Safeguarding
The Safeguarding Team
All our QEGS school staff complete regular safeguarding training and are familiar with the Department for Education’s statutory guidance document Keeping Children Safe in Education 2024.
If you have concerns about your safety or the safety of any young person, we urge you to speak to a member of staff. Here is a checklist that will assist you if you need to report a safeguarding concern.
Our dedicated safeguarding team below have undertaken additional training to help you:
Mr T Randman – Designated Safeguarding and Child Protection Officer & Deputy Headteacher ([email protected])
Mr S Ward – Deputy Designated Safeguarding and Child Protection Officer & Assistant Headteacher ([email protected])
Ms H Freeman – SENDCO ([email protected])
Mrs A Bourn – Student Support Officer ([email protected])
Mr P Wright – Head of Year 7 ([email protected])
Mr N Bouic – Head of Year 9 ([email protected])
Mrs K Dickens – Joint Head of Year 10 ([email protected])
Miss C Hobbs – Head of Year 11 ([email protected])
Mr A Wilkinson – Head of Year 8 ([email protected])
Mrs J Fieldsend – Assistant Headteacher Head of Sixth Form ([email protected])
Concerns can also be anonymously reported through the ‘Whisper’ confidential reporting facility on the school website through this link Whisper reporting form.
All details of our safeguarding procedures can be found in our trust Safeguarding & Child Protection Policy.
If you have concerns about the behaviour of an adult around a child, please see our trust Confidential Reporting Policy.
Online Safety
If you are concerned about any activity online, please speak to a member of the safeguarding team, or out of school hours you can report to CEOP.
Our school takes online safety (previously e-safety) very seriously and we include online safety lessons in the school curriculum. We also implement a variety of filtering and monitoring systems to help ensure that our students don’t have access to inappropriate online material.
All staff undertake regular online safety training and are familiar with the HET Online Safety Policy.
All staff and students are also required to sign and agree to abide by an ICT Acceptable use Policy.
Students
Online safety is about keeping yourself and people you care about protected when using any device which is connected to the Internet, this includes desktop computers, laptops, tablets, phones or even games consoles, handhelds and smart TVs. We want you to be able to use all the fabulous variety of resources and services available online, however unfortunately there are some dangers to young people, as well as adults, that we should all be aware of. For example:
- Social networking sites are a popular and good way of communicating with your friends & family, however it can be unsafe if you are communicating with people you don’t know.
- You are very likely to have a list of friends who you share images, thoughts and other information with, but be very careful with sharing things with people you don’t know as they may not be who they say they are!
- Also do not share personal details with anyone online, particularly your surname, the place you live, your date of birth, your school and other information from images you share which could be used to identify you.
Thinkuknow is an excellent website for advice to help you with online matters:
The UK Safer Internet Centre also has films, games, quizzes and advice to help you to use the internet safely, responsibly and positively.
Free, safe and anonymous online counselling and support is provided by Kooth.
Parents
Young people use the internet to both study and socialise, and it is essential that you are involved and set boundaries in your child’s online life. Emphasise that not everyone is who they say they are and make sure your child knows never to meet up with someone they only know online. Further advice to support your child can be found on the Thinkuknow website. Thinkuknow is the education programme from NCA-CEOP, a UK organisation which protects children both online and offline.
Thinkuknow - Advice for Parents
The Internet Matters website also provides useful age appropriate advice for parents.
#DITTO is a free online safety (e-safety) magazine for schools, organisations and parents to keep you up to date with risks, issues, advice and guidance related to keeping children safe online, with a view to enjoying and learning about technology. A new edition is released approx. every 6 weeks.
Sadly, no filters or controls are 100% effective so make sure your child knows that they can, and should, talk to someone if they see or hear anything upsetting online.