Safety and Security
The safety of participants in Virtually There online sessions is paramount. Every participant must be safe, but must also contribute to the safety of other participants. This includes physical space, technology and equipment, and the creation of a fun and supportive participant experience.
Online Participation Essentials
All Virtually There facilitators have a current Working With Children’s Check and have the appropriate qualifications and credentials to work safely with children.
A parent or carer over the age of 18 must be present in the participant’s home for the duration of the online session.
Participants must participate in the sessions from a public area of their home.
Participants will be taken through the rules and responsibilities at the beginning of the session to ensure a positive, supportive and fun participant experience.
If a participant leaves during a session and does not return within 5 minutes, their parent/carer will be contacted via phone.
If the session is interrupted because of technical difficulties either from the facilitator or a participant, the parent/carer will be contacted via phone within 5 minutes.
Any inappropriate behaviour or language from a participant or any person in their household, will result in that participant’s video being turned off and their audio muted until their parent/carer can be contacted.
Virtually There reserves the right to exclude students whose behaviour is disruptive.
Virtually There accepts no liability or responsibility for any injury sustained by the participant that arises from involvement in any activity connected with Virtually There.
All activities are designed to involve minimal risk of injury to participants, however some risk of injury is always involved and parents/carers have a duty of care to their child in the event of an injury.
Video Conferencing Essentials
Sessions will be run on the Zoom video conferencing platform*.
Participants will not be able to join the session before the facilitator.
Entry to the Zoom platform will be via URL link and password only.
As Zoom account holders must be 16+ all participants must be logged in using a parent/carer’s account.
ONLY the participant’s first name should be used as the Zoom name.
All participants will enter the Zoom waiting room first.
The sessions will be locked once all the participants are present, preventing outside attendees.
Recording, screenshots or any other method of saving the session is strictly prohibited.
Only group “chat” will be allowed - no private messaging between participants is permitted.
Participants will not be able to share their screens with the group.
*Zoom is a cloud-based video conferencing service you can use to virtually meet with others. This platform has been chosen by Virtually There Workshops because of its ease of use, and ubiquity amongst users. Zoom has updated its privacy settings in response to early concern during COVID19. With the appropriate safeguards in place it is as safe as any video-conferencing platform.
Further Zoom security information can be viewed at: https://zoom.us/security and https://zoom.us/docs/doc/Exec-Letter.pdf
Post Session Essentials
The facilitator may save the “chats” and record the sessions if required, for safety and security purposes. These files may be viewed by the facilitator for professional development purposes. These files would only be shared if required for the purpose of resolving a dispute with sessions participants’ parent/carer or if legally required.
Participants will only be allowed to communicate with the facilitator via the official Virtually There communications channels.
If a child shares personal information which the facilitator deems to place them at risk, the parent/carer or relevant authority will be contacted.
If a child shares information during a session which places participants in the session at risk, the incident will be reported to all parents/carers at the conclusion of the session.