Animals can enrich students’ learning experiences, however schools must adhere to consistent and high quality practices for the care and use of animals. Staff are to adhere to the processes of the Schools Animal Ethics Committee for the use of animals for any scientific teaching activity and/or adhere to the processes of Agricultural Education for the use of animals on school farms.

This policy explains what ‘duty of care’ means, how teaching staff may discharge their duty of care to students, and circumstances in which non-teaching staff, external providers and volunteers may owe students a duty of care.

The Department of Education (the Department) supports high quality, ethical research where the findings have the potential to inform decision making and contribute to improvements in school education policy, staff competency, operational practices, student and staff wellbeing or student achievement and progress.