Bullying - Important Conversations to Have With Your Child

St Matthew’s Primary School is participating in the Bullying No Way: National Week of Action this week, 12 to 16 August 2024.

By working collaboratively within our community, we can collectively help reduce bullying.

Parents and carers play an important role in helping your child understand bullying and know how to respond to it.

If your child tells you about things at school, or you observe something in public that involves conflict or bullying, take the opportunity to talk about what bullying is. You can learn more about what defines bullying at bullyingnoway.gov.au.

Questions you could ask:

• What do you think bullying is?
• Have you seen it? How did you feel?
• Have you ever felt scared at school because of bullying?
• As well as me, who are the other adults you would talk to when it comes to things like bullying?
• Have you or your friends left other kids out on purpose? Do you think that was bullying? Why or why not?
• Have you ever tried to help someone who is being bullied? What happened? What would you do if it happens again?

Remind your child that bullying is never okay and discuss how they can respond safely if they experience or witness it.

Encourage them to seek help from a trusted adult and keep seeking support if needed.

By promoting open communication, we empower children to stand up against bullying and create a safer environment where everyone can feel that they belong.

For more information, visit bullyingnoway.gov.au.

Child Safeguarding Corner

The Child Safe Standards provide us with tangible guidance about how to create cultures, adopt strategies and act to put the interests of children first to keep them safe from harm. Each fortnight, I present one of the standards and ask you to reflect on how you think we’re addressing the recommendations. We welcome ideas and feedback from our families and community! This week, we’re looking at Standard 7. 

Child Safe Standard 7: Staff are equipped with the knowledge, skills and awareness to keep children safe through continual education and training. 

The aim of this standard is to ensure that we invest in building staff skills, abilities and confidence. This standard is important because training gives staff the confidence to respond to abuse if it is detected. It also reinforces the importance of child safety and that it is everyone’s responsibility. 

Our aim is to prioritise this standard for child safety in what we say and do:

• We provide ongoing education and training opportunities for staff. 
• We have a Child Safe Advocate. 
• Our staff understand how to identify, respond to and report child abuse. 
• Our annual plan includes a schedule of learning opportunities for staff. 

If we are addressing this standard successfully, we would expect our children to say: 

• Adults understand how to keep me safe. 
• I understand that adults are taught how to behave around me. 
• Adults notice when I feel sad. 

We now have a page on our school website dedicated to Child Safeguarding, and we encourage you to view it. 

If you have any questions or feedback about how we are addressing this particular Standard or about our new Child Safeguarding page, please email me (petra.cole@cg.catholic.edu.au). 

Petra Cole

Assistant Principal ┃Child Safe Advocate┃Classroom Support Teacher