Our College has a mission-driven, moral and legal responsibility to provide for the care, safety and wellbeing of our students and to protect them from all forms of abuse and neglect. Our College works in partnership with our community to reduce or remove risks to the personal safety and wellbeing of our students. Our policies respond to Victorian legislative requirements including the specific requirements of the Victorian Child Safe Standards set out in Ministerial Order No. 1359.
Victoria Catholic School Statement of Commitment to Child Safety
As a Victorian Catholic school, Salesian College acts in accordance with the Victoria Catholic Education Authority’s statement of commitment to child safety.
The Victorian Catholic school education sector holds the care, safety and wellbeing of children and young people as a central and fundamental responsibility of Catholic education. This commitment is drawn from and inherent to the teaching and mission of Jesus Christ, with love, justice and the sanctity of each human person at the heart of the gospel.
This statement is intended to reaffirm the central focus on child safety across Catholic education in Victoria, built around a unified understanding of the moral imperative and overarching commitments that underpin our drive for continual improvement, and embedding a culture of ‘no tolerance’ for child abuse in our schools and organisations.
The characteristic element of the Catholic school, in addition to pursuing ‘cultural goals and the human formation of youth’, consists in creating ‘for the school community a special atmosphere animated by the Gospel spirit of freedom and charity’. To this end, the Catholic school aims ‘to order the whole of human culture to the news of salvation so that the knowledge the students gradually acquire of the world, life and [humanity] is illumined by faith’. In this way, the Catholic school prepares pupils to exercise their freedom responsibly, forming an attitude of openness and solidarity (Congregation for Catholic Education 2022, n. 16).
The Victorian Catholic school education sector has a universal expectation for the protection of children and is resolutely committed to ensuring that all those engaged in Catholic education in Victoria promote the inherent dignity of children and young people, and their fundamental right to be respected and nurtured in a safe school environment.
To view the whole statement, access here.
Salesian College is a Child Safe School in accordance with Ministerial Order 1359
Salesian College provides employees, volunteers and clergy with regular and appropriate opportunities to develop their knowledge of, openness to and ability to address child safety matters. This includes induction, ongoing training and professional learning in accordance with Ministerial Order 1359 to ensure that everyone understands and is compliant in their professional and legal obligations and responsibilities, and the procedures for reporting suspicion of child abuse and neglect.
