Safeguarding and Child Protection
What is safeguarding?
Safeguarding children is defined in Working Together to Safeguard Children as:
- providing help and support to meet the needs of children as soon as problems emerge
- protecting children from maltreatment, whether that is within or outside the home, including online
- preventing impairment of children’s mental and physical health or development
- ensuring that children grow up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care
- promoting the upbringing of children with their birth parents, or otherwise their family network through a kinship care arrangement, whenever possible and where this is in the best interests of the children
- taking action to enable all children to have the best outcomes in line with the outcomes set out in the Children’s Social Care National Framework.
Safeguarding children and child protection guidance and legislation applies to all children up to the age of 18.
What is Child Protection?
As per the Working Together to Safeguard Children guidance, child protection is defined as part of safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and is defined for the purpose of this guidance as activity that is undertaken to protect specific children who are suspected to be suffering, or likely to suffer, significant harm. This includes harm that occurs inside or outside the home, including online.
Our vision & safeguarding aims
Our vision is that every child in every school in our trust:
- Loves learning, achieves their very best, has fun at school and feels excited about the future
- Know how to make friends and get along well with people; to treat them with fairness, compassion and respect
- Grows healthy and strong, believes in themselves and had the confidence and resilience to follow their dreams
- Feels part of their community, proud of their school and inspired to make a positive difference in the world.
Safeguarding aims
Every LETTA Trust school aims to ensure that its pupils are safe and happy. As such we fully recognise our child protection duty to ensure that:
- We take swift and appropriate action to safeguard and promote children’s welfare
- Staff are fully aware of their statutory responsibilities in respect to safeguarding and are well trained in recognising and reporting safeguarding concerns
- Our pupils are well equipped with the skills needed to keep themselves safe
- We provide a safe environment in which children can learn and develop
Safeguarding at Hermitage
At Hermitage we are committed to providing a safe and secure environment for children, staff and visitors and to promoting a culture in which everyone feels confident about sharing any and all concerns they may have about their own safety and well-being or the safety and well-being of others.
Hermitage Safeguarding Team
At Hermitage, we are all committed and have a role in safeguarding. We also have a dedicated team that has specific responsibilities and leads safeguarding at the school.
Akua Dankwa
Assistant headteacher and Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL)
Max Lawson
Interim headteacher and deputy DSL
Rachel
Assistant headteacher and deputy DSL
Tracey
Learning mentor and deputy DSL
Shorif
Parental engagement & attendance lead and Deputy DSL
Timur Wolf
Designated safeguarding governor
If you have a concern about a child’s welfare, please speak to Akua, the DSL or Max, the interim headteacher and deputy DSL. You can reach a member of the safeguarding team by calling the school on 0207 702 1037 or emailing us:
If you have an urgent concern, please contact the police or the Tower Hamlets Safeguarding service:
Online Safety
At Hermitage we are committed to giving children a well balanced and broad curriculum -this will include the use of computers, tablets and the internet.
Hermitage has a fully supported firewall from LGFL which ensures the safety of students and staff online, and the network safe from ever increasing cyber-attack.
We work in close partnership with parents and guardians to set and convey the importance of using the technology, online platforms, information sources and media safely. Pupils could potentially have unfiltered, unsupervised internet access at home.
We organise on a regular basis internet safety training for parents, to ensure they are aware of the benefits and concerns of school internet use.
All parents are expected to sign an Acceptable Usage Policy so they understand what constitutes acceptable behaviour.
All pupils are responsible for appropriate behaviour when using the school computer network. In-school internet use is monitored by adults.
Children have internet safety training at the beginning of the year and PHSE lessons that build their knowledge of how to be safe when online.
Computing lessons emphasise the importance of safer use of ICT each term.
