Safeguarding your child
Our Safeguarding Team
Safeguarding is the responsibility of every person in the academy. We do, however, have a dedicated team who monitor, respond to and support any safeguarding concerns raised. The team is:
DSL - Jayne Carlyle (Regional DSL)
Principal, Jon Spears
Deputy DSL - Clare Carpenter (VP); Tom Martin (AP).
E-Safety - Algun Bibi
Trust-wide safeguarding National - Jill Fuller
L2 trained - Heads of Year (M Mullholland; J Sherrin-Jones; C Vaughan; C Elliott & D Wedge).
Support for students - school counsellor (S Heward); mental health first aid (E Gee, D Wedge, L Benzy & J Carlyle); attendance support (T Bradshaw); art therapist (L Benzy), school nurse (fortnightly).
Everyone's Invited: a statement from the Trust
Like everyone, we've been appalled by the stories that are emerging across the country. It is completely unacceptable that girls are being treated in this way and we have a collective responsibility as education leaders to take a stand. We pride ourselves on being a highly inclusive family of schools, and whilst we have strong systems and controls in place as part of our work on equality, diversity and inclusion focusing on gender, racism, sexuality and disability, we want to make sure we are leaving no stone unturned in eradicating these insidious behaviours.
In addition to our existing practices, we are taking steps to ensure that each of our schools has the means to capture testimony from students - either anonymously or in person through safe spaces - so that there is every opportunity to uncover any issues, past or present. We all need to go further and shine a light on these issues so that they are brought out in the open and dealt with swiftly, including involving the police. To do otherwise, makes us part of the problem.
Peer on Peer Abuse
Definitions:
Peer-on-peer abuse is abuse of any type between children. It can include:
Bullying, including cyber-bullying, prejudice-based and discriminatory bullying
Physical abuse (e.g. hitting, kicking, shaking, biting, hair-pulling, or any way of causing physical harm)
Consensual and non-consensual sharing of nude and semi-nude images or videos (also known as ‘sexting’)
Sexual harassment, sexual violence
Upskirting (taking a picture under a person’s clothing without their permission)
Causing someone to engage in sexual activity without consent, (e.g. forcing them to strip, touch themselves sexually, or engage in sexual activity with a third party)
Abuse in intimate personal relationships between peers
Initiation/hazing violence and rituals
Sexual harassment is unwanted conduct of a sexual nature. It can happen online and offline. It can include:
Sexual comments (e.g. telling sexual stories, making sexual remarks about clothes or appearance)
Sexual jokes (e.g. sexualised so-called “banter”), or sexual taunting
Physical behaviour (e.g. deliberately brushing against someone, lifting up someone’s skirt, pulling someone’s bra strap)
Online sexual harassment (e.g. sharing of nude and semi-nude images or videos, sharing of unwanted explicit content, sexualised online bullying, unwanted sexual comments and messages on social media, sexual exploitation, sexual coercion and threats)
Sexual violence is any of the following (as defined in the Sexual Offences Act 2003):
Rape (sexual intercourse without consent)
Assault by penetration (sexual penetration with a part of the body or anything else without consent)
Sexual assault (intentional sexual touching of another person without their consent, e.g. grabbing someone’s breasts or bottom)
Consent is about having the freedom and the capacity to choose.
Consent to sexual activity may be given to one sort of sexual activity but not to another, or may be given with conditions
Consent can be withdrawn at any time during sexual activity and each time activity occurs
Someone consents to sexual activity only if they agree by choice and have the freedom and capacity to make that choice
A child under the age of 13 can never consent to any sexual activity
The age of consent is 16
