Safeguarding

John Spence Community High School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare and safety of all students and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

We are fully committed to ensuring that consistent, effective safeguarding procedures are in place to support families, students and staff at school. The Designated Safeguarding Lead is Mr Brierley (Assistant Headteacher) he can be contacted on [email protected], and is supported by:

Deputy Designated Safeguarding Leads
Mr J Heath Headteacher
Mr J Betts Head of Year 7
Mr M Burnip Head of Year 8
Mr S Crowe Head of Year 9
Mrs K Wyllie Head of Year 10
Mrs L Brown Head of Year 11
Miss G Wallis SENDCo

The school will, in most circumstances, endeavour to discuss all concerns with parents about their children. However, there may be exceptional circumstances when the school will discuss concerns with Social Care and/or the Police without parental knowledge (in accordance with Child Protection procedures). The school will, of course, always aim to maintain a positive relationship with all parents. The school’s child protection policy is available publicly and can be viewed in the policies section of the website.

Please click here to view our ‘Visitor Information Leaflet‘ and click here to read the ‘Parents Protect Exploitation Leaflet‘. If you would like to report any harmful content you’ve seen online, please do so here ‘Report Harmful Content‘.

Please click here to learn more about Pastoral Care at John Spence.

In order to fulfil our commitment to safeguarding, we have a number of safeguarding arrangements in place:

Policy and Procedures

We will ensure all policies and procedures in respect of safeguarding children are up to date and in line with Keeping Children Safe in Education. The policies are accessible to all staff via the school website. Policies and procedures are reviewed and revised by the Governing Body of John Spence on a regular basis. Please click here to read about Operation Encompass.

Disclosure & Barring Checks

John Spence meets all statutory requirements in relation to Disclosure & Barring Service – all staff and volunteers who work with John Spence who meet the ‘regulated activity test’ (Freedoms Act 2012) are required to undergo an enhanced DBS check prior to employment.

Training

All eligible staff and volunteers are required to undertake relevant safeguarding training and this is regularly reviewed to ensure it is up to date. A training database for all staff and volunteers is maintained, while training needs are reviewed as part of individual performance reviews.

If you have concerns about the safety or welfare of a child in North Tyneside the Front Door Service is the first point of contact for everyone. You can contact Front Door on 0345 2000 109, for more information please click here.

The following website links provide advice and information for parents:

http://www.ceop.police.uk/
https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/
http://www.nwgnetwork.org/
http://www.childline.org.uk/Pages/Home.aspx
http://paceuk.info/
http://www.stop-cse.org/saysomething/
https://www.net-aware.org.uk/
http://parentinfo.org/article/staying-safe-on-minecraft

Urgent Railway Update

Please watch the following urgent safety updates regarding trespassing on railway lines:
https://learnliveuk.com/network-rail-secondary-school-safety-talk/
https://learnliveuk.com/i-am-train-safe/