Melbourne Ballet School’s Commitment to Child Safety

 

  • The Melbourne Ballet School is committed to child safety.
  • We want children to be safe, happy and empowered. We support and respect all children, as well as our staff and volunteers.
  • We are committed to the safety, participation and empowerment of all children.
  • We have zero tolerance of child abuse, and all allegations and safety concerns will be treated very seriously and consistently with our robust policies and procedures.
  • We have legal and moral obligations to contact authorities when we are worried about a child’s safety, which we follow rigorously.
  • The Melbourne Ballet School is committed to preventing child abuse and identifying risks early, and removing and reducing these risks.
  • Our organisation has robust human resources and recruitment practices for all staff and volunteers.
  • Our organisation is committed to regularly talking about and training and educating our staff and volunteers on child abuse risks.
  • We support and respect all children, as well as our staff and volunteers. We are committed to the cultural safety of Aboriginal children, the cultural safety of children from culturally and/or linguistically diverse backgrounds, and to providing a safe environment for children with a disability.
  • We have specific policies, procedures and training in place that support our leadership team, staff and volunteers to achieve these commitments.
  • We are aware of the inherent risks associated with dance schools and we continue to evaluate these risks and implement solutions to keep our young people safe
  • We are committed to providing an environment where all young people feel valued and can learn in a supportive atmosphere regardless of their skill level
  • We are committed to employing teachers that uphold these values and we will stop classes and remove a teacher should we feel their behaviour is inappropriate
  • We lead on child safety from the top. Studio owners and key management staff all uphold and practice child safety and are on hand to support others in the organisation.
  • Whilst we believe that discipline is important in the dance training industry, this does not involve yelling in a demeaning manner or isolating, threatening, bullying or victimising students.
  • Each teacher will have very clear expectations for behaviour in class and this will be communicated directly to students, whilst all students are expected to comply with these expectations, we must all agree that they are fair and just.
  • Parents are an important part of our dance community and should always feel their children are safe. We expect all parents and carers to uphold the child safe standards and code of conduct. 
  • Our policies are well communicated to all staff, volunteers, children, families and members of the community. 
  • We are committed to the holistic development of the children in our care and endeavour to incorporate discussions, workshops, displays and good teaching practice on health and wellbeing. This includes physical, mental and emotional health
  • We have zero tolerance of bullying and regularly work with our staff, teachers and students to ensure this is embedded in our culture.
  • We have stringent anti bullying policies in place to support our commitment to child safety.
  • We are committed to continually improving our facilities to ensure the safety of our children and young people and to remove all risks of child abuse

If you believe a child is at immediate risk of abuse phone 000.