BRISBANE Catholic Education has launched new posters that will assist students to “always feel safe and be safe at home, at school, online and in the community”.
Bruce and Denise Morcombe from the Daniel Morcombe Foundation launched the two new posters that will be distributed to schools as a visual reminder to help students to “Recognise, React and Report” in unsafe situations.
The two posters, one aimed at primary students and one for secondary schools, sit in alignment with the Daniel Morcombe Child Safety Curriculum that is being trialled in some schools.
This curriculum consists of classroom lessons across three phases of learning: Prep – Year 2 (Early Years), Years 3 – 6 and Years 7 – 9 (Junior Secondary) which aims to teach children about personal safety and awareness, including cyber safety and phone safety, by focusing on the three key safety messages- Recognise, React and Report.
On hand for the posters unveiling were students who contributed their ideas and their individual “safety heroes” to the posters through a design competition run by BCE’s Student Protection Team in Child Protection Week in 2012.
Student Protection senior education officer Sue Diggles said the poster competition was initiated because the student protection posters currently displayed in BCE schools were more than 10 years old.
“It was time for an update,” she said.
“And we wanted our students to be involved in the creation of the new posters.”
She said they received hundreds of entries to their “safety heroes” design competition and after much contemplation by four eminent judges five heroes were picked for the primary poster.
She said Seton College, Upper Mt Gravatt, students contributed to the secondary designs through an art assignment in Term 1 2013 using the three key messages.
Mr Morcombe told the gathering that just as the famous Slip Slop Slap message has reminded students about the dangers of the sun, he hoped this slogan would help students recognise when they might be in danger, how to react to that situation and who to report it to.
The Morcombe’s son Daniel was abducted and murdered in 2003.
