Head’s Blog: Making School Safer

As Headteacher I am acutely aware of my biggest responsibility: to do all that I can to ensure that students are safe in school. No one can guarantee the safety of another person, but I know that I must do what I can to keep school safe for everyone. Two aspects of safeguarding offer a perennial headache to headteachers everywhere: toilets and mobile phones. Here I want to outline our approach in these two areas.

Toilets

Access to toilets during the school day is a basic human right for all students. Likewise, toilets should offer privacy for students and be clean and hygienic. This creates some problems, because – away from teacher supervision – toilets can attract unwanted behaviour. Sometimes students use toilets for vaping, using their phones and even vandalise them. I am amazed that some students choose to eat their lunch sitting on the floor in the toilets. Whilst these issues are common to many schools it does not mean we should accept them.

In response, we have increased the number of occasions when the toilets are checked and cleaned during the day including during break and lunch. We also ensure that each year group has their own toilets so that they are less likely to be intimidating places for younger students. We have seen a reduction in vandalism and eating in the toilets and they are cleaner. We have also confiscated mobile phones from students and have had to sanction students for vaping in toilets. As a result, we have seen a reduction in poor behaviour in the toilets.

CCTV was recently upgraded around the school site, but I want to reassure you that we do not have CCTV in the toilets.

We generally discourage students from going to the toilet during lessons because they miss out on learning, and because it prepares them for adult life (the teachers cannot go to the toilet during lessons after all!). However, there are no hard and fast rules here. We will always try to respond in a reasonable manner to student requests. There is a large supply of free sanitary products discreetly available for girls if they ever need them; they can ask at student reception whenever required.

If you ever have concerns that your daughter or son does not feel safe using toilets at Fearnhill – for any reason – please let me know.

Mobile Phones

In the last 15 years there has been a sea change in how teenagers use mobile phones. I am convinced the increase in use of mobile phones by teenagers is a cause of the rapid deterioration in the mental health of young people. There is strong evidence that this is the case (see for example THIS article in the Financial Times).

Furthermore, we know that mobile phones are designed to be addictive. As adults, many of us spend more time scrolling than is good for us and it is often much worse for children. Schools often have issues with phones such as cyber bullying, filming in school, messaging during lessons and gaming to name a few.

For this reason, we have made it clear that we do not want to see phones during the school day – phones should be switched off and in bags at all times. Students have responded very well to this, with very few issues linked to phones. There has been a reduction in reports of cyber-bullying (especially in school).

Yet students are still using phones on site before the start and after the end of the school day. For this reason, we are now going to make it clear that we do not want students using their phones anywhere on site at any time. Where students need to contact home, or use their phone for any other specific purpose, they can speak to a teacher and will be allowed to use their phone in that circumstance.

I hope you will agree that the approaches we are taking to keep students safe are reasonable, proportionate and effective. As always we are very grateful for your support as we continue to work to make Fearnhill the best school that it can be.

Tim Spencer, Headteacher