Everyone deserves to feel welcome, respected and safe in their workplace.
The start of the school year is an important time to communicate expected standards of behaviour from parents, carers and other adults who interact with our schools.
Violence and aggression from parents, carers or other adults can significantly impact the health, and wellbeing of school staff. Experiencing violence and aggression should never be seen as just part of the job.
Respectful Behaviours within the School Community Policy
We set out clear guidelines to reduce work-related violence towards school staff in the Respectful Behaviours within the School Community Policy.
It is important for all staff to remember violent or aggressive behaviour toward school staff is not okay and should never be tolerated. This can include:
- speaking or behaving in a rude, manipulative, aggressive or threatening way, either in person, via letters, electronic communication or social media, text message or over the telephone
- malicious or unreasonably frivolous complaints
- the use or threat of violence of any kind, including physically intimidating behaviour such as invading another person's personal space
- sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic or derogatory comments
- the use of social media or public forums to make inappropriate or threatening remarks about the school, staff or students.
Please report risks or incidents of work-related violence to your principal and in eduSafe Plus (login required).
Get to know the policy and range of resources about work-related violence in schools available on our Policy and Advisory Library (PAL).
You can also access training and guidance to help you build and maintain positive relationships with parents and carers.
Find out more
For more information, refer to:
- Work-Related Violence in Schools Policy and Procedure – Parent and carer behaviours on our Policy and Advisory Library (PAL)
- Our Conflict Resolution in schools intranet page (login required)
- Health and wellbeing webinar recordings and tip sheets to support your wellbeing
- Education – information for parents to engage positively with staff, raise concerns, and more.
For further enquiries, contact the Employee Health, Safety and Wellbeing Division by email: employeehealth@education.vic.gov.au
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