Blog – Latest stories tagged 'safeguarding'

With the government offering funding equating to £597 per two week place for mainstream pupils, many schools are looking at bringing in groups of children over the summer.

If you are considering this here are some quick safeguarding tips. The government have also produced an excellent document which gives further information on running a summer school – available here.

1. Designated Safeguarding Lead

Remember you will need a DSL for the duration and you can’t assume it will be your usual DSL as they may be away. Planning a rota for the two weeks is the best way to do this as it stops the role being too onerous on one individual.

2. Staffing

If you are using staff who do not usually work on the school be mindful as to how long a DBS can take to come through, and have back up risk assessments in place.

3. Online resources

If you are planning on using third party content, which many schools are, be careful as to how it is delivered. Pre recorded lessons (such as those provided by www.holidaylearning.co.uk) are fine - live lessons throw up a raft of considerations - such as whether online chat is monitored/cameras on/cameras off and so on.

4. External providers

If you are bringing in external providers to run certain activities make sure they have appropriate policies and procedures in place in regard to safeguarding children and child protection AND there are arrangements to liaise with the school on these matters where appropriate.

With the responsibility of Summer Schools falling to a range of different people within a school it is important that someone has an overall handling on the potential safeguarding issues.

There is no doubt that Summer Schools, done well, can offer children a fantastic enriching experience and aid educational progress on the return in September. However, the delivery of such programmes is logistically challenging, from safeguarding to food provision to health and safety to content creation.

Many thanks to David Winfield, Founder of www.holidaylearning.co.uk for providing this article. Holiday Learning provides an online programme for children aged 7-13 to use as holiday homework either at home or in a Summer School setting providing online activities in well-being, academic enrichment, PE, Maths and English for only £295/school.

www.holidaylearning.co.uk has been created by teachers to offer teachers and schools a cost-effective bank of content." As teachers ourselves we know there is a huge difference between volunteering to be in school and help during a Summer School, to being asked to curate the materials. Additionally, with many of these children being unknown to the school as they are coming from feeder primaries, the ability to offer a range of activities at different levels as well as different topics will be invaluable."

www.holidaylearning.co.uk provides access to videos, quizzes and downloadable workbooks aimed at ages 8–13 covering PE, Well-being, Academic Enrichment, Maths and English. To book a 15 minute call with www.holidaylearning.co.uk please visit their website for further information.

Teachers 'struggle to deal with classroom sexual abuse'

According to research carried out by BBC Radio 4 and the NASUWT, teachers say they do not feel equipped to deal with peer-on-peer sexual abuse because they have had no training.

This is a problem we have been tracking for a while, which is why our sister site TrainingSchoolz recently worked with specialists at Chameleon PDE to launch a series of related online training assignments for use in schools.

The training is specifically designed to help schools and teachers deal with this and the wider issues of sexual abuse, harassment, and misogyny.

It provides staff with time for reflection about how their school's safeguarding policy and procedures include sexual abuse, harassment and misogyny, and how these address the issues raised by the students who reported to the ‘Everyone’s Invited’ website in Spring 2021.

This training is structured into five assignments, each of which are issued separately, so schools can be flexible in how they deliver them to staff.

Assignment 1: Introduction: Improving safeguarding around sexual abuse, misogyny & harassment
Assignment 2: Milly case study: Improving safeguarding around sexual abuse, misogyny & harassment
Assignment 3: Kyle case study: Improving safeguarding around sexual abuse, misogyny & harassment
Assignment 4: Curriculum: Improving safeguarding around sexual abuse, misogyny & harassment
Assignment 5: Further advice: Improving safeguarding around sexual abuse, misogyny & harassment

About TrainingSchoolz
TrainingSchoolz provides an online dashboard for schools and MATs to monitor and evidence statutory training, policy compliance and vital communications.

The included training & policy library provides an extensive range of statutory training assignments, covering Safeguarding, E-safety, Keeping Children Safe In Education (KCSIE), Mental Health & Wellbeing and much more.

All of the assignments provided in the library are fully customisable to the school’s specific needs. In addition, schools can upload / create their own content to cover a diverse range of topics, such as Curriculum Development, Staff Induction, Staff Handbook & Risk Assessment etc.

For further details and a free trial, visit TrainingSchoolz

Existing E-safety Support and Safeguarding Essentials members - contact us to discuss upgrading your membership to TrainingSchoolz - email info@safeguardingessentials.com

Teacher tips for remote learning

The move to remote issues throws up a huge range of safeguarding issues, both in terms of protecting children AND teachers.

Fortunately, there are a plethora of resources out there to help you navigate rough this minefield. David Winfield from RocketLearn has given us a quick checklist of his top five tips for remote learning – we hope they are useful.

1. Supporting teachers
When you as teachers are providing online learning from home it is easy to put yourself at risk inadvertently. It is useful to remember some key points:

2. Using YouTube for Online lessons
YouTube can be a great way to provide access to videos. Two “musts” to protect your children are:

3. Understand the chat function
Whilst the chat can seem like a useful function if children have questions and do not want to turn their microphone on and speak it can cause a number of safeguarding risks, not to mention act as a distraction to the lesson you are trying to teach. All platforms enable you to turn the chat off, a quick google search will give you instructions on how to do it whether you are on Zoom, Teams or Google Meets.

4. Have a plan for one-to-one phone calls or meetings
In school one-to-one conversations with pupils would take place with doors open and in sight of others. Online this is more difficult. Teachers should ensure one-to-one communications take place on school equipment, ideally on a phone belonging to a parent with a parent present, and if consent is given, the call can be recorded. It is also useful to ensure another member of staff is aware the call is taking place. Keeping a log of one-to-one phone calls and sessions can also be useful for referring back to.

5. Protect staff and child wellbeing
Last week was Place2Be’s Children’s Mental Health Week and it could not have come at a better time. Children, parents and teachers are all finding online learning difficult for a myriad of reasons. Whatever you can do as a school to help will be appreciated.

Thanks to David for these helpful tips. In light of the safeguarding issues surrounding live lessons RocketLearn is offering pre-recorded lessons for schools accessible via YouTube rather than live teaching. RocketLearn is currently offering free lessons and online work for primary schools across the UK. To receive a copy of these via email please click here.