Safeguarding at Holyhead

Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people is broader than ‘child protection’ as it also includes prevention and ensuring the best interests of our students come first.

Holyhead School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all its students. We fully recognise our responsibilities for safeguarding children and young people and work with the Local Authority and other external agencies to ensure the safety of children and young people in our care.  

We aim to provide a safe and secure environment in which students can thrive and develop and where all aspects of their welfare will be protected by:

• Providing a safe environment and taking all reasonable measures to minimise risks of harm.
• Providing arrangements to take all appropriate action to address concerns relating to the welfare of a student

We believe that:

• All children/young people have the right to be protected from harm
• Children/young people need to be safe and to feel safe in school 
• Children/young people need support which matches their individual needs, including those who may have experienced abuse
• All children/young people have the right to speak freely and voice their values and beliefs 
• All children/young people must be encouraged to respect each other’s values and support each other 
• All children/young people have the right to be supported to meet their emotional, and social needs as well as their educational needs – a happy healthy sociable child/young person will achieve better educationally 
• Schools can and do contribute to the prevention of abuse, victimisation, bullying (including homophobic, bi-phobic, trans-phobic and cyber-bullying), exploitation, extreme behaviours, discriminatory views and risk-taking behaviours 

All staff and visitors within the school have an important role to play in safeguarding our students and are aware that safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility and that we work in the best interests of the child.

All staff, governors and volunteers are encouraged to foster an attitude that ‘it could happen here’ and they are made aware, and reminded of, the protocols to follow should they have a concern about a child or young person’s safety or well-being.

Mrs Denny is the Designated Safeguarding Lead and is a member of our Senior Leadership Team and is responsible for ensuring the safety of both students and staff.  The Designated Deputy Safeguarding Lead is Ms Phillips. Mr Knox is our Single Point of Contact (SPOC) for extremism and radicalisation.

Within this environment we work hard to build students’ resilience to radicalisation and extremism by promoting fundamental British values and for everyone to understand the risks associated with terrorism.

We are committed in establishing and maintaining an ethos where students and parents feel secure in being able to talk confidently to school personnel about any concerns or fears they may have knowing that they will be taken seriously

If you have a safeguarding concern regarding a student from this school and the school is closed, please refer to the link below where you can receive further guidance.