caused by other children and young people; Staff and volunteers receive training and information to respond effectively to issues of child safety and wellbeing and support colleagues who disclose harm;  Staff and volunteers receive training and information on how to build culturally safe environments for children and young people.

The health, safety and wellbeing of all of the children in our care is our priority.