Safeguarding
Safeguarding at Rochester
Rochester Independent College is committed to ensuring the welfare and safety of all students. We believe that students have the right to learn in an environment that is safe, caring, inclusive and supportive. This includes being protected from all types of abuse, in both the physical and virtual environments: Online safety is an important aspect of safeguarding our students.
All adults in the College receive appropriate training to recognise when students need additional support and are confident in applying our safeguarding procedures. These support mechanisms and procedures are holistic and cater for boarding students also. The students are given the opportunity to learn about how to be safe through their curriculum and daily interactions with the adults and their peers. Their voice is heard through formal and informal methods and their welfare will always be the most important influence in shaping our College.
Key contacts
Kayleigh Simpson, Director of Safeguarding
kayleigh.simpson@rochester-college.org.uk
Phone: 01634 828115.
Evenings and weekends (including during holiday time) 07495 742288
The nominated governor with responsibility for Safeguarding is Jonathan Cuff.
jonathan.cuff@dukeseducation.com
Phone: 020 3696 5300
Dukes House, 58 Buckingham Gate, London, SW1E 6AJ
The independent listener is available for all boarding students who would like to raise any worries or concerns with someone independent to the college.
Harry Gilbert can be contacted on 07483 376652.
Medway Safeguarding Children Partnership
Phone: 01634 336 329
Medway Council Social Care
Phone: 01634 334 466
Social Care Out of Hours’ service Phone: 08457 626 777
Phone: 01634 331065
"As Children’s Commissioner I take on a crucial role, sitting at the heart of Government, delivering for children, and championing their voices and needs. As a former teacher, headteacher and school trust leader for over 30 years, I have seen first-hand how passionate and compassionate children are. This is an ambitious generation that wants to succeed in life, but that also wants to play its part in improving the world around them. They need us, as adults, to listen to them and ensure they get the right help to fulfil their true potential."
You can contact the children's commissioner by calling 02077 838330
Dame Rachel De Souza
The college provides excellent support and guidance which enhances students’ personal development. It is highly successful in its aim to develop self-knowledge and self-esteem.
Support for our students
Whisper provides everyone in the school community a safe place to talk, report or highlight issues and concerns. When you don’t know where to go or who to turn to, Whisper can provide a light in the dark.
Whisper allows students to report any issues or concerns they may be having, anonymously, through SMS messaging or via email.
If you need to report anything, please follow the link https://swgfl.org.uk/whisper/RIC1
Alternatively, you can send a message to 07860 021 323 starting your message with RIC1 to report via SMS
The school will respond as soon as we can.
For more information on Whisper, please use the following links from SWGfL (South West Grid for Learning – a charity who specialise in online safety and developed Whisper)
At RIC we have an online safety group with parent, student, staff and Governor representation to review online safety culture within the college. The digital world is an integral part of student's lives. It opens up so many educational and social opportunities, giving them access to a world of information and experiences.
Whilst reflecting on the many positives, It is essential that our students are safeguarded from potentially harmful and inappropriate online material. Through ongoing education, conversations and reacting to concerns raised we empower our students to make sensible and informed choices online.
Keeping Children Safe in Education 2024 outlines 4 categories of risk (the 4 c’s):
Content: being exposed to illegal, inappropriate, or harmful content, for example: pornography, fake news, racism, misogyny, self-harm, suicide, anti-Semitism, radicalisation, and extremism.
Contact: being subjected to harmful online interaction with other users; for example: peer to peer pressure, commercial advertising and adults posing as children or young adults with the intention to groom or exploit them for sexual, criminal, financial or other purposes.
Conduct: online behaviour that increases the likelihood of, or causes, harm; for example, making, sending and receiving explicit images (e.g. consensual and non consensual sharing of nudes and semi-nudes and/or pornography, sharing other explicit images and online bullying.
Commerce: risks such as online gambling, inappropriate advertising, phishing and or financial scams.
We encourage any person with a concern for our students to speak directly to the safeguarding team.
We have also provided additional links to support organisations for both students and parents/Guardians below:
NCA-CEOP: www.ceop.police.uk and www.thinkuknow.co.uk
Internet Watch Foundation (IWF): www.iwf.org.uk
UK Safer Internet Centre: www.saferinternet.org.uk
Report Harmful Content: www.reportharmfulcontent.com
Marie Collins Foundation: www.mariecollinsfoundation.org.uk
Internet Matters: www.internetmatters.org
NSPCC: www.nspcc.org.uk/onlinesafety
Get Safe Online: www.getsafeonline.org
Cyber Choices: Nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk
National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC): www.ncsc.gov.uk
At RIC we believe in supporting our students to find their direction
Supporting students
