Safeguarding
Our vision for all in our Bradstow community is “Living and learning together within a Culture of Gentleness”. The central purpose of all who contribute to the provision at the school is to “nurture, teach and sustain” our young people, keeping them at the centre of everything we do and working harmoniously together so we can realise the goal of giving each young person a real life in community.
Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children means:
- Providing help and support to meet the needs of children as soon as problems emerge
- Protecting children from maltreatment whether that is within or outside the home, including online
- Preventing impairment of children’s mental and physical health or development
- Ensuring that children grow up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care
- Taking action to enable all children to have the best outcomes
Safeguarding and child protection is everyone’s responsibility.
The governors and staff at Bradstow School and the associated Children’s Homes fully recognise the responsibilities and duty placed upon them to have arrangements to safeguard and promote the welfare of all within the Bradstow community. We recognise that all staff, including volunteers, have a full and active part to play in protecting pupils from harm.
We believe that our school should provide a caring, positive, safe and stimulating environment in which pupils can learn; promoting the social, physical and emotional wellbeing of each individual young person.
The school plays a crucial role in preventative education. This is in the context of a whole-school approach to preparing young people for life in modern Britain, and a culture of zero tolerance of sexism, misogyny/misandry, homophobia, biphobia, transphobia and sexual violence/harassment.
All staff need to be aware of the definitions and indicators of abuse and neglect as identified by Working together to Safeguard Child (2021) and Keeping Children Safe in Education 2021.
The school acknowledges that safeguarding includes a wide range of specific issues, We promote our staff awareness of a number of relevant topics such as (but not limited to) the following:
- Abuse and Neglect Bullying, including cyber bullying
- Children with family members in prison
- Children Missing Education (CME)
- Child missing from home or care
- Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE)
- Child Criminal Exploitation (CCE)
- Contextual Safeguarding (Risk’s County lines and Gangs outside of the home)
- Domestic Abuse
- Drugs and Alcohol misuse
- Faith abuse
- Fabricated or induced illness
- Gender based abuse and violence against women and girls
- Homelessness
- Hate
- Human trafficking and modern slavery
- Nude/Semi-nude image sharing (Aka youth produced /involved Online safety Mental health Child on Child abuse sexual imagery or ‘sexting’
- Preventing radicalisation and extremism
- Private fostering Relationships abuse
- Serious violence
- Sexual violence and sexual harassment
- So-called ‘honour-based’ abuse, including Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and forced marriage
- Up skirting
This is embedded through regular training such as e-learning courses, keeping up to date with the latest updates to legislation and guidance (which all staff read and sign - regardless of role) and active discussion is embedded into all staff meetings (such as full school staff meetings/departmental meeting/ 1 to 1 meetings such as supervision)
e.g. of Guidance and legislation:
Keeping Children Safe in Education
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/keeping-children-safe-in-education--2
Anti Bullying
Bradstow School is committed to developing an anti-bullying culture where the bullying of children or young people is not tolerated in any form.
Our aim is to provide a learning environment free from any threat or fear which will enable us to support the aspirations, achievement and welfare of everyone in the school community. To achieve this Bradstow School for Autism objectives are:
- To reduce and eradicate wherever possible instances in which children are subjected to bullying in any form, including racist bullying, homophobic or gender variant bullying, of children who may be vulnerable (for example Autistic, SEND, EAL) and cyber bullying.
- To establish appropriate ways of dealing with bullying and provide after-care should an incident occur.
- To ensure that all children, staff and parents are aware of this Policy and fulfil their obligations to it
- To prevent, de-escalate and/or stop any continuation of harmful behaviour
- To react to bullying incidents in a reasonable, proportionate and consistent way
- To safeguard the pupil who has experienced bullying and to trigger sources of support for the pupil;
Every member of staff has a responsibility to work towards eradicating any incidents and types of bullying in our school.
For more details please see our Anti-Bullying Policy
Online Safety
The main risks to the school encompass:
- Content – exposure to illegal, inappropriate or harmful content (e.g. pornography, fake news, racism, self-harm, misogyny, extremist material (potentially leading to radicalisation), piracy, bias, tasteless/graphic)
- Contact – being subjected to harmful online interaction with others (e.g. grooming, peer pressure, commercial adverts, matchmaking, misled)
- Conduct – personal online behaviour that increases the likelihood of harm to the individual or others (e.g. consensual and non-consensual sharing of nudes, sending and receiving explicit messages, online bullying)
- Commerce – risks such as online gambling, inappropriate adverts, phishing and/or financial scams
There are three core ways to mitigate risks to consider, these are:
Use of technology
- Policies and practices
- Education and training.
The school manages these risks through internet content filtering and monitoring, webfiltering meetings and action plans ; Impero network monitoring software; restrictions on digital devices; record of young people devices (including MAC address); risk assessment for specific YP; dedicated classroom devices; guest Wi-Fi sign in; secure filtered and anti-spammed email services; protecting personal data; anonymised children and young people email; managed internet content; restricted access to social media; educating young people; staffing and parents/carers training; use of permissions for images and videos; additional access control to networks; supervision of young people, internet access in public spaces; effective and timely reporting of issues; effective supervision of use of IT within the curriculum; web access reporting process and managing emerging technologies.
For Full details please refer to our Online Safety Policy
Promoting British Values and SMSC Development
Schools have a responsibility to promote British values, including respect for law, democracy and for others, as well as SMSC Development. (spiritual, moral, social and cultural)
Within the teaching standards, the mandate includes: ‘Showing tolerance of and respect for the rights of others; not undermining fundamental British values, including democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect, and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs; [and] ensuring that personal beliefs are not expressed in ways which exploit pupils’ vulnerability or might lead them to break the law... An extremist outlook is not compatible with being a teacher.’
What is radicalisation and extremism?
Extremism can be defined as holding extreme political views that stand in opposition to British Values (PDG, 2015). Radicalisation is a process by which an individual or group comes to adopt increasingly extreme political, social, or religious ideals and aspirations that forces them to reject or undermine the status quo or as well as expressions of freedom of choice. This goes against British Values, defined by the government as ‘the values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs.’
A key part of our plan for education is to ensure children become valuable and fully rounded members of society who treat others with respect and tolerance, regardless of background… changes are designed to tighten up the standards on pupil welfare to improve safeguarding, and the standards on spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils to strengthen the barriers to extremism.
- Ofsted
Preventing radicalisation and extremism
Our new prevent duty, is carried out under the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015, which legally requires us to take steps to prevent children & young people from being drawn into terrorism. We take this duty seriously and carry out the four main actions responsibly, namely:
- Risk assessment,
- Work in partnership with external agencies such as the Police and Social Services,
- Staff training
- IT and safeguarding policies.
Staff
Senior staff are trained in how to prevent radicalisation and policies are given to all staff. All staff are trained on the school’s ethos and core values and have a clear contract which all staff sign, ensuring that they deal with staff, children & young people and families with the uttermost respect. There is a rigorous selection process. The school is an Investors in People champion (Gold Standard) and our commitment to safeguarding extends to our staff and their wellbeing.
Statutory Guidance on Prevent:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/prevent-duty-guidance
Children & young people, their carers and families
If we assess a child or family member is as at risk, we will refer to MASH, which focuses on providing support at an early stage to people who are identified as being vulnerable to being drawn into terrorism. However, the school’s main focus is on prevention. Evidence of the promotion of SMSC and British Values is collected and the school’s work audited. Each daily schedule is embedded with these core values. Assemblies, festivals and other planned activities are all designed to promote spiritual, moral, social and cultural development as well as the core values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and tolerance. Bradstow School is also a Unicef Gold level: Rights Respecting accredited School having committed to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and these values underpin all our work.
The school is dedicated to providing a personalized learning and care experience for all children & young people and their families/carers. Where issues are raised, the family/carers are consulted and supported as necessary and the relevant authorities informed.
In terms of internet safety, we ensure suitable filters are in place to keep children & young people away from extremist materials, in keeping with Wandsworth guidelines.
Reporting concerns
All staff are legally bound to report any safeguarding concerns in order to protect the welfare of staff, children & young people and those around them.
We use the online platform MyConcern which all staff are trained on how to use in their first week
Staff can also report concerns or seek guidance from our Designated Safeguarding Leads
The designated safeguarding officers are: Sarah Adams, Penny Doswell, Tracey Kingston, Sarah Julyan, Paul Gorham, Debbie Tomlinson, Elliot Blackmore, Michaela Paul & Ashleigh Daniels. Advice should always be sought if in doubt.
Please report any safeguarding concerns to our Principal (Penny Doswell)
Signs to be aware of amongst staff, children & young people and family/carers include:
- A marked change in behaviour or attitude,
- Unexplained injury
- Change in ideological beliefs,
- Signs of depression or anger,
- Other emotional signs.
Whilst this may amount to no cause for concern, reporting issues can allow the school to keep its commitment to supporting everyone in its community, we operate on the basis that its better to over report than under report and staff are told to have a low threshold in recognising what constitues a concern.
For more information please refer to our Safeguarding Policy which can be found below:
