Safeguarding

All of us safe, all of the time, everyone’s responsibility

If you have a safeguarding concern contact any member of staff and/or refer to children services – Child protection – safeguarding children and young people | Central Bedfordshire Council

What is Safeguarding?

Safeguarding is about keeping children safe. This means protecting them from harm and promoting their welfare.

Safeguarding includes; protection from abuse, preventing harm to health or development, ensuring children receive safe and effective care, and taking action to enable all children and young people to have the best outcomes.

Meet the Team

The structure of the safeguarding team has been updated to build more capacity within the team.  While Mrs Searle retains overall responsibility for the Academy safeguarding strategy, Mr Reavell has joined the team to support with the operational aspects of role.

Our Academy Vision is “Living Well Together with Dignity, Faith and Hope”. We aspire to take dignified decisions and afford dignity to all members of our community, regardless of background or circumstance.  Our position as a Voluntary Aided Church Academy means that the Christian faith has a central role in all of our actions and decisions.  We strive for excellence in all that we do, enabling our students to transform their lives and to hope for happy and successful futures.

At All Saints Academy, our vision is that we “Live Well Together with Dignity, Faith and Hope”. Our goal is to maximize the educational opportunities of all students within our community, in a stimulating and caring environment.  We are determined to meet the educational needs of all our students. Our Academy aims to treat all its pupils fairly and with respect. This involves providing access and opportunities for all pupils without discrimination of any kind. We focus on the well-being and progress of every child and where all members of our community are of equal worth.

We encourage our students to speak with their form tutors or Heads of Year in the first instance for support and guidance; but should they feel that they need something more urgent; students can access support from the students services support team, via our dedicated email, studentservices@asadunstable.org or alternatively go online to www.kooth.com and even text the NHS support line for teens on 07507331450 

Should you ever feel that there is a safeguarding emergency out of school hours please contact Central Bedfordshire Council – Children’s Services on 0300 300 8585

How do we keep our students safe?

All of our Heads of Year, Non-Teaching Heads of Year, Pastoral Staff, Middle and Senior Leadership are Level 3 Safeguarding Trained. This means they are equipped to spot potential safeguarding concerns, manage students making disclosures, and are able to meet any disclosure with empathy and professionalism.

It’s important to us that as well as being kept safe our students feel safe. Students are encouraged to take concerns to members of staff and whole school surveys are carried out to discover what our young people are worried about. We have regular ‘Feeling Safe Days’ were concerns are addressed and new plans and policies discussed with students. Feedback from students has shown an increase in feeling safe since this was started.

We recognise there is a link between safeguarding issues and pastoral care and as such have a large pastoral team based in our Pastoral Work Room, a quiet space students can access if they are struggling to access their usual lessons. Every year group has a non-teaching head of year to provide pastoral support to students, we have a dedicated pastoral support worker, and we have a school counsellor. We also have close ties with local mental health services as well as organisations which support with specific needs, for example drug and alcohol use.

To ensure our students are kept safe in their digital space all internet activity within The Academy is monitored and filtered. This means students cannot access harmful or unsuitable websites. Staff are notified if students do attempt to access these materials or search for monitored terms. If students trigger an alert a member of the pastoral team will speak with the student and follow up as required.

Furthermore, we have CCTV across the school but have recently installed additional cameras on stairwells – both internal and external stairs. This makes it easy for us to monitor students as they move across the Academy. A good CCTV system like ours also deters potential threats and bullying because people know they are being monitored. It also makes it easier for us to identify any students who have been causing issues and sanction accordingly should an incident happen.

We understand that busy corridors can make some people unsafe. We address this through the following:

• Students all line up outside at the beginning of periods 1, 3 and 5. This means that they have a controlled entrance into the school and there is never a time when too many students are on stairwells or in the narrower corridors.
• At the end of your lessons, students stand behind their desks and are dismissed by a member of SLT or the most senior member of staff on your corridor. This ensures a safe ‘flow of traffic’ out of your classroom around the building.
• There are also key members of staff who stand in important areas during lesson changeovers eg on stairwells to look at what is going on.

We also ensure there are always staff available to help students from the moment they step inside the school gates to when they walk back through them at the end of the school day.

1. Year teams (Heads of Year, Non-teaching Heads of Year and tutors) and SLT are outside greeting students at the beginning of the school day. This means there are lots of people to speak to if our pupils are feeling anxious about anything before you begin your day.
2. There are at least 2 members of staff on LSL every lesson to deal with any issues in classrooms or corridors.
3. There are staff on duty at break and lunch in key areas across the school, including in the canteen, outside and inside the school building. They wear pink vests so you can easily see them if there are any issues.
4. There are staff on duty in key areas as you are leaving at the end of the school day eg at the bike sheds, on the gate.

Sixth formers are linked to each tutor group and are safety ambassadors. They wear a yellow jacket at lunch time, and you can approach them if you have a safety concern. Lastly, We have put a postbox in the HUB outside the management suite. This is so students can tell us about anything that is worrying them or someone you know. Students can also post suggestions about how we can make the Academy even safer. This postbox will be emptied daily so that we can promptly respond to what pupils are telling us.

Filtering and Monitoring

Here at All Saints Academy Dunstable we have a filtering and monitoring system that works both on the school premises as well as outside. We monitor for a set of keywords which will flag up an alert to the Safeguarding team who will then take the appropriate action. We also monitor all sites visited and apps used. Any indiscretions will be alerted to the Heads of Years which will result in a conversation with the student to reiterate the steps they need to take to stay safe online. Repeat offenders could be subject to sanctions or withdrawal of IT privileges.

Links

Safeguarding Including Child Protection Policy
Keeping Children Safe in Education 2023 (KCSiE)
Prevent Policy
CHUMS Family Wellbeing Team
Groundwork
Parents Guide to Online Safety
YoungMinds | Mental Health Charity For Children And Young People | YoungMinds
Mind
Youth Support Service

All parents and carers are eligible to put in a request for a hard copy of the safeguarding policy, this will be provided free of charge. If you would like to put in a request please contact the school by either phoning 01582 619700 or emailing office@asadunstable.org. You can also ask any academy services member on reception should you be visiting.