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Safeguarding
This page is designed to be a source of information about safeguarding for the community, parents and students alike - to help inform and educate everyone in our school community.
On this page you'll find a list of our designated safeguarding officers as well as information about a number of issues that we face in our community. Our Safeguarding Policy can be downloaded at the bottom on this page.
Harris Academy Chafford Hundred is committed to providing a safe and secure environment for children, staff and visitors and promoting a climate where children and adults will feel confident about sharing any concerns they may have about their own safety or the well-being of others.
The academy is committed to the vital contribution of all governors, staff and support staff make to safeguarding children a priority. We aim to ensure that child protection concerns and referrals are handled sensitively, professionally and in ways that support the specific needs of the individual child.
Through providing a caring, safe and stimulating environment which promotes the social, physical and moral development of all our students, we aim to foster an atmosphere of trust, respect and security.
Safeguarding poster
Our safeguarding poster (also below) is displayed in every single classroom. This is to ensure that every stakeholder connected to the academy can approach key staff (and any member of staff) to share any safeguarding concerns. Our staff also have out of hours safeguarding information, which are contact details of the senior safeguarding team and external agencies. This is for use if issues come to light outside of normal school hours.
Safeguarding poster
Our vision
Our vision is very clear and has safeguarding at its CORE.
Everyone succeeds and achieves their potential regardless of any personal characteristics. Background does NOT determine outcomes.
We are all equal all of the time and treat people with the respect they deserve. We are not afraid to make mistakes as we see this as part of our learning journey.
We aim for our students to leave our academy with as many opportunities available to them and we believe by giving them a message of tough love we will achieve this. By tough love we mean to have high expectations constantly for all our pupils regardless of their background and to provide our pupils with a high level of challenge and support to enable them to achieve. This will allow them to become successful and caring citizens, whilst upholding the values that they have learnt through their educational journey with us.
We are stronger as a team than a group of individuals and can change anything collectively that we put our mind to, whilst also being able to critically reflect on our actions.
We aim to provide a rounded education that ensures our students grow holistically through developing resilience, tolerance and humanity and leave HACH as a good person.
The academy philosophy, vision and expectation on safeguarding is very clear. Every person connected with the academy has a personal responsibility for the highest standards of safeguarding of our students. It doesn’t matter how you are connected to the academy, as part of our community we all have a responsibility for safeguarding our students. The following groups all have equal responsibility for ensuring the highest standards of safeguarding:
1. All academy staff
2. All academy students
3. All academy parents/carers
4. All external agencies that engage with the academy and young people
5. All members of our local community
Harris Academy Chafford Hundred and the Prevent Duty
The academy has a designated, accredited Prevent Duty Lead. The Prevent duty has two specific strategic objectives to safeguard our students against radicalisation, extremism and any actions or beliefs that are contrary to British Values and our academy ethos.
1. Respond to the ideological challenge of terrorism and the threat we face from those who promote it.
2. Prevent people from being drawn into terrorism and ensure that they are given appropriate advice and support.
HACH opposes all form of extremism. We define ‘extremism’ as vocal or active opposition to fundamental British values, including democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs.
This E-Learning training on Prevent offers an introduction to the Prevent duty, and explains how it aims to safeguard vulnerable people from being radicalised to supporting terrorism or becoming terrorists themselves.
Harris Academy Chafford Hundred and “Channel”
The academy will work closely with the counter-terrorism referral programme “Channel”. Channel is a multi-agency approach to identify and provide support to individuals who are at risk of being drawn into terrorism.
The programme uses a multi-agency approach to protect vulnerable people by:
- identifying individuals at risk
- assessing the nature and extent of that risk
- developing the most appropriate support plan for the individuals concerned.
Harris Academy Chafford Hundred Safeguarding Team 2020-21
At Harris Academy Chafford Hundred we have Designated Child Protection / Prevent Duty Lead and Safeguarding Officers who you can contact if you have any questions or concerns relating to either child protection or safeguarding.
Every member of HACH staff has completed their child protection training and all have completed the Chanel General awareness course to raise awareness of prevent. Training was completed in September 2019 for all staff excluding those who started after and they completed the training as soon as they started.
Our Pastoral team
- Mr J Maxted - Designated Safeguarding Lead & Prevent Lead
- Mrs N Tree
- Mrs B Tarling
- Miss D Greatrex
- Mr G Weekes
Medical, health and safety and attendance officers
- The Medical Needs Officer is Sheri Ponle s.ponle@harrischaffordhundred.org.uk
- The Health and Safety Officer is Matt Anderson m.anderson@harrischaffordhundred.org.uk
- The Attendance Officer is Jade Hawkshaw-Stone j.stone@harrischaffordhundred.org.uk
You can also email us at info@harrischaffordhundred.org.uk.
"Where do you feel safe?" - contextualised safeguarding
Young people encounter risk and safety in locations outside of the home. These experiences are crucial in shaping how they move through their local neighbourhood and how to keep themselves safe. We carry out a safety mapping exercise which students complete with their form groups and form tutor so we can learn and understand about where they feel safe or at risk. The local areas that were picked out by our pupils were the following;
- Chafford Hundred Railway station
- Tesco next to the railway station
- Tesco by Chafford Gorge
- Lakeside Retail Park
- Mill Lane
Visiting speakers to the academy
Harris Academy Chafford Hundred utilises the expertise of a wide range of guest speakers, lecturers, authors and visitors to enrich and augment the curriculum and learning opportunities of our students.
However, the safeguarding of our students is at the forefront of everything we do. To ensure that guests and visitors’ information is in line with our own values and ethos the academy completes a rigorous process of checks. By completing these checks, the academy is confident that we are protecting our students from extremist views such as radicalisation and homophobia while enjoying the wide benefits of external speakers.
All visitors to the academy are expected to follow the Visitors' Code of Conduct.
Radicalisation and extremism
The academy believes and actively supports the view that all students should be protected from radicalisation and extremism. Download a Parent’s Guide to Extremism and Radicalisation.
ParentInfo
ParentInfo is a regularly updated feed of expert information, advice and sources of support for parents on a whole range of parenting themes - the emphasis being on helping parents and carers develop their children's resilience to the risks and pressures they face in today's world.
E-safety
The online world is a wonderful place for young people to explore, with unprecedented opportunities for learning and creativity. But just like the real world there are risks and dangers they should be aware of, and which we can act to protect them from. Although the academy teaches students e-safety as part of the curriculum, it is vital that parents are aware of the risks too, and what they can do to develop a culture of e-safety in the home.
This page has some helpful resources for parents that will enable you to help your child stay safe online. If you have any concerns about your child's e-safety, there is always someone at the academy who is available to talk to you. Simply call the school and ask for our Safeguarding Officer, Jamie Maxted, or speak to any member of staff. Our e-safety policy can be found below.
Think You Know
The Think You Know website is created by the police for parents of children at secondary school. It contains useful information about:
- what children are doing online
- how to talk to children about what they are doing online
- what risks your child might face
- what tools are there to help them stay safe.
Think You Know have also produced a Parents Guide to E-Safety and also the following booklets to provide parents/carers with helpful information on how to explore and monitor their children’s apps.
Sexting
The term ‘sexting’ describes the use of technology to share intimate images of yourself. It’s a word-mix of sex and texting. The content can vary, from text messages to images of partial nudity to sexual images or videos. For more information and guidance for parents and children visit the Childnet website.
Other useful resources
List of helpful online resources produced by Childnet
www.childnet.com – Visit the ‘Know It All’ Section for an interactive guide about online safety
www.getsafeonline.org – Free up-to-date security advice
www.cybermentors.org.uk – Online support for children
www.ceop.police.uk – Website of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre
www.bbc.co.uk/onlinesafety – guidance about how to make the most of being online while staying safe.
www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/keeping-children-safe/share-aware - the NSPCC has launched the Share Aware campaign which provides straightforward advice to parents on how to keep their 8-12-year-olds safe on social networks
https://www.saferinternet.org.uk/professionals-online-safety-helpline - resources for professionals working in the area of safeguarding with children and young people, but could be of interest to parents too
What is a 'money mule'?
More young people across the UK are being approached by criminals who want to use their bank accounts or pin numbers for criminal purposes. This is called being a ‘money mule’. A ‘mule account’ is used to hide money that comes from illegal activities. The young person may be asked to transfer money, allow access to their account or open up a new one. Sometimes criminals will try and force young people to become mules or they might offer financial incentives such as cash or mobile phone credit.
We need your support to help educate young people around this issue. Has your child been approached or asked for their bank account to be used? Check any bank statements. Is there money going in and out that cannot be accounted for? Ask questions if you are unsure about anything.
Bank accounts are private and must only be used by the account holder. Any misuse could not only be criminal but could cause serious credit issues for the account holder. Police are working in partnership with many schools across London to combat this issue. If you have any concerns, speak to your Safer Schools Police Officer (see below) and/or Action Fraud (www.actionfraud.police.uk) on 0300 123 2040.
Drugs networks ('County lines')
The National Crime Agency, the UK body charged with fighting organised crime, is very concerned that crime gangs are taking over drug networks using telephone hotlines (called 'county lines) and recruiting vulnerable people, often children, to act as couriers and to sell drugs. Please see our information sheet about 'county lines' and 'cuckooing' - the practice whereby professional drug dealers take over the property of a vulnerable person and use it as a place from which to run their drugs business. Below you will see some web links to various campaigns and research on county lines.
https://www.fearless.org/en/campaigns/county-lines
https://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/what-is-county-lines
https://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/what-we-do/crime-threats/drug-trafficking/county-lines
