Our commitment to children and families
Lane Cove Gymnastics Club is committed to providing a safe environment for children and young people where the safety and wellbeing of children is central to all our decision-making. We are committed to a culture where the safety, wellbeing and participation of all children and young people we work with are paramount. Our approach to preventing harm is embedded in our policies and procedures. We are committed to providing children and young people with an environment where they feel safe and are listened to and believed. We invest in our staff to ensure they are supported to have the skills, knowledge, and confidence to be child safe. We take a preventative, proactive and participatory approach to child safety and value and empower children to participate in decisions that affect their lives. We foster a culture of openness that supports the safe disclose or risks of harm to children. We engage only the most suitable people to work with children and have high quality supervision and professional development of our staff. For more information about our child protection policies please ask us at reception or visit our website.
Our policies
Our child safety procedures create safe environments for children and young people. They are designed to increase the effort needed for an offender to engage in inappropriate behaviour and support children and young people to report instances of harm or abuse. It removes all excuses for anyone engaging in inappropriate behaviour
Coaches/Staff
- All coaches/adults working with gymnasts/children will require an active working with children’s check
- Children will never be 1 on 1 with any adult at any time. There will always be at minimum 2 adults present.
- All staff have completed a child safety and protection program as part of our recruiting process.
- Coaches undertake professional training through Recreational Gymnastics Australia to teach correct spotting and coaching techniques to limit touching of children. However, please understand gymnastics is a high risk sport which does require spotting of certain skills for safety reasons.
- Our staff our educated on correct procedures to identify bullying, threatening, abusive language, intimidation, shaming and name calling, isolating of a child and expose of violence and what to do if such an event were to occur.
- Coaches promote a culture where children are valued. They encourage reporting, including of all policy breaches, and challenge poor child safe practices.
- Coaches or staff are not allowed to contact children and young people on social media
Bathrooms
- We kindly ask you to take your child to the toilet prior to class to limit the need to go to the toilet during class time.
- When going to the bathroom we have a buddy system in place
- No adults are to enter the child only toilets in the gym (this includes coaches)
- We kindly ask your child to come dressed and ready for their class to reduce the need for children to be going to the bathrooms to get dressed and changed.
- All bathroom doors have locks and are regularly checked and maintained for safety.
Privacy
- No class time/days or personal information will be given out to anyone regarding your child
- No parents will be allowed past the gate to protect our children. This stops other parents taking photos of children that are not their own. It ensures any adult without a verified working with children check being in contact with other children. It ensures your child is safe at all times, with no adult wandering around the premises or into the bathrooms.
- Photos and videos may be taken during class for social media and advertising purposes. If you wish your child to not be photographed or videoed for these purposes only, please kindly let reception know.
Parents/Carers
- Parents will be required to collect their child from the black gate after class. They will be handed over safely from the coach. All children that remain without their parent or carer after 5 minutes of class finishing will have their emergency contact called.
- We kindly ask parents to make sure their details are correct at reception and that an emergency contact is listed.
- Minimising peer competitiveness so children develop strong relationships with their peers, which helps to provide some protection from abuse.
- We support children and young people to be comfortable and encouraged to raise any issues that concern them
