The month of November at AISG was Child Protection Awareness Month. AISG is committed to child protection by ensuring that all children in our care are afforded a safe and secure environment in which to grow and develop. The month was also full of activities and instructional sessions to help our entire community learn about child protection. Here are some of the highlights:

Campus Messaging

As part of our awareness campaign, our campuses were decorated with banners and pledges about child protection that included messages like ‘AISG is a child safe zone’ and #AISGCares. These served as great reminders for everyone and helped build community spirit and participation in learning about this very important topic.

Speaker Series: Nick Thompson

At the beginning of the month, we welcomed as part of our Speaker Series, Nick Thompson, who offers creative counseling with degrees in psychology and social work and has over 15 years of experience working with youth and their families. He held several virtual meetings with various members of our community.  His session with Upper Secondary students focused on topics such as technology, social media, and self-acceptance. During his session with teachers, he discussed technology, empowering students on their learning, building relationships, and building resilience within students. Lastly, his parent session focused on building healthy parent-child relationships, supporting students with mental health issues, and managing tech at home.

Self-Advocacy in Secondary

In Secondary, there was also the subtheme of ‘Self-Advocacy: Speaking Up For Your Safety’. For our adolescent students, we felt it was important to impart on them the importance of their voice and using it to protect themselves. Signs around school and wristbands with motivational messages were provided to spread this message.

Parent Education

We also hosted multiple sessions with parents during the month. The first parent coffee was hosted by our Elementary school counselors and Assistant Principal and introduced the month’s theme, the curriculum, what initiatives would take place during the month, and what parents could do at home to safeguard their children. A second parent coffee took place later in the month with members of the Australian Federal Police. This session focused on how parents can help their children stay safe online. Lastly, our Secondary counselors hosted an in-person session on how parents can create safe spaces at home for their children.

Online Safety

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) visited AISG and hosted sessions with Grades 3 through 5, Grade 6, and Grade 9 and spoke about their ThinkUKnow program. They taught ways for students to be safe online, how to be safe when online gaming, and what to look out for. The AFP has been teaching this program to children all over the world and helping children learn to think about who they’re interacting with online.

Day of Solidarity

November 19^th was the day to Purple Up! Students and faculty alike showed their passion for keeping AISG a safe space by wearing purple! It was inspiring to see how many of us take the issue seriously and publicly showed their support of child protection. Students showed off their purple wristbands they received on the day as well.

At AISG, our commitment to child protection includes involving the whole community in learning the best ways to protect our students and their children. As a benefit from this very educational month, we understand the importance of how we can all work together to keep AISG and our respective homes a child safe zone.