By XAVIER SMERDON
SPECIAL staff will be placed in Wyndham’s schools in a bid to stamp out bullying, the Minister for Education has announced.
Minister Martin Dixon announced last week that Baden Powell P-9 College and Truganina South Primary School would both receive funding to employ Primary Welfare Officers (PWOs).
The role of a PWO will be to help a school provide support to students at risk of disengagement or to those not achieving their full education potential, while also instilling life skills, Mr Dixon said.
“We take bullying at school seriously, and this program provides additional support for schools to combat it,” Mr Dixon said.
“Bullying in all its forms is unacceptable, and all schools are required to develop an anti-bullying strategy. The PWO program can be a central part of that at a local school level.
“PWOs work with staff, students and parents to ensure schools are the safe environment they should be for all.”
Both Julie Mason, principal of Baden Powell P-9, and Mandy O’Mara, principal of Truganina South Primary School, welcomed the announcement.
“This is really wonderful because it will allow us to employ someone part time who is just about to finish studying to be a psychologist,” Ms Mason said.
“It will help us to continue to make sure that all our students feel safe, are safe and look after each other.”
Ms O’Mara said her school already took a zero tolerance approach to bullying.
“We have a lot of programs in place to teach the students to be respectful of each other and this will allow us to ensure that we have the personnel to manage those programs.” Ms O’Mara said.
“It is very important to us that we teach our students to be respectful and to be safe.”
