Support and Guidance
At times, everyone needs a little ‘extra’ support
This applies to both students and their parents or carers. At OSA we regularly share informative extracts from media publications, findings from reputable studies on topics affecting the lives of young people and their families and highlighting websites that offer additional information, sources of help or guidance that may be of interest to our staff, students, parents and carers – either in relation to their own situation, or that of others they may find needing their help.
As in all schools and establishments involving the education and care of young people, we take the Safeguarding of our students extremely seriously and would also like to share some of the dangers these young people may face, as well as some sound advice and guidance on how we can all keep our young people safe – both in person and ‘online’.
Safeguarding, and promoting the welfare of children, is a broader term than Child Protection. It encompasses protecting children from maltreatment, preventing impairment of children’s health or development, and ensures children grow up in safe circumstances. Child Protection is part of this definition and refers to activities undertaken to prevent children suffering, or likely to suffer, significant harm.
The Teachers’ Standards 2012 state that teachers, including headteachers, should safeguard children’s wellbeing and maintain public trust in the teaching profession as part of their professional duties.
Local Authority and Department for Education Guidance
- Keeping Children Safe in Education – KCSIE (available direct from the DfE or via links on the Policies page of our website)
- Working Together to Safeguard Children (available direct from the DfE or via links on the Policies page of our website)
- Child Sexual Abuse through Exploitation
- Suffolk Safeguarding Partnership advice on Child Sexual Exploitation, for Parents
Our Ormiston Academies Trust Child Protection and Safeguarding Policy is available on our ‘Policies‘ page
More sources of support, help and guidance
Below, we have gathered links to various sources of additional ‘support’ in the hope they may prove useful; we are always open to suggestions of additional resources and invite you to contact Mrs Price, who is our Vice Principal for Personal Develoment as well as being our Designated Safeguarding Lead.
OSA Early Help Offer
We recognise the importance of Early Help at Ormiston Sudbury Academy, to offer support to meet the needs of students. Find out more here
When a child dies
- Grief support for young people | Winston’s Wish (winstonswish.org)
- Help for parents and carers supporting grieving children | Winston’s Wish (winstonswish.org)
- Traumatic Bereavement – UK Trauma Council
- When a child dies | Child Bereavement UK
Help with the Parenting role
- ‘WakeUp Wednesday‘: Top Ten Tips to encourage open conversations at home
- ‘Triple P‘ (used and recommended by Suffolk County Council)
- Suffolk County Council Parent ‘Hub’
- Phoenix Family Centre, Sudbury
- The Screen Time Diet: Helping Your Teen Find The Balance With Tech
- What Parents need to know about Whatsapp
- What Parents need to know about Snapchat
- What Parents need to know about Mental Health Apps
- What Parents need to know about Health & Fitness Apps
- What Parents need to know about Using technology to boost reading skills
- What Parents need to know about Streamers
- What Parents need to know about Instagram
- What Parents need to know about making Friends online
- What Parents need to know about staying safe around water
Supporting wellbeing and mental health
- Place2Be‘s Childrens Mental Health Week (5 – 11 Feb 2024) resources (see here)
- Shout free text service 24/7, text 85258
- Kooth online counselling and support, FAQ guide to Kooth
- The Source lots of advice and support for lots of topics
- MIND mental health support
- The Mix lots of advice and support for young people
- Childline
- NSPCC (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children)
- NSPCC – Keeping Children Safe
- ‘Young Minds’ – for Young People / ‘Young Minds’ – for Parents/Carers
- NHS – Every Mind Matters
- Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families
Safeguarding and Online Safety for Young People and their Parents/Carers
Resource Library
- “Who’s looking after the children?”‘ A Financial Times short video for parents/carers (starring Jodie Whittaker (Dr Who), Paul Ready (Motherland), Shaniqua Okwok (It’s a Sin)) – 14 minutes. We thoroughly recommend it to not only OSA parents and carers – but ANY parents/carers. We hope you will take a look and thank you in advance for doing so.
- Online Sexual Harassment – Talking to your child: Children’s Commissioner resource for parents/carers
Useful Websites for Students and Parents/Carers:
- Childline – staying safe online
- Suffolk Safeguarding Partnership
- Parent Info – from CEOP and Parent Zone
- CEOP – Child Exploitation and Online Protection
- Childline
- ThinkUKnow
- Safer Internet Day
- NSPCC Online Safety advice for students and parents
- Internet Matters – Online safety advice for Teens (14+)
- Vodafone’s ‘Child Online Safety‘ advice – information and advice on the latest digital technology, social media and ways to keep your child safe.
- National Online Safety – Facebook Page – FULL of information, tips and guidance on keeping your child safe online (FACEBOOK ACCOUNT REQUIRED TO ACCESS)
Historical ‘Safeguarding’ Resources shared with staff and/or students (which parents may find informative)
- Sexual Harassment and Consent (Shared with Year 9/10/11 students – May 2021)
- Anti-Bullying – Tutor Time presentation (week beginning 20th June 2022)
- ‘Digital Safeguarding Update‘ – ‘Tutor Time’ presentation
- ‘White Ribbon Organisation (UK) – Standing up against male violence against women – from our ‘Harmful Sexual Behaviour’ assembly
- Being British (as part of our ‘British Values’ teaching and learning agenda)
- Tolerance (as part of our ‘British Values’ teaching and learning agenda)
- “Respect” – Transgender Issues – LGBTQ (as part of our ‘British Values’ teaching and learning agenda)
- Online Grooming – The Tragic Death of “Kayleigh” (the dangers of online grooming)
- Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) Assembly Presentation by Suffolk and Norfolk Police Constabularies
- Yubo (Yellow) – a teen-app marketed for young people to ‘make friends’ but increasingly viewed as a dangerous platform where it would be easy for ‘grooming’ to occur. Tutor-time discussion (December 2017)
Child Protection and Safeguarding – Categories and Types of Abuse for staff to look out for
- Child Sexual Exploitation (Staff – July 2017 – extracted from Government’s ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ (KCSIE) publication *at that time. Latest KCSIE is available here (2023) )
- Children who run away / go missing from home/care (Staff – July 2017 – extracted from Government’s ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ (KCSIE) publication *at that time. Latest KCSIE is available here (2023) )
- Bullying, including Cyberbullying (Staff – 2017)
- Gangs and Youth Violence (Staff – 2017)
- Children Missing from Education (Staff – 2017)
- Domestic Violence (Staff – 2017)
- Drugs (Staff – 2017)
- Fabricated or Induced Illness (Staff – 2017)
- Mental Health (Staff – 2017)
- Preventing Radicalisation (Staff – 2017)
- Private Fostering (Staff – 2017)
- ‘Sexting’ (Staff – 2017)
- Teenage Relationship Abuse (Staff – 2017)
- Faith Abuse (Staff – 2017)
- Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) (Staff – 2017)
- Gender-based Violence (Staff – 2017)
- Forced Marriage (Staff – 2017)
- Trafficking (Staff – 2017)