Child Safe Standards

Goals & Intended Outcomes

Mater Christi College believes that students have the right to a safe and non-threatening learning environment. In this environment, students are respected, treated with consideration always and their voices are heard. They have a right to feel safe and be safe. This commitment is drawn from the Benedictine tradition for Colleges of Good Samaritan Education. In his Rule, St Benedict urges us to move towards a better life, persevering through hardship, being open about our faults and placing the welfare of others above our own.

The Principal together with Board Directors remains committed to a zero tolerance of child abuse.

The Child Safe Program at the College is reviewed and regularly updated to achieve best practice for the whole school community. All Staff understand their duty of care and commitment to child safety. The program strategy is reviewed and updated regularly in accordance with legislative requirements.

Achievements

The Child Safe Program is a central focus for Board Directors and College leadership. While student safety is embedded in our culture, the College continues to maintain awareness by:

• Including student safety and risk as a regular agenda item for Staff and Board meetings

• College leaders meeting with Student Protection Leaders regularly

• Providing Student Care Plans for all teaching staff

• College leaders and Wellbeing staff (Psychologists & Nurses) meet regularly to share case management of students needing additional supervision and support

• Staff screening, induction and training

• Preparing Staff for Child Information Sharing Scheme

• Staff completing and signing off on compliance checklist of policy, procedures and child safe requirements annually

• Providing parenting workshops with leading experts as key presenters

• Reporting to DHHS and ChildFirst as required

• Encouraging students to report issues of safety and concerns, via a range of contactsPastoral Teacher, Student Protection Leader

• Providing safe spaces for students to report and discuss concerns

• Communicating with parents via eNews

• Placing posters in key student areas around the college which display names of the Student Protection Leaders (Child Protection Officers)

• Requiring Staff and all visitors to wear ID cards

• Providing inductions for students going on work experience included information about safety. All workplaces are checked prior to the visit, and students are contacted during the experience

• Subscribing to SchoolTV, a valuable resource for students and parents, easily available via the College website

Leadership

Goals & Intended Outcomes

Build leadership capacity to further develop a distributed leadership model throughout the College.

Achievements

The major work of 2022 in this area included:

1. Implementation of new POL structure including the establishment of the following teams to assist in core responsibilities of the College: Teaching and Learning Exec, Wellbeing Exec, NCCD/Student Referral Team, Operations Team, Future Students Team.

2. Commencement of DP Learning at the beginning of 2022 and new DP Staff and Students in July 2022 following the retirement of long term staff member and DP.

3. Middle Leaders Course during Semester 1 for new and aspiring middle leaders.

4. Participation of two senior leaders in the NESLI Women in Leadership Program.

Expenditure And Teacher Participation In Professional Learning

Description of Professional Learning undertaken in 2022

Professional Learning during 2022 included the following:

Internal opportunities included:

• Catholic Identity focused guest speaker for the first day of 2022, Sr Veronica Hoey.

• Sessions to assist with accreditation to Teach in a Catholic School.

• Regular sessions exploring the MYP using current teacher expertise.

• Professional Learning Communities (various projects).

• NCCD adjustments and data recording workshops (Run by LDL).

A great deal of PL also occurred in Domain Meetings, senior and middle school meetings, VCE results briefings, moderation of student work and NCCD moderation sessions.

External opportunities mostly took place online and included the following:

• VCAA VCE Results workshop.

• VCAA NAPLAN Data workshop.

• GSE Pilgrimage Opportunities (for new and existing staff).

• First Aid accreditation including Asthma and Anaphylaxis.

• Disability Standards for Education.

• Compliance requirements, such as Mandatory reporting modules.

• Subject based conferences and workshops.

• Assessing adolescents at risk (HeadSpace)

• Middle Leaders Careers Strategy Seminars.

Teacher Satisfaction

On the whole staff have been highly supportive of the direction of the College and contributed a great deal to decision-making during 2022. The College Executive was aware that recovering from COVID-19 and the associated lock-downs still impacted staff in a range of ways; we were alert to and supported the particular well-being needs of individuals. We trusted that a flexible approach would enable staff members to balance personal and professional commitments, and indeed had positive feedback that this was the case. We continue to commit to being a workplace of choice for women in line with our commitment to the GSE statement on the Voice and Experience of Women in Leadership.

The College participated in the MACSSIS surveys for the second time in 2022, and we are pleased to have this data which will allow us to set goals in a number of areas. Areas of positive feedback included school climate (72% positive), Collective Efficacy (76% positive) and Catholic Identity (71%). Areas for improvement, which have already been recognised in our School Improvement Plan include the provision of formative, professional feedback to teachers (15% positive) and the coherence of professional learning opportunities (52% positive).