National Child Protection Week - 6-12th September

The safety and wellbeing of students is very important in all of our schools and is a shared responsibility of parents, staff and students. There are a number of ways we promote safety and wellbeing.

Through our Child and Youth Risk Management Strategy, we proactively set up safe systems and practices for recruitment, supervision, conduct and responding to risks, in order to protect students. Our school is fully informed about respectful relationships, expectations for conduct and how to avoid dangers.

Along with all Catholic Schools in the Cairns Diocese, we implement the Daniel Morcombe Child Safety Curriculum into classes during the year. This program teaches students about ways to stay safe and what to do if they do not feel safe.

We have a formal process for taking action and reporting situations where there is a reasonable suspicion that a child has been abused or harmed, or a staff member has behaved inappropriately. All of these processes come under the banner of ‘student protection’.

Our School Student Protection Contacts (SSPCs) play an important role in all aspects of student protection. Students may speak with any staff member if they have concerns, however our SSPCs have more in-depth training to manage student protection situations.

The SSPCs for St Joseph’s Parish School Weipa for 2020 are Andrieka Knight, Sigita Ulanas, Melanie Turner and Megan Pearce. Their names and photographs are on the “Feeling Safe” posters around the school. Please talk to your child about who they could speak to if they have any concerns and remind them who our SSPCs are this year.