Aim of the programme
Keeping Ourselves Safe is a comprehensive child abuse prevention programme for schools. Its purpose is to:
- teach students a range of safe practices that they can use when interacting with other people, both online and face to face
- teach students how to recognise the difference between healthy and unhealthy relationships, and encourage students who have been or are being abused to seek help
- prevent abuse by making parents and teachers more aware of their responsibilities to help students avoid abuse.
School Community Officers are available to support schools to plan and implement Keeping Ourselves Safe. Schools can contact them through their local police station.
Resources
The Keeping Ourselves Safe resources include:
- Information for principals and Boards of Trustees
- Information for parents/whānau
- Information for teachers
- Student learning activities for:
Understanding abuse
Abuse occurs in all communities, regardless of their ethnic, socio-economic, geographic and religious make-up. A child who has been abused is less likely to reach their full potential as an individual, may struggle to focus on learning, and may fail to thrive.
Child protection guidelines
Guidelines to help schools to plan safety education that focus on child protection, and outline ways to identify and respond to incidents of child abuse:
Two short (20 second) videos in which the Privacy Commissioner answers two important questions: What do you do if you think a child is in danger? Can you share information to help at-risk children?