4. Lets look at what young people said
makes them feel safe.
94.4% of young people said they felt safe at
their current school.
Teachers and the way they were treated were
identified as having the most significant impact
on them feeling safe.
5.
6. Unsafe at school
With 25% of teachers reporting feeling unsafe at work (ISQ email)
What does being unsafe at school mean to you? Use 3 words
Scan the QR Code
Or
8. Lets look at what young people said makes
them feel unsafe.
How does it compare?
• 72% said they felt unsafe at
their previous school
Notice anything alarming here?
I will come back to this later.
9.
10. How is it defined in research?
Definition: Today, it seems that most people agree that school violence –
whose victims and perpetrators are usually both students and teachers – can
be expressed through acts of physical attacks or fights with or without arms;
verbal abuse; sexual harassment, coercion and rape; bullying, including
cyberbullying; and so on (Organization, 2020)
12. Have you ever asked those who are most
affected by these policies?
This lead to the research question:
What is a safe alternate school from a student
perspective?
13. Research
What you just did was one part of the survey
Conducted at a Special Assistance School that has 2 campuses in SEQ
Young people in years 10-12
Anonymous survey asking 8 questions
Responses coded and then discussed
14. Limitations
Only a small sample size
The feelings of being unsafe at their last school, are from students who have all
disengaged from their last school. So is not a representation of how all students
feel at mainstream
Limited vocabulary
15. Findings
Students highlighted the way they were treated
and how they connected to a school as the
greatest factor in them being safe at school.
51.7% outlined that being unsafe was most
significantly affected by how they were treated
and how they connected to the school. A further
29.2% highlighted people (teachers, staff,
students) as the reason for them being unsafe at
school.
77.2% of young people said they didn’t feel safe
at their last school.
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
C1 C2 Total
Number
of
young
people
Campus
Did you feel safe at your last school?
Yes No
16. Finding cont.
94.4% of young people said
they feel safe at their current
school
0
5
10
15
20
25
C1 C2 Total C1 C2 Total C1 C2 Total C1 C2 Total
Emotions/feelings Connection/treated Structure People
Number
of
Students
Response according to location and total
Reason For Feeling Safe at Current School
17. What can make your current school safer?
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
C1 C2 Total C1 C2 Total C1 C2 Total C1 C2 Total
Emotions/feelings Connection/treated Structure People
Number
of
Young
People
Response according to location and total
Is there anything that would make your current school feel safer to you?
18. Findings cont. What does your current
school do differently?
Whilst teachers was a key word used by young people, it was what the teachers
did and how this made the young people feel. 37.5% of young people identified
the way the school made them feel was a key difference compared to their last
school
19. 0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
Staff Staff and Students Government Principal Everyone Students Friends I don’t know
Number
of
young
people
Who is responsible?
Chart Who is responsible for making a school safe?
C1 C2 Total
20. Unexpected outcome
28% of young people felt safe at their last
school. Meaning 72% didn’t feel safe.
When you take into account when the word teacher
was associated with other words like “aggressive
teachers”, “teachers are rude” and “creepy teachers”
49% of young people felt unsafe because of
teachers.
21. Discussion
Turning 28.8% of young people feeling safe at their previous school, to 94% feeling safe now clearly
implies something is working operationally. Does the practice need to be shared?
The findings highlight the importance for Alternate Schools to employ teachers who are relational
(Morgan et al., 2015), adaptable (Brown et al., 2014) and have those who have diverse personality
traits (Benekos, 2016).
Our current way of writing safety in schools policies isn’t working for these young people. Do we
need to change?
22. Discussion cont.
Unfortunately we are still faced with young
people feeling unheard (The School Safety
Report, 2019) and minimal input from young
people being used in developing polices
(Giraldo-García et al., 2021). The findings
from this research provides evidence to
begin the discussion about including young
people in policy writing regarding safety to
give them ownership and to be felt heard.
23. So to answer the question
What is a safe alternate school from a student perspective: it’s not one thing but everything
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
C1 C2 Total C1 C2 Total C1 C2 Total C1 C2 Total
Emotions/feelings Connection/treated Structure People
Number
of
Responses
Response according to location and total
Themes that describe what being safe at school means to surveyed young
people.
So your policy needs to be
broad and your procedures
need to cater for diversity
24. Final Thought!
Is it time we included young people
in writing school safety policies?
Afterall they are the ones the policy
is written for!
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
Staff Staff and
Students
Government Principal Everyone Students Friends I don’t know
Number
of
young
people
Who is responsible?
Chart Who is responsible for making a school safe?
C1 C2 Total
25. Get Involved!
If you would like to take part in this research or read the research report please
contact me at twa005@student.usc.edu.au
Benefits
- Valuable insight into how young people at your school are feeling.
- Data around issues that might need to be address.
- Increased shared understanding of what it means to be safe in an alternate school.
- Gives student a voice increasing student advocacy.
Editor's Notes
Of the young people’s coded surveyed responses, 51.7% outlined that being unsafe was most significantly affected by how they were treated and how they connected to the school. A further 29.2% highlighted people (teachers, staff, students) as the reason for them being unsafe at school.
76% of respondents believe that students in some way are responsible for creating a safe environment. When in reality, according to the Australian legislative (Education (General Provisions) Regulation 2017) only 4% of respondents were correct in identifying the principal as being the one responsible. The State of School Safety Report (2019) found that students generally felt unheard, that potential school safety issues were overlooked and that there is a need to include students in school safety planning. With the findings from this research indicating only 28% of young people felt safe at their last school, and 76% wanting to take responsibility for safety in schools, this research would align with the findings from the School Safety Report (2019).
Students highlighted the way they were treated and how they connected to a school as the greatest factor in them feeling safe at school. As can be seen in Figure 3, 33.3% of coded responses fell within this theme. However, it was only marginally higher than the other themes with Their Emotions and Feelings representing 25% of responses, The School Structure 21.4% and People at the School 20.2% of responses. In addition to the above, the responses to Question 4, and the reasons outlined in Figure 15, answer the Research Question: What is a safe Alternate School? The answer; it isn’t one thing, but everything. This research gives evidence to the need of a diverse approach to school safety.
