Safeguarding
At Burntwood School, the wellbeing and the safety of young people in our care is of the utmost importance. We recognise our duty to ensure arrangements are in place for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children.
As per our safeguarding policy, we share information and work in partnership with other agencies when there are concerns about a young person’s welfare. We will ensure that our concerns about our students are discussed with their parents/carers first, unless we have reason to believe that such a move would be contrary to the young person’s welfare.
We liaise with an extensive network of agencies that can offer support to any young person and their family. Advice is also available for families who may need further support.
If you are worried about a student at our school during term time, please email safeguarding@burntwoodschool.com or contact the school (020 8946 6201) and ask to speak to a member of the safeguarding team.
The Safeguarding Team
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Maja Zafirovska Designated Member of Staff for Safeguarding
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Stefan Viggiani Deputy Designated Member of Staff for Safeguarding
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Joanna Weitz Safeguarding
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Reporting Concerns Anonymously
We also understand that there may be occasions where you have information that you would like to share with us, perhaps arising from discussions with your child about their experiences at school, but that you feel uncomfortable passing on. We have, therefore, set up the Burntwood School - Reporting Concerns Anonymously form, which is an anonymous reporting facility where you can share information that you think may be useful to us, but where you would prefer not to be identified.
We are committed to ensuring that all children with additional needs are identified early, referred to appropriate services and monitored through effective information sharing between agencies and professionals.
If you are worried that a child/young person is at risk harm or abuse, you can also report this directly to children’s social services, you can do this directly contact:
Wandsworth’s Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH)
Or if the child does not live in Wandsworth, please see below the links to our neighbouring local authorities:
Students Reporting Concerns
We actively encourage our pupils to talk to us if they are worried about themselves or someone else or want to report an incident.
We have created a Safeguarding Poster that makes it clear how to report and what the process may then be. We promote this in Tutor Time and assemblies and it is displayed in every classroom.
Emotional Wellbeing & Mental Health
At Burntwood School, School we understand that Emotional Wellbeing. We are proud of the excellent support structures we have in place to raise awareness of mental health, wellbeing and staying safe and to respond to issues as they arise. Students have guided support in Registration and in assemblies; the curriculum content in PSHCRE; from trained staff in our Learning Support and Pathway Centres. Burntwood also offers the very best links with outside agencies and professionals.
The resources below are designed to give parents some guidance as to the resources available if you are concerned about your daughter or son’s emotion wellbeing
Please contact your child’s Form Tutor in the first instance if you are worried about your child.
Resources
- Young Minds - the UK’s leading charity fighting for children and young people's mental health
- The Anna Freud Centre - a child mental health research, training and treatment centre
- NSPCC - the UK's leading children’s charity
- Kooth - Free and anonymous advice for young people
A Local Guide to Children’s Mental Health
- Wandsworth Offer of Mental Health services for Children
- Lambeth Offer of Mental Health services for Children
- Merton Uplift
Mental Health
Sometimes children suffer from a mental health crisis that requires an urgent response and/or more specialist intervention. We always advise that if you are worried about your child’s mental health to seek support from your GP in the first instance but please also let us know what your concerns are too. Your GP may refer your child to CAMHS (Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services) or signpost to other organisations.
E-Safety
There are many useful resources on the internet for parents:
'Internet Matters' has good quality information, guidance and advice for keeping children safe online:
Internet MattersOf particular use is the following section which describes apps and websites, their usage and potential problems:
Internet Matters - Social networking and messaging appsThe NSPCC has a useful section to help parents talk to their children about internet safety:
Please remember there are some simple, basic steps you can take to supporting your children online at home:
Be curious – What Apps are they spending most of their time on? What content are they watching? Who are they talking to/gaming with? Investigate the device they access the internet on, in almost every case this will have some form of parental controls that can be enabled.
Digital Health - Tech-free mealtimes and don’t have technology in the bedroom overnight.
Digital Hygiene – What is their presence on the internet? Are their photos discoverable by strangers on internet searches or app searches? Do they understand that anything they post online is no longer under their control?
Resist pester power – The recommended age on the app store is often lower that the suggested minimum age of the app itself; for example WhatsApp should not be used by anyone under the age of 16. While it might be hard, experience shows that young people are more likely to get into a problematic situation in an app that is not designed for them.
Stay Calm – The internet is like any other tool, with huge potential but also some safety considerations.
Online Sexual Abuse
If you are worried that a child is being abused online they, or you can report it to CEOP (Child Exploitation and Online Protection command), which is a law enforcement agency designed to keep children and young people safe from sexual exploitation and abuse.