The Australian Government is committed to working with state and territories to ensure that schools have a positive culture that promotes the safety and wellbeing of students and teachers. To this end, in July 2003 the Australian Government secured the endorsement of the National Safe Schools Framework (NSSF) by all state and territory Ministers of Education.
The NSSF includes an agreed set of guiding principles for promoting safe school environments and suggests strategies schools may utilise that work well together with other relevant school policies and procedures, such as behaviour management. It emphasises the need for schools to respond proactively to incidents, to clearly document steps and outcomes for managing incidences and to work closely with parents on the issues, especially when their children become involved in incidents.
The Framework provides a nationally consistent approach to countering all forms of bullying, harassment, violence, abuse and neglect and recognises that significant advances have been made throughout Australian in relation to safe and supportive learning environments, including demonstrating excellence in practice.
An implementation manual accompanies the Framework which assists schools in auditing current activity within the school against the Framework in order to determine whether there is a need to refine current practices.
In addition to the implementation manual, a resource pack is also available to schools which will assist in implementing the NSSF, conducting the safe schools audit and in building a coherent planning, implementation and monitoring process for the school environment.
The Australian Government hosted a National Safe Schools Week 
(NSSW) in 2006 and 2007 to raise community awareness of the importance of safe learning environments. The Australian Government worked closely with all state and territory government and non-government education authorities to ensure nationwide participation in these events.
During the 2007 NSSW, an exciting range of activities and events were held across the country. At a national level NSSW activities included an official launch, parent, teacher and student forums and a teacher education event.
State and territory activities also included forums in which ideas about how safe school environments can be created and sustained, displays of student work, student performances and peer support-type activities.
As part of the 2007 NSSW, a web based essay competition was held for primary and secondary students to highlight exemplary work that schools are undertaking to promote safe learning environments. A total of $29,000.00 in prizes were awarded to the top five essay submissions from primary and secondary schools, with all ten finalist students receiving an iPod.
Funding was provided to the National Coalition Against Bullying (NCAB) to administer the Best Practice Grants Programme 2004-05 through the Alannah and Madeline Foundation (AMF). The 171 schools that participated in the programme were a representative sample of Australian schools in terms of location, sector, size of student population, socio-economic backgrounds and special student groups.
There is a growing awareness within Australia of the importance of safe learning environments in promoting social and academic outcomes for students. “Making Australian Schools Safer”, written by Dr Helen McGrath, showcases best practice in Australian schools through the National Safe Schools Framework Best Practice Grants Programme. The report focuses on the six guiding principles for success in developing and maintaining safe schools and provides recommendations to support innovative and effective approaches to safe school environments.
The Australian Government works with state and territory government and non-government school sectors through the Safe and Supportive Schools Committee on the Bullying. No Way! website. This interactive website provides valuable information for parents, students and teachers on strategies to address bullying, harassment and violence, relevant policies and teaching resources.
The Australian Government in also represented on a number of national and international committees that work to promote safe learning environments and student wellbeing, including the International Network on combating bullying and violence in schools and the Committee Against Torture.
Due to the lack of reliable evidence about the nature and prevalence of covert bullying in the Australian cultural context. The Australian Government is currently providing funding for research into emerging and important aspects of bullying.
Edith Cowan University is being funded to undertake a research project into the nature and prevalence of covert bullying, including cyber bullying in Australian schools. A survey will be conducted with up to 7,500 students and 400 school staff across 100 government and non-government primary and secondary schools. Interviews will also be undertaken with senior education and health stakeholders in all states and territories to ‘reality test’ the emerging strategy recommendations. The project will be completed in May 2008.
The University of South Australia is undertaking a creative technology project on covert/cyber bullying that will present ‘spoken stories’ from students, parents and teachers. These stories will be digitally recorded as a Pod Cast ‘story book’ and made available over the internet. It will show the very human face of bullying and will highlight practical solutions and strategies for coping. The project will be completed in early January 2008.
In addition to these two projects, the Australian Government is providing $62.3 million to more than 200 collaborative research projects to be conducted over the next five years. The projects are funded under the Australian Research Council’s Linkages Projects scheme and includes a research project into cyber bullying led by Queensland University of Technology. The study will commence in 2008 and will guide schools on policies and practices, educate towards electronic discourse and help schools avoid liability.
This research will provide a firm evidence base to allow for the development and evaluation of appropriate interventions.
Further enquiries can be addressed to:
Student Wellbeing
Department of Education, Science and Training
GPO Box 9880
CANBERRA ACT 2601
Or by email to: safeschoolsweek@dest.gov.au