Safeguarding
Safeguarding Information for Parents
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During School Hours:
If you have a concern about a child you can contact the school office during the school day and ask to speak to one of our Designated Safeguarding Leads or your child’s pastoral manager.
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Our Designated Safeguarding Leads are:
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Mr A Bradley – Designated Safeguarding Lead
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Miss K Lamster - Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead
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Mr A Venables - Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead
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Miss R Bridges - Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead
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Mr Ainsworth - Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead
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Mr Maynard - Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead
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Miss T Scott - Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead
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Mrs C McKenna - Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead
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Mr D Adcroft - Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead
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Miss D Gray - Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead
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If you prefer you can send an email to: matthew.little@darwenvale.com
Please refer to any concerns you have, no matter how small you think they are.
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Out of School Hours
If you have a concern about a child out of school hours you can call Blackburn with Darwen Children Social Care on 01254 666 400 and report it there. Alternatively, you can call 101. If you believe that it is an emergency then you call 999.
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Additional Support
Please see below a range of links and resources which will provide you with information about the key and current safeguarding risks to young people including how you can support them at home.
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Useful Links
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Where’s the Harm? – A guide for parents to keep children safe
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Harmful sexual behaviour in children and young people – What parents need to know
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Safeguarding & PREVENT
Safeguarding concerns the welfare of our pupils and to providing a safe environment making sure that robust systems are in place to ensure the safety and healthy development of all our pupils within the academy and on related academy trips and other activities.
To ensure we achieve our objective we have the highest expectations that all staff, governors and volunteers working in or on behalf of Darwen Vale identify children and young people who are suffering or likely to suffer abuse and taking appropriate action with the aim of making sure they are kept safe both at home and in Academy. The safeguarding policy provides a comprehensive guidance to all of our procedures and highlights key safeguarding issues, which include the Prevent strategy, cyber bullying, FGM and Child sexual exploitation. Please see the safeguarding policy for further guidance.
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Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE)
Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) is recognised as a form of child sexual abuse and has become a great concern in society. At Darwen Vale we strive to support and educate our students about how to make positive choices and informed decisions in their relationships. It is imperative that each student understands the importance of protecting themselves from all potential forms of sexual exploitation and abuse.
At Darwen Vale our SRE Curriculum plays an important role in helping our students gain an understanding of acceptable and unacceptable relationships and sexual behaviour. As a school, we want our students and families to be able to turn to us and practitioners for help and support from abuse and exploitation.
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E-Safety
Cyberbullying is bullying through the use of communication technology like mobile phone text messages, social media apps, e-mails or websites. This can take many forms, for example:
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Sending threatening or abusive text/instant messages or e-mails, personally or anonymously.
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Making insulting comments about someone on website, social networking site (e.g. Facebook, Instagram and snapchat) or online (blog or YouTube).
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Making or sharing derogatory, inflammatory or embarrassing videos of someone via mobile phone or email such as (Videos or physical/verbal assaults).
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Cyber bullying is a critical issue which can be harmful for the young person involved. It is important that parents and carers understand the way young people communicate with others, the potential risks and implications to online behaviour. It is vital that parents/carers and Darwen Vale work together to safeguard our students, to educate them on the dangers that come with being online and be aware of the repercussions that come with being involved in cyber bullying directly or on the periphery. Please click here for our E-Safety policy.
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Sexting
Sexting is when someone shares sexual, naked or semi-naked images or videos of themselves or others, or sends sexually explicit messages. They can be sent using mobiles, tablets, smartphones, laptops – any device that allows you to share media and messages. Most young people today spent a lot of time on the online world and are comfortable with sharing their entire lives online. Young people can see sexting and risk-free and harmless but there all different types of risks which can be associated with sexting.
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At Darwen Vale we believe that parent and child relationship is paramount to the safety of our students. Communication is the key and if you have any concerns about the safety of your child you should talk to someone about this.
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Promoting British Values (Prevent strategy)
Prevent is about safeguarding people and communities from the threat of terrorism. Prevent is 1 of the 4 elements of CONTEST, the Government’s counter-terrorism strategy. It aims to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorist or extremist causes.
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From 1st July 2015 specified authorities, including all schools are subject to a duty under section 26 of the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 in the exercise of their functions to have “due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism”. This means we have a duty to safeguard children from radicalisation and extremism whilst protecting children from extremist and violent views.
This duty is known as the prevent duty. Indicators of extreme behaviour includes some of the following:
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Verbal comments-praising ISIS or Jihad: praising extreme figure heads (Hitler); discussing other religions in a disparaging way
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Peer actions-refusing to work with others owing to their religion/beliefs
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Personal beliefs- extreme views on foreign policy; claims they should fight for their people abroad
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Communications- the use of social media to publicise extreme views; drawing inflammatory images (swastikas)
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British Values Include
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Democracy
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The rule of law
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Individual liberty and mutual respect
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Tolerance of different faiths and beliefs
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Protecting our young people from radicalisation has always been top of our agenda. The academy leadership team and Governing Body have robust strategies in place to protect our students and their families, and we are very happy to share these and discuss our approach with parents. All staff within the Academy have received Home Office Prevent training.
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It is our responsibility to ensure that young people at Darwen Vale are not influenced by radicalisation but develops a deep understanding of the key positive values in British society. The guidance in our Promoting British Values policy aims to actively promote the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs. These values were first set out by the government in the ‘Prevent’ strategy in 2011.
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