Safeguarding

There are unique challenges to safeguarding children in a hospital school. We take our safeguarding responsibilities very seriously and are proud of our contribution to keeping children safe. Read our full Safeguarding Policy for more details. Please also see the NSPCC website for guidance on what to do if you’re worried a child is being abused.​

Parents may wish to visit our Online Safety page.

Tackling misogyny in school

Please click here for advice for parents and carers on responding to concerns around misogyny and challenging online content among the young people we work with.

Sexual harassment and child-on-child abuse

At OHS we take all reports of sexual harassment and child-on-child abuse extremely seriously and our procedures for responding to this are laid out in our safeguarding policy above. This takes into account the latest guidance from Keeping Children Safe in Education and the 2021 Ofsted review into child-on-child abuse.

If you are a parent, pupil or professional who would like to speak to someone about supporting potential victims of sexual abuse, please be aware that the NSPCC have recently set up a dedicated helpline for this on 0800 136 663. You may also wish to explore the ‘Stop it Now’ Harmful Sexual Behaviour Prevention Toolkit or the Parents Protect Learning Programme for further information.

Staying Safe in Online Lessons

At OHS we use a variety of teaching methods and some lessons may be delivered online. All of our usual safeguarding procedures apply during these lessons and we have also produced some guides on additional measures to support parents and pupils with staying safe during online lessons

Download our ‘Distance Learning – Staying Safe – Pupil Guides’:

Outreach Teaching Service: Distance Learning, Staying Safe, Pupil Guide

Children’s Hospital Teaching Sector: Distance Learning, Staying Safe, Pupil Guide

Staff Training

All staff complete a suite of safeguarding training comprising:

• Generalist (Intercollegiate Level 2), for practitioners who work with children, young people and/or their families for more than 3 hours per month and valid for up to three years. Provider: OSCB
• Prevent, an introduction to radicalisation and how to support students who may be at risk. Renewed every two years. Provider: HM Government
• Understanding Pathways to Extremism and the Prevent Programme and Safeguarding Children Refresher Course Bundle, Female Genital Mutilation, Radicalisation, Forced Marriage, Child Trafficking, Child Sexual Exploitation. Renewed every two years. Provider: Virtual College
• Child Sexual Exploitation. Renewed every two years. Provider: Virtual College
• Online Safety Training, e-safety training to help you keep children and young people safe online. Renewed every two years. Provider: NSPCC / CEOP

In addition, members of the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) and our Leaders of Learning (LOL) complete:

• Designated Safeguarding Lead training, renewed every two years. Provider: OSCB
• Safer Recruitment Training, renewed every five years (SLT). Provider: OSCB

Each year we complete the S157/175 annual safeguarding report to Oxfordshire Children’s Safeguarding Board and action plan ongoing improvements highlighted as part of this self-evaluation. Our safeguarding action plan is also informed by an annual visit from an independent safeguarding consultant.