St Dunstan's Preschool

St Dunstan’s Preschool is committed to providing child safe culture by supporting children and young people, parents, guardians, families, and communities, and by ensuring all educators, staff and volunteers who work with St Dunstan’s Preschool are committed to safeguarding children and young people.

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All children and young people have a right to feel safe, and be safe. The safety, wellbeing and empowerment of children and young people at St Dunstan’s Preschool is at the core of all our decision making. Children’s rights will be understood, respected and upheld by all adults involved in St Dunstan’s Preschool.

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Our Commitment to Children’s Safety

• We are committed to providing a safe and supportive environment for all children and young people in which they feel safe and are listened to and believed.

• We will always act in the best interests of the child and their protection from harm is paramount. All children are unique and have the right to be protected.

• We have a zero tolerance approach to all forms of child abuse.

• We will ensure that the experiences of children and young people are free from any form of harmful conduct, including child abuse, neglect or grooming.

• We value and empower children to participate in decisions that affect their lives.

• We are committed to supporting the cultural safety of all children and young people, including First Nations children and children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

• We are committed to providing a safe and inclusive environment for children of all abilities.

• We will empower children and young people so that they feel able to respond to any behaviour that is not acceptable.

• We will support children and young people to feel comfortable and know who to approach if they feel worried, unsafe or have any child safety concerns, including abuse, neglect and grooming.

• We will provide age- and ability- appropriate codes of conduct to everyone who interacts with our preschool.

• We welcome comments, compliments and complaints from children and young people to guide how we work to protect our children.

• We will establish a reporting framework so that reports are:

  • Easy to make for anyone at the preschool

  • Responded to in a timely and fair manner

  • Recorded appropriately

  • Forwarded to relevant authorities where necessary

• We will provide support for any children or young people who report or are suspected of being exposed to concerning conduct, including abuse, neglect or grooming.

 

Our commitment to parents, carers, families and their communities

St Dunstan’s preschool is committed to supporting all the adults involved within our preschool community, to keep children and young people safe from harm and abuse.

• We will communicate with adults involved in our preschool our expectations around creating, maintaining and improving a safe environment for children and young people.

• We will provide age- and ability- appropriate codes of conduct to everyone who interacts with our preschool.

• We respect diversity in cultures and child-rearing practices, whilst keeping child safety paramount.

• We welcome comments, compliments and complaints from parents, carers, families and their communities to guide how we work to protect our children.

• We will share information with adults about keeping children and young people safe including:

  • Where they can find further information and advice.

  • How to make a report if they suspect or know a child or young person is being harmed, or if they observe a breach of our codes of conduct.

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Our commitment to being a child safe organisation

• Our approaches to keeping children safe are embedded within our policies and procedures.

• We will take a preventative, proactive and participatory approach to child safety.

• We will ensure that St Dunstan’s preschool educators, staff and families follow our codes of conduct by:

  • Making them publicly available.

  • Educating all our stakeholders about the importance of following them.

• We will engage only the most suitable people to work with children and have high quality supervision and professional development of our educators, staff and volunteers.

• We will induct all our stakeholders so they recognise their role in keeping children and young people safe, and ensure there are ongoing learning and development opportunities related to child safety.

• We will provide written guidance on appropriate conduct and behaviour towards children and young people.

• We will ensure that all St Dunstan’s Preschool stakeholders know how and when to report any concerns, complaints or allegations concerning conduct, including abuse, neglect or grooming.

• We will ensure that all children and families are provided with appropriate support if they are exposed to, or report abuse, neglect or grooming.