Child Protection, Safeguarding & Online Safety
At Bishop’s Hatfield Girls’ School we place great emphasis on the health, safety and well-being of every girl. We take all concerns seriously as we want our girls to enjoy their time at the school.
The school works in partnership with parents/carers in every way possible to help and support their daughters to achieve their full potential and make a positive contribution. However, all schools have a clear responsibility placed on them by the Children Act 1989 and guidance from the Department for Education to safeguard the welfare of all their pupils. In doing so, schools are expected to consult with Hertfordshire’s Children’s Services if they believe there is a possibility that a child may be suffering from abuse or neglect. A referral to Children’s Services is not intended to be an accusation of any particular action or against any particular person. It is the reporting of concerns that have come to the school’s attention. This is in accordance with Hertfordshire’s Child Protection Procedures. Bishop’s Hatfield Girls’ School has a Child Protection Policy and a copy of Hertfordshire Area Child Protection Procedures, both of which are available for parents/ carers to see. Bishop’s Hatfield Girls’ School also operates safe recruitment procedures in keeping with DfE guidelines Mrs Jackson is the Designated Safeguarding Lead and the Deputy Designated Safeguarding Leads are Mrs Mansfield, Mr Wood, Miss Lawrence, Ms Knott, Mrs Alliott, Miss Graves, Mrs Parvez and Ms Carroll who is also our on-site counsellor. They will be happy to discuss any questions or concerns parents/carers may have about Child Protection policies and practice. You can contact them at: safeguarding@bishophatfield. Meet our Safeguarding TeamChild Protection / Safeguarding
Online Safety
Prevent is one of the four elements of CONTEST, the government’s counter-terrorism strategy. It aims to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism. The Prevent Strategy:Prevent Strategy
Responds to the ideological challenge we face from terrorism and aspects of extremism, and the threat we face from those that promote these views;
Provides practical help to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism and ensures they are given appropriate advice and support;
Works with a wide range of sectors (including education, criminal justice, faith, charities, online and health) where there are risks to radicalisation that we need to deal with
Please click on the link below for the full Bishop’s Hatfield Girls’ School Prevent Strategy:
Further Information
For further information on our Child Protection, Online Safety and Safer Recruitment policies, please refer to our Policies page.
Parents /carers can also use the Families First portal to access information, advice, guidance and support on a range of issues. It also signposts local and national support services, many of which are free for families to access.
CEOP is a law enforcement agency and is here to keep children and young people safe from sexual exploitation and abuse. To start your report to one of CEOP’s Child Protection Advisors, please access the CEOP site by clicking the logo below:
Welwyn Garden City & Hatfield Schools Partnership is here to help improve outcomes for children and young people across the Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield area, and to help make it easier for parents to support their children with their learning. Some of the difficulties they can help with include: Please access the WGCHSP site by clicking the logo below:
For information on keeping your child safe on line, please take a look at Herts for Learning’s Newsletter below.
Children do everything online, from learning to socialising, gaming to shopping these days. For teens, learning how to recognise the risks and protect themselves is a life skill they’ll need for years to come.
The first step to keeping teens safe online is to know what your child is actually doing online. Rather than banning it, you need to engage with it. Even if they’ve told you what apps they’re on, it can easily go over your head if you’re not in the know. Here’s a run-down of the main online platforms that teens are using at the moment.
