At Manor High School we firmly believe that all students benefit from outstanding school attendance. To this end, we will do all we can to ensure that our students achieve maximum possible attendance and that any problems that prevent full attendance are identified and acted upon promptly. In order for an attendance record to be deemed very good, it must be 96% or above.

We expect that all students will:

• attend school regularly
• attend school punctually
• attend school appropriately prepared for the day

We expect that all parents/carers who have day to day responsibility for the children and young people will:

• encourage regular school attendance and be aware of their legal responsibilities;
• ensure that the child/children in their care arrive at school punctually, prepared for the school day;
• contact the school before 8.40am on the morning of each day of the student's absence and send a letter, which will be kept on the student's file, on their return to school. The letter should explain the reason and date(s) of absence, giving the student's full name. Any unexplained absence is treated as unauthorised absence. We would ask that parents contact the school promptly whenever any problem occurs that may keep the child away from school.

We may ask for medical evidence to be provided for any period of absence that exceeds three days.

Manor High will not tolerate bullying of any kind as we believe that all members of the school community have the right to learn and work free from intimidation and fear. All bullying that the school is made aware of will be investigated thoroughly and action taken.

As with all bullying, we will not tolerate cyber-bullying and would encourage young people and their parents to report any such issues to the school, either to the Safeguarding Designate, the House Manager or form tutor.

The Anti-Bullying Alliance defines bullying as:
the repetitive, intentional hurting of one person by another(s), where the relationship involves an imbalance of power. Bullying can be carried out physically, verbally, emotionally or through cyberspace.

Bullying is when someone or a group of people make you feel sad or afraid, over and over again. It is defined as: Several Times On Purpose

It can be:

• Physical : Pushing, kicking, hitting or any use of violence
• Verbal : Name-calling, sarcasm, spreading rumours, threatening, teasing about someone’s race/gender/size/performance/looks/background etc
• Emotional : Excluding, tormenting, being unfriendly, looks, silence, staring etc
• On social media or by mobile phone
• A ‘hate’ incident – meaning you or someone else is being targeted because you or they are seen as being different. This might be because of disability, gender, race, religion/belief or sexual orientation.

You have the right to be treated with dignity and respect and to live without fear. So you must tell someone.

Who could you tell?

• Your parents
• An adult you trust
• A friend
• Your form tutor
• A House Manager
• Contacting Childline on 0800 1111

Remember: you must tell someone. As long as you tell someone they will make sure the school knows, and we can help.

At Manor High, we believe that the use of technology is highly beneficial to the education of young people. As well as technology, such as the Internet, being used in a positive way for educational outcomes, we also acknowledge that there are many risks in using these. Our philosophy is to educate young people to make the right choices when using the Internet and to teach them how to be safe when using online technologies.

As with all bullying, we will not tolerate cyber-bullying and would encourage young people and their parents to report any such issues to the school, either to the Safeguarding Designate, the House Manager or form tutor. In addition, if there are any concerns in relation to any content which is on the Internet or any persons who may be contacting young people, there is an option to report this online through CEOP.

National Online Safety: Social media and mental health poster

The staff at our school are committed to providing a safe place for all students, and a place where they can feel confident, have ambition and succeed.

The welfare of our students is paramount and at the centre of all we do.

Our safeguarding team is led by our Senior Designated Safeguarding Lead, Deputy Head/SENDCo, Vanessa Mehta.

• Designated Safeguarding Lead: Vanessa Mehta
• Operational Designated Safeguarding Lead: Ashma Ghani
• Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead: Vickie Booth
• Designated Safeguarding Leads: James Croucher, Hasina Tutla, Simon Greiff, Reena Sumra
• Prevent Single Point of Contact (SPOC): Ashma Ghani
• Designated Teacher for Children in Care: Vanessa Mehta
• Nominated Safeguarding Governor: Hayley Holmes

Our safeguarding policy is centred around the fact that everyone has a responsibility to safeguard our school community, students and staff alike, and our staff receive regular training and updates.  Section 175 of the Education Act 2002 ensures our statutory duty is met promoting the welfare and safety of students and assisting in ensuring the best possible outcomes are achieved.

Child Protection is key to ensuring both the health and wellbeing of our students.  We work closely with colleagues from the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Team and First Response to guarantee we protect our students who are at risk of or are suffering significant harm.

Operation Encompass

All Leicester City and Leicestershire County schools are part of Operation Encompass which is a safeguarding initiative aimed at improving outcomes for children and families affected by domestic violence and abuse.

Operation Encompass is a protocol whereby schools are formally notified of any reported incident of domestic violence at an address at which children are present or normally resident. It is run in partnership with Leicester City Council, Leicestershire County Council and with Leicestershire Police.

All public agencies currently share information where there are safeguarding concerns or risk of harm to children and the Police now share information about all incidents of domestic abuse through Operation Encompass.

To further support the welfare of children, when any domestic abuse incident has been reported to the Police during the school term and one of our pupils was in the household, the information is shared with the Designated Safeguarding Lead.

This system has been introduced because domestic abuse in a household can have a huge impact on children, even if they do not see what is happening.

This information will be used to ensure the school is able to provide appropriate support to pupils. The information will remain confidential and will only be shared on a strictly need-to-know basis. For example, with the class teacher. It will not be shared with children.

If you would like to speak to someone in confidence about domestic abuse, call the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Domestic Abuse Helpline on 0800 802 0028

Early Help

Leicestershire County Council’s Children and Family Wellbeing Service (tel: 01163058727), was established in April 2019 following the integration of four services:

• Children’s Centre Programme
• Information, Support and Assessment Service
• Supporting Leicestershire Families (Troubled Families programme)
• Youth Offending Service

Children and Family Wellbeing Service (CFWS) provides early help services – these are services which may be offered at any point in a child or young person’s life, where the child is experiencing some difficulties which cannot be supported by universal services, such as schools or GP, alone. 

All referrals into CFWS are first taken by social workers in our First Response Children’s Duty team. This is to check that children are safe and don’t need a social worker. 

Sometimes, calls are made to parents and professionals involved such as teachers or nurses to get more information before they are passed onto the most appropriate team.

Professionals can ask for help for a family using the Multi-Agency Referral From (MARF). 

Families can use the Request for Services online form(link is external). Requests for help can be made by a young person themselves, their family, friends or by professionals supporting them. Referrals must have the consent and engagement of families. You don’t need to know which service to ask for – we just need you to explain what you feel you need help with and what you feel might happen without support. We will also want to know what you may have already tried. Please have the necessary information ready – you have 60 minutes to complete the form.

Services provided

Standard family support 0-19

Families who need help can access a range of services which include:

• Thematic workshops
• Group work programmes. The workshops are being further developed with partners to include workshops for parents on issues such as tenancy management, debt and financial management, healthy lifestyles, etc.
• SEND short breaks assessment
• 8-12-week CBT based support for children 8-19 with low to medium level mental health difficulties
• Following an early help assessment, one-to-one programmes of support covering issues such as household routines, behaviour management, coordination of services. This standard family support is provided for up to 12 weeks.

Enhanced family support 0-19

Enhanced support is an intensive offer which can be delivered in family homes, communities and schools, and may be in place for up to 12 months.  Keyworkers work alongside families to understand their needs through early help assessment and plan together with the family and other partner agencies to achieve good outcomes.

Safeguarding out of hours support:

Should you require any advice or support with safeguarding, please refer to the following contacts:

Leicestershire County Council First Response	If you have significant concerns about a child’s safety	0116 305 0005
Leicester City Council	If you have significant concerns about a child’s safety	0116 454 1004
Childline	18 or Under? Childline offers free, confidential advice and support whatever your worry, whenever you need help.	0800 1111
NSPCC	Contact the NSPCC helpline if you're worried about a child, even if you're unsure, contact our professional counsellors for help, advice and support.	help@nspcc.org.uk  0808 800 5000
NSPCC Helpline, Report Abuse in Education	Helpline for people who have experienced sexual harassment or abuse in education	0800 136 663
The Samaritans	Confidential emotional support	116 123
Kooth	A provider of online mental health services for children, young people and adults	https://www.kooth.com/
FRANK	Confidential drugs information and advice	0300 123 6600 https://www.talktofrank.com/
CAMHS Family Therapy Team	A new service that has been set up for families across Leicester and Leicestershire.  Families can ring and self-refer for support.	0116 295 2909 https://www.leicspart.nhs.uk/service/child-and-adolescent-mental-health-services-camhs/
Childnet International	Internet Safety	020 7639 6967 https://www.childnet.com/

For further information, please view our Safeguarding policies.

The Prevent strategy is 1 of the 4 elements of CONTEST, the Government’s counter-terrorism strategy. It aims to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism. Prevent is part of the safeguarding work that Manor High undertakes. All staff have completed a Workshop to Raise Awareness of Prevent (WRAP). There is also a section within the safeguarding policy which addresses the concept of anti-radicalisation. More information can be found on the Lets Talk About It website.

What to do if you feel that a young person is at risk:

If you are a student at the school:

• Tell a member of staff about it if you’re in school;
• Tell your parents or guardian about it if you’re at home;
• Call Childline (0800 1111), The Samaritans (08457 909090) or other relevant organisation

If you are a parent:

• You can contact the Safeguarding Designated Lead at the school – Ashma Ghani
• An alternative point of contact is the House Manager

The School Nurse can offer confidential advice and support with behaviour management, emotional health and wellbeing, healthy lifestyle, smoking cessation advice, continence issues and any ongoing health conditions.

There are a number of ways to get in contact with the School Nurse Service.

• For parent/carers please contact the base 0116 2883707.
• Young people can self-refer via their House Manager, or 
• The School Nurse Service provide a text messaging service, ChatHealth, to which anybody can access to ask advice or support. Just text: 07520 615387

Leicestershire Partnership Trust has designed two websites that cover a variety of topics, so please have a look.

www.healthforkids.co.uk  (5-11 years)

www.healthforteens.co.uk  (11-16 years)

Look out for the School Nurse Team around the School during the academic year as the service have some exciting things planned and feel free to come over to talk us. You can also join webchats to talk with real health experts and other young people about the issues that matter to you.

Child on Child Abuse

This school recognises that children sometimes display abusive behaviour themselves and that such incidents or allegations must be referred on for appropriate support and intervention. Such abuse is unacceptable and will not be tolerated or passed off as “banter” or “part of growing up”.

This abuse could for example include:

• Physical abuse – hitting, kicking, hair pulling.
• Sexual violence and harassment – Sexual violence refers to sexual offences as described under the Sexual Offences Act 2003 including rape and sexual assault. Sexual harassment is ‘unwanted conduct of a sexual nature’ that can occur online and offline and may include sexual name-calling, taunting or “jokes” and physical behaviour, for example, deliberately brushing against someone or interfering with clothes.
• ‘Upskirting’, a criminal offence (under the Voyeurism (Offences) Act 2019) and typically involves taking a picture under a person’s clothing (not necessarily a skirt) without them knowing, in order to obtain sexual gratification or to cause humiliation, distress or alarm (anyone of any gender can be a victim).
• Sexting – including pressuring others to share sexual content.
• Initiation / hazing type violence and rituals – subjecting newcomers to potentially humiliating or abusing trials with the aim of creating a bond.
• Abuse within intimate partner relationships and / or teenage relationship abuse – a pattern of actual or threatened acts of physical, sexual or emotional abuse, perpetrated against a current or former partner.

There are school and Safeguarding Children Partnership guidance and policies which detail the school’s procedures to address and minimise these concerns including: 

• Behaviour Policy
• Anti-bullying Policy
• E-safety Policy
• Part 5 of ‘Keeping children safe in education.’ 2023 

Sharing nudes and semi-nudes 

School will always respond if informed that children have been involved in sharing nudes and semi–nudes (youth produced sexual imagery). The UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS) guidance, “Sexting in schools and colleges: responding to incidents and safeguarding young people” and ‘Sharing nudes and semi-nudes – advice for education settings working with children and young people. (Dec 2020) will be used to guide the school’s response on a case by case basis.

The key points being:

• Inform the Lead DSL as soon as possible. If necessary, the DSL or DDSL may interview the student(s) involved; this may include requesting the child to describe the image in order to ascertain whether a child has been or as it risk of being harmed. 
• Support the victim as appropriate and in accordance with their best interests
• Searching, screening and confiscation will be used as appropriate
• Inform all parents of involved children unless by doing so you put a child at risk
• Images will not be viewed by school staff
• If school is to deal with the matter, involve parents in ensuring the images are deleted

If there is evidence of exploitation or the targeting of a vulnerable student, inform the police

Reporting an incident of sexual violence or sexual harassment:

Where allegations of a sexual nature are made, the school will follow the statutory guidance set out in part 5 of keeping Children Safe in Education 2023.

Where an incident has occurred or specific risks are identified, the details will be added to a safeguarding or behaviour record for the children concerned and an investigation conducted by a DSL. 

A risk assessment will be undertaken by the DSL in order to minimise the risk of further harm and to ensure the safety of all staff and students.

If it is believed that any child is at risk of significant harm, a referral will be made to children’s social care. The DSL will then work with children’s social care to decide on next steps, which may include contacting the police. 

In other cases we may follow our Safeguarding and Child protection policy and inform parents. Parents and carers of the children involved will be informed as soon as it is appropriate to do so. Our focus is the safety and wellbeing of the students, if the school believes that notifying parents could increase the risk to the child or exacerbate the problem, advice will be sought from children’s social care and / or the police before parents are contacted.

Support will be offered to the alleged victim, the child or young person accused, and any other children involved by different adults in school (to avoid a conflict of interest). A referral to any relevant outside agency will be made e.g. Police or Social Care. 

Curriculum
Planned PHSE and RSE will include personal privacy, respect and consent so that children have a better understanding of how to behave towards their peers including online. This will be taught alongside other safeguarding issues as set out in DFE guidance.

A fully qualified School Nurse is available throughout the academic year. In conjunction with the pastoral team and academic staff, the nurse in closely involved in offering personalised care. The nurse also offers initial counselling and can advise and signpost students and parents to services that will provide specialist support.

The School in conjunction with the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Primary Care Trusts provides a vaccination programme in line with government guidelines.

We also have a school counsellor who offers support to students dealing with emotional health and wellbeing issues. Appointments are made on a referral basis via school nurse or a House Manager. 

All meetings are confidential unless a referral is required to an outside agency. Parents would always be informed if this deemed necessary.

Your Health and Wellbeing

On the links below you can find information about various areas of that you need to work on to keep healthy:

"Wellbeing is at the heart of Manor High School"

We are delighted to announce that in May Manor High School have previously achieved the National Wellbeing Award for Schools by showing commitment to promoting emotional wellbeing and positive mental health. We are currently working towards gaining the award again.

Mental Health Helplines and Support

• Samaritians:  Support for those experiencing suicidal thoughts.
• Young Minds: Young person version of Mind, mental health charity.
• Shout: Free text service for anyone in crisis.
• The Mix: All round support and advice for MH and related topics.
• Kooth: Free, safe and anonymous support.
• Self Harm UK: Dedicated to self-harm recovery, insight and support.
• Headspace App: Meditation App
• Calm Harm App: Help and ideas around self harm urges and struggles.
• Harmless:  Supporting those who do or are at risk of self-harm and suicide
• Woebot App: Anonymous check in to help you reflect on how you’re feeling.
• Clear Fear App: Help and ideas around anxiety.
• Samaritans Self Help App: Track your mood and find practical tips and techniques to look after your emotional health

If you’re struggling with your mental health we would recommend talking to your GP as that is often the gateway to further support such as medication and counselling.