During Weeks 3 - 7 of Term 3, we will be teaching the personal safety programme Keeping Ourselves Safe.

This programme is part of our Physical Education and Health Long-Term Plan and is normally taught on a 2-year cycle. Interruptions in recent years with Covid, has meant this programme has not gone ahead until now.

Aims of Keeping Ourselves Safe

• To teach children a range of safe practices that they can use when interacting with other people, both online and face to face
• To teach students how to recognise the difference between healthy and unhealthy relationships, and encourage students who have been or are being abused to seek help.
• To prevent abuse by making parents and teachers more aware of their responsibilities to help students avoid abuse.

Keeping Ourselves Safe (KOS) will be taught by your child’s homeroom teacher with support from the local Police Education Officer – Senior Constable Jeff.

To be successful, the KOS programme requires some help and support from you. Your child may have homework activities to work on with you. It is requested that you participate as often as possible and talk to your child about what they have been learning. This will help reinforce the messages the school is giving and help your child to use his or her new skills with confidence.

What will our tamariki learn about?

They will learn:

• To work out when their safety is at risk
• How to keep safe when they meet and mix with other people
• Who and how to ask for help if they, or someone they know, is being abused
• That it is important to make and follow personal, family and school safety rules.

They will know:

• That abuse is never okay
• That abuse is never their fault.

Please see attached overview for the KOS primary programme. The programme is broken into Junior, Middle and Senior. Because of the way our Hubs are structured, the will be structured as:

• Junior programme - Year 1 (older Year 1's only) to Year 4. 
• Middle - Years 5 and 6, and 
• Senior, Years 7 and 8.

Further information for parents/whānau can be found by clicking the word LINK including FAQs.

After reading the above information, should you have any further questions about KOS please, in the first instance contact your child’s teacher or contact tyson@marshland.school.nz.

Paul Tyson

Deputy Principal - Tumuaki tuarua