Safeguarding and Prevent

At Herne Bay High School we fully subscribe to the Government’s view that there can be no issue of greater importance to parents and carers, or indeed to schools, than the safety of their children, and as such it is an area that we place as our highest priority.

Please click here to visit our policies page to access the Child Protection and Safeguarding Policy and Prevent Strategy

Ofsted Good GP Colour

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

A culture of vigilance and excellent relationships, built through a deep understanding of what is going on for each pupil and their families, helps staff to keep pupils safe. Staff are trained very well about the many risks facing pupils. They know what to do if they are concerned for a pupil’s welfare or safety, and take quick, appropriate actions. The safeguarding team is led by a senior designated safeguarding lead who is highly knowledgeable and closely monitors the work of staff to ensure that pupils and families receive the right support as quickly as possible. - Ofsted, June 2022

The role of the Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL)
Herne Bay High School makes every effort to ensure that pupils are provided with a safe and secure learning environment. This means ensuring that children are not put in any position where they are vulnerable to abuse or neglect. We enforce a school safeguarding policy for permanent and temporary staff members, volunteers and all school visitors.

It is our duty to ensure that our school pupils are provided with the highest protection whilst in our care and, as far as is possible, during their time outside school. As part of our safeguarding policy we appoint a Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) to oversee the child protection and safeguarding provision in our school. The designated person is a member of the senior leadership team.

When the Senior DSL (Mr Harris) is absent or unavailable, one of the school’s Deputy DSLs take up his responsibilities.

It is the duty of the school to ensure that the training and professional development of the DSL and deputy DSLs is ongoing, in order to enable them to deal effectively with changing child welfare concerns and the extra responsibilities that the job requires. This means being able to identify possible abuse, and knowing the right level of action to take, depending on the individual situation and circumstances.

The school will ensure that the DSLs attend relevant new or refresher training throughout their time in this role to make sure that they are up to date with all statutory policy and legislation and in the best position to deal with concerns, incidents and allegations, as well as feed back to the rest of the school staff, including school governors, on updated safeguarding provisions and policies, and any available support resources.

Herne Bay High School’s key personnel for safeguarding children:

If any parent or carer wishes to discuss any matters pertaining to safeguarding please be aware of the school’s personnel for safeguarding children: 

The Senior Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) is Mr C Harris  

The school’s Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSLs) are contactable via phone or email during normal school hours.

If you have an immediate concern of a safeguarding nature about a child out of hours ie. beyond the school day, at the weekends or during school holidays, and believe a child to be at risk of significant harm or danger, please contact the police on 999. 

You can also contact Kent County Council’s Social Services’ department on 03000 41 11 11 or social.services@kent.gov.uk (during the day and in office hours), or if you need to contact Social Services outside of normal office hours, for example during the night, please call 03000 41 91 91.

Further details can be found at Report abuse - Kent County Council

The Deputy Designated Safeguarding Leads are Mrs A Golding, Ms M Hobbs, Mr B Jones, Mrs S Jones, Mrs K Molloy, Mr S Waters and Mrs L Wrigley.  

The nominated child protection governor is Mrs A Ansell

The Principal is Mr J Boyes 

The purpose of the DSL is to:

Outcomes of the role

The DSL acts in accordance with the school policy and procedures

The key document that details the responsibilities of schools is 'Keeping children safe in education (September 2022)'

The school’s Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSLs) are contactable via phone or email during normal school hours.

If you have an immediate concern of a safeguarding nature about a child out of hours ie. beyond the school day, at the weekends or during school holidays, and believe a child to be at risk of significant harm or danger, please contact the police on 999. 

You can also contact Kent County Council’s Social Services’ department on 03000 41 11 11 or social.services@kent.gov.uk (during the day and in office hours), or if you need to contact Social Services outside of normal office hours, for example during the night, please call 03000 41 91 91.

Further details can be found at Report abuse - Kent County Council

Herne Bay High School's Prevent Strategy

Statement on preventing extremism and radicalisation

Herne Bay High School’s Prevent Strategy has been written in response to and in line with government guidance and forms part of the government’s counter terrorism strategy which seeks to:

The purpose of the Herne Bay High School’s Prevent Strategy is to protect students from harm and to ensure that they are taught in a way that is consistent with the law and British values. To this end it acts to;

Risk

The current threat from extremism and radicalisation in the UK can include the exploitation of vulnerable people, to involve them in terrorism or in activity in support of terrorism. The normalisation of extreme views may also make children and young people vulnerable to future manipulation and exploitation. Herne Bay High School is clear that this exploitation and radicalisation should be viewed as a safeguarding concern and that both Staff and Governors, under their duty of care for students, have explicit responsibilities to safeguard pupils from the risk of falling under the influence of extremist groups and individuals and potentially even being drawn into terrorism. The Staff are alert to the potential dangers of institutional complacency and/or suspended professional disbelief – ‘it could not happen here’ – and will put in place strategies to ensure that governors, staff, parents and pupils understand the potential threat and are aware of the indicators of vulnerability. All staff receive regular full safeguarding training, and update training when required, and also undertake online training.

In discharging its duty of care, Herne Bay High School seeks to protect children and young people against the messages of all violent extremism delivered using any means or medium to express views which:

What has already been done to address this risk?

Within Herne Bay High School children participate in a curriculum that promotes active learning and develops critical personal thinking skills. The focus on active learning and questioning enables students to explore social and emotional aspects of learning throughout the curriculum. Herne Bay High School actively promotes diversity and shared values between the local school communities, the community local to the school, the national and global community. We do this by celebrating our own school values. These values form the basis of our students understanding of wider communities and there are numerous academic and pastoral opportunities that embed this ethos.

Herne Bay High School challenge all prejudices recognising students who are at risk of isolation. The emphasis on pastoral care, the use of school policies, school assemblies, the PSHEE scheme of work, school events and enrichment activities ensure that the school is a safe place to learn and socialise. Herne Bay High School seek justice for inappropriate behaviour choices and use restorative approaches to repair harm when caused.

Herne Bay High School has already undertaken a range of activities / initiatives to raise awareness of the issues with both staff and pupils and to ensure that the school community understands what to do and who to go to if they have any concerns around the potential radicalisation of a member of the school community. These include:

What we plan to do in the future?


Further information: