We are delighted to announce that Dormers Wells High School has been awarded the Platinum Incyte International Excellence in Safeguarding Award.
A safeguarding audit was recently carried out by Incyte Educational Consultancy, to review the impact of our procedures and the actions taken by leaders to ensure that children are safe in school. Incyte have concluded that safeguarding is the “golden thread” throughout the school and that it “was a pleasure to see how you have made safeguarding the beating heart of your school to enable great learning opportunities.”
Ms R Walsh, Headteacher of Dormers Wells High School commented “We are very pleased to have received the platinum safeguarding award. This award reflects our commitment to promoting a culture of safety, implementing effective safeguarding measures, and contributing to the overall welfare of our community. As the report states safeguarding is the “golden thread” throughout our school. It is part of everything we do and as a result, the school has “created a remarkable safeguarding culture”.”
Safeguarding audit summary from Incyte International:
“School leaders have developed an exemplary safeguarding culture that is child and community centred. Highly efficient and tenacious leadership of safeguarding is characterised by remarkable teamwork and multi-agency approaches to safeguarding. Safeguarding and associated policies are compliant, and effectively implemented. Students feel safe and are confident to report any issues or concerns. Their views are frequently sought to ensure that their contributions inform and shape the school’s safeguarding arrangements. Effective staff training has a huge impact on the staff’s indepth understanding of safeguarding. Staff make a valuable contribution to creating the school’s safeguarding culture and staff recognise the high complexity of needs of their school population and their families. The DSL has been extremely successful in creating impactful community and charity links that are able to support families. For example, The Felix Project, as part of the wider keeping young people safe in the community. Moreover, the DSL has created a professional network around the school, which assists students and their families with getting help when needed. For example, prominently displayed Circle (Crisis Intervention for Children and Young People) leaflets give information about a local hub/cafe space that offers support for young people in Ealing with their mental health. Moreover, the school leaders are currently actively pursuing finance to build a similar hub on the school premises that would provide a more enhanced and less clinical setting for a similar purpose.
Highly effective safeguarding arrangements are overseen by a knowledgeable safeguarding governor, who is a recently retired headteacher of a local primary school within the trust. The school has an established CPSHE (PSHEE) programme, which is based on national guidelines and informed by context-specific needs. Students benefit from specialist teaching and are able to study the subject as a GCSE qualification option, which raises the status of the subject. Effective filtering and monitoring are evident through the numbers of captures and analyses of data, and followup with individuals. Exceptional attitudes to keeping students safe are evident through meticulous record-keeping and vigilance, including helpful poster displays that include succinct information related to concerns about a member of staff and what actions to take when needed. Visitors to the school are presented with an informative safeguarding leaflet. The school is highly strategic in their approach to safeguarding, which has led to creating a confident safeguarding culture. During the audit, the reviewer observed two incidents related to students’ and staff safety, which occurred during the day. Both were effectively managed. As a result, they have created a remarkable safeguarding culture.
The school has been awarded the Platinum Incyte International Excellence in Safeguarding Award.”
If you feel that your concern is an immediate emergency, then please contact 999.
If you would like to discuss a safeguarding issue with the school, then please complete the form below giving as much information as possible.
A member of the safeguarding team will contact you to discuss your concern.
DWHS Safeguarding Form
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