Safeguarding and Child Protection in Schools A Guide for Schools (Updated June 2022)
Key Principles of Safeguarding and Child Protection
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Safeguarding begins with preventative education and activities which enable children and young people to grow up safely and securely in circumstances where their development and wellbeing is promoted.
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Safeguarding/Child Protection arrangements should be accessible in the school and understood by children so that they know what to do and who to go to.
Preventative Curriculum
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The curriculum also offers a medium to explore sensitive issues with children and young people in an age-appropriate way which helps them to develop appropriate protective behaviours.
In recent years, the use of “keeping safe messages” and the term “preventative curriculum” have become more widely used to denote the proactive promotion of positive emotional health and wellbeing of pupils within and across the broader school community.
This is achieved by raising awareness of social, emotional, and health issues, developing the confidence, resiliencies and coping skills of pupils, and in offering early intervention when pupils are experiencing certain difficulties.
Schools are well-placed to teach pupils how to develop healthy relationships, and to make informed choices in their lives so that they can protect themselves.
The ETI report ‘An evaluation of preventative education and the statutory curriculum to inform the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Exploitation’ published in September 2014 found that the schools with the most effective provision are proactive in identifying local issues and promote a preventative curriculum to build the confidence, self-esteem, and personal resiliencies of children so that they can develop coping strategies and can make more positive choices in a range of situations.