Safeguarding

Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is defined as: protecting children from maltreatment; preventing impairment of children’s health or development; ensuring that children grow up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care; and taking action to enable all children to have the best possible outcomes.

As a universal service accessed by almost all children, schools play a critical role in safeguarding children and young people from harm.  The safeguarding and wellbeing of our students is of the upmost importance to Cheam High School.

You can find our Safeguarding and Child Protection policy here.

What we do to safeguard students at Cheam High School

Pastoral support:

  • Students are part of a tutor group;  they are registered by the same tutor each morning, who takes a particular interest in their wellbeing
  • Strong pastoral system to support students’ welfare, which includes dedicated Year Teams for each respective year group and an attached member of school leadership for each year
  • Close liaison with parents/carers
  • A well established ethos of encouraging students to speak to staff about problems or issues they are facing, both their own and those of peers, to enable best possible support to be provided
  • A Safeguarding and Child Protection Team of dedicated, specialist non-teaching staff to respond to safeguarding concerns and support students
  • Staff trained as Emotional Literacy Support Assistants (ELSAs)
  • Educational Psychologist time purchased by the school to support students’ learning as well as good mental and emotional health; this is supplemented by programmes of work from Assistant Educational Psychologists
  • Programmes to support identified students’ emotional well-being e.g. managing emotions, building positive relationships, managing pressure
  • Referrals made to a wide range of outside agencies if support is needed beyond the expertise available in school
  • An anonymous online reporting system (The SHARP System) which allows students to report concerns about others or an issue affecting the school community anonymously

 

Clear expectations and action to maintain a safe environment:

  • Policies and practices covering:- safeguarding and child protection including appendices on self-harm and radicalisation, e-safety, health and safety, anti-bullying, racism and discrimination and whistle-blowing
  • Comprehensive behaviour policy and systematic and graduating sanction and reward systems
  • Supervised student dismissal at the end of the day and the local area is monitored by senior staff
  • Close monitoring of student attendance with automated calls to parents/carers if student are absent or late without prior notice
  • Safer recruitment practice followed and security checks made on all staff employed and volunteers working in the school
  • Staff receive regular safeguarding training; five members of staff trained as Designated Safeguarding Leads
  • Close working relationship with the schools’ police team

 

Opportunities for self-development and personal education:

  • A huge range of extra and supra-curricular activities to help students achieve and gain self-affirmation and confidence from their activities.  These cover sport, drama, music and much more
  • LIFE (PSHE) lessons covering safeguarding issues e.g. anti-bullying, assertive behaviour, e-safety, healthy relationships and exploring senarios that young people may face in the community and in early adulthood
  • A variety of safety messages delivered to students via assemblies, tutor time activities and in the weekly student bulletin

 

Safety and Security on site:

  • Secure site needing security pass entry during the school day
  • Security cameras in playground and corridor
  • Filtered internet access
  • Use of a digital monitoring system that alerts appropriate staff to anything written on a school computer/ICT device, which may give cause for concern so that this can be investigated and followed-up appropriately
  • Risk assessments carried out for offsite activities and for students with specific difficulties, including use of the Evolve online system for planning trips
  • First aiders in the school office and in other key areas
  • Staff and students wear identification badges on lanyards when on school site