Child Safe

Keeping Our Children Safe

As a Catholic school in the Benedictine tradition, we have a mission-driven, moral and legal responsibility to provide a safe and secure environment for children and young people and to protect them from all forms of abuse and neglect. We are steadfast in our resolve to honour this responsibility and promote the safety, wellbeing and inclusion of all children and young people.

The College has formalised a Child Safe Policy in response to Ministerial Order 1359. The College Child Safety and Wellbeing Policy can be found on our Policies webpage.

Information relating to Catholic Education’s commitment to the new Ministerial Standards is also available on the VCEA Child Safety Website.

Should any member of our College community, including visitors to our campus, have any queries regarding the College policy or procedures, please contact either of the following personnel:

Deputy Principal: Learning and Life - Kylie Kuppe
Risk and Compliance Leader: Caroline Sheehan

All concerns about abuse are taken seriously by the College . Our process for Responding and Reporting to suspected Child Abuse as it relates to Child Safe Standard 7 can also be found on our Policies webpage.

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View our college policies

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Commitment to Child Safety

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All children and young people have a right to feel safe and be safe.

Santa Maria College promotes a vision of Catholic education that is impelled by the Parable of the Good Samaritan, guided by the Rule of St Benedict, and inspired by the Sisters of the Good Samaritan, as stated in the GSE Philosophy of Education.

As such, Santa Maria College is committed to a culture of no tolerance for child abuse. We prioritise the safety and wellbeing of all young people and continue to respond positively and proactively to Ministerial Order 1359 in relation to related policies, procedures, strategies, risk mitigation and through responsiveness to emerging issues. Santa Maria College is committed to the establishment of a culturally safe environment in which the diverse and unique identities and experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people are respected and valued.

The person of each individual human being, in his or her material and spiritual needs, is at the heart of Christ’s teaching: that is why the promotion of the human person is the goal of the Catholic school.

(The Catholic school on the threshold of the Third Millennium, Congregation for Catholic Education 1997, n. 9).