Maria Alexander @Daring Optimist asked us to contribute to the launch of the Pastoral Toolkit. Our DHT for Culture and Wellbeing Julie Hunter contribute an article for the first edition here and I have contributed a follow up article in their second edition here.
My article is below:
Safeguarding Information:
The first thing you see when you sign in at our school is the poster of the Safeguarding Team. Before you can sign in you also need to read and agree with our Keeping Children Safe protocols. You also need to read and agree to our school values.
Safeguarding Posters:
We use the back of our toilet cubicle doors as a way of drip feeding how to keep ourselves save from a range of risks.
Inventry:
We use digital signing in system for all staff and visitors. It takes your photo and stores it for when you visit again. You get a lovely sticker with your mug shot on it too!
The Senior Leadership Team, Receptionists and Site/ Lettings Team all have the app on their mobile. Which saves printing everything in a fire evacuation as we can see at a glance who has not signed out of the building.
Lanyards and ID:
All of our staff and all of our students wear a photo ID card. They use it for swiping for lunch, the library and in and out of school, when it is out of hours. The staff all have their DBS number on display for when they go to other schools. On the back of the ID card there is a quick reference guide with key contact numbers for MASH/ NSPCC.
Visitors who are known to the school and who are on our SCR received a green lanyard when signing in. This includes visitors from our MAT and our Governors who the staff may know but the students may not.
Visitors who are unknown to us wear a red lanyard and need escorting. Our students know that a red lanyard means ‘stranger danger’ and if they spot anyone roaming unescorted they should alert a member of staff, and they do!
Media Consent:
We only have a handful of students who opted out of our Media Consent policy for photography. Their names are on our Media Consent register for staff to cross-reference when doing events, going on trips, sharing news. For events they wear a red lanyard to flag this to official photographers.
Safeguarding Pads:
I have worked with Ann Marie Christian in my previous role as Professional Learning Leader for a large MAT.
We launched a DSL & DDSL network for 42 academies in South London to meet half-termly to share best practice.
She has recently designed a 2 page pre-printed process pad through Doodle which you can buy online. We have bought all of our Safeguarding Team a few of them to make referrals quick and to ensure all the bases are covered.
Safeguarding Network:
I recommended Ann Marie to our new MAT and she has been working with the central team on standardising processes across our 27 schools. Our MAT DSL and DDSL have also recently launched a half-termly face to face update to share topical issues, crowd source best practice and seek support from others in the same challenging role. One of the things we are currently looking at is how to broker supervision for our DSLs.
Mobile Phones:
All of our staff mobiles have a Yellow sticker on the back of them to demark whether they are ‘safe’ phones. All visitors are informed at reception that they are not allowed to have their phones out whilst on site. If they need to make/ take a call they request a private office. Our students are very confident in asking our visitors to politely put their phones away.
Educare:
As a trust we use an online training platform for virtual safeguarding training and top ups. Following the face to face training at the start of the year – generalist CP for all staff and DSL training for the Safeguarding team – this is a great way to drip feed information and check that staff have absorbed it. Modules you can assign include:
- An Introduction to Child Sexual Exploitation
- Child Neglect
- Child Protection in Education
- Child Protection in Sport & Active Leisure
- Equality & Diversity
- Female Genital Mutilation Awareness
- Online Safety
- Mental Wellbeing for Children and Young People
- Safeguarding Young People
- Safer Recruitment in Education
- The Prevent Duty
CPOMs:
CPOMS is the market leading software application for monitoring child protection, safeguarding and a whole range of pastoral and welfare issues.
Working alongside a school’s existing safeguarding processes, CPOMS is an intuitive system to help with the management and recording of child protection, behavioural issues, bullying, special educational needs, domestic issues and much much more.
Using CPOMS, schools can ensure that students are safe and fully supported, whilst school staff can focus on teaching and providing support, instead of administration.
Every member of staff across school has an obligation to report any concerns which they may have. CPOMS allows them to record information in a central repository and have relevant people alerted immediately.
Senior leaders are able to build a chronology around a student and can produce reports on vulnerable pupil groups for Case Conference Meetings, Governors and Ofsted at the touch of a button.
School Nurse:
We have an OCC school nurse who joins us for half a day once a fortnight. Staff can make referrals via our SENDco, but we have also introduced a self-referral scheme.
This has been especially empowering for those students feeling anxious, suffering from mental health issues or who we have concerns about self-harming as part of our discussion involves them gaining some control and completing the self-referral form to seek support from a specialist.
Student Message Board:
The images of the slides I have interspersed throughout come from our Student Message Board which is updated on a weekly basis to share key messages with our students, staff and visitors via our presentation screens. Technology is a great way to drip feed this information to keep everyone informed.
Hannah, The Hopeful Headteacher
Currently feeling hopeful about:
- The collaboration and generosity of EduTwitter.
Currently reading and thinking about:
Currently feeling grateful for:
- Maria and the Pastoral Toolkit team.
- Support and Training from Ann Maris Christians.
The Hopeful Headteacher 