A CHILD safety curriculum, named in memory of Daniel Morcombe, is empowering our students to develop the skills needed to better manage their own safety.
The specialised curriculum, developed by the Queensland Government in partnership with Daniel’s parents, Bruce and Denise, highlights the message for students to “Recognise” the signs of danger and trust your body’s natural warning instincts to “React” to these dangers and to “Report” such dangers to the Police or a responsible adult.
St Bernardine’s Catholic School, Regents Park, assistant principal Denita Castley said they decided to implement the Daniel Morcombe Child Safety Curriculum as they placed a high value on student safety both on campus and off.
She said the resource was an excellent way to embed important safety messages across a range of topics into the school curriculum.
“It has slotted into our school situation quite easily,” she said.
“We are mainly instilling in them that they are responsible for their own safety, to make sure that they do understand that a situation that is unsafe and what to do about getting out of it.
She said feedback from teachers, students and parents had all been positive, with parents recognising the importance of the safety messages being taught, which they were reinforcing at home.
At St Mary’s Primary, Laidley, where they have also adopted the resource teacher Angela Frizzell said there was so much great content and it stimulated positive dialogue that they decided to run the program over two terms instead of one.
She said there was some daunting material relating to safety issues, but the students responded to it in a positive and mature way.
“It’s very user-friendly, it can be adapted for the needs of the class and students enjoy talking about the issues.”
She said after seeing the benefit of it in everyday interactions between the students she would highly recommend the program to other teachers.
Guidance counsellor Caz Cipa said it was important to teach all students proactively about how to protect themselves and what to do if they feel unsafe, not to wait until an issue or a ‘near miss’ arises
St Mary’s principal Nathan Haley said it was wonderful to see students highly engaged in such a well-planned program, focused on developing their own well-being.
“It is very pleasing to see students transferring their learning through the program into their day-to-day life,” he said.
