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Safeguarding & E-Safety
Safeguarding
Willowfield School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all of our young people and expects all staff and visitors to actively share this commitment.
Safeguarding includes:
- Protecting young people from all forms of abuse, maltreatment and neglect
- Minimising any risks of harm to children and young people
- Ensuring that no child or young person’s health or development is impaired
- Children and young people’s individual needs are assessed at an early a point as possible to ensure prompt and effective intervention can take place
- Create an environment where every child and young person can reach their potential
Willowfield School works with a range of external agencies as needed to support the safety and welfare of our pupils. This includes a statutory duty to work with social services teams from relevant local authorities and, where relevant, the police to ensure everyone is safe and properly cared for. We will ensure that concerns about our pupils are discussed in the first instance with their parent or carer unless we have reason to believe that this would be contrary to their welfare.
Our Designated Safeguarding Lead is Laura Scott and our Deputy Designated Safeguarding Leads are Rebecca Linden, Tim Naylor, Emma Lubel, Lianne Harrison, Lionel Morgan, Mike Thomas, Raza Mir, Debbie Chapman Andrews, Tasrin Shanana and Ben Holbrook.
A copy of our full safeguarding policy can be found below, as well as some other useful links.
- DSL@willowfield-school.co.uk – although this is monitored regularly any immediate concerns about risk to a child should be reported to the police or via MASH, contact details below.
- Safeguarding policy
- Keeping Children Safe in Eduction 2025
- Waltham Forest Child Protection Information - Child Protection: Help and advice for children and young people | London Borough of Waltham Forest
- Waltham Forest Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (to report a concern about a child directly to social services) – 020 8496 2310
- Waltham Forest Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub emergency out of hours number - 02084963000
E-safety
Computers and the internet have become an ever-increasing part of our lives and we want to prepare pupils to be safe and successful in the digital world where we spend much of our time. E-safety education is built into both the academic and pastoral curricula. Pupils learn about the dangers of grooming, online security, and scams such as phishing, alongside other relevant topics. We support pupils in understanding how to use apps safely; to be critical of information; and to avoid fake news. Through assemblies and form time activities we will educate students about the dangers of gaming addiction and gambling in computer games.
Pupils will be taught to use information technology in a responsible way through their lessons.
As a precaution all internet access is filtered protecting pupils from accessing dangerous or graphic material. This is reviewed regularly to ensure our systems are up to date and we respond and take necessary precautions to any digital security threats. We monitor online use in school for any inappropriate or unkind behaviour, or to take action if any online searches indicate a pupil may be in distress or need further support.
We will also offer parental support to help you identify risks and take precautions that will help to keep your child safe online. At Willowfield we also have a designated online safety officer, Ms Scott, to ensure E-Safety stays a priority. Through regular emails, parent sessions and information shared through newsletters we aim to support parents to stay aware of the risks to their children that can be faced online and how to keep their children safe.
If you feel that your child is at risk online contact either your child’s Achievement Leader or Ms Scott as soon as possible.
Further information about how to keep your child safe online can be found below:
Information, Advice and Support to Keep Children Safe Online (internetmatters.org)
Keeping children safe online | NSPCC
Snapchat My Ai Chatbot - Wayne Denner – an article on the use of AI on Snapchat, the issues it poses and how parents can guard against it.
Common online scams targeting teens | Internet Matters – an article on some of the ways students are targeted online and actions you can take to avoid your child being caught by them.
If you have reported harmful material to a social media service directly using their online tools and it is not removed within 48 hours you can use the RHC button below to escalate your concern. Reports can be made 24/7 through the online reporting forms and helpline practitioners will review and respond to reports within 72 hours between 10am and 4pm Monday to Friday. Reports can be made to RHC by anyone over the age of 13.
