The Bury Directory
The Bury Directory is the information and advice point for help, support activities and services in specific areas such as:
• Childcare and families
• Home, housing and money issues
• Adult care and disability services
• Staying safe and safeguarding in Bury
Follow the link for redirection to The Bury Directory.
The Bury Local Offer
The Bury Local Offer is the information directory where individuals with SEND aged 0-25, as well as their parents or carers, can find out what support or provision they can expect to be available in their local area. It covers a range of local agencies, including education, health and social care services – such as childcare, independent schools or colleges, care placements, apprenticeships, transport arrangements between home and education settings, specialist teachers, therapy services, and other specialist support.
Family Lives
Family Lives provides targeted early intervention and crisis support to families, with a confidential helpline and live chat facility to aid and support on various challenges that families may face, such as:
• Separation
• Bullying
• Early years
• Teenage specific advice
• Pregnancy
• Cost of living
• Online parenting courses
For more information or support, visit www.familylives.org.uk.
Ash Grove School is committed to keeping children safe online and developing online safety knowledge across staff, pupils and parents.
As a National College member, with the National Online Safety commitment, we are able to share some of the guides below and the full NOS Platform with all our parents and carers to access courses and guides through the National Online Safety Mobile App:
National Online Safety Mobile App
Simply download the app and sign up as a parent to access the free content and help you protect the children you care about when they’re online.
Please see the useful 'What Parents and Carers Need to Know About' guides on this page.
School filtering and monitoring
Ash Grove School understands the importance of keeping pupils safe as they use school technologies in and out of the building. Maximum filtering and monitoring is in place when pupils are online on all school technological devices.
CEOP
Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) helps keep children and young people safe from sexual abuse and grooming online. They help thousands of children and young people every year, as well as their parents and carers who have been in a similar situation. CEOP are unable to respond to reports about bullying, fake accounts or account hacking.
But, they are here to help and give parents and carers advice, and you can make a report directly to CEOP if you are worried about online sexual abuse or something has happened to your child online which has made either you or your child feel unsafe, scared or worried. This might be from someone they know in real life, or someone they have only ever met online.
If you make a report to CEOP about sexual abuse or grooming online it will be read by a Child Protection Advisor who will get in contact with you on the phone number or email address that you provide to talk about what you have reported, to make sure your child is safe and discuss what will happen next.
For more information visit www.ceop.police.uk/safety-centre/.
The aim of the Prevent Duty is to stop people from becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism, through radicalisation and extremism.
The Prevent Duty requires authorities such as education, health, local authorities, police and criminal justice agencies to help prevent the risk of people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism.
The Prevent Duty helps to ensure that people who are susceptible to radicalisation are supported as they would be under safeguarding processes. The Prevent Duty is important to us as a school, because young people are more at risk of radicalisation and we recognise that our pupils have more risk factors.
The objectives of Prevent are to:
- Tackle the ideological causes of terrorism
- Intervene early to support people susceptible to radicalisation
- Enable people who have already engaged in terrorism to disengage and rehabilitate
How is extremism relevant to me as a parent/carer?
As a parent or carer, you need to be aware that individuals and groups with extremist views use the internet and social media to spread their ideologies. Children spend a lot of time online and this has made them more susceptible to extremism.
Extremist groups tap into young people’s insecurities. They often claim to offer answers and promise a sense of identity that vulnerable young people often seek. These feelings of insecurity can become more heightened when a child is feeling:
- Marginalised from society
- Trapped between two cultures
- Excluded from the mainstream
As part of their recruitment strategy, extremist groups also work to undermine the authority of parents. This can be particularly attractive to vulnerable children who have more risk factors.
Extremist groups also use very sophisticated methods to trigger feelings of anger, injustice and shame that a child might feel towards a parent.
But it’s important to remember that any child can be affected by extremism. You can play a vital role by providing emotional support that acts as an alternative to the extremist narratives that your child might feel comfortable believing.
Is my child vulnerable to radicalisation?
Children from all kinds of backgrounds can become radicalised. Here are some of the common factors to look out for that make them vulnerable. As a parent, it’s likely you’ll recognise any of these factors or changes in behaviour before anyone else, and will be able to use your judgement to know whether your child is vulnerable. The following behaviours are a guide and it’s important to remember that anyone can be affected by extremism:
- Struggling with a sense of identity
- Distanced from their cultural or religious background
- Difficulty fitting in with British culture
- Questioning their place in society
- Family issues
- Experiencing a traumatic event
- Experiencing racism or discrimination
- Difficulty in interacting socially
- Lacking empathy or not understanding the consequences of their actions
- Low self-esteem
Any of these issues make children more susceptible to believing that extremists’ claims are the answer to their problems.
External factors play their part too, such as: community tension, events affecting the country or region where they or their parents are from, or having friends or family who have joined extremist groups. Exposure to one-sided points of view all contribute to the process of radicalisation.
Those children involved with criminal groups, or who have found it difficult to reintegrate after being in prison or a young offender institution, may also be at risk.
How does school help protect my child?
Ash Grove School is committed to upholding the Prevent Duty.
To support our overview on Prevent within school, we annually review our 'Prevent Duty Risk Assessment', which gives us critical insight and amendments to our own processes.
All our staff undertake training in the Prevent Duty, as per guidance and legislation; they are aware of the signs of radicalisation and how to report it. All our staff have undergone all the statutory checks to ensure they are suitable to work with children.
All our visitors and guest speakers to site have undergone checks and are escorted around the building at all times. Any content being delivered by outside agencies is discussed first to quality assure and safeguard its content prior to sharing with our young people. No young person will be left alone with a visitor.
All our leaders involved in recruitment have undergone Safer Recruitment training. The adverts we send out notify all applicants to our safeguarding practices and culture, and all successful applicants undergo online checks, DBS and barring checks and right to work in the UK checks, to ensure they are suitable to work with our children.
Our curriculum supports British Values, democracy and the wider teaching of the different cultures, religions and beliefs that we foster and welcome in the UK. We celebrate the diversity and acceptance in and out of the classroom, through our PSHRE curriculum, English curriculum, reading materials and national events, which we positively engage the pupils in to widen their knowledge and understanding of British Values and our varied culture in society.
What should I do if I have a concern?
You should speak to our Designated Safeguarding Lead or Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead if you have a concern about your child regards radicalisation or any other safeguarding issue.
There are other national help lines and websites that support parents and carers when it comes to questions and advice around radicalisation and Prevent, particularly https://www.educateagainsthate.com/ which is the Government's advice and guidance portal for parents, educators and agencies on this agenda.