Safeguarding and Support

Safeguarding Arrangements

Thomas Keble School staff are trained annually at the start of September to cater for changes in key guidance and policy with respect to Safeguarding. Strategic safeguarding updates are delivered through briefings, emails and CPD sessions to maintain awareness of safeguarding issues. Safer recruitment practices are followed when recruiting to posts. Thomas Keble School has 5 DDSL's, thereby mitigating for any absence of key safeguarding staff. Safeguarding concerns are raised through the digital safeguarding platform "CPOMS". These concerns are flagged automatically to the DSL and Deputies for action in ‘real time’. Any paper based Safeguarding Logs for a child are stored in a pupil safeguarding file in a locked cabinet in the DSL's office.

Pastoral Support

As a school we believe that Pastoral support underpins the whole school community.  Ensuring that every child matters and is valued is a focus for the school through the house system.  This is vital to ensure that every child can access a quality education. Our Pastoral Support structure:

• Tutors (daily contact and parent/carer first point of contact).
• Heads of Year (support to Tutors and parent/carer second point of contact).
• Student Services(Support to Tutors and Heads of Year and direct work with students).
• The Senior Management Team (Support to staff and students).

If you are concerned about any aspect of your child’s education or wellbeing, please do not hesitate to contact us so that we can support you via studentsupport@thomaskeble.gloucs.sch.uk

Early Help

From time to time, families need additional support and advice; at Thomas Keble School we aim to provide the support needed where we can, recognising that we take an approach but are not a service provider. We also recognise that on occasion more specific support is required. We are committed to offering early help and will provide support and guidance to ensure children and young people remain safe.

Good early help means local agencies working together to:

• Identify children and families who would benefit from early help;
• Assess the need for early help;
• Provide targeted early help support to address the assessed needs of a child and their family focusing on things that will make things better for the child;
• We will sign post other agencies or support referrals where appropriate.

Our offer of Early Help respects every family’s right to access information to help manage their own lives successfully, whilst guiding them to seek support from appropriate sources. Help can then be agreed as soon as concerns start to emerge. The ‘Offer’ is for all children, as issues may arise at any point in a child or young person’s life. It includes both universal and targeted /specialist services, to reduce or prevent concerns from growing or becoming entrenched.

The school will always involve the family in all Early Help strategies and most will only be put in place with their permission. The school will aim to work with families in a supportive, non-judgemental way so that trust is built up and the best possible outcomes achieved.

It is more effective to provide early help when problems first arise than to intervene later (DfE, 2018; EIF, 2021). Early intervention can also prevent further problems from developing (DfE, 2018)