Safeguarding at BSCS

You will be aware through previous communication that we have concerns regarding the availability of drugs in our community and the potential exploitation of young people to become involved in selling drugs. As a school we have been working closely with the Willow Brook Centre, the Police, Social Care colleagues and the Young Peoples Drugs and Alcohol service to highlight issues and ensure that as a community we are working together to reduce the risks and respond to need when it is required. Last term we held assemblies for all of our year groups, delivered by Androulla (Andri) Nicolaou, Prevention Officer and Coordinator , Child Sexual and Criminal Exploitationand this was followed by a parent information event for the Olympus Trust. Our staff have also had additional child protection and safeguarding training this year with a focus on “Beyond the Gate” issues such as drug use, exploitation and gangs as schools are best placed to notice the behaviour changes and indicators which may mean that a young person is at risk.

We have a focus as a Trust on contextual safeguarding and all of Olympus Trust Secondary schools are working together to share information and support our students. Contextual Safeguarding is an approach to understanding, and responding to, young people’s experiences of significant harm beyond their families. It recognises that the different relationships that young people form in their neighbourhoods, schools and online can feature violence, abuse and risk.

As part of our work this year, we are also delivering additional safeguarding training to the Willow Brook centre staff and other key shop managers so that they are also better informed and able to respond if they have any concerns about our students or other young people in the community.

I wanted to inform you that in addition, we will be working with the Police and bringing a Police sniffer dog into school this term. We feel strongly that we want BSCS to be a drug free environment and whilst we already carry out routine checks on locker areas, we want to send a clear message to any student who may consider bringing drugs onto the premises. The dog and the Police handler will be in school during a break time and will work through all areas of the school and we intend to do this regularly.

All Olympus Trust Secondary schools will be having regular Police dog visits and this is common in other schools.

I am sure that we have your full support.

Please do not hesitate to contact to the school if you would like to discuss this further.