Safeguarding against Extremism at Regent High School

Safeguarding Approach We first starting tackling extremism with the Prevent team in the Autumn Term 2013 Started as a unit within a wider ‘Staying Safe’ unit in our tutor programme and PSHE curriculum Once we met with Prevent it became clear that this issue needed to treated using the same methodology we use for all other safeguarding issues  

Safeguarding Approach Working with Staff Working with Students Working with Parents 

Safeguarding Approach Working with Staff Incorporated identification of students vulnerable to extremist ideas into safeguarding training for all staff Prevent provided training and guidance for all staff in whole school staff and pastoral meetings Covered all forms of extremism, current issues, ways to identify vulnerable students, how to tackle extremist ideology in a group setting and how to report concerns   Point 1 – Very quick way of ensuring that staff are confident in dealing with the issue on a day to day level as they are well versed in CP procedures and protocols Point 1 – Ensured that staff reported issues as the communication line already existed Point 1 – Led to an over reporting/referring in the first term or so but we felt this was better than missing any potential issues Point 2 – Provided confidence for staff as they received all the background info to the issue Point 2 – Allowed staff to feel comfortable when discussing different perspectives/interpretations of extremist views Point 2 – Allowed staff the time and space to ask questions in a small group setting Point 3 – Supported RHS stance on incorporating preventing extremism into our safeguarding agenda

Safeguarding Approach Working with Students Spring 2013 – We delivered a 8 week tutor programme for all students on ‘Staying Safe’ Covered Bullying, Child Sexual Exploitation, Knife Crime and Extremism Supported throughout the 8 week by year specific PSHE programme Spring 2016 – Tutor programme unit on Preventing Extremism being delivered to all students   Point 1 – Students saw that as a school we placed extremism along side other forms of safeguarding Point 1 – Allowed us to show students that any fears, worries, disclosures that they might want to share would be treated in the same way as other safeguarding issues Point 1 – Allowed RHS to ensure the tutor was the one delivering the message about safeguarding and extremism and that they were the first ‘port of call’ for the students Point 3 – Once the tutor programme laid the groundwork for the issue and how we linked it to safeguarding Prevent and the PSHE team prepared year specific lessons for PSHE that would allow us to differentiate the content. Point 3 – year 7 – Basic staying safe work through to KS4/5 where the ideologies and different view points could be discussed Point 3 - The PSHE units now incorporated into SOW every year and analysing the messages taken from the Koran and how they are interpreted by groups such as ISIS will be in the RE curriculum from September

Safeguarding Approach Working with Parents Prevent has put is in contact with NGO’s/Charity’s with expertise in countering the radicalisation agenda/narrative On 11th June we held a parents conference led by Inspire. Inspire – A group that has predominantly worked with women to counter the radicalisation narrative within the family unit Point 2 – We felt we needed to empower parents to tackle the radicalisation narrative in the home Point 2 – We wanted to do this before the summer holidays when the students are most vulnerable to being exposed to extremist views outside of the home and on the internet Point 2 – As a school we did not feel confident enough to do this on our own so used Prevent to make contact with the experts

Safeguarding Approach Working with Parents Inspire Parent Conference 10:00am: Welcome and introduction 10:15am: The threat of extremism (pre-ISIS and now) and the impact on families 10:45am: Theological counter-narratives to extremist ideology 11:15am: How to protect your child: at home, online, in school, in your community (to include understanding what Prevent/Channel is) 11:45am: Case study – what would you do? 12:10pm: Conclusion Used our Family Links Workers to contact all parents by phone inviting them to the conference, sent a letter by post to all families and a text message the day before Parents of 60 families attended Feedback extremely positive This is being followed up by a series of 4 workshops for parents on techniques, methods, approaches to take at home when dealing with the extremist narrative in the home and who to contact when they have concerns

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