Safeguarding and Wellbeing

Safeguarding at Belong Learning Schools

It is the responsibility of all Belong School staff to provide effective Safeguarding and Child Protection and is an integral part of our daily practice. In this section, you can find out more about our child protection and safeguarding processes. For more detailed inforamation, please see the Safeguarding Policies for Belong School Devon and Belong School Gloucestershire.

Safeguarding at Belong Schools

All Belong School staff perform their duties to create educational communities where all children can Learn, Grow and Thrive. As part of that duty, we take our responsibility to safeguard children very seriously. All our staff are aware of their statutory responsibilities and are properly trained in recognising and reporting safeguarding concerns, and know it is important to take appropriate action, in a timely manner, to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.

Each Belong School’s safeguarding policy ensures that:

All staff are aware of their statutory responsibilities with repect to safeguarding
Appropriate action is taken in a timely manner to safeguard and promote children’s welfare
Staff are professionally trained in recognising and reporting safeguarding issues

Designated Safeguarding Leads

Each school has a Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL). The DSL takes lead responsibility for child protection and wider safeguarding of the students at the school. Their contact details are available at the front of the school’s Safeguarding Policy.

During term time, the DSL is available during school hours for staff to discuss any safeguarding concerns. Deputy Designated Safeguarding Leads (DDSLs) and Headteacher support the work of the DSL, and will act as cover where necessary. The contact details for the DDSLs can also be found in the school’s Safeguarding policy.

If you have a concern about the safety or welfare of a young person in connection with the school, please contact the appropriate Designated Safeguarding Lead without delay. The details for the Safeguarding Leads for Belong School Devon and Gloucestershire can be found below.

If you are unsure who is the right person, you can contact either of the two DSLs who will be happy to talk through your concern and direct as appropriate.

Who to contact

Belong School Devon DSL:

James Harley

Telephone :07929 792854 james.harley@belonglearning.co.uk

Belong School Gloucestershire DSL:

Jade Dangerfield

Telephone :07929 793826 jade.dangerfield@belonglearning.co.uk

Online Safety

As part of our commitment to preparing our students for success in the modern world, online safety is extremely important.

Our Belong Schools:

Have robust processes in place to ensure the online safety of students, staff, volunteers and governors
Deliver an effective approach to online safety, which empowers us to protect and educate the whole school community in its use of technology, including mobile and smart technology (which we refer to as ‘mobile phones’)
Establish clear mechanisms to identify, intervene and escalate an incident, where appropriate

Our approach to online safety is based on addressing the following categories of risk to people online:

Content – being exposed to illegal, inappropriate or harmful content, such as pornography, fake news, racism, misogyny, self-harm, suicide, antisemitism, radicalisation and extremism

Contact – being subjected to harmful online interaction with other users, such as peer-to-peer pressure, commercial advertising and adults posing as children or young adults with the intention to groom or exploit them for sexual, criminal, financial or other purposes

Conduct – personal online behaviour that increases the likelihood of, or causes, harm, such as making, sending and receiving explicit images (e.g. consensual and non-consensual sharing of nudes and semi-nudes and/or pornography), sharing other explicit images and online bullying; and

Commerce – risks such as online gambling, inappropriate advertising, phishing and/or financial scams

Our online safety policy

For more information, please see our online safety policy

Online Safety Policy