EDITED OCTOBER 2025
- The welfare of children and young people are vital.
- All children and young people, whatever their age, culture, disability, gender, language, racial origin, religious beliefs and/or sexual identity have the right to protection from abuse.
- All suspicions and allegations of abuse will be taken seriously and responded to swiftly and appropriately.
- All staff (paid/voluntary) working in Performing Arts have a responsibility to report concerns to the appropriate officer.
Policy Statement:
Studio A school of performing arts has a duty of care to safeguard all children and young people involved in dance from harm. All children and young people have a right to protection. Studio A school of performing arts will ensure the safety and protection of all children and young people involved in dance through adherence to the Child Safety Policy.
Child (as referred to in this policy) – means a person who attends primary school.
Young person (as referred to in this policy) – means a person who attends high school and is under the age of 18 years.
Policy Aims:
- The aim of Studio A school of performing arts Child Safety Policy is to promote good practice.
- To Provide children and young people with appropriate safety and protection.
- Allow all staff/volunteers to make informed and confident responses to specific child protection issues.
Commitment to child safety:
Studio A school of performing arts is a Child Safe Organisation. As a school, we are committed to and focused on providing a safe community for all students and family members always. We want our students to feel safe, supported, respected, happy, empowered and have fun.
The welfare of the children in our care will always be our priority and we have a zero tolerance to child abuse. This policy demonstrates the strong commitment of the Principals and staff to child safety and provides the policies and practices developed to keep everyone safe from any harm, including abuse. It applies to all staff, volunteers, children and individuals involved in our school.
Children’s rights to safety and participation:
Studio A school of performing arts staff encourage children to express their views. We listen to their suggestions, especially on matters that directly affect them. We actively encourage all children to ‘have a say’ about things that are important to them.
We teach children about what they can do if they feel unsafe. We listen to and act on any concerns children, or their parents/carers, raise with us.
Valuing diversity:
We value diversity and do not tolerate any discriminatory practices. To achieve this, we:
- promote the cultural safety, participation and empowerment of Aboriginal children and their families
- promote the cultural safety, participation and empowerment of children from culturally and/or linguistically diverse backgrounds and their families
- welcome children with a disability and their families and act to promote their participation
- seek appropriate staff from diverse cultural backgrounds.
Recruitment and Selecting Staff:
Studio A school of performing arts takes all reasonable steps to ensure that it engages the most suitable and appropriate people to work with children. All teachers employed by Studio A school of performing arts are required to have a current Working with Children Check (NSW) that has been verified by the principals. It is also recommended that all teachers have up to date First Aid and CPR.
Promoting Good Practice:
Studio A school of performing arts will encourage the following:
- Always working in an open environment.
- Treating all young people equally, and with respect and dignity.
- Always putting the welfare of each young person as priority.
- Maintaining a safe and appropriate distance with dancers within reason manual/physical support.
- Building balanced relationships based on mutual trust which empowers children to share in the decision-making process.
- Making dance fun, enjoyable and promoting fair play.
- Keeping up to date with the technical skills, qualifications and insurance in dance. Involving parents/carers wherever possible.
- Being an excellent role model.
- Giving enthusiastic and constructive feedback rather than negative criticism.
- Recognising the developments/ needs and capacity of young people – avoiding excessive training or competition and not pushing them against their will.
- Having consent forms from parents/guardians in relation to administrating first aid and/or other medical treatment and media release/photos.
- Keeping a written record of any injury that occurs, along with the details of any treatment given.
The following should never be sanctioned:
- Engage in rough, physical or sexually provocative games, including horseplay.
- Allow or engage in any form of inappropriate touching.
- Reduce a child to tears as a form of control.
- Allow allegations made by a child to go unchallenged, unrecorded or not acted upon. Do things of a personal nature for children that they can do for themselves.
- Transport a child in your car
- Send a text or other form of message on social media to one child. All correspondence must be made in a group or directly to the parent.
- Teachers are not authorised to post any photographic or video content on social media. This must be managed solely by the principals and only relevant photos and videos may be used for promotional purpose. All material will be kept private. Parents must give permission for the principals to share such content. Only content which is considered appropriate may be posted. No rude or sexually provocative material may be shared. To ensure the safety and well-being of our students, staff members are prohibited from following students or allowing students to follow their private social media accounts. Interaction with students on social media must be conducted only through official public accounts associated with the studio. This policy is in place to maintain appropriate professional boundaries and uphold a safe and respectful environment for all participants.
Responding to Suspicions/Allegations of Abuse:
It is not the responsibility of anyone working at Studio A school of performing arts in a paid or unpaid capacity to take responsibility or to decide whether child abuse has taken place. However, there is a responsibility to act on any concerns through contact with the appropriate authorities.
Studio A school of performing arts will assure all staff/volunteers that it will fully support and protect anyone, who in good faith reports his or her concern that a colleague is or may be abusing a child/young person.
Any suspicion that a child has been abused by either a member of staff or a volunteer should be reported to the principal teacher who will take such steps as considered necessary to ensure the safety of the child in question and any other child who may be at risk.
Reporting a child safety concern or complaint:
Studio A school of performing arts teachers, students and families are supported to raise any concerns or complaints regarding any risks to a child’s safety or any signs of abuse.
All concerns or complaints should be made directly to Alison Ioannou or Emma Gobby (principals) and will be resolved as soon as possible. Support will be offered to all people involved. Please remember that if you believe a child is at immediate risk to call 000 as soon as possible.
Internal Enquiries and Suspension:
Studio A school of performing arts will make an immediate decision about whether any individual accused of abuse should be suspended pending further police and FACS investigation. Irrespective of findings Studio A school of performing arts will assess all individual cases to decide whether a member of staff or volunteer can be reinstated. The welfare of the child/young person should remain of paramount importance throughout.
Strategies to Minimise Risk:
- Taking images of children – Authorisation is given by caregiver to have images taken of their child/ren and occasionally will be used to display on our website.
- Supervision of children – Children are supervised always in class by the responsible teacher assigned to that class. The studio does not take responsibility for the child outside of the premises this responsibility lies solely with the caregiver.
- Physical contact – Some physical contact may be deemed necessary to demonstrate exercises and for personal correction; or if a member of staff needs to administer first aid.
- Protecting privacy and confidentiality- All information given to the studio is strictly confidential.
- Information is given to the child’s teacher where it is in the best interest of the child.
- Second last to pick up strategy, if you are at the lock up time and late, the second last parent to collect has to wait until the final parent has arrived to prevent children being alone with a staff member after hours
Action regarding Bullying:
- Take all signs of bullying very seriously.
- Encourage all children to speak and share their concerns.
- Help the victim to speak out and tell the person in charge or someone on authority.
- Create an open environment.
- Investigate all allegations and act to ensure the victim is safe.
- Speak with the victim and the bully/ies separately.
- Reassure the victim that you can be trusted and will help them, although you cannot promise to tell no one else.
- Keep records of what is said (what happened by whom, when etc).
- Report any concerns to the Principal.
- Talk with the bully explain the situation and try to get the bully to understand the consequences of their behaviour.
- Seek an apology to the victim/s.
- Inform the bully’s parents.
- Insist on the return of borrowed items and that the bully/ies compensate the victim. Provide support for the teacher of the victim.
- Impose sanctions as necessary.
- Encourage and support the bully/ies to change behaviour.
- Hold meetings with the families to report on progress.
- Inform all appropriate members of the action taken.
- Keep a written record of action taken.
Reviewing this policy:
This policy will be reviewed every year and we undertake to seek views, comments and suggestions from students, parents, carers and staff.
