Safeguarding Newsletter December 2023

DECEMBER 2023

SAFEGUARDING NEWSLETTER FOR PARENTS

Inside this issue: The dangers of vaping for young people Staying safe online What our students have been learning-GOALS External support services

All colleges will close on Thursday, 21st December & reopen Monday, 8th January. Lessons will take place as normal on Thursday 21st with no classes on Friday, 22nd December.

Safeguarding at college The safety and wellbeing of our students and staff is a top priority at the Heart of Yorkshire Education Group. All staff are trained in safeguarding and child protection and we have an enhanced safeguarding trained team across all 3 colleges within the group.

If you have any concerns, please contact : Carol Price – Group Safeguarding Lead Michelle Jones – Deputy DSL safeguarding@heartofyorkshire.ac.uk

DECEMBER 2023

What are the concerns with vaping for children and young people?

Most children and young people don’t vape or smoke. However, in 2022 the number

of

11-17-year-olds

in

Great

Britain currently using vapes rose to 7% compared to 4% in 2020. Whilst this

increase

is

concerning,

it

is

important to note that most vaping is experimental, mainly

with

confined

to

regular

vaping

children

who

currently smoke or have done in the past.

The

increase

in

youth

vaping

has

coincided with the arrival on the UK market of a new category of cheap and attractive disposable vapes that have proven particularly popular with children and young people and have been promoted extensively on social For more information about vapes and stopping smoking, visit the Wakefield Yorkshire Smokefree website: wakefield.yorkshiresmoke free.nhs.uk Children and Young people can find out more information on vaping on the FRANK website: talktofrank.com/drug/vapes Or read the ASH Briefing: ash.org.uk/uploads/ASH-brief for-localauthorities-on-youth vaping.pdf

media. We are working hard nationally and locally to address these issues.

DECEMBER 2023

Staying safe online The internet has become integral to our daily lives and can be fantastic for young people. They learn on the go, watch their favourite show, talk online with friends, or play online games. Today, our lives and those of our teens are regularly online.

Although the internet provides some great benefits, it also can be dangerous, especially for more vulnerable teenagers. Internet safety for teens has never been more critical than it is today. As technology advances and our digital footprint expands, teenagers are exposed to an ever-growing range of online threats.

These include cybercrime and threats, such as phishing, cyberbullying, online predators and identity theft. The Heart of Yorkshire Education Group uses a numbers of ways to educate young people into thinking critically about how the keep themselves safe online, what they see online and we have invested in safety systems to filter online content and monitor activity that may be concerning.

The Heart of Yorkshire Education Group uses Smoothwall Filter to help protect students from accessing harmful material online 100% real-time, dynamic content analysis Assesses and permits web pages at the point of request. Inappropriate or harmful content is blocked the second it goes live. Students are protected at all times.

Notifications and reports Notifies of incidents across 7 category rule sets, enabling prompt attention. Enables reporting on search behaviours by individual or groups to support incident investigations and education.

Supports BYOD Provides filtering across public Wi-Fi and guest mobile devices securely on the network and across all platforms. Meaning students' own devices are fully filtered too.

Works behind HTTPS Detects harmful or malicious content that is hidden, including behind Secure Socket Layer (SSL) and secure anonymous proxies.

Our systems are regularly tested across the group using Test Filtering to check the Filters are performing as they should. You can easily try this on your home systems @testfiltering.com Qustodio (part of Smoothwall) provide a free parental control and digital wellbeing solution free of charge for up to 2 devices.

Scan the QR code to find out more.

DECEMBER 2023

What our students have been learning GOALS (Greater Opportunities, Aspirations and Life Skills) During our GOALS lessons students have been learning and getting involved in all kinds of activities based around keeping themselves safe. Students have attended talks from the fire service around road safety, safer driving and respectful passenger.

They have also attended talks from Reflections around making the right choices and the impact of wrong choices, with a focus Over 400 students participated in multi around drugs & alcohol, and agency working at Leeds First Direct Arena, homelessness. alongside police and ambulance services, to recreate scenarios of a knife attack, gang culture and explosions to learn how to stay safe should they ever find themselves in these situations.

Next term we will have a continued focus on making informed choices with more guest speakers covering – consent, mental health & wellbeing, cyber safety, gambling and debt.

DECEMBER 2023

EXTERNALWELLBEING SUPPORT Spectrum Community Health provides quality healthcare for people in vulnerable circumstances. We work in partnership to provide primary care, substance misuse and sexual health services in the community.

For more information visit: www.spectrum-cic.org.uk/

PAPYRUS exists to reduce the number of young people who take their own lives, by shattering the stigma surrounding suicide and equipping young people and their communities with the skills to recognise and respond to emotional distress. We believe that no young person should have to struggle alone with thoughts of suicide.

DECEMBER 2023

DECEMBER 2023

The Drink, Drug, Hub is a project run

by North Yorkshire Horizon. The website is filled with information and how to get support, if either you or someone you know struggles with alcohol or drugs.

IDAS is the largest specialist charity in the north supporting people affected by domestic abuse & sexual violence.

Whether you want to find more out about mental health conditions, how to manage your own thoughts and feelings, or advice on helping someone else, visit: https://www.yormind.org.uk When your child is suffering, parenthood can be tough, lonely and frightening. When the cause of that suffering is hard to understand, as is so often the case with mental health, it becomes more difficult still.

At Charlie Waller, we understand this. Led by parents who have experienced this challenge themselves, our parent and carer programme offers practical advice, training and support to parents, carers and families.

Contact : 01635869754 or scan QR code below for more information/support

DECEMBER 2023

TO ALL OUR PARENTS, CARERS & STUDENTS

All colleges will close on Thursday, 21st December & reopen Monday, 8th January. Lessons will take place as normal on Thursday 21st with no classes on Friday, 22nd December.