The Stay Safe Programme is part of the Social, Personal and Health Education curriculum which all primary schools are required to implement. We have been covering the Stay Safe Programme in St. Declan’s over the past few weeks. It is a safety skills programme which aims to teach children personal safety skills so they can look after themselves in situations which could be upsetting or dangerous. Its overall objective is to raise awareness of child abuse, bullying and any other forms of victimisation.

 The Programme develops children’s ability to recognise, resist and report risky or abusive situations. The overall message is they will learn how to: 

1. Say no
2. Get away
3. Tell someone

The following five topics will be taught in the Stay Safe programme 

1. Feeling safe and unsafe
2. Bullying (4th, 5th and 6th classes will also be covering cyber bullying).
3. Touches
4. Secrets and telling
5. Strangers          

 A parent’s guide to Stay Safe is available on www. Stay safe.ie /parent’s guide and it is in the following languages: English, Irish, Chinese, French, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish and Spanish.