Safeguarding and Prevent
Safeguarding Statement
Sutton Coldfield Grammar School for Girls is fully committed to Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of our students. The health, safety and well-being of every student is our paramount concern. We ensure continuous development and improvement of robust Safeguarding processes and procedures that promote a culture of Safeguarding amongst our staff. We have a Child Protection Policy and procedures in place; a copy of the policy can be accessed by clicking here.
Sometimes we may need to share information and work in partnership with other agencies when there are concerns about a student's welfare. We will ensure that our concerns about our students are discussed with her parents/carers first unless we have reason to believe that such a move would be contrary to the student's welfare. Our Designated Safeguarding Lead is Mr Neil Eaton (Deputy Headteacher). Please do not hesitate to contact the school if you have any concerns about any of our student.
The Prevent Strategy
What is the Prevent strategy?
Prevent is a government strategy designed to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorist or extremist causes. The Prevent strategy covers all types of terrorism and extremism, including the extreme right wing, violent Islamist groups and other causes.
How does the Prevent strategy apply to schools?
From July 2015, all schools (as well as other organisations) have a duty to safeguard children from radicalisation and extremism. Social Media sites, including Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, can be used by extremists to identify, target and contact young people. Many extremist groups who advocate violence use the Internet as a means of either inciting violence against specific groups or providing information on carrying out terrorist acts.
Across the UK, there have been many examples of vulnerable people being recruited by violent extremists either to travel abroad or to bring violence to their own towns and cities. The Internet is used to influence, recruit and communicate with those susceptible to the extremists’ ideology.
We all have a responsibility to protect children from extremist and violent views in the same way we protect them from any other safeguarding issue. We provide a safe place for students to discuss these issues so they better understand how to protect themselves.
What does this mean in practice?
Many of the things we already do in school to help children become positive, happy members of society also contribute to the Prevent strategy.
These include:
- Exploring other cultures and religions and promoting respect for diversity;
- Challenging prejudices and racist comments;
- Developing critical thinking skills and a strong, positive self-identity;
- Promoting the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of students, as well as British values such as democracy.
We also protect children from the risk of radicalisation, for example by using filters on the Internet to make sure they cannot access extremist and terrorist material in school, or by vetting visitors who come into school to work with pupils.
Extremism can take many forms. We give students the skills to protect them from any extremist views they may encounter, now or later in their lives. We encourage parents to familiarise themselves with the guidelines to keep their children safe. More advice can be found by accessing the following link: http://www.educateagainsthate.com/parents
Where to go for more information
Contact the school
If you have any questions or concerns about the Prevent strategy and what it means for your child, please do not hesitate to contact the school.
See our policies
You will find more details about radicalisation in our safeguarding policy, available on our policies page.
The following sources may also be useful for further information:
Prevent duty guidance: for England and Wales, HM Government