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As part of our ongoing commitmennt to Safeguarding, we have produced this briefing with some reminders and updates.
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Designated Safeguarding Lead: Kayley Button
Deputy Designated Safeguarding Leads: Di Gonzalez and Ros Rayner
Safeguarding team: David Ramsden, Jon Linz, Radha Verma, Josh Coulson,
Sam Chaventré, Toby Jessop, Amy Parsons, Chris Davies, Kathrine Pike and Beckie Whitford
HR Manager: Lesley Dykes
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Reminder
If you have a Safeguarding concern that you need to pass on, please make sure that you speak to a member of the Safeguarding Team IN PERSON.
Please don't just send something on an email - with teaching/meetings etc we cannot guarantee to pick it up in time.
It is really important that any concerns of a Safeguarding nature should be passed on face to face and, of course, as a matter of urgency.
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“KEEPING CHILDREN SAFE IN EDUCATION 2024”
The DFE has published the draft of its updated guidance. “Keeping Children Safe in Education 2024” comes into effect on 1 September 2024.
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Further information on Inset Day and all staff will be asked to read the new, updated Part 1 guidance in September.
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CONCERNS EMAIL
concerns@littleheath.org.uk
As we have done over previous holidays, we wanted one point of call for emergency contact or safeguarding matters that you feel you need to pass on whilst school is closed for the holiday.
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Please note that this email is for emergency or Safeguarding matters ONLY and should not be used for “routine queries”.
This email is: concerns@littleheath.org.uk and it will be monitored on weekdays through the summer holiday.
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LOOK CLOSER
The Childrens’ Society has partnered with the British Transport Police and the National County Lines Coordination Centre on an award-winning “Look Closer” campaign to raise awareness and advice about the exploitation of young people. On the website, parents can find information around the signs of exploitation/signposting and reporting mechanisms. There are lots of downloadable materials on their website:
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PARENTS PROTECT WEBSITE
The website is designed to help parents and carers protect children from sexual abuse and exploitation. It has lots of information and advice, including a confidential helpline.
The website can be accessed at Parents Protect
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PARENTING SMART
Place2Be has a website designed to support parents with typical situations that they may experience with their child. There are a wide range of topics and tips available.
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RELATIONSHIPS
The NSPCC have advice about healthy and unhealthy relationships and talking with young people about relationships. There is also advice about what to do if parents/carers are concerned at any time.
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VAPING
There has been a lot of concern about vaping and the harmful effects for children and young people, including health, addiction and the effect on mood. Vaping can be a lot more discrete than smoking, and may be happening without an adult being aware.
Further information can be found at:
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SAFETY AROUND THE RAILWAYS
The following reminders are offered from Network Rail:
- Trains are fast and quiet, travelling up to 125mph and taking 2km (one and a quarter miles) to come to a stop – even with the emergency brakes.
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- It is against the law to trespass on the railway and can result in a fine of £1,000 and a criminal record. This isn’t just about going onto the tracks, climbing over fences, misusing level crossings etc. is still trespassing even if you don’t go on the tracks.
- Always Stop, Look and Listen before using a level crossing. Never start to cross a level crossing when its lights are flashing.
- Make sure you’re paying attention whenever you use any kind of level crossing; keep dogs on short leads and don’t be distracted by phones, earphones etc. as you cross.
- The electricity is ALWAYS switched on around the railway, including equipment boxes and overhead wires, and these use very high voltages and are very dangerous.
- You don’t have to be touching the wires to receive an electric shock as electricity can jump (arc) up to 3 metres in any direction – including upwards. Even if you’re above the wires (e.g. climbing on a bridge), it doesn’t mean you’re safe from them when getting too close. The injuries received from such a shock can be life-changing, and unfortunately, are often deadly.
- Trains can generate turbulence as they go past, it’s strong enough to drag someone onto the tracks or under the train – another good reason to not trespass, and the reason why there are yellow lines on the platforms.
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Should you witness any incidents of unauthorised access or trespass, or any other dangerous behaviour on or near railway land, please contact British Transport Police on 0800 40 50 40, text them on 61016, or in emergencies call 999. You can also call the Network Rail 24-hour helpline on 03457 11 41 41.
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WATER SAFETY
Information about water safety can be found at here. The ‘Lifesaver-Lifechanger’ toolkit, gives people the confidence to keep themselves and others safe around the water by providing instruction on safe land-based rescues. The course is available here.
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ALCOHOL
The Alcohol Education Trust offers advice to parents about discussing drinking with young people.
See the guide below:
Talking About Alcohol: A guide for parents and carers
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10 Top Tips for Promoting Physical Wellbeing
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SEXTORTION
All schools in the UK were recently sent information from the National Crime Agency, raising awareness of the recent rise in reporting of financially motivated sexual extortion (a type of online blackmail often known in the media as ‘sextortion’). Children and young people worldwide are being targeted.
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This type of crime involves an adult offender (often from an organised crime group based overseas) threatening to release nude or semi-nude images and/or videos of a child or young person, unless they pay money, or meet another financial demand, such as purchasing a pre-paid gift card.
Victims of any age and gender can be targets. However, a large proportion of cases have involved male victims aged 14-18. A child or young person is never to blame if they have been a victim. Offenders will have tricked, groomed and/or manipulated them into sharing an image. Find out more about online blackmail on CEOP Education’s parents and carers website:
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Talking to your child
It’s important to have frequent, open and non-judgemental conversations with your child about relationships, sex and being online to build trust and support them if something goes wrong. Financially motivated sexual extortion should be included in those conversations.
Here are some tips about how to approach this:
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- Chat regularly about their life online: have ongoing conversations with them about their life and time online. Continue to take an interest as they grow, explore new apps and sites together and talk in a balanced way, considering the benefits and the potential harms.
- Talk about where to find information about relationships and sex: organisations like CEOP Education, Childline and Brook have age appropriate advice topics such as sexual communication and image sharing. This will help your child to understand what unhealthy relationships look like, such as applying pressure and blackmail; and give them trusted sources of information to explore these topics. Protecting the public from serious and organised crime.
- Review privacy settings: talk to your child about the importance of using privacy settings on their accounts to restrict who can contact them. Read CEOP Education’s advice on how to talk your child about their privacy settings: A parent's guide to privacy settings (ceopeducation.co.uk)
- Make sure they know where to go for support: let them know that they can come to you with any concerns and won’t be judged. It’s also important to make them aware of other trusted adults or sources of support, if they feel they can’t talk to you, such as Childline.
- Make sure they know where to report: remind your child how you can help them to report an incident to the police or using the CEOP Safety Centre. Let them know that if a nude or semi-nude of them has been shared without their consent, they can take these 3 steps to try and get them removed:
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Use Report Remove | Childline, a tool from Childline and the Internet Watch Foundation. Your child can use this to remove images that have been shared or might be shared.
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Use Take It Down (ncmec.org), a tool from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Your child can use this to remove or stop the online sharing of images or videos.
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Report directly to the platform or app that the incident has occurred on. For advice on how to report to major social media platforms, visit Internet Matters - Report online issues to protect your child.
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To learn more about what resources are available to help you support your child, visit the UK Safer Internet Centre: saferinternet.org.uk.
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What can I do if this has happened to my child?
If your child tells you that someone is trying to trick, threaten or blackmail them online:
- Don’t pay, do stop contact and block: you may be tempted to pay, but there is no guarantee that this will stop the threats. As the offender’s motive is to get money, once you have shown you can pay, they will likely ask for more and blackmail may continue. If you have paid, don’t panic but don’t pay anything more. Help your child to stop all communication with the offender and block them on any accounts that they have been contacted on.
- Avoid deleting anything: try not to delete anything that could be used as evidence such as messages, images and bank account details. Protecting the public from serious and organised crime
- Report to the police or CEOP: call 101 or 999 if there is an immediate risk of harm to your child. Or you can use the CEOP Safety Centre to report any online blackmail attempts. If it has already happened and your child has shared an image and sent money to someone exploiting them:
- Reassure them that they’ve done the right thing by telling you: make sure they know they are not to blame for what has happened and they have done the right thing to ask for your help. Children and young people’s mental health may be negatively impacted by experiences of exploitation; you can find advice on looking after your child’s mental health from the NHS here: Children's mental health - Every Mind Matters
- Report to the police or CEOP: call 101 or 999 if there is an immediate risk of harm to your child. Or you can use the CEOP Safety Centre to report an incident. If your child is 18 and over, call 101 or 999 if they are at risk of immediate harm.
Report any images or videos that have been shared: help your child to remove images that are online or prevent images being shared online by following the steps outlined above.
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Stay Safe Online this Summer
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ONLINE SAFETY
If your child is ever upset by anything they have received via text or via a social media site, please report to your mobile phone provider, or, if online, via the reporting functions on social media sites. Students are reminded that if they receive anything that concerns or upsets them, they should not reply; they should block the person and they should tell an adult.
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CEOP is also available if a child has been contacted in an inappropriate manner or if they are in danger of being tracked or abused. The CEOP website allows you to complete an online form which goes directly to the police. This is for when someone is in danger from another person.
You can make a report here:
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SEXTING
The NSPCC have produced some advice for parents to support them in having conversations with children about sexting.
You can access the advice at www.nspcc.org.uk
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CEOP (Centre for Online Protection and Exploitation) have a resource for parents and carers entitled “nude selfies: what parents and carers need to know”. You can find this resource on their website at www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents
We remind parents/carers to be vigilant about what their children are receiving and sending online. Young people are at risk of receiving potentially harmful content such as nudes. Young people may ask for, or take and send such pictures. Should you become aware of any such content, please take measures to ensure that your child does not save or pass it on. Adults should do everything they can to avoid seeing explicit pictures of children themselves. Sending or passing on pictures of children is illegal, even if the sender took the picture of themselves. You should inform the police via 101 or online if you are made aware of a child sending, being sent or being asked for nudes.
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HOW CHILDREN UNDERSTAND SOCIAL MEDIA
The Conversation UK have produced the following article about how teenagers navigate social media:
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CHATTING ONLINE
Many young people spend a great deal of time communicating with others online.
You need to be aware that there are people who may use these games to start chatting to your child and then encourage them to chat on alternative apps (which are more private, encrypted or have fewer safety options).
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Mitigating the risk
- Ensure your child is accessing age-appropriate apps/games and that appropriate parental controls are set up.
- Chat to your child about the risks (inappropriate chat, contact from strangers, bullying, sextortion)
- Depending on the age of your child, it may be more appropriate for devices to be used in family rooms so you can monitor what they are doing and if they are chatting to others.
- Make sure that you and your child know the reporting functions available on the platform they are using.
- Make sure your child understands the importance of blocking anyone who makes them feel uncomfortable.
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Further information and advice is available at ceopeducation.co.uk
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ONLINE GROOMING
The Lucy Faithfull Foundation has released a new film about online grooming as part of the Stop It Now! Campaign, which offers support to adults worried about someone else’s sexual thoughts or behaviours towards children.
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Parental controls have been designed to help you manage your child's online activities. There are various types, some of which are free but others which can be bought. However, nothing is totally fool proof so they shouldn't replace the need for you to support and advise your child using the internet. For more information and step by step instructions on setting up parental controls, visit www.internetmatters.org
Have an Ongoing Conversation
Continue to talk about the apps, games and sites they like to use, and what they like and don’t like and any concerns about being online. Discuss with them when to unfollow, block or report. For help starting this conversation, read having a conversation with your child.
Be non-judgemental
Explain that you would never blame them for anything that might happen online, and you will always give them calm, loving support.
Make sure they know where to go for support
Remind your child they can always speak to you or an adult they trust if anything happens online that makes them feel worried or upset.
Talk about how their online actions can affect others
If your child is engaging with peers online, remind them to consider how someone else might feel before they post or share something. If they are considering sharing a photo/video of somebody else, they should always ask permission first.
Make sure they know about NCA CEOP
Young people can report a concern about grooming or sexual abuse to NCA CEOP at www.ceop.police.uk/safety-centre/ and get support from a specialist Child Protection Advisor.
Tell them about Thinkuknow
Our websites provide open and honest guidance for young people on friends, relationships and the internet, covering topics like dealing with pressure; consent; and getting support when you’re worried. Visit our website for 11-18 year olds for age appropriate information.
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Tips for Open Discussions about Digital Lives
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Online Child Sexual Abuse: 7 minute Briefing from Surrey Safeguarding Childrens Partnership at:
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Online grooming - IWF safety campaign aims to help parents have conversations with their children about keeping their 'door' closed to child sexual abusers.
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EAL resources for online safety can be found at:
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