ABOUT US
safeguarding
Maghull High School is committed to taking all reasonable steps to ensure the safety, health and wellbeing of all pupils at the school. If staff have concerns regarding possible abuse of a child whether it relates to ill-treatment, neglect or any other form of abuse or appears at risk of abuse, they will, in the best interests of the child, follow the procedures laid down by the Safeguarding Board. A full version of the school’s Safeguarding Policy is available at this link.
Keeping Children Safe in Education
School Contacts:
Designated Safeguarding Lead: Mrs C Larkin [email protected]
Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead: Mrs R Watson [email protected]
Assistant Designated Safeguarding Lead: Mr M Kay [email protected]
Safeguarding Governor: Mr T Robertson [email protected]
Other Contacts
Local Authority Designated Officer : [email protected]
Tracey Holyhead
Local Authority Designated Officer
C/O 7th Floor
St Peters House
Balliol Road
Bootle
L20 3AB
Tel: 0151-934-3783
Fax: 0151-934-4420
Sefton Local Safeguarding Children Board
Sefton LSCB is the key statutory mechanism for agreeing how organisations in the borough will cooperate to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people in Sefton, and for ensuring the effectiveness of what they do. Their website includes useful information and resources for parents and carers and can be found here: https://seftonlscb.org.uk/lscb
Guidance for Parents
Ensuring the safety and well being of our students is paramount. In order to help raise awareness in parents of how to safeguard their child online, we recommend the following free online course. The course will only take twenty to thirty minutes to work through and will provide parents with a wealth of information on how to keep their child safe online.
Keep them safe : Free child protection course
Additional Parental Guides
Skype – A computer programme and app which lets users make audio and video calls to other users around the world. It also allows users to send instant messages.
Discord – A voice and text app and site designed for gamers. It allows users to voice and text chat across different platforms. Users can only message each other if they have accepted a follow message.
Yubo – An app which allows users to connect and chat to new people. Users can swipe left and right on a profile to “like” someone or swipe left to pass on to the next profile. Yubo allows live-streaming. 13 to 18 year olds need parental permission to sign up, and join a separate Yubo community the is for under 18-18s only.
Anti-Bullying
The school believes that all pupils, whatever their race, culture, gender, faith, sexual orientation, physical or intellectual abilities, have the right to:
- a safe and secure environment at school and on the way to and from school
- concentrate on their educational progress without fear of others
We promote an environment which teaches pupils respect for others and where all members of the school are encouraged to contribute to a caring and effective atmosphere. All pupils are encouraged to speak to a member of staff if they are being made to feel uncomfortable at school or if they witness this happening to others. Please make sure that you or your child lets us know if there is a problem that is making them unhappy. Bullying cannot be dealt with if the school is unaware of the problem.
A copy of the Anti-Bullying policy can downloaded here.
Different forms of bullying
The school recognises that bullying can take many different forms, but the three main types are:
Physical: hitting, kicking, taking belongings
Verbal: name calling, insulting, offensive language, racist, homophobic or sexual remarks
Psychological: spreading nasty rumours, inciting others to be cruel or encouraging others to overtly isolate and ignore the individual, sending malicious messages through the use of modern technology
Racial harassment, homophobia or other contraventions of the Equality Act are treated as very serious incidents of bullying.
Cyber Safety
It is a sad fact that we cannot get completely away from stories about cyber-bullying, online safety, or online danger, in our current world. Any environment, such as using the Internet, can be abused. However, positive aspects far outweigh the negative in educating our children. It is important that parents understand how to use the Internet and how to keep their children safe. There are many agencies (links below) to support and guide you in keeping your children as safe as possible whilst online.
ThinkUKnow For The 11-16 Age Group
This space has been created for the 11-16 age group to share what is good, look at what’s not, share experiences of things that have gone wrong and show students ways they can get out of bad situations.https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/11_16/
Child Sex Exploitation
Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) is a type of child sexual abuse. It is the deliberate exploitation of a child or young person purely for the sexual gratification of adults. Any child or young person could become a victim of child sexual exploitation; this abuse and crime affects both girls and boys, from any background and of any ethnicity.
Even something that seems like normal teenage behaviour could be a sign that a child or young person is being sexually exploited.
For further support: https://www.seftonlscb.co.uk/child-sexual-exploitation.aspx
Tackling Extremism and Radicalisation - Prevent Duty
In line with new governmental directives to instil stronger teachings against extremist attitudes and promote British values, Maghull High School tackle topical, controversial and challenging issues ‘head on’ through curriculum delivery. Pupils are able to develop their awareness of how people should have freedom to practise religious beliefs, to promote tolerance and acceptance for all religions and people in Britain who contribute to our British culture.
We also enable our pupils to explore why extremist views do not fit in to our British democratic views and the detrimental impact that this can have both on our society and globally. Pupils look at extremist views throughout culture, religions and history, highlighting how terrorism is not a problem limited to our time or always linked to religions we see on the news. Pupils consider the causes of terrorism, study modern case studies and celebrate freedom of speech, tolerance and democracy as part of our British values.
Domestic Violence - Operation Encompass
Merseyside Police responds to 34,000 domestic incidents every year (an average of 90 a day) and around 74 per cent of those involve children being in the home at the time. By sharing information between the police and the school, we hope to provide greater emotional support to our pupils.
Every local authority in the county has signed up to the scheme together with Merseyside Police and key people in Maghull High School have been trained in how to record the police information and act on it.
Useful Websites
Sefton Adult and Children’s Safeguarding Board (https://seftonlscb.co.uk)
CEOP Command (formerly the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre) work to protect children from harm online and offline, directly through National Crime Agency (NCA) led operations and in partnership with local and international agencies (www.ceop.gov.uk)
Childnet – a range of resources for primary and secondary schools, for children and young people, for teachers and for parents (www.childnet-int.org)
ChildLine 0800 1111: get help and advice about a wide range of issues, talk to a counsellor online, send ChildLine an email or post on the message boards. (https://www.childline.org.uk)
Internet Matters – a website to help Parent keep their children safe online (https://www.internetmatters.org/issues/cyberbullying/)
Cyberbullying.org – one of the first websites set up in this area, for young people, providing advice around preventing and taking action against cyber bullying. A Canadian-based site (www.cyberbullying.org)
Chatdanger – a website that informs about the potential dangers online (including bullying), and advice on how to stay safe while chatting (www.chatdanger.com)
Anti-Bullying Alliance – the Alliance brings together over 60 organisations into one network with the aim of reducing bullying. Their website has a parents section with links to recommended organisations who can help with bullying issues (www.anti-bullyingalliance.org.uk)
Operation Encompass supporting victims of domestic abuse (https://www.operationencompass.org)
National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. (https://www.nspcc.org.uk)
Sefton Women’s and Children’s Aid (SWACA) provide free practical and emotional support for women and young people to survive the impact of domestic violence (https://www.swaca.com)
Helplines
Kidscape – run a telephone advice line exclusively for parents and carers giving advice about bullying.
Tel: 08451 205 204 (10am-4pm weekdays)
Get Connected – free confidential helpline for young people (open 1pm-11pm every day)
Tel: 0808 8084994
Samaritans – helpline for those in distress, offering multi-channel support. Tel: 08457 90 90 90. Email: [email protected]. SMS text: 07725 909090