As an education support worker you may be in a situation where you have conserns for the safety of a student.
It is vital through your duty of care responsibilities that you inform your supervising teacher of your concerns and/or observations. The teacher would then be expected to inform the management of the school.
If the case is investigated it is likely that your information will be used. It is important to ‘diarise’ any unusual behaviour of the student that you may observe or other evidence that has lead you to be conserned.
Education authorities are committed to providing safe, supportive learning environments for all students. Everyone who works in a school must look after the best interests of students and protect them from harm.
Harm is defined as any detrimental effect of a significant nature to the child's physical, psychological or emotional wellbeing.
It doesn't matter how the harm is caused.
This means anything that will have a serious and harmful effect on a student's physical health, or how they think and feel about themselves is of concern.
If a school employee suspects that students have been harmed, they must report their concerns to the teacher and/or school principal. You will need to check your school's policy and state government's legal requirements of you. These may differ from state to state but essential are the same: There is both a legal and moral responsibility on education workers to safeguard students.
Whenever the school principal hears or sees something that causes him/her to reasonably suspect that a student has been harmed or is at risk of harm, he/she follows specific procedures depending on who caused the harm.
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Example: in Queensland the Student Protection Policy (SMS-PR-012) outlines the responsibilities and commitment of that state's public education system to provide a safe and supportive learning environment, and prevent and respond to harm or risk of harm for all students. The policy applies to:
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| Research the appropriate policy for your state or territory. | |
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Activity 4.1 You are supervising a small group of children aged 10 years. They have been set a task by their teacher to work cooperatively and come up with a design for a new lunch menu at the school tuckshop. Clear directions have been given about eating healthy and also maintaining a budget for the tuckshop. The group is working well, but one student continually interrupts the others and makes silly comments about including ‘junk food’. The other students are clearly getting frustrated by this behaviour. How could you help the student fit into the group? Email your response to your teacher. |