We recognise that in schools we use many acronyms and terms that may not be familiar to parents. Safeguarding is our responsibility to our community to keep people safe from harm using appropriate measures. Every school designates specific adults to be the safeguarding leads and these are the people who deal with issues when somebody is at risk of harm or damage either from themselves or others. These adults then follow guidelines to help those involved get the support they need. At Nexus these people are called designated safeguarding leads and they are at present

Judy Cooper

Fiona Lewis

Heather Millington

At Nexus, we follow the guidelines from the Ministry of Social and Family Development and have a duty to report specific concerns to the Child Protective Services.

All Nexus staff have had extensive background checks before being allowed to work with learners and we have clear expectations around acceptable behaviour of adults working with learners. We also try to make sure we know about our new learners and always ask the previous school of new learners if there have been any safeguarding concerns. This not only helps us support the child but helps us keep our community safe. If families leave Nexus it is common for the new schools to ask us if there have been any safeguarding concerns as they ask for references.

Sometimes we will need to share information with families and guardians that is difficult to hear. Children are very good at presenting the image they want us to see and sometimes this can be masking very low self-esteem and negative thoughts. Children and young people can be impulsive which is why we take any concerns about self-harm and suicide ideation very seriously. When thoughts turn to actions that harm the individual or others we have to intervene. In some limited cases this may lead to needing external medical experts to show that a child is safe to be in school.

At Nexus we are fortunate to have caring parents and learners who will often share their concerns either about their own child or another learner. We want all our learners to feel safe and it is important to us that they share anything that makes them feel uncomfortable or unsafe. Nobody can learn effectively if they feel uncomfortable or unsafe. We introduced Speak Up for secondary and upper primary learners as a way for them to share concerns about their own or somebody else's safety or wellbeing. It is an online platform for learners to share any concerns they have in a private and confidential way and only goes to the safeguarding leads. Mental health issues are increasing globally and it is important we allow children to discuss their feelings and thoughts.

Through education and a culture of openness our aim is to be proactive and to support learners in our community before they reach a crisis. By working together with families and guardians we can provide learners with the assurance that it is okay not to be okay and that when this is the case there are people there who can help.

If you have any concerns about a child's safety or wellbeing please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Guidelines from the MOH and Sports SG

From MOH (Vaccine website)

As a precautionary measure, adolescents and men below 30 years of age, in particular, who have received any dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, are advised to avoid strenuous physical activities such as running, weightlifting, competitive sports, or playing ball games for two weeks after the vaccination.

From Sports SG - page 10

For indoor activities: refraining from conducting activities that are strenuous to the point that they feel the need to remove their masks.

Not offer weight, strength or resistance training or cardio training of any form, and/or provide equipment for such training, such that they become strenuous activities.

PHE

All our learners must wear masks during inside PHE lessons. Therefore there will be no strenuous activities and the lessons will be more skills focussed e.g. throwing and catching.

Outside our learners can remove their masks (providing SMM are adhered to) and take part in strenuous exercise. Over the next term to include and support all our learners, when PHE is outside there there will be a mix of strenuous and non-strenuous activities to allow all learners to participate at some stage during the lesson. There will also be opportunity for those recently vaccinated to participate in a refereeing role when games are being played, or skilled focussed activities.

Swimming

Learners will not take part in swimming for the 2 weeks after their vaccination.

Lift use

We will support all vaccinated learners to use the lifts when travelling up to their homeroom spaces on L7 and L8 from the lower floors.

Snack and Lunch

As learners must keep their masks on during snack and lunch 'play' times they should not be taking part in strenuous activities. We will continue to remind and prompt learners of these regulations.

Keeping us informed

Many of you have advised your child’s homeroom teacher when they have been vaccinated - thank you for keeping us informed.

Moving forward we would like to collect this information so we can keep our records up to date and know who should be avoiding strenuous activities for the fortnight following their vaccination.

Please complete the Learner Vaccination Info form below to advise us of your child’s vaccination. Even if you have already emailed and informed your class teacher we ask that you complete the form - it enables us to have a central point to check for all vaccination information. And support learners to refrain from strenuous activities.

Learner Vaccination Info

If your child is absent from school for any reason we require you to complete a Leave Application form - available on the Parent Portal, under Downloads

These forms are for us to understand the nature of learner absence. If the absence is unavoidable it is approved, however we do not authorise absence for holidays or family visits during term time.

Having said this, we do acknowledge that these are extraordinary times and many families have been unable to return to loved ones for some time, which is why we prepared a special resource pack for families that elect to travel.

We also understand that some learners may be prohibited from joining us on-site in school due to enforced Stay Home Notices (SHNs) or chronic medical conditions that dictate that they cannot safely mix with the general public. As such we created an Off Campus Learning (OCL) programme for such learners. The programme, administered by Steve Gallego, utilises special OCL SeeSaw groups to provide daily activities to learners that are designed to achieve similar objectives to those that the learners on-site are covering.

Learners are able to submit work online, which is duly assessed and feedback is then provided via SeeSaw. From time to time, live lessons are organised according to need. If your child is absent due to an enforced SHN or chronic illness, please advise Learner Services who will make arrangements for your child to be added to the programme.

Many learners are coming to school SafeEntry tokens that are no longer working. Please check the token is still working by looking to see if a light flashes on every minute. If the token does not have a light, you can exchange it for a working one via a vending machine at most Community Centres. The school's safe-entry check-in process is significantly delayed when we are unable to use Bluetooth technology with tokens.