Ensuring Safety for Our Students... A Duty of Care

At our recent School Council meeting we discussed the security of our building and in particular the need to ensure the safety of our students while they are in the school. Many schools in the CBE have moved to a locked front door and intercom entrance procedure while others remain open to the public. Still others use a combination of locked times and unlocked times to meet the needs of the community. At this time we are asking parents to have input into this important discussion.  For your information, the following considerations were raised by our parents at the November Belfast School Council meeting.

• We have a warm and welcoming school culture.
• We only have one secretary and when she is away from her desk it is impossible to know who has entered the building
• Safety for our kids is everyone’s number one priority
• In case of fire or other emergency – we know who is in the building in case we need to go find them
• the Belfast community ‘feel’ is also important
• we are an inner city community that has many transients and complexities that we should be aware of
• many parents walk past the office and do not sign in when they come into the school

 
The following requirements were generated by our parents at the November School Council meeting and need to be considered.

• We need to provide safety and school staff is directly accountable for the safety of each child in the school
• Our procedures need to be consistent – mitigate human error
• Parents need to respect  staff intention to provide safety
• A decision needs to be proactive not reactive. That it is we need to have a reliable safety system before we have an emergency situation
• Compassion for our community can be accommodated by ensuring understanding of the process and the opportunity for input
• Relationships between staff, students and parents need to continue to be fostered and modeled
• parents need to have continued access to the teachers
• We do not want to lose who we are – the sense that parents have access, that we are special, that our school respects parents, and the warmth that is Belfast

Please take our short parent engagement survey...

​We invite all of our parents to weigh in. CLICK HERE  to let us know what is important to you. We will continue to consult with our school council about this decision and will update our parent community about any change in our door procedures very soon.

Lori Holford
Principal, Belfast School