Australia’s Biggest Child Safety Lesson is back for 2021, with messages for ECEC

Australia’s Biggest Child Safety Lesson (ABCSL) is back in 2021, livestreaming important video safety lessons for children aged four years and up, as part of broader National Child Protection Week initiatives designed to ensure all children know they have the right to be safe, that they are allowed to say no to anything or anyone that makes them uncomfortable, and that there are adults who will help them. 

 

Delivered via the Daniel Morcombe Foundation, the two lessons, newly created for 2021, also empower children who are experiencing abuse to tell someone who can help. 

 

Help seeking is the theme of Australia’s Biggest Child Safety Lesson for both four- to seven-year-olds and eight- to twelve-year-olds this year. In these age-appropriate, engaging, and positive lessons, children learn skills and strategies to seek help if they ever feel unsafe. 

 

The freely available lessons reframe accessing support as “a truly heroic and courageous act,” and will go live at 9am AECT on Tuesday, 7 September. The early years lesson lasts approximately ten minutes, and comes with accompanying lesson plans and resources to support educators to present the information and manage any follow up questions appropriately. 

 

An educator guide is available, which covers the following: 

 

• Strategies for teaching personal safety
• Protective interrupting
• Discussing sensitive issues
• Responding to disclosures
• What happens after I make a report?
• Mandatory reporting, and
• Where to get help.

 

For more information, or to register an interest in participating, please see here.