Safeguarding

At Sir John Thursby we have adopted the Ethos – Belong, Believe and Achieve.

Within all aspects of school life we value our students and their families and want to ensure that they are the happiest and most successful of students.

Our Climate for Learning protocols have 3 main aims – for students to be Ready to learn, Respectful of themselves and of others and Safe.

As a result of these values and beliefs, Safeguarding is a priority throughout the school.

Our recent Ofsted report (April 2023) says:

"Pupils feel safe in school. They appreciate the support that they receive for their well-being."

"The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. Leaders make sure that staff receive regular training to refresh, enhance and update their knowledge of safeguarding. There are robust systems in place for staff to report concerns about pupils. "

"Leaders deal with concerns about pupils’ welfare and safety in a timely manner. "

"Leaders work with a range of agencies and the local authority to provide early help and enhanced support where needed. Pupils know that they can talk to a range of adults if they have a concern. They know how to keep themselves safe in school and when online."

Safeguarding is at the heart of everything that we do – from staff training to student education and referrals to outside agencies. We aim to ensure that every student who attends Sir John Thursby is safe both in school, at home and in the community.

Please refer to the following documents linked to safeguarding our students for key information and advice:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/keeping-children-safe-in-education--2

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-safeguard-children--2

Another focus within the safeguarding team is to protect our students from violent and extremist activity, including grooming and exploitation. We work closely with the Lancashire PREVENT team to train staff and work with students to ensure their safety. All staff complete training to ensure that their knowledge on the PREVENT strategy is up to date.

Please refer to the following documents linked to radicalisation, PREVENT and extremism

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/counter-terrorism-and-security-bill

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/protecting-children-from-radicalisation-the-prevent-duty

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/channel-vulnerability-assessment

As a result of our desire to keep our students safe and also support the wider family should the need arise; at Sir John Thursby we have 5 staff trained to the standard of a Designated Safeguarding Lead.

Mrs N. Tregay – DSL and Assistant Headteacher of Inclusion
Mrs K. Tempest – Deputy DSL and Family Support Manager
Mrs L. Tibbs – Deputy DSL and Deputy Headteacher
Mr R. Browning – Deputy DSL and Headteacher
Mr M Smith - Deputy DSL and Assistant Headteacher

Additionally, our Heads of Year and Assistant Heads of Year have received advanced Safeguarding training to Level 3 and our HLTA Leading Alternative Provision has Safeguarding training to the standard of a Designated Safeguarding Lead.

We are a school registered for the Encompass programme, which means that we work closely with the police and receive alerts should any of our students have experienced any form of domestic abuse or domestic violence, been witness to it, or if a concern has been raised regarding a student being exploited. This allows us to be proactive in supporting our students and where necessary the wider family.

We also work closely with numerous external agencies to ensure students safety. Examples of agencies we work closely with are:

Child Family and Wellbeing Service
Multi – Agency Safeguarding Hub
Lancashire Inclusion Hub
PREVENT
ELCAS
Virgin Care – School Nursing Team
Burnley in the Community
We are with you
Emergency Essentials Fund
Northern Community Network

We also complete referrals for hardship funds to ensure that our families are provided with the basic equipment to create a safe and appropriate family home environment.

Our focus on safeguarding extends to supporting the Emotional health and wellbeing of our students and we commission a counsellor from Child Action Northwest for 2 days per week to work with our students, alongside our Mental and Emotional Health Support worker who is based on site 5 days per week.

Should you have any concerns relating to the Safeguarding of our students or you feel your family would benefit from the support mentioned on this page, please contact

Mrs Tregay or Mrs Tempest on (01282) 682313.

If you have an immediate concern regarding the safety of a child or young person please call either 999 for immediate police intervention or the Safeguarding advice line on 0300 123 6720 during the working day or 0300 123 6722 for their out of hours service.

We have listed below two booklets on Safeguarding and Information for parents/carers and students, click on the links to view the booklets.

Safeguarding Information - Parent & Carer Booklet

Safeguarding - Student Booklet

Guide to talking to young people about online harassment and the pressures of growing up online.