Emel Ali (Designated Safeguarding Officer) – left photo

Lucy Freestone (Safeguarding Governor) – right photo

Safeguarding is a preventative agenda that helps children to achieve their full potential, regardless of negative factors such as poverty or social exclusion, by providing services and support to overcome barriers to achievement.

Rhodes Avenue recognises that pupils may face many barriers to learning that may affect their prospects in later life. The school will safeguard and promote pupils’ welfare by focusing on preventative actions and services, so that all pupils are able to fulfil their potential. Rhodes Avenue will promote pupils’ health by educating them on healthy diets and lifestyles, using the healthy schools programme and through school policy, for example: E-safety, Behaviour for Learning, Sex and Relationships Education, Drugs Education and Anti-bullying.

Rhodes Avenue will work closely with health professionals to monitor pupils’ health and ensure that pupils’ with health needs receive the extra support they need to fully participate in education.

A Definition of Safeguarding

Safeguarding is a broad agenda and covers the following:

protecting children from maltreatment;
preventing impairment of children’s health or development;
ensuring children are growing up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care;
enabling children to have optimum life chances so they can enter adulthood successfully.

Safeguarding Aims

Rhodes Avenue aims to provide a safe learning environment where pupils are:

kept safe from accidents whilst at school and during outings;
protected from maltreatment through the implementation of Haringey Safeguarding Children Board’s Safeguarding procedures and Safe Recruitment practices;
taught to keep themselves safe via safety messages delivered through the curriculum and other forums;
taught how to stay safe on-line and report any inappropriate material;
made aware of the adults in school who they can talk to;
able to feel supported, safe and protected and able to raise concerns.

Safety messages will be delivered via the curriculum, and pupils will be provided with opportunities to discuss issues they feel are affecting their safety, at school and within the community.

E-Safety

Currently it is Rhodes Avenue School policy that photographs are permitted to be taken by parents at school events but are for their private use only, and that images (including video) that include children other than their own cannot be uploaded to the internet or posted on social media. Please refer to the school’s Safe Use of Images Policy for greater detail.

Parents Guide to Technology

Keeping Children Safe Online

Screen Time Guide

DigiSafe website

Early Help

We at Rhodes Avenue believe that all of our parents and carers may need support at one time or another. One of the avenues that we have available to us is Early Help.

Haringey’s Early Help can become involved through a referral from School, GP’s and/or other services. It is a multi-agency approach which involves all practioners involved with the family, for example, school. From receipt of the referral, the MASH team (Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub) will be passing on the information to the Early Help Team. This can take up to a week. A family support worker will be allocated and will contact the family and the school.

Early Help Service can offer advice and guidance as well as practical, hands-on support, with a whole family approach. Early Help will work alongside you with other professionals to enable you to make and sustain the changes needed to improve your family situation.

Supporting you and your family, and understanding your concerns, Early Help will create an action plan describing how they will work together to help you, supported by other professionals and services.

Early Help want to understand your family’s strengths and what is not working so well. To do this, Early Help will work in partnership with you and, with your consent, alongside colleagues from school, who are also able to help. Working together, Early Help will address the issues you and your family are facing and, over time, build your confidence, knowledge and skills to enable you to deal with future challenges.

Early Help offers:

A two-way conversation
Practical hands on support
Advice and guidance
Whole family approach

For further information please contact Emel Ali (Designated Teacher).

Prevent

From the 1st July 2015 schools and childcare providers have been issued with new advice and social media guidance to help them keep children safe from the risk of radicalisation and extremism.

The advice has been published to coincide with the new prevent duty, introduced as part of the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015, which legally requires a range of organisations including schools to take steps to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism.

Schools and childcare providers already play a vital role in keeping children safe from harm, including from the risks of extremism and radicalisation, and in promoting the welfare of children in their care.

The Prevent Duty: DfE Guidance (June 2015) can be accessed here: www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/439598/prevent-duty-departmental-advice-v6.pdf

See link below for Government guidance and support for Parents, Carers and Educators.

www.educateagainsthate.com