At St Michael’s, pastoral care is the reciprocal involvement of all in fostering a community that encourages the personal growth of each individual in their physical, academic, creative, social, emotional and spiritual dimensions. Our unique Pastoral Care Triage process ensures that each student receives the support they need from the most relevant pastoral staff, health and wellbeing services.
Our unique Pastoral Care Triage process ensures each student receives the support they need from the most relevant pastoral staff and health and wellbeing services.
Our Values and Student Wellbeing: At St Michael’s, our values are lived; they are the foundation of how we treat ourselves and others, with dignity and respect. We show compassion and care for all in our community and the environment.
Leadership Opportunities: We believe in the power of leadership to instil confidence and provide valuable experience. That’s why we encourage students to engage in a rich array of leadership opportunities throughout the School, learning about responsibility and making a difference to the lives of others.
Our Support System: Pastoral care at St Michael’s involves all staff, with specialist roles and systems providing further support. These include the House structure, Chaplaincy, Psychology, and Health and Learning Services. We’re here to ensure every student receives the care and support they need.
Our Wellbeing Curriculum reflects a deep body of work in the child safety space that aims to engender an understanding of respectful relationships at all ages and is intrinsically embedded in our values and school culture.
St Michael’s is widely known for its strong community values. We aim to make decisions and live in accordance with our values of Dignity, Respect, Care and Compassion. These values live in our School community, informing and shaping decisions, actions and behavioural expectations.
St Michael’s is committed to following best practice recommendations by the Department of Education and the Victorian Government in relation to Child Safe Standards.
This includes a partnership with independent auditor Childwise and CompliSpace to meet legislative compliance requirements. An independent party audits our child safe policies, procedures and school environment every three years, which involves surveying groups of volunteers and parent/caregivers.
We also have ongoing child safety reviews conducted internally, including an annual ‘Safe Spaces’ audit with our Executive, Wellbeing Committee and Child Safety Committee.
As a leading school for the Department of Education’s Respectful Relationships Education in Schools initiative, we recognise that our school is more than a space for young people to learn. It is a place where all students and staff deserve to feel respected, safe and valued.
Respectful relationships is one of the five key pillars that underpin our Wellbeing Curriculum. This pillar is about educating and empowering our students to give them the confidence and the resources to speak out if something is wrong.
All students who come to St Michael’s Grammar School have the right to feel and be safe.
We are committed to creating and maintaining a student safety and wellbeing culture, with input from the entire School community, where students are encouraged to talk openly and share their views, particularly about matters that directly impact them. Through our processes and practices, we ensure that a student safety and wellbeing culture is championed and modelled at all levels of the School, from the top down to the bottom up. Student safety and wellbeing are embedded in our school leadership, governance and culture.
The School seeks to deliver a student safety and wellbeing environment which supports and respects every student, including in particular the cultural safety of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, students from culturally and/or diverse backgrounds, and students with a disability or who are otherwise vulnerable (including students who identify as LGBTQIA+ and those with challenging home situations).
We have zero tolerance for child abuse and reportable conduct. The School regards its student safety and wellbeing responsibilities with the utmost importance:
Each member of the School community has an individual and collective responsibility to understand the important and specific role we each have, and to ensure that the safety and wellbeing of all students is at the forefront of all that we do and every decision that we make.
St Michael’s is a sector leader in child safety and respectful relationships, procedures, policies and lived experience. In line with our position as a sector leader in child safety, we have a zero-tolerance policy for child abuse and other harm, including historic abuse. As part of our ongoing commitment to child safety, we are dedicated to providing the necessary resources for students and their families to maintain our child-safe culture. You can find out more about our child safety policy here.
For more information about our Wellbeing Curriculum, which includes details on interventions and support, external programs and partnerships, parent engagement, and our curriculum, please visit the link here.