Child Safety and Student Wellbeing

Who is Responsible for Child Protection? 

Society as a whole shares responsibility for promoting the safety and protection of children from abuse. In the School context, all members of the School community have their role to play – teachers, staff, administrators, parents/carers, volunteers and students. That said, the school’s Leadership Team are committed to leading from the front and engaging in a preventative, proactive and participatory approach to child protection issues.

Students are encouraged to take an active role in developing and maintaining a child safe environment at the School and are provided with opportunities to contribute and give feedback in the development of the School’s policies and practices. Students are also made aware of the avenues available to them to report or disclose abuse or concerns for their safety or the safety of others.

Key Roles and Responsibilities include: The Principal, The School's Safety Officer, Staff, Volunteers, Third Party Contractors and External Educational Contractors.

St Joseph's School has developed the following Child Protection and Safety Policy. This policy is an overarching document that provides key elements of our approach to protecting children from abuse. It is designed to be communicated through our public website as well as through other mediums such as newsletters, our annual report and in induction for P & F members, staff and volunteers. 

Child Safety Code of Conduct lists behaviours that are acceptable and those that are unacceptable. It provides a high-level statement of professional boundaries, ethical behaviour and acceptable and unacceptable relationships.

When individuals are clear about behavioural expectations, they are much more likely to act appropriately with each other and with children. When everyone is educated about the Code of Conduct and the reasons it is so important to uphold, the School environment becomes much more transparent and people are accountable for their behaviour. Above all, a Child Safety Code of Conduct helps to protect children from harm.

The Child Safety Code of Conduct set out below is designed to stand alone. The Code is made available to all staff, volunteers, families and students. 

At St Joseph's we are committed to ensuring that our recruitment practices create a safe environment for our students. To this end we have established policies and procedures for recruiting employees, Volunteers and for assessing their suitability to work with children. All staff, volunteers, contractors, consultants, specialists, clergy and Parent & Friends Association members must sign and adhere to our Child Safety Code of Conduct.​

Child Safe Recruitment Practices

The Working with Children Act 2005 (Victoria) (the Act) aims to protect children from harm by ensuring that people who work with, or care for, them have their suitability to do so checked by a government body. The Act aims to prevent those who pose a risk to children from working or volunteering with them.

Please follow the below links for further information about Child Safety

All staff, volunteers, contractors, consultants, specialists and clergy must have a Working With Children Check card avaliable when carrying out work with St Joseph's students.​