Safeguarding

Our Safeguarding Team

Safeguarding is the responsibility of every person in the school. We do, however, have a dedicated team who monitor, respond to and support any safeguarding concerns raised. The team is:

DSL - Jayne Carlyle (Regional DSL)
Principal, Jon Spears
Deputy DSL - Clare Carpenter (VP); Tom Martin (AP); James Colin (AP).
E-Safety - Algun Bibi
Trust-wide safeguarding National - Jill Fuller
L2 trained - Heads of Year (M Mullholland; J Sherrin-Jones; C Vaughan; C Elliott & D Wedge).
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Support for students - school counsellor (S Heward); mental health first aid (L Benzy & J Carlyle); attendance support (J Ravenhill); art therapist (L Benzy), school nurse (fortnightly).

Definitions:

Peer-on-peer abuse is abuse of any type between children. It can include:

Bullying, including cyber-bullying, prejudice-based and discriminatory bullying
Physical abuse (e.g. hitting, kicking, shaking, biting, hair-pulling, or any way of causing physical harm)
Consensual and non-consensual sharing of nude and semi-nude images or videos (also known as ‘sexting’)
Sexual harassment, sexual violence Upskirting (taking a picture under a person’s clothing without their permission)
Causing someone to engage in sexual activity without consent, (e.g. forcing them to strip, touch themselves sexually, or engage in sexual activity with a third party)
Abuse in intimate personal relationships between peers Initiation/hazing violence and rituals

Sexual harassment is unwanted conduct of a sexual nature. It can happen online and offline. It can include:

Sexual comments (e.g. telling sexual stories, making sexual remarks about clothes or appearance)
Sexual jokes (e.g. sexualised so-called “banter”), or sexual taunting
Physical behaviour (e.g. deliberately brushing against someone, lifting up someone’s skirt, pulling someone’s bra strap)
Online sexual harassment (e.g. sharing of nude and semi-nude images or videos, sharing of unwanted explicit content, sexualised online bullying, unwanted sexual comments and messages on social media, sexual exploitation, sexual coercion and threats)

Sexual violence is any of the following (as defined in the Sexual Offences Act 2003):

Rape (sexual intercourse without consent)
Assault by penetration (sexual penetration with a part of the body or anything else without consent)
Sexual assault (intentional sexual touching of another person without their consent, e.g. grabbing someone’s breasts or bottom)

Consent is about having the freedom and the capacity to choose.

Consent to sexual activity may be given to one sort of sexual activity but not to another, or may be given with conditions
Consent can be withdrawn at any time during sexual activity and each time activity occurs
Someone consents to sexual activity only if they agree by choice and have the freedom and capacity to make that choice
A child under the age of 13 can never consent to any sexual activity
The age of consent is 16

At Lift Tamworth wetake all allegations seriously and work to support anyone impacted by such behaviour. If any student is a victim of peer on peer abuse they should speak to an adult in school who will inform the Safeguarding team. All reports are dealt with sensitively and will be taken seriously.

E-safety

E-safety is about ensuring that learners can access the technologies and resources they need without putting themselves at risk personally or financially. It’s about a learning provider making sure that learners, staff and all their stakeholders know how to keep safe while using technology and resources.

E-safety can includes topics such as cyber bullying, mobile phone technology, preventing identity theft, privacy, social networking sites such as Facebook and child protection.

Using the Internet responsibly is now a significant part of many lessons. All school students will look at issues relating to safety using the Internet in Key Stage 3 ICT lessons, and issues involving cyber-bullying in PSHE/assemblies.

‍Facebook Users might be interested in our new Focus on Facebook page which has some top tips on staying safe. It can be accessed from the left hand menu.

Other useful e-safety advice/tips

Safer Internet Day

Safer Internet Day (SID) is organised by Insafe in February of each year to promote safer and more responsible use of online technology and mobile phones, especially among children and young people across the world.

Useful Links

A new source of information and advice is the CEOP Parent's Info SiteYou can find out more information about using the Internet safely and reporting online incidents, whether you are a student, parent or teacher, using some of the links below:

Safer Internet Day (SID) is organised by Insafe in February of each year to promote safer and more responsible use of online technology and mobile phones, especially among children and young people across the world.

You can report anything that makes you uncomfortable online to CEOP. Look for the CEOP report button on the school webpage and on the intranet page within school.