Safeguarding Overview

The Governing Body takes seriously its responsibility under section 175 of the Education Act 2002 (section 157 in relation to the independent sector) to safeguard and promote the welfare of students; and to work together with other agencies to ensure adequate arrangements within our school to identify, assess, and support those students who are suffering harm.

The Governing Body understands and fulfils its safeguarding responsibilities.

Parents/carers are made aware of the school’s responsibilities in regard to child protection procedures through publication of the school’s Child Protection Policy, and reference to it in our prospectus/brochure and home school agreement.

Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is defined as:

“protecting children from maltreatment; preventing impairment of children’s health or development; ensuring that children grow up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care; and taking action to enable all children to have the best outcomes”.

Where concerns have been raised that a child is suffering significant harm, or is likely to do so, the school will intervene to protect that child. Action will also be taken to promote the welfare of a child in need of additional support, even if they are not suffering harm or are at immediate risk.

Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) Ms A. Douglas, along with our Deputy Designated Safeguarding Leads (DDSL) Ms T. Richards and Mrs K. McCaffery provide support to staff and students with regard to all safeguarding matters and liaise closely with other services to ensure the safety and well-being of Mayfield students.

If bullying or harassment does occur, and that includes cyber-bullying and on-line abuse, all students should be able to tell someone, and know that incidents will be dealt with promptly and effectively. If you want to report that you are being bullied you can alert members of staff by completing this web form.
The information you send will be treated confidentially.

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Advice to Parents & Carers

Anti-Bullying

Bullying is anti-social behaviour and has no place at our school. We do not accept any form of mental and physical intimidation which causes anxiety or stress.

Our aim is to create a safe and calm climate, where different racial and social backgrounds are accepted. We do realise that a lot of the bullying that happens isn’t actually face to face; it can be through e-mail, text messaging or social media. We acknowledge that there are incidents of low level discrimination, for example name calling, and we do intend to stamp it out.

Students have a right to feel safe and happy at school. It’s important to remember that being bullied is not your fault. There is nothing wrong with you and you don’t have to go through it alone. Here is what you should do if you are worried that you, or someone you know, is being bullied:

Report it and get support

To any member of staff you trust (your form tutor, year team leader or Safeguarding Team)
Inform one of the prefects, if you would like help with reporting
Check the school’s anti-bullying policy. This will tell you what Mayfield School will do about bullying.

If you want to report a bullying incident anonymously use the form at the bottom of this page.

Should you have a more serious problem, relating to the safety of a young person at Mayfield School you may wish to request to speak to a member of the safeguarding team.

FGM (Female Genital Mutilation)

Female genital mutilation (FGM) is a procedure where the female genitals are deliberately cut, injured or changed, but there is no medical reason for this to be done.

It is also known as female circumcision or cutting, and by other terms, such as sunna, gudniin, halalays, tahur, megrez and khitan, among others.

FGM is usually carried out on young girls between infancy and the age of 15, most commonly before puberty starts.

It is illegal in the UK and is child abuse.
It is very painful and can seriously harm the health of women and girls.
It can also cause long-term problems with sex, childbirth and mental health.

Getting help and support

All women and girls have the right to control what happens to their bodies and the right to say no to FGM.

Help is available if you have had FGM or you're worried that you or someone you know is at risk.

If someone is in immediate danger, contact the police immediately by dialling 999.
If you're concerned that someone may be at risk, contact the NSPCC helpline on 0800 028 3550 or fgmhelp@nspcc.org.uk.
If you're under pressure to have FGM performed on your daughter, ask a GP, your health visitor or another healthcare professional for help, or contact the NSPCC helpline.
If you have had FGM, you can get help from a specialist NHS gynaecologist or FGM service – ask a GP, your midwife or any other healthcare professional about services in your area.

Read about National FGM Support Clinics and where to find them.

Gangs & Serious Youth Violence

Gangs and Serious Youth Violence

If you are concerned that someone is trying to get you or a friend to join a gang, or that your child might be involved in gangs, you can contact the school and ask to speak to a member of the Safeguarding team or Year Group Leader / Assistant Year Group Leader.

County Lines

County lines is a form of criminal exploitation where urban gangs persuade, coerce or force children and young people to store drugs and money and/or transport them to suburban areas, market towns and coastal towns (Home Office, 2018). It can happen in any part of the UK and is against the law and a form of child abuse.

Children and young people may be criminally exploited in multiple ways. Other forms of criminal exploitation include child sexual exploitation, trafficking, gang and knife crime.

County lines gangs are highly organised criminal networks that use sophisticated and frequently evolving techniques to groom young people and evade capture by the police.

Perpetrators use children and young people to maximise profits and distance themselves from the criminal act of physically dealing drugs (National Crime agency, 2019). Young people do much of the work and take the most risk.

Dedicated mobile phone lines or “deal lines” are used to help facilitate county lines drug deals. Phones are usually cheap, disposable, and old fashioned, because they are changed frequently to avoid detection by the police.

Gangs use the phones to receive orders and contact young people to instruct them where to deliver drugs. This may be to a local dealer or drug user, or a dealer or drug user in another county.

For additional guidance on and useful information about Gangs and Serious Youth Violence please click the links below:

• Relate offer support for parents/carers who are concerned that their child has joined a gang: https://www.relate.org.uk

• Childline offer advice on gangs for teenagers: https://www.childline.org.uk

• The NSPCC offer advice for parents/carers who are concerned that their child has joined a gang: https://www.nspcc.org.uk

Gangsline offer help and support on gangs: https://www.gangsline.com

• The Government have published this: Advice for Parents and Carers on Gangs

Online Safety & Social Media

Staying safe on the Internet is one of our key responsibilities at Mayfield.

We do this by employing various technologies that filters the school’s Internet connection, using classroom management tools and capture software.

We also work with National Online Safety to provide resources for Parents and Carers.

To create your account, please follow https://nationalonlinesafety.com/enrol/mayfield-school and complete your details. When you’re set up, you’ll be able to set ‘Parent/Carer’ as your user type.

You can access National Online Safety via the brand-new smartphone app. To download the app, please go to:

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/national-online-safety/id1530342372

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.co.nationaleducationgroup.nos

Alternatively, search for ‘National Online Safety’ in the App Store/Google Play Store.

E-Safety and Social Media

Visit our E-Safety page for more information!

You can click the links below to learn more about each Social Media platform and how to stay safe when using them.

Prevent & Radicalisation

Prevent is one of the four elements of CONTEST, the Government's counter-terrorism strategy. It aims to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism.

The Prevent Strategy:

responds to the ideological challenge we face from terrorism and aspects of extremism, and the threat we face from those who promote these views
provides practical help to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism and ensure they are given appropriate advice and support
works with a wide range of sectors (including education, criminal justice, faith, charities, online and health) where there are risks of radicalisation that we need to deal with

The Government's Prevent Strategy

What is Operation Encompass?

The Metropolitan Police now work closely with Schools to notify their DSL that a child (under 18) has been exposed to, or involved in, any domestic incident. Read more below.