Safeguarding
Designated Safeguarding and Prevent Lead:
Miss Sam Dodge, Assistant Principal: s.dodge@harrisockendon.org.uk
Deputy Designated Safeguarding Leads:
Mr Darren Pearce, Senior Vice Principal: d.pearce@harrisockendon.org.uk
Miss Alicia Thompson, Assistant Principal: alicia.thompson@harrisockendon.org.uk
Miss Clare Stafford: c.stafford@harrisockendon.org.uk
Safeguarding Governor:
Mrs Elaine Forrest, Governor: h.smith@harrisockendon.org.uk
Urgent Out-of-Hours Safeguarding Concerns:
Thurrock Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO): 07762 406606, or secure email lado@thurrock.gov.uk, or contact the Police.
This page is designed to be a source of information about safeguarding for the community, parents and students alike - to help inform and educate everyone.
On this page you'll find a list of our designated safeguarding lead officers as well as information about a number of issues that we face in our community.
We are committed to providing a safe and secure environment for children, staff and visitors and promoting a climate where children and adults will feel confident about sharing any concerns they may have about their own safety or the well-being of others.
The academy is committed to the vital contribution of all governors and staff to make safeguarding children a priority. We aim to ensure that child protection concerns and referrals are handled sensitively, professionally and in ways that support the specific needs of the individual child.
Through providing a caring, safe and stimulating environment which promotes the social, physical and moral development of all our students, we aim to foster an atmosphere of trust, respect and security.
Our safeguarding poster, below, is displayed across the Academy site.
This is to ensure that every stakeholder connected to the academy can approach key staff to share any safeguarding concerns. Our staff also have out of hours safeguarding contact details for the senior safeguarding team and external agencies. This is for use if issues come to light outside of normal school hours
Our vision
Our vision is very clear and has safeguarding at its core. Everyone succeeds and achieves their potential regardless of any personal characteristics. Background does not determine outcomes. We are all equal all the time and treat people with the respect they deserve. We are not afraid to make mistakes as we see this as part of our learning journey.
We aim for our students to leave our academy with as many opportunities available to them as possible, we believe by giving them a message of “warm strict” we will achieve this. By “warm strict” we mean to have high expectations constantly for all our students regardless of their background and to provide our students with a high level of challenge and support to enable them to achieve. This will allow them to become successful and caring citizens, whilst upholding the values that they have learnt throughout their educational journey with us.
We are stronger as a team than a group of individuals and can change anything collectively that we put our mind to, whilst also being able to critically reflect on our actions.
We aim to provide a rounded education that ensures our students grow holistically through developing resilience, tolerance and humanity and leave HAOC as a good person.
The academy philosophy, vision and expectation on safeguarding is very clear. Every person, no matter how they are connected with the academy, has a personal responsibility for the highest standards of safeguarding for our students, for example:
1. All academy staff
2. All academy students
3. All academy parents/carers
4. All external agencies that engage with the academy and young people
5. All members of our local community
"Where do you feel safe?" - contextualised safeguarding
Young people encounter risk and safety in locations outside of the home. These experiences are crucial in shaping how they move through our local neighbourhood and how to keep themselves safe. We carry out a safeguarding curriculum where pivotal areas of our young people’s lives are discussed and where students can learn and understand about where they feel safe or at risk.
Prevent Strategy
Prevent is a Government strategy designed to stop people being drawn into terrorism or extremist causes. The strategy covers all types of radicalisation and extremism. All schools have a duty to safeguard children from radicalisation and extremism. HAOC provides a safe environment, which teaches children the value of tolerance and mutual respect. It also provides a better understanding of how to keep themselves safe from extremism and radicalisation.
E-safety
The online world is a wonderful place for young people to explore, with unprecedented opportunities for learning and creativity. But just like the real world there are risks and dangers they should be aware of, and which we can act upon to protect them.
Although the academy teaches students e-safety as part of the curriculum, it is vital that parents are aware of the risks too, and what they can do to develop a culture of e-safety in the home.
This page has some helpful resources for parents that will enable you to help your child stay safe online. If you have any concerns about your child's e-safety, there is always someone at the academy who is available to talk to you. Simply call the school and ask for our Safeguarding Officer, Miss Dodge, or speak to any member of staff. The Harris Federation E-safety policy can be found below.
The Think You Know website is created by the police for parents. It contains useful information about:
- what children are doing online
- how to talk to children about what they are doing online
- what risks your child might face
- what tools there are to help them stay safe
"Think You Know" have also produced a Parents’ Guide to E-Safety and also the following booklets to provide parents/carers with helpful information on how to explore and monitor their children’s apps.
Other useful resources
www.childnet.com – for help and advice on key online safety topics such as social media, parental controls, and keeping safe online. Click here for a List of helpful online resources.
www.getsafeonline.org – Free up-to-date security advice
www.ceop.police.uk – Website of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre
www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe - the NSPCC provides support and tips to help you keep your children safe
https://www.saferinternet.org.uk/professionals-online-safety-helpline - resources for professionals working in the area of safeguarding with children and young people, but could be of interest to parents too.
Operation Encompass
At Harris Academy Ockendon, we are working in partnership with Essex Police to identify and provide appropriate support to students who have experienced domestic violence in their household, this scheme is called Operation Encompass.
The purpose of Operation Encompass is to safeguard and support children and young people who have been involved in or been witness to a domestic abuse incident. Domestic abuse impacts on children in a number of ways. Children are at increased risk of physical injury during an incident, either by accident or because they attempt to intervene. Even when not directly injured, children are greatly distressed by witnessing the physical and emotional suffering of a parent.
Operation Encompass has been created to highlight this situation. It is the implementation of key partnership working between the Police and Schools / Academies. The aim of sharing information with local schools / academies is to allow ‘Key Adults’ (normally the Designated Safeguarding Lead), the opportunity of engaging with the child and to provide access to support that allows them to remain in a safe but secure familiar environment.
In order to achieve this, Essex Police will share information of domestic incidents where one of our students has been present, with the Key Adult. On receipt of any information, the Key Adult will decide on the appropriate support the child requires. All information sharing and resulting actions will be undertaken in accordance with General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). We will record this information and store this in accordance with the record keeping procedures outlined in these regulations.
The purpose and procedures in Operation Encompass have been shared with all parents and governors. Further information can be found by following this link.
