Is Your Community Language School a Child Safe Organisation?

As a community, we have a shared responsibility to ensure that children are safe in all environments, especially in child-focused organisations like community language schools. But have you ever taken the time to assess how child-safe your organisation really is?

Have you done the Self-Assessment to see how your organisation's policies and practices rate you as a Child Safe Organisation?

You can complete the Child Safe Standards Self-Assessment here. This can help you to see your school's strengths and gaps in your child safety measures.

It breaks my heart that we need to ask organisations caring for children to actively plan to keep them safe from harm—from abuse and neglect. But the reality is, we must. The Child Safe Standards, developed from the findings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, provide a clear framework to help organisations build cultures and implement strategies that keep children safe.

Supporting Schools to Be Child Safe

At Hunter Community Languages, we understand that these standards may feel unfamiliar to some of our communities. That’s why our Education Officer visits our member schools in person, delivering training and working alongside schools to develop practical child-safe policies.

For schools unable to attend in-person training, we have developed an online course, which includes:
✅ Video explanations of key child-safe principles
✅ Templates to help schools put policies in place
✅ Completed models for schools to adapt to their own needs

We take child safety very seriously—and we urge all schools to do the same.

https://www.hcls.org.au/courses/child-safety-management

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The Importance of Managing Opportunities for Harm

One of the most powerful things I learned during my Office of the Children’s Guardian (OCG) training is this:

Most abuse that happens to children is opportunistic—meaning it occurs when an adult abuses a child because an opportunity presents itself, not necessarily through extensive planning.

This makes it critical that community language schools actively manage their environments to ensure that opportunities for abuse never arise.

If your school has not yet assessed its child safety measures, now is the time to act. Take the Self-Assessment today, review your policies, and ensure that every child in your care is protected.

Together, we can create safer schools and communities for our children. 💙

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