Student Wellbeing structures develop a sense of community and focus on the development of the whole person – physical, social and emotional.
The wellbeing approaches emphasise primary prevention (building structures that facilitate belonging and promote wellbeing) and early intervention (programming and planning interventions that target students identified as at risk) as core components.
The National Safe Schools Framework describes a safe and supportive school in the following way:
“In a safe and supportive school, the risk from all types of harm is minimised, diversity is valued and all members of the school community feel respected and included and can be confident that they will receive support in the face of any threats to their safety or wellbeing.”
The Guiding Principles of the National Safe Schools Framework:
This Framework is underpinned by the following guiding principles that represent fundamental beliefs about safe, supportive and respectful school communities. These guiding principles emphasise the importance of student safety and wellbeing as a pre-requisite for effective learning in all school settings. Australian schools:
- affirm the rights of all members of the school community to feel safe and be safe at school
- acknowledge that being safe and supported at school is essential for student wellbeing and effective learning
- accept responsibility for developing and sustaining safe and supportive learning and teaching communities that also fulfil the school’s child protection responsibilities
- encourage the active participation of all school community members in developing and maintaining a safe school community where diversity is valued
- actively support young people to develop understanding and skills to keep themselves and others safe
- commit to developing a safe school community through a whole-school and evidence-based approach
The nine key elements that schools need to have in place are:
- Leadership commitment to a safe school
- A supportive and connected school culture
- Policies and procedures
- Professional learning
- Positive behaviour management
- Engagement, skill development and safe school curriculum
- A focus on student wellbeing and student ownership
- Early intervention and targeted support
- Partnerships
Our Lady of the Way has a responsibility to provide an educational environment that promotes the dignity and respect of the person and, therefore, aims to encourage the development of positive relationships between students to address all forms of bullying, harassment, aggression and violence. We believe that students should be provided with a school environment that is safe, supportive and proactive in dealing with anti-social behaviour.