At The Crossley Heath School we adopt a whole school approach to safeguarding and this is achieved through our policies and processes in order to operate with the best interests of the child at heart. We encourage all staff to use their professional curiosity and to always be critical with what they see and hear. The school follows guidance and protocols outlined by Calderdale’s Safeguarding Board. Our school is a safe space for all students.

The school takes a zero-tolerance approach to all reported incidents of Child on Child abuse, sexual violence and/or sexual harassment and we never accept behaviour as ‘just banter’ or ‘boys being boys’ for example. We do not accept derogatory language and although we are academically selective, we are culturally inclusive. Our school value of ‘Respect’ is central to our approach. Child on Child abuse can be defined as any form of physical, sexual, emotional and financial abuse, and coercive control, exercised between children and within children’s relationships (both intimate and non-intimate). Online child on child abuse is any form of child on child abuse with a digital element, for example, sexting, online abuse, coercion and exploitation, peer-on-peer grooming, threatening language delivered via online means, distribution of sexualised content and harassment. Further guidance on Youth Produced Sexual Imagery can be found here

All adults in school are trusted adults and we ensure that staff receive regular training to keep them updated on safeguarding developments. We have high aspirations in that all members of the pastoral team are regularly attending additional training courses to further increase their knowledge and expertise to support our pupils and the intention is for all pastoral team members to be trained to the level of Designated Safeguarding Lead.

We have a robust procedure which staff use to raise safeguarding concerns and we foster positive working relationships with parents and carers to ensure pupils receive the appropriate support as soon as they need it.

We heavily invest in listening to the views of all of our pupils, they have a true voice in our school. Student’s can report concerns via ‘are you worried about something’ button on our website or in person to a trusted member of staff.

To further support the pastoral needs of our pupils we also heavily invest MHWB support working closely with Openminds and Noahs Ark to provide counselling to students should they need.

If this a matter which would involve ‘PREVENT against extremism’ please refer to our webpage for support.

Child Protection and Safeguarding policy

In addition you may find the following documents useful:

Keeping Children Safe in Education
Guidance for adults around cyber bullying
E-safety information for parents

Parents/Carers/Adults can refer any safeguarding issue directly to MAST should they have any concerns over a child’s safety outside of school.

http://search3.openobjects.com/kb5/calderdale/fsd/service.page?id=gjTedht3k1w

Additionally, advice can be sought and abuse reported via the NSPCC: https://www.nspcc.org.uk