Child safety at ParkSyde

Our commitment, in one paragraph

Every child who learns with ParkSyde has the right to be safe, to be heard, and to be taken seriously. We commit to that in what we build, what we teach, who we let near a child, and how we respond when someone tells us something is wrong. We are a small organisation, and we would rather tell you plainly what we do and do not yet have in place than claim a maturity we have not reached.

We start from what children can do

A child who has the words is safer than a child who has only been warned. So the first line of our child safety work is not a policy — it is what we actually teach:

• From Prep: the correct names for every body part including the private ones, the private-parts rule, the body's early-warning feeling, that a secret about bodies is never an okay secret — and the promise that telling never gets you in trouble.
• Through primary: asking first, permission, stop means stop, naming feelings, and knowing which adults you can tell.
• Years 7–8: consent — freely given, informed, specific and reversible.
• Years 9–10: consent as ongoing, recognising coercion, what an active bystander does, how to respond when a friend discloses, and the Queensland services to call.

This approach is the direction Queensland's own child protection inquiry set. Commissioner Carmody's Taking Responsibility (2013) pushed the state toward prevention and early intervention — building family capability so children never enter the statutory system — and created the Queensland Family and Child Commission, which now oversees the child safe standards this page is written against. A family supported to educate well, with a professional available before anything becomes a crisis, is that model working.

The platform is built to remove risk, not manage it

Most online harm to children happens through contact surfaces — messaging, uploads, profiles, strangers. ParkSyde does not have them, by design:

• No child-to-child contact. No chat, messaging, forums, comments or public profiles. None.
• Uploads go one way, to you. A piece of work — a photo, a note, a link — can be added to your child's portfolio from a lesson, and it goes nowhere except your own account. It is never shared, never public, never seen by another family, and never sent to a child. Photos, plain text and links only: no video, no documents, and no SVG. You can delete any piece, and deleting the account deletes every one of them.
• No child accounts. A parent or guardian creates and controls every account. We never communicate with a child directly — everything goes to you.
• Minimal data. A first name or nickname is enough to learn with us — we never require a child's full name, photo or date of birth for that. If a family has a consultation, the practitioner records a date of birth on their clinical note, only to work out how long that note must be kept.
• Curated outside links. Where a lesson points somewhere external, child-safe destinations are preferred and open platforms are flagged as not child-safe. For Prep to Year 2, the platform requires an adult to drive any outside search.

The risk we will not hide from you: our lessons suggest what to search for rather than fixed links, so a family following a suggestion can reach an open platform where the content is not controlled by us. That is exactly why young-learner searching is adult-driven and why we flag platforms honestly. We recommend supervision for any outside search, at every age.

Who we let near a child

Our family consultation is delivered by a registered teacher, a counsellor or a psychologist, depending on what your family asks for. Everyone in a role that brings them into contact with a child must hold current Queensland working with children screening — a Blue Card or, where the law grants one, an exemption card — checked before they start, no exceptions. They also hold current standing with their professional body, sign our Code of Conduct, and complete child safety training.

A parent or guardian is with the child, or close by and immediately available, for any consultation with someone under 18.

The consultation is offered wherever you live in Australia. Our practitioners' professional registration is national. Their working with children screening is Queensland's, and each state and territory runs its own, so we are asking each state's screening body whether ours covers an online session with a child who lives there, and will have every answer by 31 January 2027. Until then, if you live outside Queensland, a parent or guardian is in the session with your child for the whole of it.

• ✓Every practitioner who meets a family holds a current Blue Card or exemption card — confirmed by our Director, 24 October 2026
• ✓Child Safety Contact appointed — Shane Robinson
• ✓Child Safety Policy and Code of Conduct adopted — 24 October 2026
• ✓Child safety training completed by all child-related roles

We publish this as a checklist rather than a claim, and we update it as each item lands. You should be suspicious of any organisation that tells you child safety is simply finished — so here is what we are still doing, with the date each is due:

• Two independent contacts outside ParkSyde, for a concern about us — not in place yet, due by 30 November 2026. Until then, the outside bodies listed below are always open to you.
• Whether our Queensland screening covers an online session with a child in another state — asking each state, by 31 January 2027.
• A review of our cultural safety commitments by a First Nations person or organisation — by 31 March 2027.

You can go over our heads, any time

You never need to come to us first, or at all:

• Queensland Family and Child Commission (Queensland) — oversight of child safe organisations — qfcc.qld.gov.au
• Queensland Police — 000, or 131 444
• Department of Child Safety (Queensland) — 1800 177 135
• Outside Queensland — your own state or territory's child protection service and police, which have their own numbers
• Kids Helpline — 1800 55 1800 — free and 24 hours, for young people up to 25
• 1800RESPECT — 1800 737 732
• eSafety Commissioner — esafety.gov.au — for images shared or threatened online

Cultural safety, and children with disability

We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the lands on which we work. First Nations children have the right to be safe, seen and respected, and a First Nations child or family may ask for a support person of their choosing at every step of any concern.

Children with disability are at higher risk of harm and less likely to be believed. We name that plainly because a practice that ignores it fails those children. Every lesson is built on Universal Design for Learning, with adjustable text, high-contrast mode, a dyslexia-friendlier typeface and read-aloud throughout — and our interest tags describe tasks, never children, and never change what is expected of anyone.

For children and young people

We have written a version of this page for young people themselves — what you can expect from us, and how to tell someone if something is not right.

Your safety at ParkSyde →

Reviewing this, and how to hold us to it

This page and the policy behind it are reviewed every year, and straight away after any significant incident or change in the law. The review date is published above. If you think something here is wrong, or that we have not lived up to it, tell us — the same way you would raise any other concern.

Written against the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations and the Child Safe Organisations Act 2024 (Qld). See also our privacy policy and curriculum accuracy standard.