Safeguarding at Newlands
At Newlands, ensuring the safety of everyone in our community underpins everything that we do. We have an ethos that has safeguarding at its heart and every member of the school plays their part in supporting our incredibly strong culture of safeguarding including all staff, Governors, parents and visitors. We take the attitude ‘it could happen here’ and have a Speak Up campaign which is led by our Head Girls and Wellbeing Practitioner which allows us to create a safe space where students can discuss concerns. All staff are trained in safeguarding annually, and receive regular updates throughout the year.
“There is a rich and embedded culture of safeguarding…” External Audit January 2024.
If you are at all worried about your child, please do not hesitate to get in touch with the school and we will direct you to the most relevant member of staff to support you on 01628 625068.
Mental health & wellbeing
The summer holidays can be a time to relax, recharge and take a break. However, young people may struggle with the loss of structure and not seeing their friends every day. It’s important that young people look after their mental wellbeing during the break. The summer can also be a great time to develop good self-care habits, so that when term starts again, you have techniques you can turn to in stressful times. This toolkit contains activities, teaching materials and guidance to help support and boost mental wellbeing over the summer and beyond.
Anna Freud, a world-leading mental health charity for children and families has produced two toolkits - one for primary schools, one for secondary schools & FE settings - with resources to help support and boost mental wellbeing over the summer and beyond.
Please see the link below:
Self-care summer toolkit : Mentally Healthy Schools
Hub of Hope is a mental health support database. It is provided by national mental health charity, Chasing the Stigma, and brings local, national, peer, community, charity, private and NHS mental health support and services together in one place.
Mental Health Support Network provided by Chasing the Stigma | Hub of hope
FURTHER SUPPORT AND RESOURCES
These are all recommended by NHS Berkshire.
Helping Your Child with Fears and Worries: A Self-help Guide Using Cognitive Behavioural Techniques – reading materials for parents and carers. Overcoming Your Child's Fears & Worries
CAMHS Resources website -designed for young people, carers and professionals. HOME | CAMHS Resources (camhs-resources.co.uk)
MoodJuice – an online resource designed to think about emotional problems and work towards solving them. It has information and advice for those experiencing troublesome thoughts, feelings and actions. Moodjuice - Oxfordshire Mind Guide (oxmindguide.org.uk)
YoungMinds are a mental health charity for children, young people, parents and carers. YoungMinds | Mental Health Charity For Children And Young People | YoungMinds
YoungMinds guide on supporting children and young people with anxiety. Supporting A Child With Anxiety | Tips and Advice | YoungMinds
Teenage Depression – a CBT guide for parents Teenage Depression - A CBT Guide For Parents | Overcoming
KOOTH – an online accredited mental wellbeing community for young people aged 10 to 25. Kooth offers free, safe and anonymous online support. Home - Kooth
Number 22 – a registered charity providing free and confidential counselling to adults and young people in Windsor, Maidenhead and Slough Number22 | Free Counselling in Windsor, Slough and Maidenhead
Concerns outside normal school hours
If you are made aware of a safeguarding concern out of hours, the following action must be taken:
If the pupil is in immediate danger call 999.
If the child is not in immediate danger, refer the pupil to the out of hours RBWM MASH Team (01344 786543) for further action.
Please report the incident to the DSL once school has reopened.
If you are concerned about online abuse you can report this to CEOP
Awareness & safety information
At Newlands, we continually promote the importance of Personal Safety. However, much of the learning comes through our PSHE programme, which is organised around three key themes (Relationships; Health and Well-being, and; Living in the Wider World) and is intrinsically linked with the Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural development (SMSC) and the promotion of British Values.
Below are some useful links and resources which will support you, as Parents, in reiterating the important messages we give to pupils regarding their Personal Safety. Please do not hesitate to contact us here at school, should you have any questions or concerns.
Alcohol, Smoking, Drugs (including County Lines) and Knife Crime
https://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/what-we-do/crime-threats/drug-trafficking/county-lines www.knifefree.co.uk
www.fearless.org (Report crime to Crimestoppers)
Mental Health and Wellbeing
https://www.actionforchildren.org.uk/support-for-parents/children-s-mental-health/
Healthy Eating and Exercise
https://www.nhs.uk/change4life
Sex and Relationships
https://parentinfo.org/article/lgbtq-glossary-for-parents
https://parentinfo.org/article/talking-to-your-teenager-about-consent-0
https://parentinfo.org/article/why-you-should-talk-openly-with-children-about-sex-and-relationships
General Support
An essential part of the online planning process will be ensuring children who are being asked to work online have very clear reporting routes in place so they can raise any concerns whilst online. As well as reporting routes back to the school or college this should also signpost children to age appropriate practical support from the likes of:
www.childline.org.uk - Childline for support - (Telephone: 0800 1111)
www.samaritans.org (Telephone: 116 123)
UK Safer Internet Centre - to report and remove harmful online content
CEOP - for advice on making a report about online abuse
Cyberbullying advice for Young People
Cyberbullying advice for Parents and Carers
Online Safety
E-Safety describes a school’s approach to protect and educate pupils and staff in their use of technology and to have the mechanisms in place to intervene and support where appropriate. Our approach to E-Safety is continually evolving, in response to society’s changing use of technology and the internet.
Content: ensuring that girls are not exposed to illegal, inappropriate or harmful material; for example pornography, fake news, racist or radical and extremist views;
Contact: ensuring that girls are not being subjected to harmful online interaction with other users; for example commercial advertising as well as adults posing as children or young adults;
Conduct: supporting girls in ensuring that their personal online behaviour does not increase the likelihood of harm, or causes harm to others; for example making, sending and receiving explicit images, or online bullying.
The Governing Body and Headteacher have overall responsibility for ensuring that Newlands has effective E-Safety policies and procedures in place, with the day-to-day management of this delegated to the E-Safety Officer. However, it is good practice to view E-Safety as being a shared responsibility between Governors, Staff, Students and Parents.
Newlands will endeavour to ensure that you, as parents, have access to current information. This will support you in acquiring the skills and knowledge required to ensure the safety of your daughters outside the school environment. A list of useful website links and resources can be found below. These will be reviewed and regularly updated.
Pupils are permitted access to the school network and IT equipment after they and a parent/carer have signed our Acceptable Use Agreement. The rules set out in this agreement are in place to support everyone to stay safe online.
Please do not hesitate to contact the school, should you wish to discuss E-Safety further.
The E-Safety Officer for the school is Mr A. Morbey, Deputy Headteacher
Leaflets for Parent/Carers:
- Supporting Young People On-line
- Facebook Safety Checklist
- Instagram Safety Checklist
- Snapchat Safety Checklist
- Twitter Safety Checklist
Websites
- CEOP Safety Centre
- Eliminating Child Sexual Abuse Online – Internet Watch Foundation (iwf.org.uk)
- In-Game Help And Support – Cybersmile
- Stop Homophobic, Transphobic, Racial, Religious & Disability Hate Crime - True Vision (report-it.org.uk)
- http://www.education.gov.uk/ukccis/ - UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS)
- http://ceop.police.uk/ - Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP)
- ttp://www.saferinternet.org.uk/ - UK Safer Internet Centre
- ttp://www.childnet.com/ - Childnet International
- http://www.swgfl.org.uk/ - SWGfL (South West Grid for Learning)
- ttp://www.theparentzone.co.uk/ - Parentzone;
- http://www.digizen.org/glossary/
- https://www.getsafeonline.org/
- https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/
- https://www.childnet.com/parents-and-carers/parent-and-carer-toolkit
- https://nationalonlinesafety.com/resources/wake-up-wednesday/
- https://www.esafety-adviser.com/parentengagement/
- https://www.vodafone.co.uk/mobile/digital-parenting/resources-category - Digital Parenting (Vodafone)
Local Authority Safeguarding Inspections
Inspection of Childrens' Services
Joint Targeted Inspection Report