Safeguarding & Attendance

Keeping Children Safe in Education 2023

Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is defined as:

protecting children from maltreatment,
preventing the impairment of children’s mental and physical 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.

Brunel School fully recognises the responsibility we have to safeguard and promote the welfare of young people.

Our Safeguarding Team

Our Safeguarding Policies

Click here for our safeguarding policies, including our attendance and online safety policies.

Operation Encompass

Brunel is an Operation Encompass School.

Operation Encompass is a police and education early information safeguarding partnership enabling schools to offer immediate support to children experiencing domestic abuse.

Operation Encompass ensures that there is a simple telephone call or notification to a school’s trained Designated Safeguarding Lead/Officer (known as key Adult) prior to the start of the next school day after an incident of police attended domestic abuse where there are children related to either of the adult parties involved. This sharing of information enables appropriate support to be given, dependent upon the needs and wishes of the child.

Children are negatively impacted by experiencing domestic abuse and without early intervention and support this negative impact can last through a child’s life course. Domestic abuse can impact upon social, psychological, physical, emotional and behavioural outcomes with an often negative impact upon a child’s academic success. Experiencing domestic abuse has been identified as an Adverse Childhood Experience.

Operation Encompass aims, by directly connecting police and schools, to secure better outcomes for children , to enable schools to better understand the impact living with domestic abuse has upon children, to help schools to better understand a child’s lived experience and to therefore be able to support and nurture each child, making a child’s day better and giving them a better tomorrow.

We are sharing information in line with the operation encompass agreement.

Information for Students

If you think you or someone you know is being abused, or neglected, or have any safeguarding issues that you would like to report, or simply get some advice on, you can speak to the DSL or any other member of staff. All our staff have relevant training and will know the steps they need to take to help.

Student Safeguarding Useful Links

Information for Parents

Brunel School works with many other organisations and agencies to support and safeguard the young people with whom we work.

We use a system called CPOMS to log and record incidents or concerns relating to safeguarding. CPOMS supports our school's processes to monitor child protection, safeguarding, pastoral and welfare concerns for pupils.

If you are worried about yourself or someone else, the following links may be useful in directing you to an organisation that can help:

Online Safety:

Tips for helping children stay safe online - IWF / PIER

‘Self-generated’ child sexual abuse material (CSAM) has been the subject of research that PIER (Policing Institute for the Eastern Region) have just finished on behalf of the Internet Watch Foundation. ‘Self-generated’ CSAM are images and videos which are taken by children and then shared either:

willingly, usually with a boyfriend/girlfriend, or
unwillingly, through coercion, or
shared by a third party without their consent.

Some of these images end up being distributed, sometimes sold, on the open and dark web by those with a sexual interest in children.

Just over 300 children took part in the research and talked about their experiences of growing up in a digital world, where they talk to their friends, game and do their schoolwork online. Many described receiving unwanted sexual images and some commented that it has become normalised and part of their lives. The apps they use, such as Snapchat and TikTok are also used by perpetrators to talk to children and groom them into sharing sexual images. This is a serious safeguarding issue, with wide-reaching consequences that we all need to learn more about.

PIER and IWF have written a blog post for parents about how they can better understand their children's online world and its risks. The blog post can be found here: https://www.iwf.org.uk/news-media/blogs/tips-for-helping-children-stay-safe-online/

See below for more useful documents, websites and posters regarding keeping your child safe in the online world.

CEOP News and articles surrounding internet safety.

Think You Know Great advice to keep children safe whilst using the internet.

Parent Information Expert information to help children and young people stay safe online.

UK Safer Internet Centre E-safety tips, advice and resources.

NSPCC Online Safety Helpful advice and tools you can use to help keep your child safe whenever and wherever they go online.

Childnet International Parents and Carers information to keep your child safe online.

Online Safety App Keep up with the latest apps games and tech your children are using, with the worlds most comprehensive online safety app for parents
Internet Matters Internet and social media advice for parents

'Attendance is Everyone's Business'

School attendance is crucial for your child’s achievement, development, and even their wellbeing. School can also support your child with careers options and therapeutic interventions, but we cannot do this without their engagement. Brunel School is here to support you and your child as much as possible and we very much welcome you to speak with us about any concerns or struggles that you or your child have with regards to their absence. We would be delighted to meet with you, or have a telephone conversation, to address these concerns and discuss a plan for reintegrating your child back into school. Whatever the reason for your child’s persistent absence, we want to support you to break down these barriers and enable your child to receive the education they deserve.

Please notify us if your child is going to be absent

When you do not notify the school of a reason for your child’s absence, we must follow our comprehensive safeguarding and attendance procedures, which includes contacting the child’s guardian(s) by method of call and text. Should we have no response, we record an unauthorised absence, and in situations where we have particular concerns about a child’s welfare, we may carry out welfare visits, and even contact the police if necessary. Please remember to inform the school of your child’s absence on a daily basis. You can call us on 01803 665522 or email admin@brunelschool.org.

We have an obligation to report your child’s attendance to the Local Authority and Department for Education (DfE). Where your child has built up more than ten sessions of unauthorised absence during a six-month period, a referral for legal action may be made. This may result in you receiving a fine, or in more serious cases, a court summons.

Please see the attachment below called '24 - 25 Warning Letter Updated August 24' for the latest attendance letter from the Local Authority and changes to penalties.

Is my child too ill for school? - NHS (www.nhs.uk)

Who can I speak to?

If you have any questions or concerns about your child's absence, please contact our Designated Safeguarding Lead and Assistant Head, Emily Johnston.

Further guidance:

Working together to safeguard children - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

What to do if you're worried a child is being abused. Advice for practitioners.

Supporting pupils with medical conditions at school - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)