National Safe Schools Framework
All students should be able to learn and develop in safe and supportive environments. The Australian Government takes issues of bullying seriously and believes student wellbeing and safety are essential for academic development.
As part of a national approach to supporting schools to build safe school communities, the Australian Government has worked with all state and territory Governments to revise the National Safe Schools Framework.
The Framework provides Australian schools with a vision and a set of guiding principles that assist school communities to take a proactive whole-school approach to developing effective student safety and wellbeing policies. This vision includes creating learning environments which are free from bullying, harassment, aggression and violence.
The Framework places an emphasis on student wellbeing and child protection and includes relevant national and jurisdictional legislation and Government policy. The Framework also highlights and responds to the emergence of technologies that have enabled new forms of bullying to develop.
The Framework was endorsed by all ministers for education through the Ministerial Council for Education, Early Childhood Development and Youth Affairs (MCEECDYA) in December 2010.
The Framework was officially launched by the Hon Peter Garrett, MP, Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth on the 18 March 2011 to coincide with the inaugural National Day of Action Against Bullying and Violence.
Vision
The National Safe Schools Framework is based on the following overarching vision:
All Australian schools are safe, supportive and respectful teaching and learning communities that promote student wellbeing.
Guiding Principles
The vision is underpinned by the following guiding principles that represent fundamental beliefs about safe, supportive and respectful school communities. These guiding principles emphasise the importance of student safety and wellbeing as a pre-requisite for effective learning in all school settings.
Australian schools:
- affirm the rights of all members of the school community to feel safe and be safe at school
- acknowledge that being safe and supported at school is essential for student wellbeing and effective learning
- accept responsibility for developing and sustaining safe and supportive learning and teaching communities that also fulfill the school’s child protection responsibilities
- encourage the active participation of all school community members in developing and maintaining a safe school community where diversity is valued
- actively support young people to develop understanding and skills to keep themselves and others safe
- commit to developing a safe school community through a whole-school and
evidence-based approach
The Framework and the supporting resource manual are now available to all Australian schools.The resource manual provides support for schools in their implementation of the Framework. It includes the following:
1. National Safe Schools Framework school audit tool
The audit tool enables schools to assess themselves against the National Safe Schools Framework’s nine elements of safe and supportive schools. This tool is designed to assist schools to make informed judgments about what they are doing well and to identify where there are gaps.
2. Frequently asked questions related to student safety and wellbeing
This section provides the evidence-informed answers to the most frequently asked questions posed by schools in relation to student safety and wellbeing. It is a summary of section 6 which is a fully-referenced review of the research literature.
3. Key actions and effective practices for implementing the Framework’s nine elements
This section elaborates on the key characteristics for each of the nine elements of the Framework. It also provides examples of key actions and effective practices for each characteristic that can enable schools to address the nine elements within the specific needs of their own school communities. The lists of key actions are not meant to be exhaustive nor prescriptive but instead are meant to be indicative of the practices that schools may consider adopting.
4. Commonly used terms and definitions
This section provides definitions for common terms used in this document and in the overall area of student wellbeing and safe schools.
5. Resources to support implementation of the Framework
This section provides an overview of useful resources such as legislation, policies, codes, guidelines, frameworks, curriculum activities and fact sheets. The list is not exhaustive, and is up to date at the time of publication. The majority of resources listed are available online, and most are either published by, or endorsed by, Commonwealth, state or territory governments.
6. Review of the literature on student safety and wellbeing in schools
This document provides a fully-referenced comprehensive review of the research literature on student safety and wellbeing, with a specific focus on bullying. This review elaborates on section 2: Frequently Asked Questions related to student safety and wellbeing.
The National Safe Schools Framework has been published in hard copy and is being distributed to all primary and secondary schools. The Framework and resource manual are available here in a downloadable format. It is intended that these documents be used together.
The National Safe Schools Framework posters are available for free download in A1, A2 and A3 sizes but have been developed for print media use only. As such, versions of these posters in Rich Text Format are not available.
Any enquires about the National Safe Schools Framework can be directed to safeschools@deewr.gov.au.