Keeping Your Children Safe

Your child’s safety and security is SPARK Schools’ first priority!

Our school operations policies and procedures are designed to ensure that your child has a safe and positive experience at our schools.

This is important because feeling safe makes learning possible. SPARK Schools is aware of the rise of attempted abductions in our home country, South Africa.

We would like to make you, as parents, and our SPARK scholars aware of how we integrate safety into each activity, from the arrival to the dismissal of our scholars to visitor procedures.

From the moment your child arrives at school, we make safety our top concern.

As active citizens, our arrival procedures ensure the safety of our SPARK scholars and staff while ensuring that we are respectful of our neighbours and surrounding communities.

Scholars may arrive on school grounds from 6:45am, where you will be greeted by a member of our staff who will open your child’s door and welcome them to the school grounds.

This service is to ensure each child is noticed and safely ushered from your safe keep into ours. Our scholars enjoy supervised play time until Sparks Fly, our daily morning assembly which begins at 7:45am.





Throughout the school day, our gates remained locked and our entrances are monitored by security guards.

Our guards sign in each individual visitor or guest onto the property.  No visitors may enter the school grounds without signing in and wearing a guest lanyard.

Also, visitors may not visit any classrooms or learning spaces unaccompanied.

The same applies to extracurricular providers who facilitate afterschool sport and cultural activities, they are vetted and monitored to ensure the safety of our scholars.

All scholars remain inside the school grounds until dismissed, SPARK Schools views this as our responsibility for when your child is in our care.

Finally, our dismissal procedures are designed with scholar safety at the core.

At the beginning of the school year, all parents receive a placard with the name and grade of their scholar.

This placard must be displayed on the vehicle dashboard upon arriving at SPARK Schools.

Scholars will only be released when a placard is produced. Anyone seeking to fetch a child who does not have a placard must show their ID at reception before approval is given for the child’s dismissal.

This approval includes SPARK staff phoning the scholar’s parent to verify the person requesting to fetch the scholar.

Safety and security is a team effort, and to achieve this we need your help!

Here are a few things you can do to help us keep your child safe:

• Carefully review the Scholar Health and Safety section of our Scholar and Family Handbook [link]to learn more about our policies on Child Protection, Attendance, and Illness and First Aid.
• Abide by our arrival and dismissal procedures, arriving at school no earlier than 6:45am as well as practising safe driving techniques during dismissal to allow us to efficiently and safely dismiss all scholars.
• If you choose to make use of an independent transport supplier, please ensure that the transport supplier complies with the norms and standards of learner transport according to the National Transport Policy.  SPARK Schools does not provide, promote, or endorse any transport and should a parent or guardian choose a transport supplier, they do so at their own risk.
• Speak to your child about “stranger danger” and trusting their gut, if a situation doesn’t feel safe then it probably isn’t. Speak to them, every three to six months, about what to do in these situations; not getting into an unfamiliar vehicle with an unfamiliar driver while also reminding them to alert a staff member if they do not know the person fetching them.
• Form safe circles around your child and evaluate these circles regularly. Your child should feel that they can talk to you, or another family member, about anything. The home and people invited into it should not be an environment for secrets.
• Know their environment, SPARK Schools encourages parents to be visible and present at our schools. We would like our parents to be involved by, on occasion, taking a walk through the school to see and greet our friendly staff as well as volunteer at school events. This is a wonderful way to show your kids that you care about their daily activities and education and that you consider the school worthwhile for their needs.

SPARK Schools are committed to partnering with you to ensure your child’s health and safety.  We ask that you assist us by upholding and supporting the school’s mission, policies and expectations.

If you are unclear about any of SPARK School’s health and safety procedures please don’t hesitate to contact us or make an appointment to visit. We would love to see you and show you around!