Keeping your child safe
At Highfield, keeping our pupils safe is a priority. We take rigorous steps to ensure that children stay safe and do not come to any harm.
Keeping Children Safe In Education Statutory guidance for schools and colleges 1st September 2022
Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is defined as:
• protecting children from maltreatment
• preventing the 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, and
• taking action to enable all children to have the best outcomes.
This page offers advice and links to further information to support parents in helping to keep their child safe and support their wellbeing.
We work closely with outside agencies such as the NSPCC / Childline. The NSPCC website has a wealth of information on various ways to keep your child safe for example, how to start a conversation about how to stay safe whilst online or how to talk about the NSPCC's 'underpants rule'.
Click on the picture below to go directly to the NSPCC website.
You can also download their parent's guide to teaching the PANTS rule here:
The NSPCC has a dedicated helpline for children and young people who have experienced sexual harassment or abuse at school, and for worried adults and professionals that need support and guidance 0800 136 663 or Email: help@nspcc.org.uk.
Other helpful websites/phone numbers with advice for keeping your child safe and supporting their wellbeing are:
Young Minds Offers mental health information, advice and support to parents, carers and young people. 020 7089 5050
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Prevent Strategy
Since 1 July 2015, all schools in England have a legal duty to prevent pupils from being radicalised.
Prevent is part of CONTEST, the Government’s strategy to address terrorism. The main aim of Prevent is to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism. Prevent focuses on all forms of terrorist threats e.g. international terrorism, far right extremists (among others).
The Government’s Prevent strategy can be found at the following address: www.homeoffice.gov.uk
At Highfield we aim to safeguard all our children from any harm, including that posed by terrorism. We promote diversity and respect. We encourage our children to engage in debates within a safe environment and involve them in decision making, for instance the School Council. Through PSHE lessons, our pupils explore their own and other's values.
Keeping Safe online
At Highfield we are proud of how our pupils use the internet and other forms of ICT to support their learning. We recognise that being able to use the internet competently and safely is essential if our children are going to succeed as adults. We discuss E-safety regularly with our classes and in assemblies.
What can I do, as a parent or guardian, to help my child stay safe online?
1. Enable Parental Controls on your home internet. To learn how to do this, click this link below.
2. Encourage your child to use 'Safe Search' search engines.
http://www.safesearchkids.com/
3. Be aware of how your child is accessing the internet. Although the legal age requirement to have Facebook, Instagram and many other social media sites is 13, some children still access and use some or all of these.
Parents should also be aware of the many games, including X-Box live and Fortnite that allow children to communicate with others whilst gaming. 'Yoursphere' has some great advice about ensuring privacy settings are in place to keep your child safe whilst online.
4. Have regular conversations with your child about their use of the internet. Click the image below as it provides a simple way of getting the message of E-Safety across to your child.
For more information about keeping safe online, visit our E-Safety page by clicking the link below:
You can download a comprehensive guide covering many aspects of e-safety here:
Click here to view a WhatsApp guide
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Child Sexual Exploitation
Worried about your child?
Child sexual exploitation can be hard to detect and abusers are very clever in their manipulation. Some young people won’t even be aware that it is happening to them.
It’s not always easy to know what our children are up to or if anything is bothering them, but any combination of these tell-tale signs is a strong indicator that something is wrong and you should get help.
https://www.barnardosrealloverocks.org.uk/
https://paceuk.info/child-sexual-exploitation/
https://www.barnardos.org.uk/what-we-do/protecting-children/cse
