Welcome!
Hello, hopefully the first half term has been a good one and you are refreshed after the break ready for the run up to Christmas.
Each half term we will share tips, updates and training opportunities which will support you in your role as Designated Safeguarding Leads, school leaders, and pastoral teams. Keeping you well-equipped to safeguard the pupils in your care and helping to ensure your setting is working in line with current guidance and legislation. For any further queries, please don’t hesitate to contact our team by emailing: safeguarding@oneeducation.co.uk
One Education’s Safeguarding Conference, is nearly here! It will be held on 8th November 2024 at The Gallery, M15 5QJ. We will host workshops, performances and keynote speakers that will enhance your safeguarding practice and give you, not only things to think about, but practical tips to take away and implement within your settings. Our programme includes:
The Flying Child – Sophie Olson
The Flying Child is a survivor-led, non-profit organisation, founded by Sophie Olson – a survivor of intrafamilial CSA. Their core aim is to normalise speaking about child sexual abuse, in society, in professional settings and within the survivor community itself.
Here and Now Performance by Odd Arts
Elevating our programme, we are delighted to bring to you this must-see performance by Odd Arts. Here and Now is a hard-hitting play that ends with many complex societal problems relating to hateful extremism, specifically focusing on the far right and International terrorism.
Read our Blog by Jess Lane, Safeguarding children against radicalisation, extremism and terrorism
Boys to Men – Salford Foundation
The Boys to Men project aims to help boys and young men explore ‘positive masculinity’ and improve gender-related behaviours and attitudes. This workshop will provide delegates with the opportunity to explore what positive masculinity looks like within our settings and how we, as professionals can engage boys and young men in making appropriate choices and influence change within society.
Tackling Addiction – WHYSUP
Whysup are an organisation that raise awareness on mental health and addiction, in schools, businesses and rehabilitations across the UK. Raising awareness through lived experience’. In this workshop, founder Mark, and Programme Facilitator Tom, will share some of their own experiences with addiction and mental health, as well as sharing findings from working in education of the last 7 years. There will be a focus on two of the fastest growing addictions in young people – vaping and gaming, as well as discussing mental health & resilience.
Read our blog by Sarah Penrose, Addiction to Gaming: When does it become a safeguarding issue?
Make Space – Odd Arts
A practical training workshop sharing some of the approaches, techniques and activities used in Odd Arts ‘Make Space’ programme. MAKE SPACE is a project proposed to address the increased levels of feelings of fear, uncertainty, anger, offence, silencing and confusion witnessed amongst students and staff in recent months.
To book a place on our safeguarding conference, please visit the link below.
In case you’ve missed it, we know how busy you are!
The statutory attendance guidance, “Working Together to Improve School Attendance” should now be well established within your setting. The key message is that schools must ensure they have created and embedded a culture of “support first” for all pupils and families where attendance is an issue. Our team are delivering a number of CPD sessions on Pupil Attendance over the next academic year, so make sure you book on so that you are fully aware of the changes and how to implement these within your setting. There are a range of supportive webinars available to schools from the DfE on all things attendance! The new Ofsted handbook was published mid-September and with regards to attendance, says:
- Inspectors will want to understand how providers ensure that pupils who attend multiple settings or part time are kept safe when they are not on site for the whole school day.
- Inspectors will expect schools to do all they reasonably can to achieve the highest possible attendance, while recognising that the context in which schools operate has changed.
- This includes the extent to which pupils with persistent and severe absence are improving their attendance over time or whether attendance is consistently low. Inspectors will want to see this analysis and how this has fed into the school’s approach.
- Inspectors will also evaluate the ways in which leaders take account of pupils’ weak attendance in their safeguarding systems and the clarity of their attendance recording. If schools use part-time timetables, and pupils are not attending other provision or placements in addition to their school, inspectors will evaluate the extent to which schools monitor these situations and are aspirational and effective in getting pupils into education full time, quickly and in line with DfE guidance. Part-time timetables should not be open-ended and should result in swift full-time education for the pupils.
Ofsted and safeguarding
In relation to safeguarding, the new Ofsted handbook states that ‘All schools should have an open and positive culture around safeguarding that puts pupils’ interests first.’ The safeguarding section of the handbook can be found here. The handbook contains a list of things that need to be available to inspectors at 8am on the day of the inspection. This list includes records and information about behaviour and attendance, including:
- up-to-date attendance analysis for all groups of pupils
- records and analysis of pupils taken off roll
- records and analysis of exclusions and suspensions, incidents of poor behaviour and any use of internal isolation
- records and analysis of bullying, discriminatory and prejudiced behaviour, either directly or indirectly, including racist, sexist, disability and homophobic/biphobic/transphobic bullying, use of derogatory language and racist incidents
- records and analysis of sexual harassment and/or sexual violence
- records and analysis of any restrictive physical intervention
We would recommend that if you use a system such as CPOMS, your set up allows you to track and run reports on this data. Did you know we offer a CPOMS Quality Assurance for schools? This on-site support enables schools to identify whether the record keeping system is effective and that data collated from recorded incidents is impactful.
Ofsted’s Big Listen
The findings of Ofsted’s Big Listen have been published and with regards to the frequency of safeguarding inspections more than half of respondents said that safeguarding should be inspected annually, with 84% saying that safeguarding should be outside of the leadership and management judgement. Read our blog ‘Conducting safeguarding self-assessments in schools’ which looks at how we ensure our safeguarding arrangements are effective and compliant. For any further queries, please don’t hesitate to contact our team by emailing: safeguarding@oneeducation.co.uk
New Resources
The NSPCC have updated their PANTS resources for schools and teachers. The lesson plans, classroom activities and resources are free to download and teach children about the underwear rule to help keep them safe. The NSPCC have also developed a new programme Speak Out Stay Safe, which helps children learn about their rights, what’s OK and not OK, and what to do if they are ever worried or scared.
For older children who are worried about their own sexual behaviour or the behaviour of someone else, The Lucy Faithful Foundation’s Shore project is celebrating a year of providing a safe space for teenagers to talk and get support if they are worried about sexual behaviour.
Children’s Commissioner Compulsory Survey
The Children’s commissioner has used her statutory powers for the first time to collect data from schools and colleges. This compulsory survey will ask school leaders about pastoral care available to their pupils, in-class adaptations for specific groups of children with additional needs and the variety of specialist staff employed on a full-time basis. For the first time the Commissioner also digs into emerging issues such as the prevalence of vaping or use of e-cigarettes, the details of individual mobile phone policies, and the provision of foodbanks. You can read the blog here. The link for submitting your school’s data can be found here. If you are looking to ensure your pastoral staff have a more enhanced level of safeguarding training, get in touch about our half day Enhanced Safeguarding course.
What’s Going On This Term?
Hopefully during October, you were able to raise awareness of Domestic abuse within your setting. Our blog which looks at how to educate and support children around domestic abuse is available and looks at actions schools can take to support children living with domestic abuse, or those at risk of entering an abusive relationship.
Bonfire night is nearly here and promoting safety with our pupils is essential. Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue service have some tips on firework safety which can be found here. The fire service also have a range of resources for both primary and secondary schools on bonfire night safety and offer a range of support services for children and young people across Greater Manchester which can be found here. Their education programme Stay Wise also offers resources for teachers to help get the essential safety messages from emergency services out to children and their families.
Anti-Bullying week is the 11th-15th of November. The theme for 2024 is ‘Choose respect’, a range of teaching resources and assemblies can be found on the Anti-bullying alliance’s website, here. Awareness weeks like this are a great time to review the effectiveness of your policies, to refresh staff knowledge, to gain feedback from pupils, parents and carers and to reflect fully on the culture within your setting.
Road Safety Week is the 17th-23rd of November. Brake, the road safety charity, tells us that every year more than 1700 people die on our roads and a further 30,000 receive life changing injuries. In order to keep our children safe on the roads we need to ensure they are well educated about the dangers and know how to use roads safely. Bikeability offer training, tips and curriculum-based tools for safer cycling. Think! Offer resources for education staff to help teach road safety to children.
The month of November is also known by some as Movember! A charity changing the face of Men’s health. Their three main focuses are; mental health and suicide prevention, Prostate cancer and testicular cancer. In some schools, Moustaches are grown throughout November to raise awareness and money for men’s health. If staff take part in this challenge, it’s a great way to get our pupils talking about these often-ignored areas of health.
Training & CPD
Looking for further professional development or statutory safeguarding training? Get in contact or take a look at our CPD offer here.
Designated Safeguarding Lead Training: 16th January 2025
This course will leave you well placed to confidently manage safeguarding arrangements in an education setting and contribute effectively to the child protection process. Delivered in person, you will have the opportunity to network with colleagues from other educational settings throughout this training course, further enhancing your own CPD and providing opportunity for critical reflection.
Designated Safeguarding Lead (Advanced): 14th November 2024 & 18th March 2025
The session is aimed at those who are more experienced in the role of Designated Safeguarding Lead for their setting and offers an opportunity to share a greater depth of knowledge and experience with colleagues who have a similar level of expertise.
Safeguarding Conference – “Reducing Harm Through Education” – 8th November 2024
Our Safeguarding Conference brings together national leaders and experts in safeguarding and child protection. Our theme for this year, “Reducing Harm Through Education” will enable delegates to explore the possible risks that children are exposed to in different contexts, and how we, as educators can work to reduce these through the curriculum and by creating a robust safeguarding culture across our settings.
We also offer a wide range of briefings and more specific Safeguarding and Attendance CPD to small or the whole staff team. For more information on how we can offer support to your setting, email: safeguarding@oneeducation.co.uk
If you would like any further advice or support on how to quality assure your practice in safeguarding or attendance, please get in touch to enquire about our assessments. We facilitate on-site scrutiny and critical reflection of your procedures, providing a thorough, RAG-rated report which outlines key areas of priority, ensuring that you are working in line with current legislation and statutory guidance.
Please complete the form below and we will get in contact as soon as we can to help you with your query.
