Creativity, connection and children’s voices are at the heart of Decorate Your Space, and we are delighted to celebrate our St Nicholas winners for 2026.
Congratulations to St Nicholas Early Education Raymond Terrace and St Nicholas OOSH East Maitland, recognised in this year’s initiative for their contributions.
What is Decorate Your Space?
An initiative of the Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle’s Office of Safeguarding, Decorate Your Space invites St Nicholas, Catholic Schools, CatholicCare and parish communities to decorate a visible space that expresses their commitment to children’s safety and wellbeing.
Held in recognition of National Child Protection Week, entries are judged on creativity, involvement from children and communities, visibility and connection to the year’s theme.
National Child Protection Week took place from 6 to 12 September 2026, with the theme ‘Every Conversation Matters, Shifting Conversation to Action’. The theme encourages us to turn conversations about child safety into practical steps that help children feel heard, supported and protected.
Our winning teams shared the meaning behind their creations.
St Nicholas Early Education Raymond Terrace
Raymond Terrace’s display brought children, educators and families into a shared conversation about safety, connecting their voices with commitments to take action.
“Our display brings this year’s theme to life by showing how everyone’s voice can contribute to meaningful change. It incorporates children’s ideas about what helps them feel safe and supported.
“Our Educator Commitment shows how we respond by listening, building trusting relationships, recognising concerns and taking action to protect and support every child.
“Our Family Commitment invites families to work alongside educators to create safe, nurturing environments. Prompts to ‘take a conversation home’ encourage families to continue these important discussions beyond the centre.
“Our Child Commitment encourages children to use safe hands and kind words to help create a safe, happy place. Children were invited to sign their names or make their mark with handprints.
“Footprints lead from our child safety display towards our commitments, representing the journey from conversation to action.”
St Nicholas OOSH East Maitland
At East Maitland, a colourful tree illustrated the network of trusted people children can turn to, with each element representing a different part of a safe and caring community.
“Our display reflects this year’s theme by highlighting the supportive relationships that help children feel safe, heard and empowered.
“The colourful handprints forming the tree’s leaves represent each child and the five safe adults they identified, showing the trusted people they can turn to for help and support.
“The flowers surrounding the tree symbolise children growing and thriving within a caring community. The water droplets represent our educators, who nurture children by creating a safe, inclusive and protective environment.
“Drawings of children and adults with speech bubbles highlight the importance of listening to children, encouraging open conversations and taking meaningful action in response to their voices.
“Together, these elements show how strong relationships, trusted communication and responsive action contribute to every child’s safety, wellbeing and protection.”
Thank you to everyone who took part
Across the St Nicholas network, 12 services took part in Decorate Your Space, sharing their creativity and commitment to children’s safety and wellbeing.
Alongside our winners, we would like to thank the children and educators from:
- St Nicholas OOSH Adamstown
- St Nicholas OOSH Branxton
- St Nicholas OOSH Cardiff
- St Nicholas OOSH Forster
- St Nicholas OOSH Glendale
- St Nicholas OOSH Gloucester
- St Nicholas OOSH Lochinvar
- St Nicholas OOSH Maitland
- St Nicholas OOSH New Lambton
- St Nicholas OOSH Stockton
Every entry helped keep important conversations about child safety visible within our communities.
Turning conversations into action
National Child Protection Week took place from 6 to 12 September 2026, with the theme ‘Every Conversation Matters, Shifting Conversation to Action’.
The theme reminds us that listening and talking about children’s safety must be followed by practical action. It calls on all of us to help create communities where children are heard, supported and protected.
For our St Nicholas communities, this is a meaningful opportunity to consider how we listen to children, value their ideas and respond to what they tell us. Creative experiences can open up conversations about belonging, trusted adults and what helps children feel safe.
We are proud to celebrate our winning teams and thank everyone who contributed to this year’s initiative. Keeping children safe is a shared responsibility that continues every day, well beyond National Child Protection Week.
