'Do it yourself' guide to the NSSF
The aims of the National Safe Schools Framework are to assist all school communities in building safe and supportive schools where:
The NSSF was endorsed by MCEETYA in July 2003 and provides an agreed national approach. All Australian schools are required to implement, and report against, the Framework in 2005.
The official NSSF materials consist of four documents, including the Framework itself. In addition APAPDC has developed a workbook. You are advised to begin with the white Framework document, and then go to the Workbook. In addition you can download a PowerPoint presentation that APAPDC developed for their workshops. You will need to save this to your Desktop for it to work properly. This presentation may assist you in introducing the NSSF to your school.
The framework consists of eleven guiding principles and six key elements. These elements of good practice need to be in place for schools to implement the guiding principles. We have put the principles and elements together in a diagram. You will find an animated diagram of the Framework in the PowerPoint presentation.
When the guiding principles are embedded in the key elements, it means quality leadership of a whole school approach that is proactive, regularly reviewed, and based on student wellbeing. There are a number of national initiatives to support wellbeing. You may also be interested to explore the links between wellbeing and resilience.
The NSSF is a very useful tool for schools to be able to map what they do to be safe and supportive environments. This can be done by using the structure provided by the six key elements. Doing it in this way will also fulfil the reporting requirements.
The NSSF includes six outcomes statements, under each of the six key elements. These statements describe the expected outcomes when the guiding principles are embedded in the key elements. It is advised that you use these statements to map what your school already does, and to identify what your school still needs to do.
We have developed a simple audit tool that may assist you in this process. We hope to be able to publish real completed audits from schools, as examples. Please email webkeeper@bullyingnoway.com.au if you are willing to share what you have done. You do not need to include the name of the school.
The outcomes statements are included under each of the six key elements. These are broken down into smaller chunks where necessary. It will be useful to download and print this audit tool.
The first step is to ask under each of these elements: For this outcome to be acheived in our school, what specific things would we be able to observe or know about? Include what already exists in the school, and what still needs to be in place. These can be written down as a series of dot points. The 'suggested approaches' in the Framework document provide a useful starting point for this exercise.
The second step, for each of these dot points, is to fill in answers to these questions:
If existing, what evidence do you have?
If you don't have evidence, what is the best process to use?
Who are the best people to get the information from?
The third step is to identify what further action is needed, if any. These 'further actions' can become the objectives on an action planning proformas.
When completed, the audit tool will map to what extent you already implement the NSSF. It will also identify what your school community thinks still needs to put in place. In addition the action planning proformas will provide a record of what new initiatives you have put in place. The advice we have received from DEEWR indicate that these documents can also comprise the report to DEEWR in 2005.
Our key messages about implementing the NSSF are:
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