At Bournemouth School we adhere to Keeping Children Safe in Education, the statutory safeguarding guidance from the Department for Education (DfE); all staff have read at least the first section of this guidance.  All staff are aware of the safeguarding policies and procedures we have in place and have been trained to recognise and report signs of abuse and neglect.

The school has a designated safeguarding lead (DSL) who is trained to support staff and liaise with other agencies.  The DSL or his deputy are available to staff at all times during school hours.  Staff will raise any concerns about pupils’ welfare with the safeguarding lead, who will then make decisions about referrals.  A referral will be made immediately where a child is in immediate danger or at risk of harm.

To contact our safeguarding team, please email dsl@bournemouth-school.org

Designated Safeguarding Lead Mrs Clare Wood Assistant Headteacher
Deputy Safeguarding Lead Dr Dorian Lewis Headmaster
Deputy Safeguarding Lead Mrs Sandra Spears Pastoral office
Deputy Safeguarding Lead Mrs Rebecca Issott Assistant Headteacher
Deputy Safeguarding Lead Mr Dave Robjohns Head of Year 7
Safeguarding Governor Mr William Pyke

All Bournemouth School staff undergo safeguarding training that is regularly updated, and training for the DSL and his deputy must be updated at least every two years.  DSLs and other staff also refresh their safeguarding knowledge and skills regularly, but at least annually.

Anyone working at a school, including governors, third party staff and volunteers, undergoes appropriate safer recruitment checks, including the correct level of Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.  Anyone engaged in 'regulated activity' undergo an enhanced DBS check with barred list information.  Checks are recorded on the school’s single central record (SCR).  At least one person on any appointment panel in a maintained school must have undertaken safer recruitment training.

All staff are aware of specific safeguarding issues such as radicalisation, child sexual exploitation, children missing education and mental health.  Teachers are required by law to report to the police known cases of female genital mutilation (FGM) involving a girl aged under 18.

Appropriate internet filters and monitoring systems are in place to keep pupils safe online.

We have a child protection policy and staff code of conduct in place.  The child protection policy is updated annually and is available through our website or in hard copy upon request.

Procedures covering particular safeguarding issues such as recruitment and selection, allegations against staff, radicalisation, whistle-blowing, mobile phone usage and work experience are also in place.

The school recognises the benefits of students having access to mobile and electronic devices within school, but to preserve an environment conducive the learning and to safeguard students and staff, the use of such devices is restricted to certain locations and times of day. 

Any student using their device (except where permitted) will have it confiscated.   All confiscated items will be placed in a sealed envelope marked with the student’s details and stored securely.  On the first confiscation the student may collect the confiscated item at the end of the school day.  On the second and any subsequent confiscation we will contact the parent/carer and request that they come and collect the item.  On such occasions, the School will not return a confiscated phone to the individual student, only the parent/carer.

The School accepts no responsibility for loss, theft or damage of any phone, or other electronic device brought into School, including those that have been confiscated.

School staff may examine any data or files on an electronic device if they suspect that the data or file on the device in question has been, or could be, used to cause harm, to disrupt teaching, break the school rules or contain undesirable materials including those that promote pornography, violence or bullying.  If a member of staff finds inappropriate material further action will be taken.

Communication between parents and students during the school day should only occur through the School’s official communication channels and not via a student mobile phone.  Parents are expected to contact the School Office whilst students wishing to contact home must speak to a member of staff.

We recommend that pupils are not allowed access to social media websites such as Instagram and Facebook until they are of the required age.  This is usually 13 years old but may vary depending on the user agreement of the website.  If we have reason to believe pupils are using social media underage we may report them to the website and request that their account is closed.

Mobile phones and computers are a part of everyday life for many children and young people.  Used correctly, they are an exciting source of communication, fun and education but, used incorrectly or in the wrong hands, they can be threatening and dangerous.

The risks include:

• cyber-bullying, where hurtful texts or emails are sent to children;
• children accidentally or deliberately accessing violent or sexually explicit websites, either on a computer or a mobile phone;
• paedophiles talking to children by mobile phone or online and enticing them to engage in sexual conversations, photographs, video or actual meetings.

It probably is not practical to simply ban your child from using mobiles and computers as they might well try to find a way of using them, perhaps at a friend’s house or in an internet café.  They also need to learn how to manage the risks. Younger children will be much easier to supervise and you will decide if and when they should begin to use these technologies.

For further advice and information visit:

You may wish to review our latest Online Safety newsletter (February 2023) and our Safer Internet Day newsletter.

We define bullying as behaviour that is deliberate, repeated more than once and is designed to be hurtful.  Bullies tend to pick on children who they think are unable to defend themselves.  Bullying is not only about hitting or fighting.  It also includes name calling, threats, taking belongings, intimidating and making unkind or abusive remarks.

We have anti-bullying procedures that help us to identify and deal with any case of bullying in school, but bullying does not only take place in school, it can also happen in the home or in the community.  Bullying can be serious and cause a lot of distress.  We strongly encourage students who are being bullied to tell an adult.  As soon as we know it is happening we will follow our anti-bullying procedures to try to stop it.

It is also distressing for a parent to suspect that their child might be bullying other children.  Our anti-bullying procedures include trying to support children who bully to change their behaviour.

Click here to access our Anti-Bullying Policy

Bournemouth School, the Sir David English Leisure Centre, and their car parks are all part of a no smoking site and a no smoking policy is in place for all members of the school community (staff, student and visitors). 

Students are not allowed to smoke or use e-cigarettes on the school site, including its car parks, nor whilst travelling to and from school.  This applies to ALL students.

Sanctions will be imposed for all incidents where students are found smoking.  Bournemouth School will also treat those students found in possession of cigarettes, tobacco and other smoking materials, including matches and lighters, in the same way as those found smoking.  Students found involved with other students who are smoking will also receive sanctions.

Students who persistently infringe the school’s no smoking policy are liable to face exclusion.

The school may confiscate, retain or dispose a pupil’s property as a punishment so long that it is reasonable in the circumstances (s.94 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006).  This may include:

• Jewellery that falls outside of our uniform code
• Mobile device where it is used inappropriately (see Acceptable use of ICT policy)
• Clothing that is not part of our uniform code (hooded jumpers for example)
• Prohibited items such as smoking paraphernalia

The school retains the right to search for prohibited items with or without consent (Section 550ZA (3) of Education Act 1996).  This should be done by a member of the Extended Leadership Team with another adult present.  Items that are prohibited would include:

• Knives and weapons
• Alcohol
• Illegal drugs
• Stolen items
• Tobacco and cigarette papers
• Fireworks
• Pornographic images
• Any article that has been or is likely to be used to commit an offence, cause personal injury or damage to property
• Any item banned by the school rules which has been identified in the rules as an item which may be searched for
• Weapons and items that could be illegal will be handed over to the police.

If a student is found in possession of prohibited items s/he may face immediate exclusion from the school, at the discretion of the Headmaster.

There are many occasions on which we may wish to take photographs of pupils.  For example, cameras (including video) are sometimes used in lessons to record pupils’ activities.  We may wish to use some of these images in our school prospectus or in other printed publications that we produce, as well as on our website.  We also like to take photographs of the form group and wish to include all the students.

From time to time, we may be visited by the media who will take photographs or film footage of a visiting dignitary or other high profile event.  Pupils will often appear in these images, which may appear in local or national newspapers, or on televised news programmes.

We will not use the personal details or full names (which means first name and surname) of any child or adult in a photographic image on video, on our website, in our school prospectus or in any of our other printed publications.  If we use photographs of individual pupils, we will not use the name of that child in the accompanying text or photo caption.  If we name a pupil in the text, we will not use a photograph of that child to accompany the article.  We may use group or class photographs or footage with very general labels, such as “a science lesson” or “Sports Day”.

We hope that parents will be happy for the school to make sound judgements about the use of imaging, but to comply with the Data Protection Act 1998 we need seek permission before we use images of a student. 

We process personal information relating to our pupils and may receive information about them from their previous school or college, local authority, the Department for Education (DfE) and the Learning Records Service.  We hold this personal data to:

• support our pupils’ learning;
• monitor and report on their progress;
• provide appropriate pastoral care, and
• assess quality of our services.

Information about our pupils that we hold will include their contact details, national curriculum assessment results, attendance information, any exclusion information, where they go after they leave us and personal characteristics such as their ethnic group, any special educational needs they may have as well as relevant medical information.  For pupils enrolling for post-14 qualifications, the Learning Records Service will give us your unique learner number (ULN) and may also give us details about your learning or qualifications.

In addition once our pupils reach the age of 13, the law requires us to pass on certain information about them to Bournemouth Local Authority who have responsibilities in relation to the education or training of 13-19 year olds (Youth Support Services).  We provide them with these pupils’ names and addresses, dates of birth, name(s)/address(es) of their parent(s)/guardian(s) and any other information relevant to their role.  We may also share certain personal data relating to children aged 16 and over with post-16 education, training providers and external careers guidance provider (Ansbury) in order to secure appropriate services for them.  A parent/guardian can ask that no information apart from their child’s name, address and date of birth be passed to Youth Support Services or Ansbury in relation to 13-19 year olds by completing the information form.

We will not give information about you to anyone outside the school without parental consent unless the law and our policies allow us to.

We are required, by law, to pass some information about you to the Department for Education (DfE).  This information will, in turn, then be made available for the use by the local authority (LA).

More information about how the DfE collect and use student’s information, can be found at:

https://www.gov.uk/data-protection-how-we-collect-and-share-research-data

Students who are unwell must report to reception where they are assessed by a first aider.  Students must not make their own arrangements to leave school if unwell.  Several of our administration staff are trained first-aiders, who are able to administer first aid only to your son in the event of illness or accident.  If they are concerned about him they will contact a parent or parents’ designated ‘emergency contacts’ to ensure that s/he is taken home (or to hospital) as quickly as possible.

No-one in the school is allowed to administer drugs of any sort, other than ‘Epipens’ in certain pre-arranged situations.  We can, however, look after student’s medication, including providing refrigeration if necessary. 

The School Nurse is available on a regular basis to discuss any personal problems with students.

Please see below a number of links to local resources you may find helpful.

Our school is part of Operation Encompass. This is a police and education early intervention safeguarding partnership which supports children and young people who experience Domestic Abuse. Operation Encompass means that the police will share information about Domestic Abuse incidents with our school soon after they have been called to a domestic incident. All Key Adults (DSL/DDSL) have attended an Operation Encompass local briefing as well as national online training.

For more information, please visit the Operation Encompass website.

The Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole MARAC sits once every week on a Thursday and information is shared regarding individuals identified as being at higher risk of harm. As a school, we are invited to submit information to these meetings when one of our students is being discussed; this will include information about attendance, behaviour and relationships, as well as any other broader concerns that we may have. More information can be found on BCP's website.

• Refer any Prevent concerns to police using the Home Office Prevent Referral form or, for advice, email dorsetprevent@dorset.pnn.police.uk
• For immediate response, telephone the anti-terror hotline on 0800 789 321
• If you have concerns about children travelling to a conflict zone, seek Home Office guidance and refer to MASH if you are still concerned.