During the video you'll see QR codes for the following:

• Mandatory Reporting Guide (PDF 603KB)
• Notification Checklist (PDF 66.1KB)
• Keeping Safe: Child Protection Curriculum (staff login required)
• Responding to Risks of Harm, Abuse and Neglect – Education and Care (RRHAN-EC training) (staff login required)

Hi everyone. I'm here today on Kaurna land. Protecting children and young people from harm is a fundamental legal and moral responsibility. We all know that preschools and schools are protective places for children and young people, and the educators and support staff are well placed to recognise, report and respond to kids who may be at risk of harm. We need action and effort from people inside and outside of the school gates. Early intervention and supportive responses are crucial to preventing and minimising harm and the risk to children and young people. When you take action to intervene, you could save a life.

There was this nine-year-old girl who was in year four at her local primary school. She lived in a nice house, had birthday parties, wore nice clothes. She had two parents, a sister and from the outside her life looked normal. She was always the chatty student where her report card said that she could achieve more if she didn't talk so much to her best friend. One day, around 11 AM, while the class were outside for a fitness break, the nine-year-old girl shared her soul to her friend. She finally let her walls down. She told her friend that her father was sexually abusing her and had been for years. Her friend had no idea what to do, so she did the thing that thought was right and told her teacher. That day, the nine-year-old girl's life changed forever. Her teacher reported it, and later that day, the police came to school and interviewed the nine-year-old girl. She was taken away to live with their grandmother five hours away from the life she knew. I tell you this story because that nine-year-old girl was me. I was removed from my mother's care but it was my teacher that saved me. I can honestly say that she saved my life because without her, I couldn't see any way out. I was a voiceless nine-year-old girl who lived in a society where children should be seen and not heard, which is why I'm here today. I will be heard. I ask you to please listen to your students. Please be the adult that they need you to be.

People in school settings, and in settings where children are regularly are really important people in children's lives. They get to see children daily. They can often monitor a child's wellbeing in a way that other agencies can't when you only see children occasionally. So the information that educators and volunteers and people in a school setting have to offer can be really important for children's safety and well-being. If a mandated notifier is unsure about what to say when they ring the Child Abuse Report Line, there is a mandated reporter guide that's available that people can look at. There's also a mandated reporter checklist that's available so familiarise yourself with those documents and it will really help. It's really important for us to gather all of the information that is available. When we gather all of the information, what we then do is look back on a child's history and a family's history so that we just have a sense of the child's world and the child's life, and whether there have been previous concerns of a similar nature raised. When a mandated notifier makes a notification, it takes us some time to assess the information that's provided to us. So you might not get an immediate response to what's gonna happen as a result of the information you've provided. It's always open to a notifier to recontact the Child Abuse Report Line and speak to one of the social workers to see what's happened to the information that's been provided.

Knowing your students and paying attention to potential indicators could sharpen your ability to identify harmful situations. These might be physical, behavioural, social, and emotional. If a child or their caregiver's behaviour causes you to suspect that the child is at risk or a child tells you they know someone who has been harmed, as in the case we've just heard, this is reasonable grounds to report. The importance of the teacher-student relationship and a mandated notifier's duty of care is not over when you make a report to the Child Abuse Report Line. If you make a report, consider how you can continue to support and respond to the needs of the child and their family. Working together with your site leader is important to make sure that children and young people are safe from harm, a part of a safe and supportive environment, are learning and developing skills, and can speak up and are heard. You can act alone if the matter is an emergency but you don't need to act alone if you're not sure. Keeping our kids safe is everybody's business.

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