Headmaster's

Message

Our Highest Calling

As I mentioned last week in my Pulse article, schools are required to demonstrate that they provide a safe and supportive environment for their staff, students and parents. This requires schools to have a range of policies pertaining to enrolment, safety, student wellbeing, child protection, student attendance, student behaviour management, making complaints, appealing decisions, as well as the prevention and management of harassment. The policies relevant to parents of our School are available on our website, nonetheless, it is crucial that we highlight the salient points from each from time to time.

In this article I wish to draw your attention to one of the most important of these policies, our Child Protection Policy, and address both the School’s commitment and the responsibilities of parents and students.

Each one of us is precious as we are made in God’s image and like all precious things, should be treated with honour and respect. The School is committed to being so much more than a Child Safe Institution, but a culture in which children flourish. We consider protecting children and young people from malignant threats, our highest calling and so, integral to our culture are a range of strategies and procedures for monitoring, communicating and managing matters relating to Child Protection.

Every person we employ is required to have a NSW Working With Children Check (WWCC). All visitors on campus must also provide a WWCC or remain under the supervision of a member of staff at all times. Upon their induction and every year thereafter, we remind every member of the BMGS staff team of their responsibilities towards children. Our Staff Code of Conduct makes a range of behaviours clear, some intended to protect children and others to protect staff from becoming subject to suspicion or accusation of inappropriate behaviour.

Parents and students of the School community are asked to support this intent by treating any child protection concern with strict confidentiality and reporting the matter to the designated member of staff as soon as practicable. If parents or students have a concern in relation to an employee being subject of any reportable allegation or conviction, or involved in reportable conduct or any other inappropriate behaviour towards a child, a report must be made to the Headmaster as soon as possible. If a concern of the above nature is in relation to me (the Headmaster), the report must be made to the Chair of the School Board of Directors in writing via the School’s postal address. I have recently authored and published Information for Parents, Child Protection – Reportable Conduct. Please read this document. If the concern is in relation to a student at risk of harm from any other source, whether at School, in the home or elsewhere, the report should be made to the relevant Head of School as soon as practicable. I have recently authored and published Information for Parents, Child Protection – Risk of Significant Harm. Please read this document also.

Please be assured that we will do all that we can, within the context of our School setting, to protect your children from harm. Having read these two Information for Parents sheets, you are now equipped to help us. In the same way that Google monitors traffic by intelligently combining the data from our many mobile phones, we can together monitor the safety and wellbeing of the young people in our care by combining the vigilant observations and gut-level hunches of the many adults in our community.

Go team!

Mr Ian Maynard

Headmaster

Letter From the Headmaster

Please click here to view a letter from the Headmaster circulated via email to families today.

COVID Briefing #3

Please click here to view the Headmaster's latest COVID Briefing