Posted on: October 2nd 2015
Yesterday I spent the entire day from 8am – 6pm with our Governor for Safeguarding, who also happens to be a Reporting Inspector for ISI (the body under which the school is inspected). We were going through our Annual Safeguarding Audit - a thorough review of all the practices and procedures at the school. It is an extremely valuable part of the governance support provided by Bellevue and ensures that safeguarding and regulatory compliance in this respect are completely up to date and of a high standard. As part of the review, we were going through more changes that have and are coming into effect from the Department for Education, the government and Independent Schools Inspectorate to further safeguard children. One of these is the PREVENT strategy which is in response to the growing concerns of radicalisation of young people. It includes ensuring that our pupils know and understand British Values in a modern British society whilst developing and maintaining a tolerance of other faiths and cultures. This already forms an integral part of our curriculum with our children understanding the importance of democracy and freedom of speech as well as our our non-denominational but broad approach to all major religions and cultural experiences.
And, as I was driving home from work last night following this long discussion, I heard on the news about a 14 year old boy who was on trial in Australia, over alleged ties to ISIS. Whilst it isn’t prevalent, there is a growing minority of young people whom, for whatever reason, feel drawn towards these factions and are influenced significantly by their beliefs. It is a sad indictment of the world that we live in; we can never be complacent about the vulnerabilities of our children and need to ensure that they are robust and resilient in an ever changing world.