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Support for Students and families
Supporting our students and their families is extremely important to us. As stated in 'Keeping Children Safe in Education' — the Department for Education's statutory guidance for schools — 'It is essential that everybody working in a school or college understands their safeguarding responsibilities'. To this end, all our staff receive training in safeguarding children and child protection, and several — our safeguarding team -- are trained to Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) level.
The Trust and the school are committed to engaging with families through robust partnership working. We therefore urge any family that needs support to consider the benefits of Early Help Early Help - Devon Children and Families Partnership (dcfp.org.uk)
Keeping our Students Safe in the College
Our students can talk to any member of staff about any problems, but may wish in the first instance to speak with:
- Tutor.
- Head of Year.
- Any member of our safeguarding team.
Keeping our Students Safe outside the College
If a child is in immediate danger, do not delay or hesitate and call the Police on 999. If you have an urgent safeguarding concern call the Devon MASH (Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub) on 0345 155 1071 or 0345 600 0888 out of hours). The following contacts for additional support may also be of help:
- Police (non-emergency) ● 101
- NSPCC (24 hours) ● 0808 800 5000 ● 0800 686 323 ● Email help@nspcc.org.uk
- MIND (Monday to Friday 9-6) ● 0300 123 3393
- Cruse Bereavement (Monday to Friday 9 to 5) ● 0800 808 1677 ● cruse.org.uk
- National Domestic Abuse Helpline (24 hours, freephone) ● 0808 2000 247
- National Centre for Domestic Violence ● 0207 186 8270
- RESPECT Men's Advice Line (Monday to Friday 9 to 5) ● 0808 801 0327
- Action on Elder Abuse (Monday to Friday 9 to 5) ● 0808 808 8141
- Victim Support (24 hours) ● 0808 168 9111
- Childline (9am - midnight) ● 0800 1111 ● childline.org.uk
- Samaritans (24 hours) ● 116 123 ● 08457 909090
- Young Minds (24 hours) ● 0800 567 123 ● youngminds.org.uk
- Kooth (Mental Health website for young people) ● kooth.com
Reporting any concerns
Parents may contact us using the details provided in the 'Contact Us' section of this website. Our students may speak directly with a member of staff (Tutor, Head of Year, or member of our Safeguarding team), or contact us via the 'Need to Talk' email address (our safeguarding team will monitor and triage any communications received via this route to ensure appropriate support is provided). We also consider discrimination as defined by the Equality Act 2010 to be a safeguarding concern and encourage any student who is experiencing any form of discrimation to report such to us (please see the 'Reporting Discrimination' section of the 'Equality & Diversity' page of our website).
Tor Support Services
Tor Support services provide free, confidential, non-urgent counselling, advice and support for children and young people aged 5 to 25, in Okehampton and the surrounding Parishes. Tor are based in our school and aim to 'alleviate emotional and psychological distress through professional counselling; improve quality of life, self-esteem, happiness and relationships; and help improve life chances and foster more positive adult lives. Anyone can make a referral into the service, and young people can refer themselves. To make a referral please complete the form provided via this link. For further information, call 0786 444 263 or email coordinators@torsupportservices.org.uk.
Sources of Additional Support and Information
In addtion to the advice we share here on the Safeguarding pages of our website regarding specific safeguarding issues and concerns, the following resources may be useful:
- Childhood Mental Illness ● From Rethink Mental Illness.
- Entering Adulthood ● From Young Minds Mental Health Charity for Children.
- Eating Disorders Factsheet ● From Rethink Mental Illness.
- Worried About Eating Problems and Disorders ● From Young Minds Mental Health Charity for Children.
- Feel Depressed? ● From Young Minds Mental Health Charity for Children.
- Young People Get Depressed too ● From Young Minds Mental Health Charity for Children.
- Feeling Angry? ● From Young Minds Mental Health Charity for Children.
- Self Harm ● From Young Minds Mental Health Charity for Children.
- Self Harm: Distractions that may help ● From the National Self Harm Network (NSHN).
- Studying and Mental Illness ● From Rethink Mental Illness.
- Suicidal Feelings: How to Cope ● From Rethink Mental Illness.
- Suicidal Thoughts: How to Support Someone ● From Rethink Mental Illness.
- Relationships and sex education (RSE) and health education ● From Department for Education.
- Preventing and Tackling Bullying Advice for Schools ● From Department for Education.
- Anti Bullying Advice and Support for Schools ● From The Anti Bullying Alliance.
- Anti Bullying Advice for Parents and Young People ● From Kidscape.
- Understanding and dealing with issues relating to parental responsibility ● From Department for Education.
- County Lines and Child Criminal Exploitation ● From The Children's Society.
- Preventing youth violence and gang involvement ● From The Home Office.
- National Domestic Violence Hotline.
- Operation Encompass Information (Domestic violence).
- Child Abuse Linked to Faith or Belief (CALFB) ● From The National FGM Centre.
