The school is fully committed to supporting the well-being of its students, staff and parents. In order to encourage a supportive well-being culture, we have a wide ranging and comprehensive mental health provision in place. This includes the following:
Safeguarding
Safeguarding is defined as protecting children from maltreatment, preventing impairment of health and/or development, ensuring that children grow up in the provision of safe and effective care and taking action to enable all children to have the best outcomes.
Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is everyone’s responsibility. Everyone who comes into contact with children and families has a role to play. In order to fulfil this responsibility effectively, all professionals should make sure their approach is child centred. This means that they should consider, at all times, what is in the best interests of the child. If children and families are to receive the right help at the right time, everyone who comes into contact with them has a role to play in identifying concerns, sharing information and taking prompt action. If you have any concerns in regards to safeguarding, please e-mail and someone will get back to you as soon as possible.
In delivering safeguarding duties we will:
- provide a caring, positive, safe and stimulating environment that promotes the social, physical and moral development of the individual child;
- identify concerns early and prevent concerns from escalating;
- establish and maintain a culture where children feel respected, secure and are encouraged to talk and are listened to when they have a worry or concern;
- establish and maintain an environment where school staff and volunteers feel well informed about safeguarding and child protection and are listened to when they have concerns about the safety and well-being of a child;
- ensure children know that there are adults in school whom they can approach if worried and that these adults will take action to deal with what worries them;
- ensure that children who have unmet needs are supported appropriately. This could include a referral to early help services or specialist services if they are a child in need or have been/are at risk of being abused/neglected;
- where there is a safeguarding concern, take the child’s wishes and feelings into account when determining what action to take and what services to provide and ensure that there are systems in place for children to express their views and give feedback;
- when concerned about the welfare of a child, always act in the best interests of the child;
- work with parents to build an understanding of the school’s responsibilities for the welfare of all children, including the need for referrals to other agencies in some situations;
- Include opportunities across the curriculum, including within IT for children to be taught about safeguarding and develop the skills they need to recognise danger, protect themselves from risks and stay safe from abuse; maintain an attitude of “it could happen here” where safeguarding is concerned;
- ensure that staff feel able to raise concerns about poor or unsafe practice and potential failures in the school’s safeguarding procedures and are familiar with the appropriate whistleblowing procedures;
- maintain a culture of continuous improvement with regard to safeguarding and child protection arrangements.
Support Provisions
The school is fully committed to supporting the well-being of its students, staff and parents. In order to encourage a supportive well-being culture, we have a wide ranging and comprehensive mental Health and Wellbeing support provisions in place. This includes the following:
Wellbeing Hub (Safeguarding Team) |
A space for students to drop in at break and lunch times to talk to a member of the safeguarding team about anything that worries them. | |||
Buddy Programme (Assistant Head – Ethos) |
A system of buddying between students in the sixth form and younger students from Years 7 and 8. Sixth form buddies are trained to work with vulnerable students and can support them with a range of issues, particularly with the transition of primary to secondary school. This support may also include academic help and support with friendship building. | |||
Mentoring (School Mentor) |
Trained mentor to help students with less complex mental health needs, providing them with additional support in school for those who may be struggling with low self-esteem, family issues or high levels of anxiety. Mentoring may also provide behaviour strategies for those students who are struggling to meet the expected standard of behaviour. Typical Duration: 6-8 weeks Session length: 30 minutes |
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Mentoring (Switch Futures Programme – Lillian Mora) |
A programme which focuses on coping with transition and life-changing events that affect long-term mental health and life choices and provide early-intervention. This programme includes positive activities, community and youth groups. Typical Duration: 2-3 terms Session length: 30 minutes |
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Counselling
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Qualified counsellors will work with students who are most at risk, typically those who have experienced trauma, present with suicidal ideation or self-harm. They can also support students dealing with anxiety, depression, loss and difficult family/peer relationships.
There can be close contact between our counsellors and wider mental health services such as CAMHS, with the potential to liaise or refer cases where appropriate. The counselling model integrates talking therapy alongside creative, play and art-based approaches, especially in cases where there is early developmental trauma. Typical Duration: 6 weeks minimum up to 12 weeks maximum |
Mental Health and Wellbeing (including Physical Wellbeing)
At King Solomon High School, we aim to promote positive mental health and wellbeing for our whole school community (children, staff, parents and carers), and recognise how important mental health and emotional wellbeing is to our lives in just the same way as physical health. We recognise that children’s mental health is a crucial factor in their overall wellbeing and can affect their learning and achievement. All children go through ups and downs during their school career and some face significant life events.
The Department for Education (DfE) recognises that: “in order to help their children succeed; schools have a role to play in supporting them to be resilient and mentally healthy”. Schools can be a place for children and young people to experience a nurturing and supportive environment that has the potential to develop self-esteem and give positive experiences for overcoming adversity and building resilience. For some, school will be a place of respite from difficult home lives and offer positive role models and relationships, which are critical in promoting children’s wellbeing and can help create a sense of belonging and community.
Our role in school is to ensure that children are able to manage times of change and stress, and that they are supported to reach their potential or access help when they need it. We also have a role to ensure that children learn about what they can do to maintain positive mental health, what affects their mental health, how they can help reduce the stigma surrounding mental health issues, and where they can go if they need help and support.
Our aim is to help develop the protective factors which build resilience to mental health problems and to be a school where:
- All children are valued and know that they are all unique.
- Children have a sense of belonging and feel safe.
- Children feel able to talk openly with trusted adults about their problems without feeling any stigma.
- Positive mental health is promoted and valued.
We offer different levels of support:
Universal Support – To meet the needs of all our pupils through our overall ethos and our wider curriculum. For example, developing resilience for all.
Additional support – For those who may have short term needs and those who may have been made vulnerable by life experiences such as bereavement.
Targeted support – For pupils who need more differentiated support and resources or specific targeted interventions such as wellbeing groups or personal mentors
Please look at the Support Provisions tab to read what is available at King Solomon High School and please refer to the PDF documents below from mind.org regarding additional information linked to Mental health and Wellbeing.
How to cope when supporting someone else
How to deal with anger
How to manage stress
The Mind guide to seeking help for a mental health problem
Understanding anxiety
Understanding depression
Understanding eating problems
Understanding mental health problems
Understanding Self-harm
Prevent Statement
On 1st July 2015 the Prevent duty (section 26) of The Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 came into force. This duty places the responsibility on local authorities and schools to have due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism.
King Solomon High School is fully committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all its students. As a school we recognise that safeguarding against radicalisation is as important as safeguarding against any other vulnerability.
All staff are expected to uphold and promote the fundamental principles of British values, including democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect, and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs. We believe that children should be given the opportunity to explore diversity and understand Britain as a multi-cultural society; everyone should be treated with respect whatever their race, gender, sexuality, religious belief, special need, or disability.
As part of our commitment to safeguarding and child protection we fully support the government’s Prevent Strategy.
Operation Encompass
King Solomon High School has been given the opportunity to take part in a project that will run jointly between all schools, academies and colleges.
This project, “Operation Encompass”, has been designed to provide early reporting to schools of any domestic incidents that occur outside of normal school hours and that might have had an impact on a child attending our premises the following day. This information will be shared at the earliest opportunity between Monday to Thursday and, when an incident occurs on a Friday, Saturday or a Sunday, the police will contact us the following Monday.
Our Designated Safeguarding Lead, will be able to use information that has been shared with them, in confidence, to ensure that our school is able to make provision for possible difficulties experienced by children or their families. Information will be shared where it is identified that a child or young person was present, witnessed or was involved in a domestic abuse incident.
We are keen to offer the best support possible to all our children and we believe this is initiative is going to be extremely beneficial and supportive for all those involved.
Online Safety
Online Safety Advice for Parents and Students
The internet is an amazing resource if used properly. If not, it can be a minefield. As a parent, it is very difficult to stay on top of social media, apps, online gaming, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Snap Chat and the latest online crazes. More importantly, do you know what your child is doing on line? Do you know who they are talking to? Do you know what they are posting? Do you know how to take control and so ensure your child’s online safety? The following tips will help you to keep your child safe online.
If you are concerned with your child’s online safety please contact our Safeguarding Team on or your child’s Head of Year for support.
Safeguarding from harmful influences online advice can be found here
Online Safety Factsheets on the following can be found by clicking on the relevant name: