Prevent

As part of Dickens Heath Community Primary School's on-going Safeguarding and Child Protection duties we are fully behind the government's Prevent Strategy.

From 1 July 2015 all schools are subject to a duty under section 26 of the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015, in the exercise of their functions, to have “due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism”. This duty is known as the Prevent Duty for Schools.

The statutory guidance refers to the importance of Prevent awareness training to equip staff to identify children at risk of being drawn into terrorism and to challenge extremist ideas. The Home Office has developed a core training product for this purpose – Workshop to Raise Awareness of Prevent (WRAP). All our staff have received WRAP training sessions from a Home Office approved trainer on what Prevent is about and how to deal with any issues they may see inside or outside school. The Headteacher and DSL have also received WRAP training and are approved Home Office WRAP trainers to deliver training in school.

What does this mean in practice?

Many of the things we already do in school to help children become positive, happy members of society also contribute to the Prevent strategy.

These include:

¨ Exploring other cultures and religions and promoting diversity

¨ Challenging prejudices and racist comments

¨ Developing critical thinking skills and a strong, positive self-identity

¨ Promoting the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils, as well as British values such as democracy  

We will also protect children from the risk of radicalisation, for example by using filters on the internet to make sure they can’t access extremist and terrorist material, or by vetting visitors who come into school to work with pupils.  

How does Prevent relate to British values?

Schools have been required to promote British values since 2014, and this will continue to be part of our response to the Prevent strategy.

British values include:

¨ Democracy

¨ The rule of law

¨ Individual liberty

¨ Mutual respect

¨ Tolerance of different faiths and beliefs

To read more about how we teach and promote British Values in our school please click here