Safeguarding

DSL - Kelly Maclean

Safeguarding and Child Protection

Safeguarding Our Students

If you have a serious concern about your child or any other student at Tottington High School please contact the Safeguarding Team IMMEDIATELY by either telephoning school on 01204 882327 or sending an email via safe@ths.set.org

Alternatively, you could contact the NSPCC

At Tottington High School we recognise our moral and statutory responsibility to safeguard and protect all members of our school community, and strive to ensure that effective safeguarding procedures are in place to support our children, families, and staff and that they are used consistently. The school will always seek to work in partnership with parents and relevant agencies to ensure the best possible outcome for the child and family. Any action taken by the safeguarding team is done with reference to statutory guidance and will always be in the best interests of the child.

Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of our students is everyone’s responsibility. Every member of staff is expected to contribute to providing an environment in which all students are safe, secure, free from harm and respected.

At Tottington we safeguard our students by:

• making sure all staff are provided with appropriate continued professional development, are able to recognise signs of physical/emotional harm and neglect, and know how to respond to concerns;
• creating a safe environment through robust and effective safeguarding practices;
• teaching them how to stay safe in school, out of school, and on-line;
• maintaining an environment where they feel confident to approach members of staff if they have a concern;
• ensuring we adhere to safer recruitment procedures as set out in KCSIE 2021.

Keeping Children Safe in Education September 2023

Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) training is completed with all staff annually as part of the new academic year INSET day programme. School staff receive a comprehensive overview of the document, delivered by Miss K Maclean (DSL) and Mrs K Gardner (Headteacher), in addition to digital copies of KCSIE 2023 for the compulsory reading of Part 1 and Appendix A. Additional Child Protection and Safeguarding training is conducted at regular intervals throughout the school year to establish the strong culture of safeguarding that we have at Tottington High School.

KCSIE

BURY ENCOMPASS COMMITMENT

Operation Encompass is an initiative that follows in the footsteps of a successful programme in Plymouth to safeguard and support children and young people following a domestic abuse incident. It directly connects the Police (GMP) with Key Adult’s (Miss Maclean and Mrs Gardner) in the child’s school to ensure an efficient, confidential channel of communication. The school will then be better able to support the child.

The psychological impact of living with domestic abuse is no smaller than the impact of being physically abused. Children often develop anxiety, depression, aggression and even post-traumatic stress disorder as a consequence of living with domestic abuse. Approximately two thirds of child witnesses show more emotional or behavioural problems than the average child. Although by no means inevitable, exposure to domestic abuse is one of the most powerful predictors of becoming a perpetrator and a victim as an adult.

Being aware of the trauma a child has experienced enables professionals to better understand and support the child. Operation Encompass aims to ensure that appropriate school staff are made aware early enough to support children and young people in a way that means they feel safe and included.

How does it work?

Following a domestic abuse incident, children will often arrive in school distressed, upset, worried and unprepared. Operation Encompass aims to ensure school staff (Miss Maclean and the pupils Head of Year) are made aware early enough to take appropriate action and so help and support children in a way that means they feel safe.

For further information please use this link

If you are worried about domestic abuse there are a number of organisations out there who want to help.

Concerned about a Child

Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy

Operation Encompass

Radicalisation & Extremism

Keeping Children Safe in Education (DfE) states that protecting children from the risk of radicalisation should be seen as part of schools’ wider safeguarding duties, and is similar in nature to protecting children from other forms of harm and abuse.

All staff have completed on-line training in radicalisation and extremism.

The website “educate against hate” has been developed by the Department for Education and the Home Office as part of the drive against extremism. The anti-radicalisation website provides “practical advice to protect children from the dangers of extremism”, with information from the government and groups such as the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.

It includes information on:

• warning signs of danger
• how parents/carers should talk to children about extremism
• steps concerned parents/carers can take

Further information and resources can be found here.
Advice for parents/carers on keeping children safe against radicalisation and extremism can be found here