Safeguarding across the curriculum

Safeguarding is at the heart of everything we do at Warren Academy and great importance is placed on identifying opportunities in the taught curriculum for children to learn about safeguarding.

Our safeguarding curriculum is designed to educate our pupils about how to stay safe and protect themselves from the risks and dangers which they may face. Year group safeguarding curriculum overviews are carefully designed, to meet the needs of each cohort. These take into account the age group, cultural context, and the specific needs or challenges that are identified through our vulnerability index.

The key areas covered include:

On-line safety

• Teaching the children about how to be safe online, such as: using social media, the importance of not giving out personal information, not talking to people that they do not know in real life and what to do if anything makes them feel uncomfortable.
• Explicitly teaching the risks associated with internet use, for example: cyber bullying and accessing inappropriate content.

Mental health and Well-being

•  This is addressed by our PSHE curriculum using Jigsaw as a basis. This connects the pieces of Personal, Social, Health and Well-Being Education with a block of lessons specifically focusing on Mental Health for each year group. The programme teaches children emotional literacy, social- and lifelong skills, RSE/RSHE and resilience in an age-appropriate manner.
• Warren Academy is a Mental Health Support Team School (MHST). This has been developed to increase earlier access to support with mental health and wellbeing. The MHST is based in school one day a week to help children access support and help to increase a whole school approach to mental health wellbeing.

Abuse prevention (with a focus on positive relationships)

• Teaching the children about the need for love, trust and respect within relationships.
• Teaching the children about how they should seek help, if something makes them feel uncomfortable or upset.

Children also benefit from a NSPCC ‘Speak out to Stay Safe’ Assembly and sessions. Helping pupils to understand:

• Abuse in all its forms and how to recognised the signs of abuse.
• That abuse is never a child’s fault and they have the right to be safe.
• Where to get help and the sources of help available to them.

Personal Safety

• Teaching the children about personal space and how to ensure that we are respecting the space of others.
• At an age appropriate level, teach the children how to recognise and respond to unsafe situations.
• Ensure all children know who their trusted adults are.

In addition to our safeguarding curriculum, we also ensure that robust safeguarding procedures, displays around the academy and training are of the highest standard and support the school to ensure that staff remain vigilant and have the opinion that ‘it could happen here’.

March 2025