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.

This policy provides the mandatory framework for school decision making about promoting and maintaining positive student behaviour, as well as responding to student misconduct.

The Department of Education provides inclusive and equitable work and learning environments, services and management practices free of unlawful discrimination and harassment. This includes the prevention and effective management of discrimination and harassment.

Information and communication technologies are provided by the Department to enable employees and authorised third parties to satisfactorily perform their duties. It is recognised that the associated information, physical equipment, infrastructure and software is at risk of accidental or intentional loss, unauthorised manipulation or unauthorised disclosure. This policy authorises security controls to address those risks.

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 Framework provides a unified strategic direction for sustainability across our organisation. It outlines our commitment to positive outcomes for sustainability, now and into the future.