Student safety a priority
National Child Protection Week is a campaign held annually each September to raise awareness of child abuse prevention.
The campaign aims to engage, educate, and empower Australians to understand the complexity of child abuse and neglect, and work together to prevent it.
Townsville Catholic Education’s executive director Jacqui Francis said National Child Protection Week was about getting everyone involved in building better communities for children and young people.
“Townsville Catholic Education’s stance is that child protection is everyone’s responsibility,” she said.
“As an organisation we educate staff and members of the school community to be alert to what is happening, share tips and rules for the students to help protect ourselves as well as internet safety with the older students.
“Our student’s safety and wellbeing is our number one priority.”
Townsville Catholic Education student protection coordinator Katherine Olsen said National Child Protection week was a great time for the whole community to talk about important issues regarding child safety.
“The key is to normalise child protection discussions with children and the community,” Ms Olsen said.
“Speaking regularly to children about their safety is a powerful way to build open communication with them.”
Students from across the Diocese were involved in Child Protection Week activities focusing on key messaging from the Daniel Morcombe Foundation, encouraging students to be aware of their own warning signs and encouraging them to take action if they felt unsafe.
“Our team visited schools to talk with students about key protective behaviour messages and assisted students to identify at least five people they could include in their safety network,” Ms Olsen said.
“We also held a Parents and Carers Information Session presented by Act for Kids which emphasised the importance of adults promoting healthy relationships with their children to ensure their children had someone they felt comfortable and safe with.”
National Child Protection Week is run by the National Association for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect.
Tips for child safety
* Help children to identify trusted adults (both within the family and outside) they can talk to, if they are worried, upset, or don’t feel safe. Create a list together.
* Remind children that
they can talk to you or a trusted adult about anything, no matter how big or small their worry might be.
* Talk to children about how they know when they feel safe or unsafe.
* Help them to listen to
their early warning signs (how their body feels), and to trust their feelings and instincts.
* Be open to talking about all kinds of feelings, including anger, joy, frustration, fear and anxiety. This helps children to develop a ‘feelings vocabulary’.