Child safety in physical and online environments

There are many actions schools may use to address this standard. To get started, review the example actions on this page.

Refer to guidance on Child Safety Risk Management.

Schools can use these templates to develop the risk register:

All schools

• Child Safety Wellbeing Policy guidance
• Child Safety Code of Conduct
• Child Safety Risk Register

Government schools

• Acceptable use agreements
• Camps and Excursions (including local excursions) (login required)
• Digital learning in school policy (login required)
• Yard Duty and Supervision (login required)

Use this checklist to make sure your school is doing everything required to comply with this standard:

• Government schools: Child Safety Action List (DOCX, 110KB)
• Non-government schools: Child Safety Action List (DOCX, 384KB)

Schools must review their child safety risk register annually.

Schools must review their child safety and wellbeing policies:

• after any significant child safety incident
• at least once every 2 years.

• Supervise students properly in all settings, including the playground, excursions and camps.
• Give particular attention to the safety, diverse needs and vulnerabilities of students in each activity or setting. Consider whether there are any barriers that might prevent students from raising concerns.
• Inform students and their families about appropriate use of the school’s technology, safety tools and how to seek help and report concerns including cyberbullying and online grooming.
• Keep up to date with current online safety issues and expert information from specialist government and non-government bodies including the Office of the e-Safety Commissioner and Alannah and Madeline Foundation's eSmart Schools.
• Use the eSafety Toolkit for schools for a whole-school approach to prevent and respond to online incidents.
• Promote activities in the school community that connect schools and communities and raise awareness to prevent bullying and violence. For example, National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence).
• Create a respectful, sensitive and safe environment for people who may be experiencing family violence. Schools are required to align to the MARAM framework over time. MARAM responsibility 1 requires schools to create a respectful, sensitive and safe environment that enables a child or young person to feel comfortable to talk about their experiences of family violence and seek support.

• Identify and document the school’s child safety risks in the school’s risk register or equivalent. Ensure strategies are in place to manage those risks.
• Consider the range of school environments and the nature of physical spaces, including:
  • onsite buildings and grounds
  • classrooms and corridors
  • pick-up and drop off areas.
• Consider off-site physical environments for student use. Where reasonably possible, inspect these sites and venues for events, excursions, camps and international student accommodation ahead of time.
• Consider risks arising from child-to-child and adult-to-child interactions in physical and online spaces.
• Consider cultural safety. Are there elements of the physical school environment that would be unwelcoming to Aboriginal people?
• Inform staff, volunteers and students of identified risks and risk management strategies (where appropriate).
• Keep records of risk management activities, including risk assessments for camps and excursions.
• Provide training and refresher training to staff and relevant volunteers on risk management policies and procedures.

• Be aware of risks posed by dark spaces, stairwells, private spaces and corners in school environments. Develop strategies to address these risks.
• Inform students about spaces that are off limits. This includes out-of-bounds areas, storerooms and staff rooms.
• Nominate ratios of staff and volunteers to students for different types of activities.
• Keep records of any court orders in place regarding access or intervention orders. Communicate to staff who can collect students in these circumstances.
• Use observation aids when appropriate, such as observation windows, concave mirrors and CCTV. Consider the balance between appropriate visibility and respecting staff and students’ privacy.
• Undertake works to improve lighting in poorly lit areas.
• Let students know how to raise concerns and where to go if they need help.
• Organise professional learning to discuss risk and harm prevention and hazard awareness with staff, volunteers and school council members.
• Keep records of incidents that occur, including accidents and medical events.
• Review incidents against policies and procedures, including seeking student feedback on how incidents were handled and how safe they felt. Make improvements as needed.

• Give students opportunities to learn, play, create, entertain, make new friends and stay connected.
• Facilitate age-appropriate ways to use the internet and social media for students utilising the whole school approach to Respectful Relationships, including the:
  • Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships resources
  • School-wide Positive Behaviour Support Framework
  • Safe Schools
  • Office of the e-Safety Commissioner
• Work with Alannah and Madeline Foundation to access their suite of resources to support a culture of safe and responsible technology use within school communities, including eSmart.
• Inform students about online safety risks, including:
  • cyberbullying and trolling
  • invasion of privacy or digital surveillance
  • inappropriate sharing of images
  • phishing, harvesting of personal information or data theft
  • identity theft
  • malevolent software (malware)
  • offensive images and messages
  • age-inappropriate online content
  • impersonation/catfishing
  • grooming.
• Outline acceptable use of personal devices for students.
• Prohibit the use of student email addresses to sign up to unauthorised third-party services. Communicate this expectation to students and the school community.
• Use filtering software on school-based devices.
• Encourage parents to use parental controls on personal devices.
• Advise students on how they can seek help from a trusted adult if they are exposed to inappropriate imagery or content that upsets them.
• Monitor online activity and respond to breaches of the online policies and procedures with appropriate consequences.

• Address acceptable and non-acceptable behaviour in online environments in the school’s Child Safety Code of Conduct. Cover social media, email, instant messages, SMS and other apps in your code.
• Outline acceptable use of personal devices by staff and volunteers.
• Have guidelines for taking, storing and using images of children and students – including photos and video recordings.
• Deal with misuse of digital devices and unacceptable behaviour in accordance with school policy.
• Review communication protocols regularly, considering emerging services and technologies, such as disappearing message services.
• Uphold policies and report breaches in accordance with the school’s complaints handling processes and Code of Conduct.
• Provide avenues for students, families, carers, communities and staff to report online issues or concerns.
• Protect student privacy by supporting students to limit the amount of information provided online.
• Require school staff to undertake information security training to reduce the risk of online phishing or malware attacks.

• Camps and Excursions
• Child and Family Violence Information Sharing Schemes
• Duty of Care
• Family Violence Support
• Family violence: information for employees
• Information Sharing and Family Violence Reforms Guidance and Toolkit
• Mobile Phones — Student Use
• OHS Purchasing
• Photographing, Filming and Recording Students
• Privacy Impact Assessments
• Procurement
• Protecting Children — Reporting and Other Legal Obligations
• Reporting and Managing School Incidents (including emergencies)
• Safe Schools
• Safety - Visual and Performing Arts
• Supervision of Students

• Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority – Child Safe Standards
• Catholic Education Commission of Victoria – Child Safet
• Independent Schools Victoria

• PROTECT – Identifying and Responding to All Forms of Abuse in Victoria Schools (PDF, 2.86MB)
• Protecting Children – Reporting and Other Legal Obligations (Mandatory Reporting)
• Risk Management in Schools – Risk Register
• Training for the information sharing and MARAM reforms

• eSmart Schools is an initiative of the Alannah and Madeline Foundation. Schools are provided with support and resources (through the self-paced Positive Digital Cultures and Positive Digital Practices Units) to develop a culture that promotes safe, smart and responsible use of technology and reduce cyberbullying. eSmart Schools is aligned to the curriculum and free for all Victorian schools.
• The Checklist for online safety: Child Safe Organisations- Human Rights Commission (PDF, 355KB)​. The checklist will assist schools to consider potential safeguarding risks and aspects of online safety to better protect children and young people.
• Office of the e-Safety Commissioner. Provides access to advice and support, information, current research, teaching guides, lesson plans and resources to help schools improve cybersafety and reduce cyberbullying. This includes functions to report and seek support to address online incidents through Report online harm(opens in a new window).
• The eSafety Toolkit for Schools(opens in a new window), The toolkit is designed to support schools to create safer online environments. The resources are backed by evidence and support a nationally consistent approach to preventing and responding to online safety issues.