SAFEGUARDING

Safeguarding and promoting the health, safety and welfare of children is central to the ethos of The Elms Academy. Smaller classes for students with SEND, high ratios or teacher to pupils, effective pastoral care and the house system all contribute to the caring and nurturing atmosphere. Children who feel happy and safe learn better and achieve academic success.

During secondary school, pupils are maturing, acting more independently and taking on increased responsibilities. This may mean they encounter more risky situations, in addition to those which arise from neglect or abuse within their family. Any disclosures of harm, neglect or abuse are always taken seriously and outside agencies consulted in order to ensure children are protected at all times. At The Elms Academy we have three members of staff in charge of child protection and safe guarding:

If you are a parent, carer, professional or member of the public, concerned about the safety or well-being of one of our students, please do not hesitate to contact us:

Jon Lynes
Designated Safeguarding Lead
Aurore Paturaud
Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead
Katie Butts
Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead
Ms Rahimi
Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead

KEY INFORMATION

Neglect

Neglect: the persistent failure to meet a child’s basic physical and/or psychological needs, likely to result in the serious impairment of the child’s health or development. Neglect may occur during pregnancy, for example, as a result of maternal substance abuse. Once a child is born, neglect may involve a parent or carer failing to: provide adequate food, clothing and shelter (including exclusion from home or abandonment); protect a child from physical and emotional harm or danger; ensure adequate supervision (including the use of inadequate care-givers); or ensure access to appropriate medical care or treatment. It may also include neglect of, or unresponsiveness to, a child’s basic emotional needs.

Prevent

All schools and colleges are subject to a duty under section 26 of the Counter Terrorism and Security Act 2015 (the CTSA 2015), in the exercise of their functions, to have “due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism”. This duty is known as the Prevent duty.

Femail Genital Mutilation (FGM)

FGM comprises all procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs. It is illegal in the UK and a form of child abuse with long-lasting harmful consequences. Section 5B of the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003 (as inserted by section 74 of the Serious Crime Act 2015) places a statutory duty upon teachers along with regulated health and social care professionals in England and Wales, to report to the police where they discover (either through disclosure by the victim or visual evidence) that FGM appears to have been carried out on a girl under 18.

E-Safety

The use of technology has become a significant component of many safeguarding issues. Child sexual exploitation; radicalisation; sexual predation: technology often provides the platform that facilitates harm. An effective approach to online safety empowers a school or college to protect and educate the whole school or college community in their use of technology and establishes mechanisms to identify, intervene in, and escalate any incident where appropriate.

The breadth of issues classified within online safety is considerable, but can be categorised into three areas of risk:

  • content: being exposed to illegal, inappropriate or harmful material; for example pornography, fake news, racist or radical and extremist views;
  • contact: being subjected to harmful online interaction with other users; for example commercial advertising as well as adults posing as children or young adults; and
  • conduct: personal online behaviour that increases the likelihood of, or causes, harm; for example making, sending and receiving explicit images, or online bullying.

Parent Guidance

Call the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) helpline for support and advice if you have a concern for your own or another child’s safety on 0808 800 5000.

If you feel that your child is in immediate danger, call the police on 999. You can report concerns to the police on their non-emergency number, 101.

You can contact any of the Lambeth Safeguarding team by clicking on their names above.

You can also contact the relevant social care team at your local council to report a concern about a child or adult.

 

External links for students

External links for adults

SAFEGUARDING AND INTERNET SAFETY

General Guidelines

Know what your children are doing online and who they are talking to. Ask them to teach you to use any applications you have never used. Keeping the computer in a family room means that you can share your child’s online experience – and that they are less likely to act inappropriately (i.e. via webcam).

Help your children to understand that they should never give out personal details to online friends — personal information includes their messenger ID, email address, mobile number and any pictures of themselves, their family or friends. If your child publishes a picture or video online, anyone can change it or share it. Remind them that anyone may be looking at their images and one day a future employer could!

Spam, junk email and texts

If your child receives spam/junk email & texts, remind them never to believe them, reply to them or use them. It’s not a good idea for your child to open files that are from people they don’t know. They won’t know what they contain — it could be a virus, or worse — an inappropriate image or film. Help your child to understand that some people lie online and therefore it’s better to keep online mates online. They should never meet up with any strangers without an adult they trust.

Always keep communication open for a child to know that it’s never too late to tell someone if something makes them feel uncomfortable. Teach young people how to block someone online and how to report them if they feel uncomfortable.

KEEPING SAFE

IMPERO

As an Impero Education Pro customer we are actively protecting our students from a host of online dangers. Through comprehensive online safety monitoring, The Elms Academy is complying with the recent changes to the DfE’s Keeping Children Safe in Education statutory guidance.

We want you to have the best information to keep your son/daughter safe with any new devices they may receive over the holiday period!

Please have a look at these top tips on how to set up parental controls on an Xbox one plus links for the PS4 and Wii-U.

http://internet-safety.yoursphere.com/2013/11/how-to-set-up-xbox-one-parental-controls-2/