Prevention policies/activities in schools

Abuse is a serious matter and no-one deserves to be abused. Abuse can take a number of forms, all of which can be damaging to the victim.

Whenever Police or other resource people provide education about child protection, the following guidelines should be followed:

• The school must have an effective child protection policy that clearly describe how to identify and respond to suspected abuse and neglect (as required under the Vulnerable Children Act 2014).
• Everyone in the school community shares responsibility for preventing the abuse of children.
• So that children can recognise, avoid and report abuse, they should be taught skills, knowledge and attitudes through regular and planned relationship education programmes (e.g. Kia Kaha and Keeping Ourselves Safe or Loves-Me-Not).
• Abuse prevention and relationship education should take place at all school levels.
• Lessons should not be unsupported one-off events, but should incorporate effective pedagogy.

In particular, it needs to be remembered that:

• children don't always know that sex abuse is wrong and reportable
• young children are not always capable of judging adults’ motives
• abuse in family/whānau and close relationships is more damaging and significantly more likely than abuse by strangers – minimise teaching of 'stranger danger'
• the core of learning activities for students should include identifying danger signals, asserting rights to be safe, identifying and respecting private anatomical parts, developing problem-solving and social skills, and gaining confidence to seek help.

Further information

For further information, see:

• Sexuality Education: a guide for principals, boards of trustees, and teachers (2015) from the Ministry of Education
• Bullying prevention and response: A guide for schools (2015) (PDF) from the Bullying Prevention Advisory Group.
• Preparing for and dealing emergencies and traumatic incidents (2015) from the Ministry of Education
• Families Commission: Effectiveness of relationship education programmes in schools for Years 7–13 (2013)
• Who abuses children? - information about the myth of 'stranger danger'.
• Keeping Our Kids Safe: Advice on Behaviour Danger (PDF, 1.4 MB)

Response policies/activities in schools

Whenever child abuse, neglect, relationship violence, or cyberbullying is reported, the following guidelines should be followed:

• All reports of abuse must be listened to and acted on.
• Many people fail to report abuse in case their suspicions are wrong. Section 16 of the Children, Young Persons and Their Families Act (1989) protects people who notify concerns of abuse in good faith from civil and criminal proceedings.
• The child’s safety should always be the paramount consideration in the notification process.
• No decisions or actions in respect of suspected or actual child abuse, neglect, relationship violence, or cyberbullying are to be made by any staff member in isolation unless there are concerns for the immediate safety of the child.
• A consultative approach is essential to ensure the safety of the child and the staff member. Staff must discuss their concerns with the principal or nominated person/advocate. Where applicable, follow the board's complaint policy.
• Decisions about informing parents or caregivers about suspected or actual child abuse or neglect should be made after consultation between the school and Ministry for Vulnerable Children, Oranga Tamariki.
• Effective child protection requires a full, accurate and prompt sharing of information.

Further information

For further information, see:

• What do I do if I think a child is at risk? (2017), two short (20 second) videos from the Privacy Commissioner answering two important questions: What do you do if you think a child is in danger?  Can you share information to help at-risk children?
• Safer organisations, safer children (2015), an inter-agency child protection policy guideline that outlines what a good child protection policy should contain, along with links to supporting resources.
• Bullying prevention and response: A guide for schools (2015) (PDF) from the Bullying Prevention Advisory Group.
• Reporting process that Police follow for suspected or disclosed child abuse (2014) (PDF, 60KB)
• Guidelines for reporting suspected or actual child abuse and neglect (2009) protocol between the Ministry of Education, the New Zealand School Trustees Association and Oranga Tamariki–Ministry for Children

Contact information

To find your local Police station go to www.police.govt.nz/contact-us/stations

Ministry for Vulnerable Children, Oranga Tamariki: telephone 0508 326 459 or email contact@mvcot.govt.nz

School–Police response protocol

School and local Police are encouraged to develop and agree protocols about when and how Police will respond to potential or actual offending by young people related to child abuse, relationship violence, serious and/or sustained assaults or other severe byullying.

This could be done as part of the Partnership agreement (DOCX, 26KB) on how the Police and school partner together in general.

Suggestions as to when to involve Police in bullying are provided in Preventing and responding to bullying: A guide for schools (2015).

Specific guidelines for online abuse

Online abuse prevention policies/activities in schools

Whenever Police or other resource people provide education about online safety and responsible behaviour on the internet, learning outcomes should emphasise:

• protection of personal information
• responsible internet use
• the consequences of poor decisions about disclosing personal information, including photographic imagery
• options for seeking help.

Further information

• Cyberbullying in Preventing and responding to bullying: A guide for schools (2015).
• Digital technology: safe and responsible use in schools (2014) (PDF)
• Netsafe including their publication Staying Safe Online (PDF).

Also see our sample online safety intervention plan:

• Online Safety Plan  (PDF, 156KB)
• Online Safety Plan (DOC, 241KB)

Contact information

To find your local Police station go to www.police.govt.nz/contact-us/stations

Teachers and students can report concerns about online behaviour through Netsafe.

Online abuse response policies/activities in schools

Whenever a case involving online child exploitation or cyberbullying is reported, the following guidelines should be followed:

• The child’s safety should always be the paramount consideration in the notification process.
• Privacy issues must be considered in respect of notifying parents/caregivers of online child exploitation, as young people may not want the circumstances disclosed to parents/caregivers.
• Schools should seek guidance on the most appropriate course of action.

School–Police response protocol

Schools and local Police are encouraged to develop and agree protocols about when and how Police will respond to cases of online child exploitation.

This could be done as part of the Partnership agreement (DOCX, 26KB) on how the Police and school partner together in general.

Education about alcohol and other drugs

Whenever Police or other resource people provide education about alcohol and other drug use and abuse, the following guidelines should be followed:

• Students should be given information only about drugs that are within their experience.
• Students should not be shown or told about the equipment associated with alcohol and other drug use, or ways of using particular drugs.
• Students should not be shown drug substances.
• Lessons will incorporate effective pedagogy.

The document One-Day Workshops and One-Off Talks [PDF, 96KB] provides advice to improve some types of prevention activities that, although provided with good intentions, may actually be less effective, e.g. one-off events, scare tactics, and activities that only raise awareness rather than address risk factors.    

Further information

The following Ministry of Education resources provide useful information:

• Alcohol and Other Drug Education Programmes (2014) [PDF] will assist schools with questions to ask when selecting and implementing AoD education programmes.

Prevention policies/activities in schools

To minimise the likelihood of students or staff being affected by alcohol and other drugs, each school can develop its own prevention guidelines and promote regular awareness-raising activities.

These prevention guidelines could include:

• clear rules about cigarette, alcohol and drug use on school grounds or at school-sponsored events (sports contests, balls, hireage rules for school facilities, EOTC activities)
• signaling to students that alcohol is not necessary to have a good time, and discouraging the normalisation of alcohol, for example by not supplying alcohol at school events
• clear consequences, discipline and referral process if/when students break school rules (e.g. cigarette smoking, alcohol and other drug use)
• empowerment for students to run their own anti-alcohol and other drug activities (e.g.Students Against Dangerous Driving [SADD])
• regular and planned classroom-based alcohol and other drug education programmes (e.g.Choice).

School balls

School balls managed by school staff and students are generally very well run and are successful events. Any problems lie almost exclusively with the pre and after school ball functions.

This advice sheet (PDF, 115KB) has been compiled from a range of suggestions from both educators and the New Zealand Police. It is not a definitive list, but a guide to assist you in your school ball preparations.

Response policies/activities in schools

To ensure consistency of response, each school should have clear procedures to follow when students or staff are affected by alcohol and other drugs, or break school rules about alcohol and other drugs.

School - Police response protocol

Schools and local Police are encouraged to develop and agree protocols about when and how Police will respond to potential or actual offending by young people related to alcohol and other drugs.

This could be done as part of the Partnership agreement (DOCX, 26KB) on how the Police and school partner together in general.

Prevention policies/activities in schools

The NZ Transport Agency's road safety education guidelines summarise what the research and road safety experts consider to be good practice in road safety education.

Whenever Police or other resource people provide road safety education, the following guidelines should be followed:

• All schools should have a comprehensive road safety policy. A sample is provided in the New Zealand Transport Agency’s Education Portal.
• Students should only be given information that is within their experience or legal age (e.g. no driver education for young people under 16) or as advised by Police (e.g. no under 10 cycling unaccompanied on the road).
• Lessons will emphasise strength-based processes (e.g. show correct rather than incorrect skills, stress the positive values of following traffic laws and school rules rather than the punitive aspects).
• Schools should teach regular and planned classroom-based road safety education programmes such as Road Safe.
• The New Zealand Transport Agency has developed a set of road safety education guidelines.These guidelines provide useful questions to help schools ensure the efficacy of road safety education initiatives/interventions and programmes being offered to their school and community.
• The document One Day Guidance provides advice to improve some types of prevention activities that, although provided with good intentions, may actually be less effective, e.g. one-off events, scare tactics, and activities that only raise awareness rather than address risk factors.

Response policies/activities in schools

To ensure consistency of response, each school should have clear procedures to follow when students or staff break traffic laws or school rules around road safety.

Schools and local Police are encouraged to develop and agree protocols about when and how Police will respond to behaviour by students, staff, or members of the public that places students at risk of road trauma. This could be done as part of the overall school-Police partnership process.

There are many agencies and organisations who offer programmes for schools that are promoted to address specific crime and/or road safety issues.

Police have an Intervention assessment tool (Word, 548KB)  that provides a range of questions to be considered before the Police will support and endorse an external programme.

Schools should be critical about the relevance and quality of external programmes and providors. When collaborating with or engaging an agency that provides educational programmes to address specific crime and/or road safety issues (such as relationship violence, cycle safety, bullying, child abuse, road safety, cyberbullying), each school should consider the following questions:

• What is the purpose of the agency’s programme or resource?
• What is the nature of the programme or resource:
  • Is it relevant to New Zealand students and schools?
  • Is it inclusive?
  • Does it meet the needs and interests of the targeted group?
  • Are the aims and objectives of the programme clearly defined, and can they be evaluated?
• Does the agency’s goal or philosophy align with the school’s safety culture? Does it support the school’s current teaching and learning programme and complement The New Zealand Curriculum?
• Do the personnel have the knowledge and expertise to work within an educational setting?
• Does the agency actively collaborate with relevant staff to adapt the programme to meet the needs of individuals or the school?
• Is the material practical? Can it be previewed?
• Does it have a cost and is it cost-effective? Who benefits from the purchase of these programmes – the students or the agency?
• Is there evidence that the programme or provider is effective in influencing ongoing student behaviour?

For road safety in particular, the New Zealand Transport Agency has developed a set of road safety education guidelines. These guidelines provide useful questions to help schools ensure the efficacy of road safety education initiatives/interventions and programmes being offered to their school and community.

For alcohol and other drugs (AoD) in particular, the Ministry of Education's Alcohol and other drug education programmes: Guide for schools (2014) summarises the findings a  review of government-funded AoD education programmes for young people, and reflects additional thinking that boards of trustees, school leaders, and teachers may find useful to ask when selecting and implementing AoD education programmes.

This page describes the specific planning and processes by which schools and Police partner together, and describes some sample interventions and narratives.  

For a wider overview of why and how schools partner with Police, and the roles of various police officers involved with schools, go to the Police-schools partnerships page.

Police-School Partnership Model

The Police-School Partnership Model describes a four stage process for partnering effectively with schools.

Each stage of the model aligns to a respective phases of the SARA (Scan, Analyse, Respond, Assess) problem-solving process.

Under this model, Police and the school:

1. scan by building a relationship and sharing information with each other
2. analyse how to achieve their aligned goals
3. respond through one or more of a range of prevention activities
4. assess the achievement of the goals.  

See the following sections for a more detailed explanation of each stage.

1. Relationship building and information sharing

Building relationships and sharing information are the basis for prevention activities.

Building relationships

To facilitate partnerships between Police and schools:

• Police have a dedicated liaison person for each school (Lead Police Contact)
• each school has a dedicated liaison person with Police (Lead School Contact).

Having a specific person in Police that the school can contact will help build trust and confidence, so that they are comfortable to seek pro-active advice.

Effective Police-school partnerships occur at multiple levels, such as:

• Youth Services staff partner with individual students and their family/whānau
• School Community Officers partner with individual classes
• Lead Police Contacts and/or the School Community Officers partner with individual schools
• Area Youth and Community Supervisors partner with school clusters or Communities of Learning
• District Youth and Community Managers and/or Area Prevention Managers partner with regional Ministry of Education staff (e.g. to discuss children and young people disengaged from education)
• District Prevention Managers partner with the Regional Directors of Education.

Sharing information

To facilitate sharing information between Police and schools, they both agree that each organisation can help the other to achieve their goals, e.g. through a partnership agreement:

Police share information about crime, victimisation and harm data, and schools share information about student behaviour concerns, e.g. through a school profile:

As a result, Police and the school can jointly agree on what their partnership is trying to achieve, which will provide focus and purpose to the partnership.

Police and schools should be clear on what they are trying to achieve in relation to their shared goals. They should agree on the desired outcomes, and the measures of success. They should gather preliminary data to identify problems related to achieving their shared goals.

By agreement, some schools may not need to progress beyond this stage of the partnership, for example, if the identified problems are of low priority or are already being managed effectively by the school through other means. Alternatively, a partnership may focus on maintaining an existing safe environment to prevent problems from occurring.

2. Analysis of shared goals

During the previous stage, Police and school will have gathered preliminary data regarding their shared goals. In this stage they drill down to be even more specific about problems, by testing theories and analysing data to determine why they occur.

The analysis should define and lead to a better understanding of how to achieve the goals set in the previous stage, e.g. through a SARA (Scan, Analyse, Respond, Assess) problem-solving plan:

There may be other information that is required to gain better understanding of what is required to achieve the shared goals or to address problems. This information might come from the Police, from the school, or from other sources.

There may be examples of how a specific problem has been dealt with elsewhere, for example through the knowledge bank of school-wide intervention narratives on the Police’s School Portal, each describing how an intervention was implemented, and the impact it had. 

The Police also have tools that may provide an evidence base for the effectiveness of a particular response to deal with an issue.

3. Response

The following three steps can be used to undertake a response.

Step 1:  Outline the response aims:

Refer back to the measures of success and the agreed outcomes from Stage 1 of the Police-School Partnership Model.

Discuss the analysis of the problems from Stage 2.

Drill down to be more specific about how you will measure your success, using SMART goals (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic  and time-bound). 

Step 2: Select the response(s):

• safety education:

- training School Traffic Safety Teams

- programme approach

- inquiry approach

• shared interventions (see this page of sample interventions)
• restorative justice.

Step 3:  Implement the response(s):

Break the response(s) into steps (if appropriate), record timeframes and resources required, and nominate the lead, e.g. through an annual partnership plan:

4. Achievement of goals

Assessment is about identifying whether the shared goals have been achieved or not, and provides learning opportunities for continuous improvement.

By having SMART goals, Police and the school can assess whether the goals of their partnership have been achieved or not achieved.

Whether the goals were achieved or not, it is important to reflect on the practice of the partnership. Reflective practice is about learning from experience by thinking what happened, why it happened, and what you would do differently as a result.

Identifying the ‘next steps’ ensures continuous improvement. Next steps may involve modifying the goals and/or changing the actions towards achieving the goal.

Acknowledging and celebrating the achievement of a Police-school goal acknowledges and recognises the contribution of the many individuals and organisations who contributed to that goal.

Writing a narrative (or case study) at the conclusion of an intervention encourages the school and Police to reflect on their practice, and to share the lessons they have learned with other schools and Police:

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Living and learning free from crime and crash is good for all members of the school community.

Children learn better when:

• they feel – and are – safe
• their learning about safety at school is reinforced in the home
• they have opportunities to take action for their own safety and the safety of their friends, whānau, family and community/iwi
• their learning about safety is relevant and pitched at their level.

As the saying goes, 'It takes a village to raise a child'. In the same way, we need all members of the school community to get involved so that children and young people feel safe and are safe.

How to get involved

There are many ways people may get involved with safety at their school. For example, you could:

• take part in school events
• ask questions about the safety related things the children are learning at school
• ask the school Board of Trustee(s) to make child safety a priority goal in the school charter.

New Zealand Police has been formally involved with schools since the 1930s. How this involvement has grown and developed over time is outlined below.

Purpose

The School Portal is a place where school staff, parents, students and Police can find out how to work together to achieve our respective educational and safety goals.

Structure

The School Portal is structured under five sections:

About the Portal

Here you'll find out about the purpose and structure of the Portal, and the history of Police working with school communities.

Get involved

Here you'll find ways people may get involved with safety at their school.

Information and guidelines

Here you'll find information for all members of the school community on:

• police-school partnerships
• planning processes
• selecting educational programmes
• good practice guidelines on road safety, alcohol and other drugs, and child protection
• information for parents
• information for students

School stories

Here you'll find a place to publish stories about schools and Police working together to ensure students take action to be safe and feel safe. 

Resources

Here you'll find educational programmes, resources and learning activities that inspire students to take action and to be safe. These are sorted under five themes:  

Successful relationships
Assisting students to develop and sustain successful relationships.  Includes Keeping Ourselves Safe, Kia Kaha and Loves-Me-Not.

Travelling safely
Assisting students to keep safe when they're out and about on New Zealand's transport networks (road, rail and paths).  Includes Road Safe and Rail Safe.

Responsible citizens
Assisting students to protect their personal possessions and respect the possessions of others. Includes Burglary Free, Doing the Right Thing, Tag Free, and Safer Schools.

Healthy body, healthy mind
Assisting students to respect their body and mind, understand the negative impact that behaviour-altering substances have on individuals, whānau and the community, and to be able to resist and encourage others to resist the abuse of behaviour-altering substances.  Includes Choice.

Living in a safe community
Assisting students to connect with caring people and caring organisations that contribute to a safe and connected community. Students have a role to play in contributing to the creation of safer communities.  Includes Role of the Police, and links to other helping agencies.

Feedback

If you have suggestions to improve the School Portal or to add relevant information, please send us an email.

History of Police services

Read about the history of services that the Police have supported schools with over many decades.