Safeguarding Newsletter

Safeguarding Newsletter

A note from the Director of Safeguarding

The second half of the summer term is always a time of reflection for the safeguarding team at Eagle House and Wellington College. We use the time to review our annual development plans, assess what progress we have made with various targets which we set last year, and also critically reflect on our own practice – what could we have done better and how can we learn from incidents and interactions to ensure that we move forwards with this knowledge and continue to make our schools safe places. Being reflective practitioners supports an open culture of learning and this is important for both individual and collective practice in safeguarding and pastoral care.

This editorial is longer than usual, as I wanted to inform you about the changes to our filtering and monitoring systems, which will affect all students and parents.

An area which continues to evolve on an almost daily basis and challenge safeguarding and IT teams across the country is the online world; how we balance and harness the amazing potential of technology against online safety is an ever present tightrope. Our talks to students have focused on cyber-security this term. This is a very real threat to schools, and especially schools like Wellington and Eagle House. As we have progressed through the year, the threat of cyber-attacks looks ever larger. The primary battleground for our IT team is email. Since the year began, 9.2 million emails have been diligently scanned and they have successfully thwarted 14,000 direct scams, phishing (see glossary below) attempts and impersonations. However, the landscape is evolving. Novel strains of malware have been encountered such as the email from Evri which, at first glance, appeared 100% legitimate. Underneath this, however, lay embedded spyware and malicious code. The sender’s address emanated from a hacked domain and underscores the need for vigilance as malicious actors exploit our trust in known entities.

Another threat targeting many independent schools nationwide is domain impersonation. Scammers pinpoint key figures within the organisation. If you received an email from the Master (jeld@welllingtoncollege.org.uk) or Headteacher (ed.venables@eaglehousesschool.com) asking for your personal details, what would you do? Did you spot the mistake in the email address?

You – parents – are also in the crosshairs. Scammers seek your email addresses, intending to manipulate you with fee-related messages. These orchestrated attacks often involve large-scale, state- sponsored organisations with some even employing individuals adept at impersonating our own staff using AI along with voice impersonation.

The biggest risk to our organisational cybersecurity are the pupils. Only last week, a Wellington student’s laptop was infected with high level ransomware. Due to the fact that the student had a College provided MS Surface for Business device and was not operating a VPN, the IT team were able to infiltrate the virus and protect and eradicate any trace. If that had not been the case, the student would have lost everything on their laptop, including all of their OneNote work.

As part of our ongoing commitment to ensuring a safe and secure digital environment for our students across both schools, the team have been working alongside Tony Whelton (our Director of IT Development and Services). Due to feedback from the Parental Online Safey group and talking to other schools across the country, we are pleased to inform you that we have recently reviewed and updated our safeguarding software. Our goal is to enhance protection and provide a robust defence against such cyber threats mentioned above.  The changes are as follows:

1. Lightspeed Filtering: We have added Lightspeed to our portfolio of safeguarding tools. Here are the key benefits it brings:

• Advanced Web Filtering: Lightspeed offers granular control over internet access, allowing us to filter content based on categories, keywords, and user profiles. This ensures that students are only exposed to age-appropriate and educational content.
• Real-time Monitoring: Lightspeed provides real-time visibility into internet usage, allowing us to identify potential risks or inappropriate behaviour. We can track browsing history, search queries, and social media activity.
• Threat Detection: Lightspeed actively scans for malicious websites, phishing attempts, and other online threats. It helps prevent students from accessing harmful content and protects them from cyberattacks.

2. Palo Alto Firewall: Our existing Palo Alto firewall continues to play a crucial role in safeguarding our network. Here’s why it’s essential:

• Intrusion Prevention: The Palo Alto firewall detects and blocks unauthorised access attempts, ensuring that our network remains secure. It prevents malicious actors from exploiting vulnerabilities.
• Application Control: Palo Alto allows us to control which applications can run on our network. This helps us manage bandwidth effectively and prevents unauthorised or risky applications from being used.
• Zero Trust Architecture: Palo Alto follows a Zero Trust model, which means that every connection is treated as potentially untrusted. This approach minimises the attack surface and ensures that only authorised traffic is allowed.

3. Alerting Benefits: Both Lightspeed and Palo Alto contribute to our alerting capabilities:

• Immediate Alerts: Lightspeed generates alerts when it detects suspicious activity, such as attempts to access blocked content or potential cyberbullying. Our team can respond promptly to address any concerns.
• Threat Intelligence: Palo Alto provides threat intelligence feeds, allowing us to stay informed about emerging threats. If there’s a new vulnerability or attack, we receive alerts and take necessary actions.

4. Mitigating VPN Usage : Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) pose a unique challenge in educational settings. While VPNs have legitimate uses (such as securing communication over public networks), they can also be misused by students. Here’s why:

1. Bypassing Filters: Students can use VPNs to bypass content filters set up by the school. By connecting to a VPN server, they can access blocked websites and applications.
2. Anonymity: VPNs provide anonymity by masking the user’s IP address. This makes it difficult for schools to track online behaviour effectively.
3. Security Risks: Some VPNs may pose security risks, allowing malware or inappropriate content to bypass school filters.

Palo Alto and Lightspeed both have deep pack inspection technology (DPI) which analyses all network traffic at a granular level which helps us identify VPN traffic along with patterns and protocols.

5. Parental Control

• Parental Override: Parents can also benefit from Lightspeed Systems. They can set rules for their child’s internet access when outside of school hours. More on this feature will follow with a user guide on how to access this feature.

In summary, our combined use of Lightspeed and Palo Alto ensures a comprehensive approach to e-safety and cybersecurity. We are committed to creating a safe online environment for our students, and these tools play a vital role in achieving that goal.

The students won’t notice the changes….unless they are already in breach of the College/School Acceptable Use Policy and have a VPN installed on their device. We will be trialling the new system in the last few weeks of the summer term in order to ensure that any potential issues are resolved before the full roll out across all students in September.

I hope you will agree that these changes are not only essential, but also exciting. We will be leading in this area and thanks to the knowledge and expertise in the IT department who have looked at the issues in a creative and forward thinking way, we will be ensuring that our students are really well protected. We will, of course, continue to educate all students about online safety through the Wellbeing and LFL curriculums and pastoral talks to help them navigate the ever complex online environment.

My best wishes to you all, and thank you for supporting Wellington and Eagle House in their safeguarding endeavours.

Stay safe,

 

 

Glossary of terms: Ransomware: a type of malicious software designed to block access to a computer system until a sum of money is paid. Malware: Malware is a catch-all term for  and type of malicious software designed to harm or exploit any programmable device, service or network. Cybercriminals typically use it to extract data that they can leverage over victims for financial gain. Phishing: the fraudulent practice of sending emails or other messages purporting to be from reputable companies in order to induce individuals to reveal personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers. VPN: Virtual Private Network. It establishes a digital connection between your computer and a remote server owned by a VPN provider, creating a point-to-point tunnel that encrypts your personal data, masks your IP address, and lets you sidestep website blocks and firewalls on the internet. IP address: stands for Internet Protocol address. It is the numerical label such as 192.4.3.1 that is assigned to a device connected to a computer network that uses the internet protocol for communication.

 

INTRODUCING….. Charlie Sutton

Tell us your story!

I am Oxford born and raised. I was educated at Christ Church Prep School, where I was also a chorister at Worcester College for seven years. I then attended St. Edward’s School. Always fanatical about sport, I attended Durham University reading Sports Science. My ambition after my degree was to play professional sport in either cricket or rugby. However, quickly realising I wasn’t good enough, I started to look at coaching and teaching pathways. Before coming to Wellington I worked at Ryde School and Pangbourne College, where I was an HM and Head of Boarding. I joined Wellington in 2018 as HM of the Stanley; I step down this year to assume the position of Assistant Head Pupils and join the safeguarding team!

What does the role of Assistant Head Pupils (AHP) involve?

This is a multi-dimensional role, working across many areas of whole-school life. The main purpose of the position is to assist the Second Master in the smooth running of the College on a day-to-day basis by supporting all colleagues with pupil behaviour, organising staff duties across the week, and being a key source of advice and support for the HM body. I will work with the Deputy Head (Pastoral), Heads of Year, Admissions Office, Senior HM, and others to ensure the effective transition of new pupils into the College, including the management and delivery of any transition events for pupils and parents. I will also become a Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead and be a member of that team acting as the key liaison around any disciplinary and pastoral incidents.

What do you think your biggest challenge will be and how will you aim to overcome it?

While I have done the role of AHP for a year, albeit on a slightly smaller scale, transitioning from a Housemaster to AHP full-time will involve a shift from a relatively focused role to one with a broader scope, encompassing the welfare and development of all pupils. Crucial to achieving this will be fostering collaboration and establishing open communication channels with the Second Master, Deputy Head (Pastoral), Heads of Year, and other key stakeholders to ensure everyone is aligned and informed. Clear boundaries and positive relationships, along with modelling the College values, will be essential in this role.

What do you enjoy doing when you are not working?

I love to exercise and play the occasional game of cricket. I enjoy spending time with my family, watching and supporting my children in their interests and activities. Additionally, I like socialising with friends, travelling, and enjoying the odd meal out!

Tell us one thing that no one at Wellington knows about you!

In 2007, I was struck by lightning to the back of the head while doing a charity walk as part of my teacher training. I woke up in the hospital, blind and a little confused, but walked out a few hours later with just a scar and a slight headache! It put life into perspective and made me determined to make the most of it!

 

In the spotlight

Working together to improve school attendance

During the COVID-19 pandemic children and young people’s education and access to education was severely disrupted. This, coupled with a significant fall in attendance at schools nationally since triggered a high-profile government response on the topic, including an MP enquiry into persistent absence and support for disadvantaged pupils. In September 2023 the governmental guidance, Working together to improve school attendance (DfE 2023), became statutory for all schools in England, including independent schools. This guidance provided the framework of legal responsibilities for schools, parents/carers, school governors and Local Authorities in relation to attendance as well as clear guidelines for support for students with low attendance. This guidance has since been strengthened and Working together to improve school attendance 2024 (DfE) comes into force in August 2024.

Why is school attendance so important?

School attendance is not just about being in school when a student is supposed to be, it is a measure of a student’s access to education. Therefore, lower attendance, equates to lower access to education which can negatively impact a student’s academic and pastoral wellbeing.

In the Safeguarding Team we worry about attendance because poor attendance patterns can mean that there are much larger issues at play for a student. For example, persistently missing the same lesson each week could mean that there is an issue with the teacher or other students in the class. Emotional Based School Avoidance (EBSA, sometimes referred to as ERSA) is something else that we must consider, this is where a student is suffering from a period of poor mental health which has resulted in them being unable or unwilling to attend school. As Wellington and Eagle House both have boarding students, we can sometimes find ourselves in a position where a child is physical in school in their boarding house but is school avoiding. This is referred to as ‘in school, school avoidance’.

Attendance at school is monitored nationally by Local Authorities, as mentioned above we as independent schools are not exempt from this. We are required to report on our attendance to our Education Welfare Support Officer on a termly basis. In these meetings we are asked what we are doing to support those students with low attendance and are held accountable for improving it.

What does it mean for Eagle House and Wellington College Students and Parents?

We divide absences into two key categories, authorised and unauthorised. Quite simply authorised absences will cover sickness and other authorised circumstances (sporting commitments off site could be an example). Unauthorised absences are those which do not meet the governmental guidelines for authorisation, for example term-time holidays requests to attend non-educational events.

We know that sometimes absences are unavoidable, sickness and periods of mental ill health are absolutely expected. In cases such as these, communication is key, make sure you inform the relevant staff (Wellington – Matron or HM, Eagle House – Tutor or school office) that your child is unwell and at home with you. Your child may also become ill in school and miss lessons, in this case the school will communicate this with you.

 

As parents you can request a leave of absence for your child, this will either be authorised or unauthorised. For Wellington students, your child’s HM will be able to forward the request form to you, these are dealt with centrally by the College to ensure parity for all. For Eagle House students, please contact the school office or Senior Deputy Head who can advise.

If your child’s attendance dips below 90%, this is considered persistent absence by the governmental standards, regardless of if it is authorised or not. This means that the school will look at the reasons why your child has been absent and may ask you if you need any support. If your child’s attendance dips below 50%, this is classed as severely absent. At this point, school and the local authority will offer you support. This may look very different depending on why your child has missed school, in the case of physical ill health it might be the provision of schoolwork for when they feel better. With mental ill health, it may be access to school-based support services, such as counselling, the HM/tutor, Matron or the Health Centre. At all stages the school’s responsibility is to support you and your child.

School attendance is vital for your child’s academic and pastoral performance, if you have any questions, please contact your child’s relevant school or consult the Attendance Policies which are available on the Eagle House website and Wellington College parent’s pages.

What’s going on? An insight into the world of safeguarding at Wellington and Eagle House

Eagle House

• Attendance work – As you will have read in Steph’s ‘In the Spotlight’, attendance has been a key area we have been reviewing this term. Both the DSL and Senior Deputy Head have been working together on the attendance policy to ensure that there is effective oversight of attendance patterns and that processes are in line with government guidance. We welcomed the Education Welfare Officer from Bracknell Forest to discuss our practices and to learn more about the support that is available for children and families where absence is an issue.
• Reference checking and new staff induction safeguarding – Over the last two terms we have been recruiting new staff for next academic year which means HR and the DSL work closely together to verbally verify all job references for our successful candidates. This is part of our safer recruitment practices and ensures that the references are genuine. In June we welcome our new staff for an induction which will include a safeguarding element which will enable them to become familiar with our processes so that their start in September is as smooth as possible.
• New security gates/barrier – By now we are sure you will have noticed our new automated security gates at the entrance and exit points of the school. This work was deemed high priority at the beginning of the academic year to enable a safe and secure site for our children. A huge thank you to the Security team at Wellington and Ashleigh (School Business Manager) for their oversight of this essential works for the school.
• Safeguarding learning walks – The safeguarding team have conducted another round of learning walks across the school site this term. The team have covered the whole school and have reported back any Health & Safety concerns that need addressing and have engaged in conversations with both pupils and staff about our safeguarding practices. It has been encouraging to hear how confident both pupils and staff have been in talking about safeguarding and who they would go to when feeling worried or unsafe.
• Refresher DSL training – Jess Goves (DSL) attended Bracknell Forest’s DSL one day refresher training this term with Ann Marie Christian, a safeguarding and child protection expert. Ann Marie brought a wealth of knowledge to the training and highlighted current safeguarding issues which are most prominent nationally. Jess was able to share her learning with Safeguarding teams at both Wellington and Eagle House.

 

Wellington College

VBA interview training for international schools – At the end of the Lent Term, Delyth Lynch ran the first ever training session for our international partner schools, so that they could undertake their own Values, Behaviours and Attitudes interviews. 12 participants from Thailand, India and China took part and the course culminated with practice interviews with members of Wellington College UK as the candidates.

Parental Online Safety Group: The group met for the second term last term. The new Filtering and Monitoring arrangements were discussed, including how to message the changes to parents as well as how to engage parents more with online safety as a whole. My thanks to those parents involved in the group. If you would like to join, please do email Ilona Varey (IVarey@wellingtoncollege.org.uk) to register your interest.

Mental Health

The mental health ambassadors have continued organising activities in their houses this term. Examples of what some of them have done include: speaking about exam stress and mental health in house assemblies; holding drop in sessions; having Friday night movie nights; having early night Wednesdays with hot chocolate. On the morning of the wellbeing festival they will all be organising an activity within their houses for 3^rd formers.

The end of the summer term sees the annual well-being mini-festival which provides a wonderful opportunity for the Pupils to take a step back before entering the final week of term. At the end of what will have been trips week for the third and fourth form, it is a wonderful occasion to gather the community together again for a mixture of events and activities.

On the evening of Friday, 21st of June, following a BBQ in Combermere Quad, students will be entertained by a pupil band in the GWA before Lewis Fuller, Britain’s Got Talent finalist, will entertain everyone with his magic tricks and more. Parents are welcome to buy tickets for this event, details of which will be circulated in the Week Ahead newsletter.

After a lie-in on the Saturday morning and a late breakfast, Pupils will have over 50 staff-led well-being workshops to choose from which include everything from Yoga to crazy golf, watercolour to escape rooms, boardgames to therapy dogs, birdwatching to embroidery. Following this, the pupils are back in the GWA for a keynote talk from Amy Williams, MBE, the British former skeleton racer and Olympic gold medallist. All in all a wonderful way to head into the final week!

Safeguarding Winner of the Term (Lent 2024) – We were delighted to award The Events Team with the SWOT in March. The team of Andrea Kelly, Zoe Short, Rachel Stead, Rachel Walton and Izzy Beattie work tirelessly to ensure that all internal and external events are robust in their safeguarding arrangements, writing risk assessments to ensure that our students are at the centre of decisions being made and that those external groups using our facilities have required safeguarding arrangements in place themselves before we allow them on site. We are indebted to their hard work in this area. They received the coveted trophy and some Easter goodies!

 

New policies and updates – All those involved in safeguarding across the country were asked to contribute to an important DfE consultation about the statutory guidance ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ last month. KCSIE 2024 was published on the 24^th May with minimal changes, however it is anticipated that there will be substantial changes coming in 2025. In particular, we were asked to comment on:

• the role of designated safeguarding leads
• child safeguarding information
• safer staff recruitment
• filtering and monitoring
• supporting children following reports of sexual violence and harassment
• protecting children in boarding and residential special schools
• quality assuring safeguarding
• children bringing their own devices to schools
• artificial intelligence

The DfE also published guidance around information sharing for safeguarding practitioners in May. This led to us thinking very carefully about the information that we share with other schools and we have written some guidance for our staff about this.

Another significant area which will significantly change the face of safeguarding is that of mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse. The Government have now published its response to the consultation (Nov 2023) and amendments are being made to the Criminal Justice Bill which was debated on the 15^th May. The response can be seen here.

Steph Eyers has been working very hard at drawing together a file auditing policy which we can use internally to check and monitor how good our record keeping is. The first audit of our records took place just before half term and it was a very useful exercise to ensure that we are as good as we can be in this area.

Fudge and Coco – both Fudge and Coco have had very busy half terms. Coco has been hard at work in the Modern Languages Department helping young people keep calm during their oral exams and Fudge has been making people laugh and smile with her bounciness and quirky ways! Fudge had her fourth training session with her Canine Assisted Learning trainer, Nic, and focussed on various impulse control exercises and loose lead walking around the busier areas of College. We are also working on her being able to sit for longer periods of time on her settle mat. Students and staff can follow Fudge’s news and progress on the noticeboard outside of the Rainbow Office. Coco and Fudge are also involved in the ‘Wellbeing Festival’ at the end of term. We are delighted that Vickie Plumer from the Canine Assisted Learning Group will be coming in to do some work with both dogs and giving the opportunity for our students to have a go at doing some training with them as well.

In early May, Wellington held its own version of Crufts – “Scrufts”! Coco was the well deserved winner of the Agility competition. Fudge won the ‘Best Puppy’ award.

 

Wellington student joins the UK Online Safety Taskforce – In December, Leo W (10,M) applied to become part of the Voice of Online Youth (VoOY). This is a group comprising of only 15 young people from across the UK, aged between 13-16 years old. Leo was selected for interview and had to answer a variety of different questions and give a 3 minute presentation about an online issue and the solution that he had for improving children’s safety online.  Over the Easter holidays, Leo heard that he had made it into the taskforce; this is a tremendous achievement. Leo will now have the opportunity to share his views and ideas with key decision makers at the NSPCC, take part in workshops across the UK, receive training in campaigning, public speaking and teamwork and take part in several residential conferences.

 

Reference checking – HR and the safeguarding team verbally verify all job references for our successful candidates. This is an important part of the recruitment process and is required to ensure that the reference is genuine. With so many staff being appointed towards the end of the Lent Term, this has been a focus for the team over the last few weeks and it is really affirming to see what high quality staff will start work at Wellington in September.

 

How to help a friend – one of the action points from the ‘Staying Safe’ survey was to produce a document which would help the students know how to help a friend if they needed advice or support. Working with Jenny Griggs, the safeguarding team wrote an information sheet for students and HMs will be putting this on their house noticeboards. The information hopes to enable students to know the thresholds around what they can help with and what they should be referring to an adult as well as seeking support for themselves if they are helping out a friend who might be struggling.

 

Lower Sixth safeguarding training – as our Lower Sixth start their leadership roles and head into their final year at Wellington, the safeguarding team visit all houses to speak to the students about their responsibilities. Feedback from parents this year has meant us changing some of the content of our workshop and we have looked at various scenarios in order to identify the rationale behind decision making, thresholds of reporting, child-on-child abuse and their role to report anything which they see and how to work with their HM to ensure that their legacy is a positive one.

Shapes training – We are very excited that Dr Rachel Morris and Annie Hannekom are going to deliver a day of training to the Rainbow team in order to develop our resilience and productivity. We are really looking forward to this day so that we can better challenge decisions in a safe and positive way and also think about boundary setting in our work to avoid vicarious trauma and burnout.

 

Safeguarding email themes –Over the last few months, subject areas in our weekly emails to staff have included:

• Attendance
• The staff code of conduct and low level concerns
• Prevent (you can read more here)
• Reporting and recording
• Cybersecurity
• Sextortion
• Information sharing
• Safeguarding in the theatre

 

Wellington College and Eagle House – joint work

Courses – the first joint Eagle House and Wellington College course ran just before half term. Delyth Lynch delivered a 2 day course in safer recruitment, having qualified as a ‘Safer Recruitment Consortium’ accredited trainer last year. A result of the Bichard Inquiry (2004) all interview processes within schools need to have staff who are trained in safer recruitment as part of the process. It was great to have a whole range of staff working together and understanding this vitally important area which helps deter potential abusers from working within our schools.

Annual audit: the SCR check – our annual external audit by SACPA continues and this term, we welcomed Lee Glaser (Director of Services from the Boarding Schools’ Association) to check our Single Central Register (SCR). The SCR is a mandatory document that educational establishments in the UK must maintain. It is a record of all of the pre-employment checks conducted on staff to ensure that they are suitable for working with children. It is a legal requirement and a critical component of ISI inspections, where the Lead Inspector will view and check the record for accuracy, consistency and content. The HR department who are responsible for managing the record received excellent feedback from Lee as well as some helpful guidance as to how to further improve their processes.

Supervision training – several Eagle House and Wellington College staff will engage with supervision training with ‘Talking Heads’ later this term so that they can join the team of supervisors across the College. Supervision is an integral part of safer working within pastoral care and safeguarding. In September, staff will also be trained in group supervision so that we can extend our provision more widely, offering support to other groups such as matrons and housekeepers.

Joint training – At the end of term the safeguarding teams from Wellington and Eagle House will come together to complete some joint training and also say farewell to Jane White who has been leading on EYFS safeguarding for many years. The two schools have written unfolding scenarios to tackle throughout the evening which will enable the teams to work together as well as challenge decision making. Once we have made our brains tired, we will also have some food….

Safeguarding files audit – At the beginning of this half term the Safeguarding Teams from Eagle House and Wellington are undertaking a joint audit of each other’s safeguarding files. This will provide invaluable learning for both teams as they look for areas of best practice as well as areas to improve.

 

What’s going on in safeguarding in the UK?  – SEXTORTION

In May, the National Crime Agency (NCA) issued an unprecedented warning to schools about the global rise in cases of sextortion among children and young people. You can read the alert  here. We asked HM’s to share the alert with their students in their house assemblies and noticeboards and also informed staff via our weekly email bulletins. What do parents need to know?

What is sextortion?

Sextortion can refer to a variety of offences committed online. It is most often used to describe online blackmail, where criminals threaten to release sexual/indecent images of you, unless you pay money or do something else to benefit them. It happens to boys and girls.

Sextortion may be:

• Financial blackmail using sexual / indecent images that have been sent to somebody that your child has had contact with online.
• Financial blackmail using images that have been stolen from a young person, taken through hacking, or have been faked using AI generators or other image altering technology.
• Blackmail using sexual/indecent images that have been sent to somebody, but with a demand for something other than money. This might be a demand for your child to do something they don’t want to, like give them use of their bank account.

Typical signs of sextortion attempts may include:

• The other individual moving too fast. They try to develop a relationship with your child very quickly. They might be flirty, tell them they like them very early on, or ask for sexual / indecent images. Some may even send a sexual / indecent image to your child first.
• They pressure your child to do things they’re not comfortable with. They may repeatedly ask them to do sexual things they don’t feel comfortable with.
• They might tell them they’ve been hacked or that they have access to their contacts. Some blackmailers might tell your child they’ve got images or information about them from their device. They might threaten to share this information unless money is given to them.

If your child is chatting to new people online:

• Talk to your children about their privacy settings – if scammers can’t see who their friends and family are, they’re less likely to be able to make threats to share images or information. The National Cyber Security Centre has information on how to use social media safely.
• Talk to your children regularly about what they are doing online. hhIf you’re not comfortable with any new relationships or contact, end it quickly.
• If you have doubts or need support, or are worried you might be being targeted- whether or not anyone is actively threatening you – talk to a trusted adult.

If your child has been the victim of sextortion or images have been shared please do seek advice from the safeguarding team who will be able to help in a confidential and sensitive way. It is important to remember that they are a victim of crime and it is not their fault.

There are tools such as the Internet Watch Foundation’s ‘report, remove’ which can remove images from the internet; there is a link to their video here.

 

Further information and support can be found below:

Report Remove | Childline

Sextortion (webcam blackmail) – National Crime Agency

Help if you’re worried about ‘sextortion’ or online blackmail (iwf.org.uk)

Hotline reports ‘shocking’ rise in the sextortion of boys (iwf.org.uk)

 

E-guarding – A guide for parents

Ygam: Gambling is an issue that afflicts millions across the country and for children and young people, particularly those in secondary education, this activity can be difficult to avoid. Whether it’s bright flashy Iphone games disguised as harmless fun, or the explicit nature of sports betting sites, the proximity of gambling when online is never too distant. Ygam is a national charity aimed at the prevention of harms associated with gambling and gaming, among children and young people. They run parental education sessions and offer a range of resources here.

Parent Zone: cyber-security – Parent Zone, an organisation that deals with the digital aspect of young people’s lives have produced child oriented resources and articles for parents on this matter. To find out more about these resources, please follow this link.

AI – The UK Safer Internet Centre has developed an online safety resource alongside the Childnet Youth Advisory Board. The interactive resource “Reliability Online” helps to teach children about what they can trust when they are online and covers risks such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) generated imagery, scams, and body image. Take time to familiarise yourself with this area here.

OfCom: The Ofcom ‘Children and Parents: media use and attitudes report 2024’ was published recently. The report looks at media use, attitudes and understanding among children and young people aged 3-17. It also includes findings on parents’ views about their children’s media use, and how parents of children and young people aged 3-17 monitor and manage their children’s use. The report provides a comprehensive picture of children’s media experiences in 2023 as a reference for industry, policymakers, academics and the general public. You can read the report here.

Erica App – recommended to the team by a parent, the Erika app allows young people (and adults!) to unplug from social media on their phones by muting them and to set digital-free focus periods during their day for distraction free enhanced productivity & focus. You can read more here.

Guide for parents on sexual offences – An insightful and helpful resource which was written for the Wellbeing Hub by David Smellie. You can read the document here.

Reflective Parenting with Young children and teenagers, ACAMH webinar (16^th July, 6.30pm) – a free webinar organised by ACAMH’s special interest group. “Reflective parenting is grounded in theories of attachment, mentalising and neuroscience and brings these theories together in a way that parents can gain a greater understanding of their child’s actions and a greater ability to cope with their own emotions in their relationship with their teens.” You can find out more here.

Read more about Wellington’s safeguarding team winning the Safeguarding Initiative Award for a second year running here.

 

 

A note from the Director of Safeguarding

The Lent term is always an interesting one – it’s the jam in the sandwich, the thin layer of time when exam years really start to focus on what’s ahead, the Third Form grow in confidence and thankfully it starts getting lighter and warmer. It is, however, the time that the pastoral and safeguarding teams are at their busiest for a variety of different reasons: anxiety increases as public examinations loom ever closer, our Upper Sixth face life changing decisions – university and gap years, and the combination of dark nights and the boarding environment blend together in various different recipes which can mean students – and staff – leading with their emotional mind, rather than their wise mind. I have spent the first few weeks of this term going into year group assemblies and speaking about the results of the annual ‘Feeling Safe’ survey. Parents were sent a link to the podcast where the safeguarding team discussed the main highlights from the survey and I did just want to draw your attention to them in this newsletter as well (see ‘What’s going on at Wellington’). I spoke to the students about their ‘wise mind’: young people are often driven by their emotional mind which can lead to them not stopping and thinking about a consequence of a particular decision and whether their action is in line with the College values. We have also used the weekly staff email to emphasise this to staff too. Good relationships are built on a foundation of trust and openness and staff not only need to role model wise decision making to each other, but – more importantly – to the students.

Life in the Lynch household was thrown into a degree of chaos when we welcomed Fudge in mid-January. I thought I had said goodbye to night time waking, crying and the mopping up of bodily fluids… as you will see below, Fudge is going to join Coco as the new school therapy dog and she starts her training with Canine Assisted Learning after half term. She has already drawn in the masses through the Rainbow door, and the staff are now getting used to students coming to see Fudge… rather than us…

I do hope that you are able to find some useful information in the newsletter and, as always, please do feed back about any issues or topics that you would like to see featured in the future.

Stay safe,

Introducing… COCO and FUDGE

Ok – who is going first? Fudge? Yes, you can as I know you have a very short attention span.

So, Fudge – tell us your journey. How did you get to be at Wellington?

I was born in Virginia Water on November 17^th 2023. I am one of 7 siblings and my mum is a Cavachon and my dad is a toy poodle. I moved to Wellington on the 13^th January and although I missed my old family to start with, I love being here. I especially like the woods and going for walks without the very loud cars driving around me.

Do you enjoy being a therapy dog?

I haven’t started my formal training yet, but as part of my early socialisation I have been in the Rainbow team offices getting used to lots of faces and loving all of the cuddles I get from everyone. I love the bean bags in my office; if I jump on them I often can’t get out… I start my proper training after half term and am very excited. I can already sit, lie down and am walking quite well on the lead. I will do anything provided I get some chicken…

What is your biggest challenge in this role?

I think I might be quite busy and I must make sure that I get enough rest and sleep so that I can always be relaxed and refreshed. I am looking forward to working with young people who might be sad or having a difficult time. I know that I will be able to cheer them up and respond to them with unconditional love.

Tell us something no one knows about you…

I am very good at pretending. In the garden I react to my name and bound towards my owners. Sometimes, when we are out, I simply pretend that I have forgotten that and don’t bother coming back… (Sshhh – don’t tell anyone).

OK – Coco, over to you!

Tell us your journey – how did you get to be at Wellington?

I was born in Wales but when I was 8 weeks old I went to live with the Kirkhams.  I missed my mum and my brothers and sisters at first, but I soon settled in with my new family and I loved all the attention they gave me.  I started training as a therapy dog straight away – my new human ‘mum’ made it really fun and gave me lots of tasty treats while I was learning, so I really enjoyed it and was always keen to practise. I started to come into school when I was about 6 months old and I loved it straight away.  I met so many people and I made lots of doggy friends too – my best dog friend is Peggy who lives in the Hopetoun – we have so much fun running around together in the woods.

Do you enjoy being a therapy dog?

I absolutely love being a therapy dog.  I love putting on my jacket and coming in to school every day because I get to meet lots of people who like to play with me and give me cuddles.  I’m never bored, and I love showing off my clever tricks because I earn lots of treats and help to make people smile.  I can sense when people are feeling sad, and I love to cheer them up by giving them my paw to hold or letting them give me a cuddle.  People seem to find it much easier to talk about problems while sitting with me and stroking my soft coat helps my visitors to feel less anxious and stressed.  My mum always makes sure that I’m ok too – I get to go for lots of walks around campus and I have a lovely comfy bed in MFL 3 where I can have a little snooze if I get tired.

What is your biggest challenge in this role?

My biggest challenge is not being able to solve everyone’s problems, but I do, at least, help them to feel a bit better, even if only for a little while. I also find it quite hard not to chase squirrels and pigeons when I’m working, but I do get a treat for resisting the temptation.

Tell us something that no one knows about you…

I once stole a three-layered chocolate cake from the dining room table.  I told my family that I was very sorry, but I didn’t really mean it – the cake was delicious.

 

In the spotlight – Supporting and listening to your children by Steph Eyers 

Getting a child or young person to talk to you about something that they CLEARLY do not want to talk to you about can feel like the most frustrating and hardest task we come across as parents and professionals working with young people. However, we learnt from our recent Staying Safe survey that our students are more likely to talk to you, as parents about issues in school than they are us as adults working with them. This is why it is imperative that you, as parents, feel equipped to encourage your children to talk to you about their issues and know how to manage them within our school context. In the article below, we look at some of the ways in which you can help foster a relationship with your child where they come to you with the ‘big stuff’ such as bullying and abuse, as well as the smaller things that can impact their everyday wellbeing.

The strategies that encourage children to open up will often differ depending on their age and stage of development as well as their personal preferences. However, one common theme that we find with many of the children and young people we work with across Eagle House and Wellington is that they will often feel more at ease to talk when they are doing something else. Examples of this could be, colouring in, walking the dog, playing sport or anything that your child likes to do.

Younger children may express their worries through play. Observing their play to look out for signs of distress or immersing yourself in their imaginary world can be helpful tools in understanding what is going on for your child. You might find that they are mimicking exchanges they have had with their friends throughout the day, they might even be modelling those behaviours they have seen with their siblings. In those situations, it is important to remain curious in your response rather that chastising or criticising the behaviour. Trying to understand the why is important when we think about whether you need to raise the concerns with the school.

As children get older and move into the prep school age group, the way that they communicate will change and develop. In this age group you might find that are more willing to tell you what their perception of what is happening is. A word of caution here, perception and reality at this age and stage of development can be poles apart. It is important to accept your child’s perception and validate their feelings, whilst also being open to the fact that it might not match the reality you are observing.

By the time young people come to us at Wellington, you may see another change in communication style. Your lovely, bubbly, communicative child may have become a sullen teenager overnight. Sometimes the instinct can be to let them get on with it and emerge as a fully eloquent 20 year old, however that is less than ideal! Coming alongside you child is really important here and putting in the work to understand their world is key. Take time to understand what their friendships are like, what music they listen to, what apps they use, find out what (or who) they love. You can do this by approaching conversations in an open, curious and non-judgemental way. Teenagers are especially aware of the way in which we as adults react to certain circumstances. When your teen brings you a problem, be that big or small try to be mindful of your reactions. If they perceive you have overreacted to a situation, they are less likely to tell if something else happens, which can leave them in a vulnerable place.

For all ages making sure that you maintain that open, trusting relationship with your children is the cornerstone of ensuring that they come to you when something happens to them.

If at any point you become worried about your child, or another child it is important that you remember that you are not alone. Wellington and Eagle House have pastoral staff that can support you and your child in whatever you need. If you are not sure if you are worried or not, the Safeguarding Teams at either School would be happy to talk to you on a ‘no names basis’.

Further information advice and support can be found below:

Talking to your teenager – NHS (www.nhs.uk)

Talking to your child about feelings – NHS (www.nhs.uk)

Problems at school | How To Deal With Problems At School – YoungMinds

School anxiety and refusal: How parents can help their child get through tough times – BBC Parents’ Toolkit – BBC Bitesize

 

Youth Vaping by Rebecca Mills, Eagle House DDSL & Year 1 teacher

I recently attended a safeguarding course with local Bracknell primary and secondary schools. I was shocked (and perhaps naive) to hear many schools reporting that children as young as 9 in their settings were known to vape. Figures from NHS England show there were 15 cases where children aged nine or under needed to be admitted to hospital because of vaping in 2023, this was up from 12 in 2022 and two the year before that.

The DfE state that the number of children using vapes has tripled in the last three years and there is strong evidence to suggest that cheap and easy-to-use disposable vapes are partly to blame. Children’s awareness of promotion of vapes has also grown, particularly in shops where more than half of all children report seeing e-cigarettes being promoted, and online where nearly a third report e-cigarette promotion on sites like TikTok and YouTube. We know it is illegal to sell vapes to under-18s and the boxes are clearly labelled. But, it’s easy to see why certain products would appeal to children.

Thankfully, in January 2024 the government announced some positive action against children vaping. The sale and supply of disposable vapes is being banned in England, Scotland and Wales because of their appeal to young people. Alongside this, to make vapes less attractive to children, they are strengthening the regulation of vape flavours, packaging and how they are displayed in shops. There will also be an ‘on the spot’ fine of up to £100 when they spot the sale of tobacco and vapes to children in England and Wales. The ban is being introduced after a public consultation on smoking and vaping showed nearly 70 percent of respondents including parents, teachers, healthcare professionals were in favour of the measure.

Although this is very positive news there is no finite date on when this will be in place and the government have said there will need to be a buffer period for retailers to adjust.

As parents and as educational professionals we all need to be aware of the dangers and exposures that our young people may have had or will have to vaping in the future. With the appointment of a new Head of LFL (our PSHE programme) at Eagle House, we will be reviewing our curriculum and ensuring that these current issues are addressed in an age-appropriate programme which covers EYFS through to Year 8.

 

What’s going on? An insight into the world of safeguarding at Eagle House and Wellington

Eagle House

Filtering & Monitoring systems: This term has seen a concerted effort to address various aspects of online safety and to promote healthy digital habits amongst our pupils.

Early on this term the Online Safety Team met along with Tony Whelton (Director of IT services and development at Wellington) and Andrew Milne (Senior IT infrastructure engineer at Wellington) in order to discuss and assess the effectiveness the school’s filtering and monitoring systems. This is a key aspect of safeguarding our young people at Eagle House and we were able to identify key areas for enhancement, emphasising proactive measures to mitigate online risks whilst the pupils are in our care.

Safer Internet Day: A highlight of the term was the observance of Safer Internet Day, the UK’s biggest celebration of online safety with a focus on promoting the safe and positive use of digital technology. We marked the occasion with all LFL lessons throughout the school covering online safety sessions where pupils were encouraged to reflect on their online behaviours, recognise potential risks and learn strategies to navigate the digital world safely. Our Digital Leaders were also introduced to the community via our social media channels – these are 8 pupils (Year 5 and 7) who are completing an 8 week Digital Leader course with Childnet. We look forward to the work they will do throughout the school in the summer term and beyond.

LFL Digital Matters sessions: Jess also delivered an LFL session to our Year 5 & 6 pupils around the issue of healthy online relationships using Digital Matters material. Parents are encouraged to use this free platform which allows your child to explore their understanding of how to use the internet safely while still having fun. To access the platform click here and select ‘Begin as a parent.’ You’ll then be able to see the range of topics along with resources for you to help support your child’s learning.

BSA Safeguarding Audit: Rounding off the term, Eagle House underwent a safeguarding audit conducted by the Boarding Schools’ Association (BSA). Claire Dan (Director of Safeguarding and SACPA) spent a day getting under the skin of Eagle House – touring the school and meeting with groups of children from EYFS-Year 7 and groups of staff. She has provided valuable insights into the school’s safeguarding practices, highlighting areas of excellence and identifying opportunities for further enhancement which we will action over the coming months.

Eagle House Feeling Safe Survey results (Dee Guest): We asked all Eagle House students to complete a Feeling Safe survey in November 2023. Children from year 3 to year 8 complete the survey independently with their tutors who are on hand to answer any questions and children from nursery to year 2 complete the survey with their Pastoral Year Heads (Jane White and Claire Rhodes). Where the Eagle House survey differs from the College is that it is not anonymous – this gives us the opportunity to be able to talk to the children about any concerns that have been raised. We are working hard to ensure that not only do the children feel heard but we want them to see that we are wanting to act on their concerns and for them to see the changes.

Highlights from Eagle House survey were:

• All EYFS children felt safe at school and were able to name several people that they trusted to talk to if they were worried. They all felt that there were people at school who noticed if they did something well.
• All year 1 and 2 children agreed that there were people in school who cared for them and could name someone they could talk to if they were worried.
• The children in year 3 and 4 were able to identify an amazing range of activities and lessons across a wide spectrum where they felt happy and fulfilled at school. The children were all very open in their responses and their tutors were able to have meaningful conversations with them about how they can be supported in school – these coaching style conversations are such a valuable teaching opportunity, and we are starting to help the children understand that asking for help is always beneficial and a lifelong skill.
• 91% of the Upper school children felt that if they felt unsafe or unhappy they had someone they could talk to. This is a big improvement on last year when only 84% of children felt the same way. Any child who felt that they were being bullied or that someone was being unkind to them has been spoken to by their tutor and an action plan put in place. There were several children who displayed courage by raising their peers as someone that they were concerned about and felt they needed support.

Our action plan includes the following points:

• Addressing feelings amongst senior pupils that girls are treated differently to boys, this has been highlighted to teachers.
• Helping children understand how they are recognised in different ways for their achievements
• Improving site security – many children gave excellent ideas on how they felt we could help them feel safer, these have all been considered and have either been implemented or form part of our action plan
• Improving supervision in both change rooms and during playtimes ensuring that duty staff are visible and able to manage situations as they arise
• Tackling the ‘snitch’ idea that the children have about telling adults about unkindness – this is a culture shift and building trust between children and adults is key.

As Ed Venables has highlighted, we are working hard with teachers and children to build relationships, it is through relationships and a culture of trust that we can ensure that all children at Eagle House feel safe and able to flourish!

Wellington College

The ‘Staying Safe survey results’: In October, students completed that annual ‘staying safe’ survey. This is a completely anonymous survey undertaken by the safeguarding team is carried out in order to take a deep dive into many aspects of College life but especially around whether they feel safe, what they would do if in a certain situation as well as analyse any trends and patterns, particularly around child-on-child abuse. We always listen and respond to the results; this is not a tick box exercise but done to inform the safeguarding annual development plan and also see where we can improve the student experience. The key highlights were:

• A progressive upward trend of students feeling able to report any incident (involving a member of staff or a student) to a member of staff
• Passive by-standing continues to decrease (those who are most likely to ignore an incident f unkindness were 4^th and 5^th form boys)
• Students are more likely to confide in a parent if there has been an incident involving a member of staff, but more likely to speak to a member of staff or friend if an incident has involved another student
• House staff – especially HMs – are the most likely staff that students turn to for help and support
• Feeling intimidated by larger groups of students (both boys and girls) was highlighted as something which made pupils feel more unsafe and the dining hall was also stressed as a source of anxiety, particularly the younger years

An action plan has been written and several pieces of work are already in progress; our works team have improved (and continue to improve) campus lighting in the areas that students highlighted as a concern and there is a working party looking at the dining hall space and safety along the Kilometre. Recognising that you – our parents – are often the main source of support to your young people, Steph has written a piece on building those positive and open relationships with your children. These are just a few of the many action points that we will look to work on over the coming months. More information can be found in the podcast (link given above) and some of the key statistics are listed below:

Safer Internet Day: Safer Internet Day (6th February) was also recognised at Wellington. Several students spoke to the whole school about what the day meant and how they could make a difference. As part of Safer Internet Day, the NSPCC launched this very helpful resource page for parents about how you can go about talking to your children about all online matters – Keeping Children Safe Online.

Parental Online Safety Group: The group met for the first time at the start of the Lent Term. Although disappointing that more interest was not shown from the parental body, the small number of parents who did meet discussed a variety of issues and it was exceptionally helpful to get feedback about experiences and provision. One parent mentioned how useful Qustodio was with regards monitoring and controlling social media use on mobile devices. This is something all parents should be aware of and this site offers some useful advice about all of the parental control apps that are available in 2024.

Mental Health: The Lower Sixth mental health ambassadors have had a busy term. The week beginning 5^th February was children’s mental health awareness week and the ambassadors spoke to raise awareness of this in whole school assembly, and, with the theme of “My Voice Matters”, organised karaoke evenings in houses. Two of the ambassador chairs spoke with the communications team to help raise awareness in the wider community – ‘Your Voice Matters’ this Children’s Mental Health Week – Wellington College. In addition, some of the ambassadors met with the parent mental health committee to talk about their role, and all ambassadors have continued running events in their houses to help the mental health and wellbeing of students.

Safeguarding Winner of the Term (Michaelmas 2023): We were delighted to award Emma Chatterton with the SWOT in December. Emma joined the safeguarding team to help with the training admin and did a remarkable job in transferring all of the training data to the SCR tracker system in order to make the process more efficient. Sadly Emma has recently left the team in order to concentrate on a different project, but she will have left an important legacy. Dee Varcoe now takes over this important role.

New policies and updates: One of the main Government Guidance documents, “Working Together to Safeguard children” was updated in December. Although it did not directly impact any policy changes in the College, all references to the guidance needed to be updated. The DfE is currently consulting on the draft guidance for ‘Gender Questioning Children’. The consultation is here. The College has had a Transgender Policy in place for several years now; in light of the draft guidance Naima Charlier has been amending the policy alongside the Safeguarding team and Katherine Baker (Director of Legal and Compliance). It is likely that the guidance will come into force on the 1^st September 2024.

The transfer of safeguarding information to new schools is becoming ever more complex and it is important that we get this right – passing on relevant information to help a student in a new setting but also being mindful that we need to think about GDPR and not share – inadvertently – any information about another pupil as part of those records. We therefore have a new ‘Transfer of Information’ policy to ensure that we get this right. Another internal safeguarding protocol that we have put into place this term is a ‘Referral Checklist’. There are some issues that we are duty-bound to report to external authorities and, again, it is important that we get this right, making the correct level of referral and to the relevant area of Children’s Social Care. Our new checklist will ensure that we are correct in our referral process and are supporting the young person involved and parents whilst also fulfilling our duty of care and statutory responsibilities.

Departmental Visits: The team have a cyclical programme of visits to various departments in the College. This year we are focussing on the ‘non-teaching’ side of the College. These departments (ranging from Admissions to Finance and Administration to Cleaning – and all of those in between) completed an audit prior to the meetings which looked at the culture in their teams and their current level of safeguarding engagement. Steph and Delyth have really enjoyed the visits – they have been insightful and informative and we hope to be able to support this incredibly important area of College life more in the future. Our non-teaching staff are not only the beating heart of the school but they are also our ‘safeguarding eyes and ears’ – all need to have a high sense of awareness with regards their responsibility in this area and it is a real privilege to work alongside so many gifted and committed people.

Cyber Security training: At the start of term, Tony Whelton (Director of IT) and Delyth delivered training to staff on this important area. Whilst also highlighting to staff how important their own actions are (defending against phishing attempts, using strong passwords, securing devices), Tony also cited the sorts of threats that are posed to Wellington’s IT network on a daily basis and how he and his team ensure that we are protected. Chesley Cole (online safety committee and teacher of IT) has also delivered two excellent talks this term to the Middle School on the same topic.

Safeguarding email themes:  All staff receive a weekly email which takes a deep dive into a particular area of safeguarding. Over the last few months, subject areas which have been covered include:

• Safeguarding adults
• Child Criminal Exploitation
• Communications and record keeping
• ‘What happens next?’ – after a disclosure or a referral
• Banter versus bullying in sport
• Confidentiality – what does this mean in safeguarding?

Wellington College and Eagle House – joint work

Courses: Continued professional learning is an area which is taken very seriously at Wellington. Not only do our safeguarding team have ongoing training in a variety of different areas (for example Steph Eyers is currently completing her SACPA Advanced Certificate in Safeguarding Practice, and Delyth is completing her NSPCC Accredited trainers assessment), but all staff complete both statutory and recommended safeguarding training over the year as well. We try and make these as relevant to Wellington as possible and in March, Delyth delivers VBA (Values, Behaviours and Attitudes) interview training to our international schools. This term, a new strand of EDI questions are also being trialled as part of the process. An accredited Lucy Faithfull Safer Recruitment trainer, she also delivers the first bespoke course to Eagle House and Wellington staff next term.

Transition work: The transition between schools can often be fraught with anxiety for both young people and parents. We were delighted that the extensive work that Wellington has put into this area was recognised when the Safeguarding team were awarded the ‘SACPA outstanding initiative award’ for their work in this area. The team are looking to work closely with Eagle House on this area over the next few months and also extend the work to new 6^th Form students as well.

Annual Audit: Always keen to improve and ensure that we are meeting the needs of our whole community, Wellington College and Eagle House will start their annual external safeguarding audit in the second half of the Lent Term. This year, we have chosen the safeguarding arm of the Boarding School’s Association to undertake this piece of work. Several staff from the BSA will be forensically analysing our policies and procedures, but also spending periods of time in school to ensure that they can feel the culture and look at the interactions between staff and students. As part of these visits, the students will be invited to see the auditors at various times: student voice is incredibly important. The audit is not about passing with flying colours or giving ourselves a pat on the back for all we do. It is designed to find holes and areas for improvement so that we can continue to strive for excellence in all we do.

 

What’s going on in safeguarding in the UK? A closer look at CTE

Earlier this term, the Telegraph published an article suggesting that rugby is a form of child abuse. Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a brain disorder likely caused by repeated head injuries and although first described 100 years ago, it continues to be a serious risk and is associated with high impact sports, such as boxing, American football and rugby. You can understand more about CTE in this YouTube clip. CTE has recently received media attention due to the growing number of lawsuits; the NFL has paid out almost 1 million pounds to former players suffering the effects of sport-induced brain trauma and high profile rugby players are now also taking legal action over brain injuries.

A recent paper (you can read it here) written by Jack Hardwicke has questioned whether it is right for children to participate in sports that intentionally feature impact, arguing that allowing under-18s to participate in high impact sports should be viewed as a form of child brain abuse. As you can imagine there are many sides to the debate; opponents of prohibiting children from playing high-impact sports argue that boys are naturally aggressive and heavy contact sport helps them to learn how to control their feelings. The NSPCC has said that physical neglect is a form of abuse that occurs if a child is not kept safe and allowing children to participate in sports whilst being unaware of the harm they can cause is “a failure to keep children safe.”

Wellington has a strong rugby tradition; many of the students who play (both boys and girls) love it and continue to play when they have left the School. It will be interesting to see how this debate continues as the Government Ministers are asked to privilege children’s brains over corporate sporting bodies.

You can watch a heated debate on Lunchtime Live at the beginning of February on this issue here.

‘Concussion – is rugby safe for kids?’ a Newsround report can be viewed here.

 

E-guarding – A guide for parents

Karl Hopwood podcast – the safeguarding team were lucky enough to be joined by Karl Hopwood at the end of last term. We looked into the current trends and patterns surrounding online safety and why it is incredibly hard to engage parents with this topic. You can listen to the podcast here.

Safer Internet Day resources – Childnet released this resource: ‘A conversation guide to talking about online issues with my child’ here. You can also read the research report which provided the basis for the Safer Internet Day theme here.

Cyber Choices programme – led by the National Crime Agency. The Cyber Choices programme is offering a series of webinars to parents with children aged 7 – 18 years old in order to help parents and guardians to understand: what computer misuse is, what the risks to young people are, to recognise some of the indicators that young people may be involved in committing cybercrimes, and how the Cyber Choices programme supports at-risk individuals. The registration links are below:

Feb 27^th 10am  

Feb 28^th 8pm

March 4^th 11am

March 4^th 8pm

Talking to girls – Parents are urged not to delay speaking to girls about online safety. You can read more here.

AI and children – The Children’s Commissioner for England has published a blog post on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the UK and the impact on children. The Commissioner raises concerns around potential risks that AI poses for child protection such as: cyberbullying and sexual harassment; generative child sexual abuse material; and impacts on children’s learning. Read the blog here.

Internet Watch Foundation TALK checklist – research done by the Internet Watch Foundation, shows that 1 in every 4 teens has received unwanted sexual messages online. Awareness of how to mitigate this issue is vital to securing the young people of tomorrow, and to help in that endeavour the Internet Watch Foundation has created a resource pack. You can access the resource here.

OfCom- How video-sharing platforms protect children from encountering harmful videos. This report looks at how social media platforms are protecting children from accessing potentially harmful videos.

Better Internet for Kids – this is an excellent resource page for parents and teachers. There are deep dives into topics such as sexting, online gaming and algorithms.

Teenagers and social media – how teenagers navigate the nuances of social media and what adults can learn from them. Read the article here.

Undressed – the Undressed song by the London Grid for Learning is designed to educate the youngest of children on what should and should not be done online. To find our more, click here.

Instagram and other social media checklists – Privacy is optional on Instagram, and there is a wide spectrum of privacy options. To understand these options better the Southwest Grid for Learning has published resources aimed at achieving this goal. Please click on the link to find out more.

What is doxing? A guide for parents. Find it here.

 

JOIN THE DEBATE… The Guardian is interested to hear views from UK parents about boys’ attitudes towards girls and what they believe is shaping them. You can share your experience here.

Read more about Wellington’s safeguarding team winning the Safeguarding Initiative Award for a second year running here.

 

A note from the Director of Safeguarding

A warm welcome to those who are reading this newsletter for the first time. If you are a new parent to Eagle House or Wellington College, I do hope that your first half term with us has been a good one. Unbelievably, I found myself starting my 25th year in teaching in September, and my 13th as Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL); over this time safeguarding has changed immeasurably. Back in 2010 safeguarding training consisted of informing staff about the four main areas of concern: neglect and physical, sexual and emotional abuse. Individuals were just not as familiar with exploitation, radicalisation or mental health issues and the infrastructure to support young people simply did not exist. Over a decade later and we see schools and safeguarding leads being much more highly trained to identify risks to children and a much higher active level of vigilance across all staff, with the emphasis being on “safeguarding being everyone’s business” and recognising that even if issues are not being reported, we should all maintain the view that they are still happening.

In September, a new area of responsibility (through KCSIE 2023) was added to the DSL’s portfolio – that of ensuring that the DfE’s Filtering and Monitoring standards are being met. Cue a crash course for this DSL in an area of online safety and that has traditionally been seen as the domain of the ‘IT department’. Both schools have long had robust and effective filtering and monitoring systems in place, however, we also need to ensure that our provision is being reviewed annually, that our filtering system blocks harmful and inappropriate content without impacting teaching and learning and that roles have been specifically assigned to individuals within the organisation to manage the systems. I have really enjoyed getting to grips with this new area over the first half of term and particularly bringing together the Safeguarding and IT departments to ensure that we are working together and that we all understand what each other’s needs are. Jess Goves and myself have been working through detailed audit forms which will form the basis of our whole school online risk assessment documents and, as with all things safeguarding, although it has felt a bit like a labour of love at times, it certainly means that the schools are in a better place as a result.

As parents, you are the DSLs in your homes and so my question to you all is what do you understand about this area of online safety and what filtering and monitoring systems have you set up at home? Do you have parental controls which can be activated at any time, or have you taken the route of assuming that ‘everything is ok’ and ‘this isn’t something we need to be worried about?’ There is an excellent UK Safer Internet guide here if you feel this might be an area you would like to understand more fully.

I speak frequently about safeguarding being the golden thread that runs through everything we do in a school; it needs to be embedded in every activity and at every level and part of the school community. You – our parents – are a crucial part of this ‘safeguarding family’. You will see and hear information which might concern you or that simply ‘niggles’ you. Please help us to build jigsaw puzzles and never worry about passing information to us that you think we ought to know. The short story about ‘Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody’ can be aptly to applied to safeguarding……

This is a story about four parents named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody. There was some important safeguarding information being discussed over a WhatsApp year group chat and Everybody was sure that Somebody would tell the School. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody’s job. Everybody thought that Anybody could do it, but Nobody realised that Everybody wouldn’t pass on the information. Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done and it ended up that the School didn’t know anything about it, and a young person didn’t get the help and support that they needed and were entitled to.

Stay safe,

Delyth

 

Introducing… Steph Eyers

Steph is our new Safeguarding Manager. Whilst she is based up at the College, she is working across both schools. Steph joined the group at the end of August.

Steph, tell us your story!

What feels like a million years ago, I started my career as a nanny for a family with three children. As they grew, rather than work for another family I started a job as a Family Support Worker in Children’s Centres and that is when I started to become more involved in safeguarding. Fast forward a few years and I took a role in a Primary school in Bracknell and spent the next 8 years working as a Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) and Family Support Advisor in schools. Most recently I have been working purely as a safeguarding lead in an independent secondary school and have been privileged to join the Safeguarding Team at Wellington College and Eagle House in August.

At home, I live with my husband, our two boys and our much loved cat, Bear.

Can you tell us a bit about what the role of Safeguarding Manager entails?

The role of Safeguarding Manger is so varied that it is quite hard to detail in a paragraph. When I talk to the students I say simply say, ‘my role solely exists to keep you safe, be that physical or mental safety’. In reality, I do that by being a part of the pastoral leadership team, acting as a point of contact for students, staff and parents for all thing safeguarding (this could be anything from ‘I received a nude’ to image to, ‘I am worried about my child’s wellbeing’ to ‘there’s members of the public where they are not supposed to be’). I also manage some of the safeguarding administration processes, such as ensuring all new staff have a safeguarding induction, monitoring internet filtering and monitoring, and support Delyth Lynch in her role as Director of Safeguarding and Jess Goves in her role of Deputy Head – Safeguarding.

What do you think your biggest challenge will be and how will you aim to overcome it?

Mastering the Wellingtonian and Eagle House language! Every school I have worked in has slightly different terms or acronyms they use for quite usual parts of school life (Grubbies is a good example of this!) I am pleased to say that having been here half a term, I am getting there (and have only turned up at the wrong place once!) Also… directions, I always carry a map.

What do you enjoy doing when you are not working?

I genuinely enjoy baking, I am no Mary Berry and you will not see me on Bake Off any time soon, but I do like the process, and spending time with my family.

Tell us one thing that no one at Wellington or Eagle House will knows about you.

I started a degree in Architecture before changing directions and the only thing I can remember from it is the difference between Corinthian, Ionic and Doric columns!

 

In the spotlight – The online context

TEENAGE FOCUS – by Steph Eyers

When we talk about safeguarding in schools, we will often talk about ‘contextual safeguarding’ and what we mean by that is understanding the needs of a student in terms of their specific place and space in society. This is quite a simple concept when with think of student in terms of their place within their family, community and friendship groups or the spaces they occupy, their homes, school, friend’s houses. It becomes more complex when we think about young people in the context of the online spaces they occupy.

As an adult population, who are responsible for the safety and wellbeing of these young people in these spaces, it is imperative that we take time to understand how and why they are using these spaces in the way they do. This, however, is no small task. As adults we may use the same apps or visit the same websites, but we will use them in different ways and therefore the algorithms that fill our feeds with content will be different to those of our students or children and therefore our experiences will not be the same.

We can also apply this to relationships and behaviour online. Many young people with have friends in the online space that we as parents may not have ever met, the young person may not have met that person ‘in real life’ either. This may feel like a completely alien concept to many of us, however it is the reality that our young people are living, and it does not mean that those relationships are any less valuable or less complex than those in the real world.

But how can we support our children to navigate this online world I hear you ask! Thankfully, many of the skills you already have as parents will be helpful here too. The single most important thing you can do is maintain an open and non-judgemental approach to talking about the online world with your children. This could mean being curious about what they are doing, asking them to teach you about the new app they are using, demonstrating that sometimes you get it wrong online too and when they do something that is less than ideal online be there to support them, not judge or criticise. If you feel uncertain about something, let them know and find out the answers together. The online context can seem overwhelming, however it also offers some amazing opportunities when explored in a safe and measured way and it is important to remember that for our young people.

If you would like any advice or support about the online context or anything else safeguarding related, please do contact a member of the safeguarding team, we would be delighted to support you or your child.

 

EYFS FOCUS – Written by Jane White (EYFS practitioner and DDSL)

What children in the Early Years are doing online

Children in the early years are extremely digitally savvy. Their use of digital devices is commonplace, with Apps like YouTube Kids becoming an App of choice for 72% of children aged 3 to 4 according to a recent Ofcom report.

Research has found that children are watching less TV and opting for video-on-demand content on video-sharing platforms to watch cartoons, short movies, nursery rhymes, and songs. However, unlike older children, only a small number of children aged 3 to 4 (23%) play online games.

The effect of device use on children’s development in the Early Years

Screen use can have benefits for children in the early years but brings challenges. Growing research has found that there are both positive and negative developmental outcomes.

Benefits of screen use include:

• opportunities to promote creativity and learning
• language development
• improvement of numeracy and literacy skills
• broader understanding of their world
• development of digital skills

Challenges of screen use include:

• ramifications on children’s ability to control their emotions
• displacement of activities that promote social interactions vital for development
• risk of exposure to inappropriate content

Screen time for children in the Early Years

In the UK, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health published guidance for parents and clinicians, suggesting ‘there are no ‘safe’ amounts of screen time.’ They state that the ‘right amount of screen use will vary between families.’

This outlook highlights the need to assess screen time limits based on the needs of each individual child whilst making certain sleep and social activities are not impacted negatively.

It is important to accept that the quality of what children “consume” will have the most impact. For example, encouraging children to watch or engage with content that helps them learn about the environment or using apps designed to help children stay active, are just some of the ways that screen time can help children thrive on and offline.

Therefore, the content and context of screen time becomes central to children getting the most out of their online use and it not becoming detrimental.

 Advice for using screens safely

As devices become more commonplace, here are some tips on how to help children use screens safely.

Things you can do to support children’s use of technology include:

• using device safety settings to ensure apps and content are age-appropriate
• monitoring and supporting children while they use devices

You should teach children about internet safety by:

• making them aware of what safe use of technology looks like
• choosing educational apps and platforms that help them to develop their skills
• having conversations about staying safe online

Stay informed about issues that young children face online through keeping up to date with news and research on internet safety.

 

What’s going on? An insight into the world of safeguarding at Wellington and Eagle House

Eagle House

This term has seen the establishment of a safeguarding team at Eagle House. We meet fortnightly to discuss any safeguarding concerns and trends which need addressing as well as discussing proactive steps we should be taking as a school to ensure our children are safe. It has been wonderful having Delyth Lynch and Steph Eyers join us for these meetings as it enables us to collaborate, learn from each other and share best practice across the two schools.

In the first few weeks of term Jess spoke to all children in both Years 1-4 and Years 5-8 assemblies about staying safe, how we keep them safe at school and who they can turn to when they are worried about themselves or others. One of the priorities this year is to ensure that all children have a trusted adult in the school community that they know they can speak to and be heard when they are worried, upset or have a concern.

The safeguarding team have conducted safeguarding learning walks across the site to speak to staff and pupils about safeguarding and to pick up on and address any safeguarding concerns in that specific area of the school.

Jess has spent the first half of term working with HR to ensure that all our consultants (those who provide activities, sports coaching and music lessons to our children) have had the correct employment checks and DBS checks. You will be pleased to hear that all these checks are complete. Parents will notice that these consultants now all wear an EH lanyard and photo ID badge.

Wellington College

Mental Health Gold!

We were delighted to receive confirmation that following reaccreditation, Wellington was re-awarded the Carnegie Centre of Excellence for Mental Health in Schools ‘School Mental Health Award’ – Gold​ Status. Across the 8 competencies, Wellington was assessed as ‘Excelling’ and the report highlighted Jenny Griggs’s superb leadership in this area as well as stating how much progress has been made in the area of student voice, provision and support for students and staff wellbeing.

What have the Values Champions been up to?

The Values Champions are now being led by Steph Eyers and were delighted to be joined by two new members this term – Tommy Morris (Security) and Nas Basra (Maths and Assistant HM of the Talbot). The last two months have been particularly busy as there have been a lot of new members of staff starting at the College, all of whom receive an induction about the values when they begin.

Safeguarding Winner of the Term (Summer 2023) – Louise Piper

You will all be aware that currently there are several building projects at the College. Any such project brings with it various safeguarding risks, not least having extra contractors on site. Louise is the College ‘Major Projects Manager’ and has been brilliant at ensuring that every contractor who comes on site has the relevant safeguarding paperwork checks and also alerting the safeguarding team to any issues. Louise also completes a large number of safeguarding risk assessments to ensure that everyone in our community remains safe – and safeguarded. Thank you Louise!

New VBA interviewers trained

At the beginning of October, 9 new VBA interviewers were trained. VBA interviews are an integral and important part of our recruitment process and it assesses whether the candidates values, behaviours and attitudes are in line with those of the College. Delyth was joined by co-trainers Ian Davis and Gaby Moretti-Chambers and over the two day training course the participants learned about the origins of the interview, its importance in the overall safeguarding culture within the College and a lot of interview practice! We are now lucky enough to have 59 trained interviewers within the College. Future plans include introducing this across our international schools as well as Eagle House.

New policies and updates

The start of a new year always heralds the arrival of policy updates and new policies. I would like to draw your attention to the rewritten Child-on-Child abuse policy (which incorporates anti-bullying) and also to the fact that three extra policies have now been included on the College website: Selection and Recruitment, Sexual Violence and Harassment and Online Safety. We have also tightened up our guidance around staff driving students in their own cars and now have a new policy which outlines the various expectations and guidance around this area.

Finally, we have been working on an information sharing document which clearly outlines what safeguarding information we transfer to a student’s new school. KCSIE 2023 requires all schools to transfer information within 5 days of a student having transferred. To make this process more efficient, we have devised a checklist and more efficient mechanism of doing this in the future.

New academic year training

A school population is highly transient which poses obvious challenges with regards safeguarding. September is an enormously busy time for the team, heading to all year group assemblies to highlight our roles, how we can help  and how students can contact us. A lot of very specific training is also undertaken by the students; for example all of those involved in external Global Citizenship programmes which might require a degree of safeguarding knowledge, training the House Mental Health Ambassadors and speaking to students who mentor pupils in our International Schools. Just after half term, we also delivered a series of talks to all year groups detailing a little more about what the safeguarding team do to dispel any myths. We did this via some case studies and scenarios which highlighted what might happen if they spoke to us about an incident or something which may have happened to them. Steph and Delyth are hoping to raise parental awareness about our role in a recorded podcast just before Christmas – watch this space…..

Keeping track of safeguarding training across all of the staff and volunteers at Wellington College is no mean feat. We were therefore delighted to join Emma Chatterton to the team in September. Emma now maintains the database of training and ensures that everyone’s training is up to date and the relevant paperwork and requirements have been completed.

Visit by the TES and speaking to the DfE

We welcomed two senior staff from the Times Educational Supplement – Dawn Jotham and Lauren Ainscough – earlier this term who were keen to speak to us about safeguarding e-learning and what worked for both teaching staff and DSLs. They really wanted to know how our knowledge of safeguarding could inform how they wrote and delivered their online courses to teachers across the world. The visit was highly informative and the team learnt a lot.

Delyth was also invited to speak to Cynthia Davies, the new Designated Safeguarding, Strategy and Learning Lead from the DfE Schools Group. New in post, Cynthia wanted to gain more knowledge about the ever-increasing demands on DSLs in schools. Delyth was able to represent the thoughts of DSLs across the Bracknell Forest Local Authority.

Wellington College and Eagle House – joint work

Governor Oversight

The Board of Governors now oversees both Eagle House and Wellington College. In October the Safeguarding and Pastoral Sub-Committee met to discuss several items including supervision and site security as well as the new safeguarding staffing structure across both of the schools. The Full Board also met in October. This meeting has an important safeguarding focus; it is the time that the full safeguarding report for the previous academic year is presented to the Governors and time is given to the Board to challenge the systems and structures in place. This year, they also received training in Filtering and Monitoring and Low Level concerns, with particular emphasis on how this aspect is a core tenet of safeguarding culture as a whole within an organisation.

Training all staff and volunteers

Safeguarding Leads throughout the UK spend a lot of time in September updating their staff and volunteers. Most notably this is updating everyone about the new Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) statutory guidance. The whole team has been involved in this process and also ensuring that all staff and volunteers have read and understood Part 1 of KCSIE. This year we linked the reading and quiz to the reading of the Acceptable Use of ICT policy, which was very successful.

Supervision

Supervision ensures that the safeguarding team are properly supported with their work. It not only helps us manage the complicated feelings that arise but also allows an external perspective to be brough to our work so that we can be challenged and not fall into various thinking traps and biases.

This year we are working with Talking Heads Supervision as our external supervision provider. We now have 13 Senior leaders across the two schools being supervised and we are excited about introducing supervision at Eagle House this term. Delyth Lynch, Tom Wayman and Sarah Mackenzie (HM Combermere) will be providing supervision for the Pastoral Year Heads and Safeguarding team.

 

What’s going on in safeguarding in the UK? What is Mandatory Reporting?

In October 2022, the final report of the Independent Inquiry in to Child Sexual Abuse was published. The report recommended that the UK and Welsh Governments introduce legislation placing certain individuals – ‘mandated reporters’ – under a statutory duty to report child sexual abuse in prescribed circumstances. The report also recommended that that it should be a criminal offence for mandated reporters to not report child sexual abuse when a child or perpetrator discloses it to them, or if they witness a child being sexually abused.

This area is particularly relevant to those of us working as staff or volunteers in schools because a mandated reporter would be:

• Any person working in regulated activity (this would include roles such as scout leaders and youth workers)
• Any person working in a position of trust (teachers, doctors, social workers, sports coaches, faith leaders)

Most people agree that mandatory reporting is essential and long overdue, with proponents arguing that it would offer greater protection to children. However, not as simple are the finer details for compliance and non-compliance and fears that it could create a ‘needle in the haystack’ effect and result in a tick box approach to child protection.

In May, the Government published a call for evidence on the proposed duty which was part of an extensive consultation to ensure that everyone’s views are represented ahead of implementing the new duty.  Safeguarding leads across the country were given the opportunity to comment on a variety of different aspects as well as major organisations such as the Boarding Schools’ Association and the Independent Schools Council. This call for evidence closed in August.

In November, the Government launched a consultation to set out proposals for creating a mandatory reporting duty. The consultation closes on the 30^th November and a paper summarising the responses will be published within 12 weeks.

What’s been on which is linked to safeguarding?

Each week, the safeguarding team sends out an email to staff which highlights a particular area of safeguarding including some questions to answer or scenarios to think about. There is also a ‘watch, listen and read’ section.  In the last newsletter, the team received many positive comments about the inclusion of this section. I am also adding some recent podcasts which have been included in the newsletter as well. Both can be good ways of engaging your children in a certain topic.

 

Theme	Programme / Podcast
Incels, cyber-stalking and rough sex	Laura Whitmore investigates, trilogy of programmes here.
Online safety podcast	‘Interface’ – the online safety podcast by SWGfL. This episode focusses on the importance of listening to the voices of young people. Listen here.
Children in care	The August documentary presented by Joe Swash explored the issue of teenagers in care. Watch here.
Eating disorders	Zara McDermott explores the reasons behind the record number of young people who are being treated for eating disorders. Watch here.The ‘Weigh Up’ is a series of podcast by Molly Smith, a recovering anorexia sufferer. You can listen here.
Boys and men in society	Richard Reeves speaks to Nicky Campbell about his new book which explores the male malaise. Listen here.
Cybersecurity	File on 4 – Held to Ransom – Listen here.
Sexual assault	Gaia: A death on Dancing Ledge. Watch here.
Domestic abuse	SafeLives shines a spotlight on the impact that domestic abuse can have on young people. Watch here.
Dealing with Autism	Footballer Pat Nevin discusses life as a parent to an autistic child. Listen here.

 

If you have seen or listened to something which you would like to share with the safeguarding team, please do email Jess Goves.

 

E-guarding – A guide for parents

 This term Eagle House is introducing an Online Safety team in order to ensure that our online safety education provision for pupils, staff and parents is the best it can be.

Parents – If you are interested in online safety and have any ideas about what parents would like to know in this area then please contact Jess Goves with your ideas.

Online Safety guidance – there is so much out there for parents about online safety, and so we have collated this useful set of resources for you. We hope you find them useful.

Common Sense Media – set up with the aim to ‘build a digital world where kids can thrive’, this site provides really interesting information for parents based on research. It is the US’s leading nonprofit organisation dedicated to improving the lives of children by providing trustworthy information around all areas of the media. Including articles on ‘how to talk to your teen about sexting’ through to advice on what you can do if your child has seen pornography accidentally online, it is well worth a look here.

National Online Safety Platform for parents – as we know, the online world is posing an ever-increasing risk to children and it is important that schools, parents and carers work together to take an active role in educating young people about online dangers. We all need to know how children can act safely when online: it is an incredibly important part of safeguarding our children. We have been working with National Online Safety for the past year in order to provide resources to you all. To create your account, please follow https://nationalonlinesafety.com/enrol/wellington-college and complete your details. When you’re set up, you’ll be able to set ‘Parent/Carer’ as your user type.

‘What you do you need to know?’ guides

The top three social media sites for young people are Snapchat, Instagram and TikTok. What do you know about them? Here are three very helpful guides for parents:

• Snapchat
• Instagram
• TikTok

Social media and primary aged children – read about Cardiff University’s research here.

ParentZone – has a wide variety of different resources and their Tech Shock podcast is also highly informative. Their website is here. You can also read about this year’s ‘Be Internet Legends Day’ which takes place on the 28^th November.

UK Chief Medical Officers’ advice for parents and carers on screen and social media use – originally published in 2019, this is a useful reminder for everyone!