There are many ways you can be involved in the life of the school and we encourage all of our families to take an active part in the Boroondara Park Primary School community.
School Council
Classroom Helpers
We recognise the place that parents and carers have in their children’s learning. We highly value the contributions that our parent community make to enhance the learning experience of our students.
The school’s volunteer program opens a wide range of opportunities for parents, carers, and volunteers to be involved in student learning. These opportunities include organisation of take-home books, supporting reading groups, attending excursions, supporting specialist such as art and attending camps.
At Boroondara Park Primary School we recognise the valuable contribution that volunteers provide to our school community and the work that we do. We are committed to implementing and following practices which protect the safety and wellbeing of children and our staff and volunteers. The procedures set out below are designed to ensure that Boroondara Park’s volunteers are suitable to work with children and are well-placed to make a positive contribution to our school community.
Volunteers operate within professional standards and under the expectation of confidentiality. Classroom helpers are in a position of trust and should not discuss with other parents, adults or children any personal information about students, staff or other classroom helpers learnt whilst involved in school programs. You may become aware of many things that most parents do not experience. It is paramount that what you might observe is kept confidential. At Boroondara Park Primary School we ask you to respect and value:
individual children’s strengths and areas for growth
difference in learning styles and behaviour
the various teaching styles you may encounter
the variety of student-teacher relationships you observe
Please do not discuss “incidents” you may observe with anyone else other than the classroom teacher.
Supporting whole school activities and events
Boroondara Park provides lots of opportunities for whole school events and community engagement events. Volunteers enable our school Cross Country and Athletics to run successfully. Our community engagement events including morning teas, BBQs and Fetes are successfully only because of the amazing support from school volunteers.
CONFIDENTIALITY AGREEMENT
When undertaking the various roles or jobs at the school, we ask you to be aware of the following guidelines regarding confidentiality.
• All student’s classroom work, records, results, behaviour, special needs and health/medical conditions are highly confidential and must not be discussed or referred to with any other person except when speaking with the teacher or education assistants about the role or support you might be providing in the classroom. Discussing students with other parents and community members is not permitted at any time.
• Events and serious incidents do occur from time to time in a school. The circumstances of these situations and the actions taken by the school are best explained to the parents and the community by the school administration. If you are concerned by what you see or hear in the school, we appreciate you discussing this with the staff member you are working with and/or the Principal. False or misguided information can seriously affect a school’s reputation, and more importantly the incorrect perception of an individual student, and it is important that the school handles incidents in a considered and careful manner. You are not permitted to discuss any events or serious incidents outside of the classroom and social media is not to be used to voice your opinion. These will be considered as breaches of the volunteer guidelines.
• You may be informed by a student or have access to information about a student’s health background or family situation, which is of a sensitive nature. This is privileged information and must not be shared with any other person outside the school. If you feel the information you receive has the potential to place a student at risk, you have an obligation to discuss the matter with the teacher and/or Principal. You will be asked to sign and return a google form, to acknowledge that you have read and understood the volunteer guidelines and Child Safety Induction information. You will not be permitted to volunteer in curriculum programs until you have signed this form, and presented your Working with Children Check (WWCC) to the school office.
Becoming a volunteer
Members of our school community who would like to volunteer are encouraged to approach the Assistant Principal, Principal or classroom teacher for an initial discussion.
If the school needs volunteers for specific events or activities a message is sent to all families via Compass and an invitation to volunteer is included in the fortnightly newsletter. Emails and Class Rep WhatsApp messages might also be used for recruitment of volunteers.
To be a volunteer at Boroondara Park PS the follow steps needed to be followed:
Child Safety Induction Pack - Volunteers
Purpose
Thank you for your interest in volunteering at our school. The purpose of this induction pack is to ensure Boroondara Park Primary School volunteers are familiar with our policies and procedures relating to child safety and understand the important role they play in maintaining and promoting the safety of our students.
Volunteers must read the suite of policies and procedures in the links below before commencing any work where children are likely to be present.
Key messages
Boroondara Park Primary School is committed to the safety and wellbeing of all children. We want children attending our school to be safe, happy and respected.
We are committed to creating inclusive environment where diversity is supported and students feel safe to bring their whole selves to school.
Allegations and concerns relating to the safety and wellbeing of our school community will be treated very seriously and consistently with our policies and procedures.
We are committed to preventing child abuse, identifying risks early and removing and reducing these risks.
Everyone has a role to ensure children are safe – if something doesn’t feel right, speak up. If you have any concerns about any inappropriate behaviours in the school community you should speak to the principal. If this would not be appropriate in the circumstances, you can contact the North Eastern Regional Office on 1800 338 663 or the Department of Education and Training on 1300 338 691.
Induction materials – must read
This induction pack contains the following documents that all new volunteers must read and familiarise themselves with. Please click on the hyperlinks to access each document. If you would prefer a hard copy of this pack, please contact the office who will happily provide you with one.
Boroondara Park Primary School Volunteers Policy
Boroondara Park Primary School Child Safety and Wellbeing Policy
Boroondara Park Primary School Child Safety Responding and Reporting Obligations Policy and Procedures
Boroondara Park Primary School Child Safety Code of Conduct
Additional information is available at:
PROTECT: Four Critical Actions for Schools – Responding to incidents, disclosures and suspicions of child abuse
PROTECT: Identify child abuse
Contact
We value your feedback on ways we can continue to improve and strengthen our child safety approach and encourage you to contact the principal with any comments or questions.
All volunteers will be asked to sign to acknowledge they have read and will follow the appropraite Child Safe policies when undertaking volunteer work at Boroondara Park PS.