Safeguarding at OAI

Your Safeguarding Team
Our role is to keep students and staff safe.

Mr Paul Manarin (Designated Safeguarding Lead)

Mrs L Glover (Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead)

SENCo
Mrs D. Churches

Attendance Lead
Mr P Manarin

Student Counsellor
We also employ a trained counsellor to work with students who require increased levels of support. Where required, we will engage external agencies to ensure the right level of support is in place.

I want to talk
Students can submit the ‘I Want To Talk’ form on the school website and a member of staff will speak to them in school (usually a Pastoral Manager). The form can be submitted at any time and the staff member will seek out the student once school day begins.

If you are concerned about a member of staff or volunteer:

If your concern is about a member of staff or volunteer please report your concern to the Principal, Mrs S McLoughlin.  If your concern is about the Principal, please report your concern to the Oasis Regional Director for Northern – Heidi Stennett.

The following documents are designed to give additional guidance and support to students on safeguarding issues:

Anxiety – Advice & Support

This booklet is a resource to give you some information about what anxiety is, how to spot the signs, tips for parents and young people and where you can find more help. You may find this useful in the build up to exams.

Hub of Hope – Mental Health Support Network

This website provides a database of support that enables you to search for nearby services, including a ‘talk now’ feature.

Kooth – free, safe and anonymous online counselling

Visit the website for more details about this counselling and support service from Kooth.

Social Media Checklists
These checklists provide advice and guidance on how to set privacy settings and other account settings on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat.

The Hideout
Women’s Aid have created this space to help young people understand domestic abuse, and how to take positive action if it’s happening to you.  

Young Carers
As a young carer you can find helping someone very rewarding, but you also have the right to be looked after. Find out what young carers do, how to spot if it’s getting too much and what to do about it.

Relationships
There are all sorts of reasons why you might want a bit of extra help from Relate. Things might be worrying you at home or at school, or you might need help and advice with your own relationship.

Health Worries
This website offers advice an support on a wide range of topics.

Child Exploitation and Online Protection command
Are you worried about online sexual abuse or the way someone has been communicating with you online? You can make a report here by clicking the heading which takes you to CEOP.

The following documents are designed to give additional guidance and support to parents on safeguarding issues:

 Anxiety – Advice and guidance
This booklet is a resource to give you some information about what anxiety is, How to spot the signs, Tips for parents and young people and where you can find more help. You may find this useful in the build up to exams.

CyberBullying
This document from Internetmatters.org provides support on Cyberbullying, including conversation starters, what you need to know, warning signs and tips on how to prevent and deal with CyberBullying.

Supporting children and young people with SEND online
An excellent online hub to help children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) have a safer and more positive time online find a range of expert guides providing advice on the main activities that children do online.

Parents’ Guide to Technology
A range of advice about smartphones, gaming devices, tablets and other internet-connected devices

Emotionally Healthy approach to GCSES
Positive health and wellbeing – including mental health – contribute to
a child’s ability to flourish, thrive and achieve

Gaming
This guide gives advice to parents/carers on how to support teens when gaming online.

BBFC And PEGI Age Ratings
This guide take a look at the two official ways by which you can assess if a particular film or game is suitable for your child.  It is also worth noting that both the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) and PEGI (Pan European Game Information) have search facilities on their websites that can be used to look up individual titles so that you can check their ratings.

Dangers of Digital Piracy
Helps parents/carers understand the risks if your child streams illegal content online

Online Grooming – What parents need to know
Grooming is when someone seeks to build an emotional connection with a child to gain their trust for sexual purposes. It happens both online and face to face. This guide provide you with more information.

Hub of Hope
This website provides a database of support that enables you to search for nearby services, including a ‘talk now’ feature.

Teenage Depression
Depression isn’t exclusive to adults – it can affect anyone.  The persistent and long-lasting unhappiness characterising depression can have an enormous impact on how a young person thinks, behaves and feels.

Working Together to Safeguard Children
A guide from the government to inter-agency working to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.

Keeping Children Safe in Education
Statutory guidance for schools and colleges on safeguarding children and safer recruitment.

Additional useful links to help and Support parents/carers.

This list of useful websites has been drawn up to help parents advise their children, on some of the issues often faced by young people. It is also a useful resource for students who are looking for information on any of these topics.

These are trusted and informative websites with advice that is also followed in school.

Parents can always speak to their child’s form tutor, Pastoral Manager or another member of the pastoral team for support on any of these issues.

YoungMinds – Stress and emotional wellbeing

Winston’s Wish – Support with Bereavement

TalktoFrank – Honest information about drugs

Thinkuknow – Thinkuknow is the education programme from NCA-CEOP.

The internet is an established fact of daily life; young people interact with it through a variety of media and devices more than any other generation. They will be carrying forwards its capacity and usage to levels that we can barely imagine at present. However, like all powerful tools, it has its dangers as well as its benefits. It is the responsibility of schools in partnership with other organisations to educate young people to protect themselves and use the internet responsibly. This is what our campaign activities will be doing.

The NCA’s CEOP Command is here to help children and young people. They are there to help if you are a young person and you or your friend (up to age 18) has been forced or tricked into taking part in sexual activity with anyone online, or in the real world. They also have advice and links to support for other online problems young people might face, such as cyberbullying and hacking. Visit their Safety Centre for advice and to report directly to CEOP, by clicking on the Click CEOP button above.

The links below have information and advice about various subjects of internet safety.

• A Parent’s Guide to TikTok
• A Parent’s Guide to Snapchat
• A Parent’s Guide to Instagram
• A Parent’s Guide to Cyberbullying

• Digital Parenting Guide (from Vodafone)
• Social Media Library
• The Parent, Educator & Youth Guide to LGBTQ Cyberbullying
• Reporting to Social Media Sites

Safer Internet Day 2021
Please note that the above articles have not been produced by the Academy and therefore some content may not represent the views of OAI.

It is important to recognise that abuse isn’t always perpetrated by adults; children can abuse other children too. This is referred to as peer-on-peer abuse and can include:

• Bullying (including online/cyberbullying)
• Sexual violence and sexual harassment (including online)
• Physical abuse (such as hitting, kicking, shaking, biting etc)
• ‘Sexting’ (also known as ‘youth produced/involved sexual imagery’ or sharing ‘nude or semi-nude’ imagery)
• Initiations, hazing type violence and social rituals

When talking about sexual abuse, we use the definitions in place from the DFE. These are:

Peer-on-peer sexual abuse

• Sexual violence such as unwanted sexual contact including rape and sexual assault
• Sexual harassment such as sexual comments, remarks, jokes and online sexual harassment
• Upskirting
• Sexting

Online sexual abuse may include:

• Receiving unsolicited explicit photo or videos
• Sending or being pressured into sending nude and semi-nude photos or videos
• Being sent online explicit material

Harmful sexual behaviour is behaviour that is expressed by children and young people under the age of 18 that is developmentally inappropriate, may be harmful towards self and others, or abusive towards another child, young person or adult.

You can be assured that Oasis Academy Immingham will not tolerate any form of sexual abuse, violence or harassment. This behaviour will never be normalised, and will always be challenged. Issues such as these are addressed through a robust Relationships and Sex Education programme as part of the PHSE curriculum. Topics such as healthy relationships and consent are explored through this curriculum focus. This curriculum equips pupils with the knowledge and understanding of what is right and wrong, how to keep themselves safe and how to report incidents.

How can you support your child?
It is important that parents and carers are particularly aware of what their child is accessing online. Social media sites such as Snapchat and Whatsapp were found to be one of the most commonly used sites where online peer to peer sexual abuse takes place. Be aware of the sites your child is accessing and where possible ensure that you can monitor or access their phone. Be vigilant for any additional accounts they may have that you are unaware of and talk to them frequently about online safety.

NSPCC Net Aware, Parent info.org and CEOP have excellent sites that can support parents with online safety.

Make sure you are aware of where your child is going and who they are going with. Talk to them about where they have been and frequently remind them of what harmful sexual behaviour is. The more children understand harmful sexual behaviours, and that they are not tolerated, then the further we can go to changing these behaviours.

If you wish to report an incident of harmful sexual behaviour

If you do find out that your child has been a victim of harmful sexual behaviour, where a child is at immediate risk, this must always be reported to 999. Where there is no immediate risk, for example the incident may be historic, you can contact 101. You may be asked to contact the Police Safeguarding Unit. You can also record a historic incident of sexual abuse or harmful sexual behaviour even if it is some time since it has happened.

We also ask that you report any harmful sexual behaviour to school. You can do this by contacting the Designated Safeguarding Leads. They are:

Mrs Tanya Wiles (DSL)

Mrs Lorraine Glover (Deputy DSL) 

As of the 1st April 2021, the DfE have commissioned the NSPCC to run a bespoke helpline to provide appropriate support and advice to victims of sexual abuse in education and concerned adults. Young people and adults can contact the NSPCC helpline, ‘Report Abuse in Education‘ on 0800 136 663 or email help@nspcc.org.uk

What we do
After a report is made, the safeguarding leads will inform you of the next part of the process so that you can make the decision that is right for you and your child. This may include sanctioning any inappropriate behaviour and working with local safeguarding partners such as the police or Social Care. It is important to note that, as in all schools, if an incident of harmful sexual behaviour is reported we are often required to report these to the police and social care direct. This should not cause alarm but we access these local safeguarding partners to enable further support for victims. As a safeguarding team, we meet weekly to talk about any incidents that have occurred to ensure that we have done everything possible to support your child and family.

Additional to the PHSE syllabus, there will be safeguarding assemblies about this and other safeguarding issues. The purpose of the assemblies is to ensure that pupils know how to report any incidents of harmful sexual behaviour to ensure that such incidents are dealt with swiftly and effectively by the academy.

Further information for Pupils and Parents

• Childline - https://www.childline.org.uk/

Tel: 0800 1111

• Parent Protect - https://www.parentsprotect.co.uk/

• Childnet – detailed information on key topics affecting young people - https://www.childnet.com/parents-and-carers

https://www.childnet.com/our-projects/project-deshame/i-am-a-parent-or-carer

What is the Prevent strategy?
The aim of ‘Prevent’ is to stop people becoming or supporting terrorists and to do this by challenging ideologies, protecting vulnerable individuals and supporting institutions, such as schools. It is part of the National Counter Terrorism Strategy known as CONTEST.

In 2008, the then Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) launched ‘Learning Together to be Safe’ – a toolkit to help schools contribute to the prevention of violent extremism and the Government’s ‘Prevent Strategy’.

In 2011 the Government reviewed CONTEST and the Prevent Strategy in particular. The focus changed and the objectives were revised as follows:

• respond to the ideological challenge of terrorism and the threat from those who promote it
• prevent people from being drawn into terrorism and ensure that they are given appropriate advice and support
• work with sectors and institutions where there are risks of radicalisation that we need to address

The government regards Prevent as a key part of CONTEST and does not believe it is possible to resolve the threats we face simply by arresting and prosecuting more people.  Prevent will address all forms of terrorism but continue to prioritise according to the threat they post to our national security.

Prevent is a government strategy designed to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorist or extremist causes.

The Prevent strategy covers all types of terrorism and extremism, including political and religious extremism.

How does the Prevent strategy apply to schools?

All schools (as well as other organisations) have a duty to safeguard children from radicalisation and extremism.

This means schools have a responsibility to protect children from extremist and violent views, in the same way we protect them from drugs or gang violence.

Importantly, schools can provide a safe place for pupils to discuss these issues so that they better understand how to protect themselves.

Prevent is recognised as a ‘safeguarding’ issue and will be treated in the same way as other safeguarding processes deigned to protect vulnerable people from harm or abuse.

What does this mean in practice?

Different schools will carry out the Prevent duty in different ways, depending on the age of the children and the needs of the community.

Many of the things we already do in school to help children become positive, happy members of society also contribute to the Prevent strategy.

This can include:

• Exploring other cultures and religions and promoting diversity
• Challenging prejudices and racist comments
• Developing critical thinking skills and a strong, positive self-identity
• Promoting the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils, as well as British values such as democracy
• Protecting children from the risk of radicalisation, such as using filters on the internet or vetting visitors who come into school

Frequently Asked Questions

How does Prevent relate to British values?
Schools have been required to promote British values since 2014, and this will continue to be part of the response to the Prevent strategy.

British values include:

• Democracy
• The rule of law
• Individual liberty and mutual respect
• Tolerance of different faiths and beliefs

Isn’t my child too young to learn about extremism?
The Prevent strategy is not just about discussing extremism itself, which may not be appropriate for younger children. It is also about teaching children values such as tolerance and mutual respect.

Schools should make sure any discussions are suitable for the age and maturity of the children involved.

Is extremism really a risk in our area?
Extremism can take many forms, including political, religious and ideological extremism. Some of these may be a bigger threat in our area than others.

The intention is to give children the skills to protect them from any extremist views they may encounter, now or later in their lives.

Additional resources and links

How parents can help protect their child against extremism 

Online Radicalisation:­ Supporting Parents & Carers during school closures

During school closures and lockdown arrangements, both children and adults will spend more time online.  Whilst this can provide positive opportunities, it also brings potential risks and challenges too – including those surrounding online radicalisation.

Online radicalisation – Parent/guardian information and support

Domestic abuse is any type of controlling, bullying, threatening or violent behaviour between people in a relationship. But it isn’t just physical violence – domestic abuse includes emotional, physical, sexual, financial or psychological abuse.

Abusive behaviour can occur in any relationship. It can continue even after the relationship has ended. Both men and women can be abused or abusers.

Domestic abuse can seriously harm children and young people. Witnessing domestic abuse is child abuse, and teenagers can suffer domestic abuse in their relationships.

Children and young people witnessing domestic abuse

Witnessing domestic abuse is very distressing and scary for a child, and can cause serious harm. Children living in a home where domestic abuse is happening are at risk of other types of abuse too. Children can experience domestic abuse or violence in lots of different ways. They might:

• see the abuse
• hear the abuse from another room
• see a parent’s injuries or distress afterwards
• be hurt by being nearby or trying to stop the abuse

Operation Encompass

Operation Encompass is a charitable organisation set up in 2011, which has since enabled effective interventions to many thousands of children who’ve experienced domestic abuse.  Oasis Immingham work with the Humberside Police and Operation Encompass to ensure that appropriate support is put in place for children witnessing domestic abuse.  The main aim is to ensure that we make the next day better and help the child to access any additional support they may need.

Additional Information for parents and pupils

Operation Encompass https://www.operationencompass.org/

National Domestic Violence Helpline for Women: Freephone: 0808 2000 547

Men’s Advice Line (for men who are victims of domestic abuse). Phone: 0808 801 0327

The school is always here to support you with any worries or issues you may have. Below is a list of contacts and links to websites and advice forums which you may also find useful:

Child Line – 0800 1111

NSPCC Child Protection Helpline – 0808 800 5000

Frank – National Drugs Helpline  – 0300 123 6600

NHS Smoking Helpline  – 0800 169 0169

Victim Supportline  – 0808 168 9111

Samaritans  – 08457 909090

Young Minds – Parent Helpline for worries about your child’s Mental Health and wellbeing 0808 802 5544 (9.30-4pm on weekdays)

Mind – Advice for Mental Health including Self-Harming 0300 123 3393 or text 86463 (9am-6pm on weekdays)