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Safeguarding

Safeguarding is at the core of our school, and we recognise our statutory responsibility to ensure that all children feel safe.

Our safeguarding team works alongside other professionals, including the police, health services and social care, to ensure that all children at our school (KCSIE 2024):

Are provided with the help and support to meet their needs as soon as problems emerge
Are protected from maltreatment, whether that is within or outside the home, including online
Are supported to prevent impairment in terms of their mental and physical health or development
Are supported to ensure that they grow up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care
Are supported to enable them to have the best outcomes

Safeguarding Team

We are aware that many of our pupils will engage with social media and our aim is to support them to do this in a way which is a safe and ensures their online presence does not place them at risk of harm. Parent and carer support is crucial in achieving this aim. Below are some of the key issues and trends affecting young people in today’s society alongside guides and information to assist parents and carers in dealing with these challenges.

WhatsApp Groups

We are aware that a significant number of our students are members of various WhatsApp groups. Whilst some of these groups can be pleasant and help pupils to feel connected to each other, unfortunately the vast majority of the content on these WhatsApp groups is not always appropriate and can be unpleasant for the pupils involved, to receive.

A number of the peer group issues and incidents of unkindness that we are addressing in school have derived from WhatsApp groups which are being used by pupils to communicate during the evenings and weekends. These incidents ultimately cause upset to pupils and spill into the school day which detracts from their learning.

Several of the WhatsApp groups have 40+ members in them and often pupils are sharing personal information unaware of the identity of every group member. It is very easy to add people to a WhatsApp group and this increases the likelihood that your child may be in group with people they do not know who subsequently can access their mobile phone number and profile picture if privacy settings have not been set to maximum security. Some of our pupils have received upsetting and threatening calls from people they do not know, but who have accessed their details from one of the many WhatsApp groups they belong to. This has implications for the safety of our pupils as well as their emotional wellbeing.

There have also been instances where children have unknowingly found themselves in possession of inappropriate images and content as their settings have dictated that any materials shared within WhatsApp groups automatically ‘save to camera roll’. This can have severe consequences for pupils, particularly if images or videos are indecent and/or contain homophobic or racial slurs.

If you do allow your child to access social media, such as WhatsApp, we ask for your vigilance. Just like their interactions in person, online interactions require supervision and support. What is right will vary from family to family but some strategies that are known to be successful include:

Monitoring their phones for the apps that are downloaded
Enacting parental controls on phones and consoles
Reviewing the messages they send on platforms and apps – making monitoring part of a daily / weekly routine
Encouraging them to share or discuss with you what they are doing.

The popularity of social media means that harassment, bullying and unkindness can follow children everywhere that they go, 24 hours a day 7 days a week. We do not wish for that to happen to our pupils. Please do make us aware of any instances of bullying and let us know if you need any support or if you are worried about your child’s activities online. We have included some guides which include links to websites which will support you in checking your child’s current privacy settings and altering them if required.