At Curious Minds, we are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all our students.

We believe all pupils have a fundamental right to be protected from harm and we strive to maintain an environment where pupils feel secure and valued. We have robust procedures in place to keep pupils safe and protect them from maltreatment. We are alert to the signs of abuse and neglect, and we have a duty to our pupils, parents, and staff to act quickly and responsibly if we have reason for concern.

This policy applies to anyone working on behalf of Curious Minds, including Director, Tutors, and students.

Legal Framework

This policy has been drawn up on the basis of legislation, policy and guidance that seeks to protect children in the United Kingdom. A summary of the key legislation is available from nspcc.org.uk/learning.

We believe that:

• children and young people should never experience abuse of any kind.
• we have a responsibility to promote the welfare of all children and young people, to keep them.

We acknowledge:

• the welfare of children is paramount in all the work we do and in all the decisions we take.
• all children, regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation have an equal right to protection from all types of harm or abuse.
• some children are additionally vulnerable because of the impact of previous experiences, their level of dependency, communication needs or other issues.
• working in partnership with children, young people, their parents, carers, and other agencies is essential in promoting young people’s welfare.

We will seek to keep children and young people safe by:

• making sure that children, young people, and their families know where to go for help if they have a concern.
• ensuring that any concerns are escalated to the appropriate authorities.
• valuing, listening to and respecting children.
• appointing a nominated child protection lead for children and young people, and a lead member for safeguarding.
• adopting child protection and safeguarding best practice through our policies, procedures, and code of conduct for tutors and business admin.
• developing and implementing an effective online safety policy and related procedures
• providing effective management for staff through supervision, support, training, and quality assurance measures so that all staff know about and follow our policies, procedures, and behaviour codes confidently and competently.
• recruiting and selecting staff and volunteers safely, ensuring all necessary checks are made.
• recording, storing, and using information professionally and securely, in line with data protection legislation and guidance.
• using our safeguarding and child protection procedures to share concerns and relevant information with agencies who need to know, and involving children, young people, parents, families, and carers appropriately.
• using our procedures to manage any allegations against staff appropriately.
• creating and maintaining an anti-bullying environment and ensuring that we have a policy and procedure to help us deal effectively with any bullying that does arise.
• ensuring that we have effective complaints and whistleblowing measures in place.
• ensuring that we provide a safe physical environment for our children, young people, staff, and volunteers, by applying health and safety measures in accordance with the law and regulatory guidance.
• building a safeguarding culture where staff and volunteers, children, young people, and their families, treat each other with respect and are comfortable about sharing concerns.
• requiring all student accounts to be linked to a supervisor account. Students using Atom Prime will only be able to access Atom outside of school hours (registered as 8:30am-4pm on the platform) with a fully activated Parent Portal.

During our online group lessons, we will ensure:

• Regular monitoring & supervision during online lessons by the Manager at Curious Minds (as well as the tutor leading the session.
• Preventing the sharing with attending children of any private details beyond the first name of any Curious Minds employee or associate.
• Always gaining parental consent if a child’s camera will be on for interactivity purposes during an online lesson.
• Preventing the interaction between children in an unsupervised environment.
• Monitoring all interactions through the tutor and Manager.
• Recording all interactive lessons for safeguarding purposes, before permanently deleting any recordings within two weeks
• Children are expected to maintain classroom level behaviour during online lessons, and we recommend supervision by parents to ensure behaviour.
• Conducting DBS checks of all teachers and Manager who participate in live lessons.

During our 1 to 1 session, we will ensure:

• providing guidance and assistance to all our tutors involved in 1:1 session with children on safeguarding best practice.
• having a reporting system in place for our tutors to raise any concerns.
• Regular monitoring & supervision during online lessons by the Manager at Curious Minds (as well as the tutor leading the session.
• providing this document and other resources to parents
• children are expected to maintain classroom level behavior during tutoring sessions, and we recommend supervision by parents to ensure behavior.
• conducting DBS checks of all tutors hired to represent Curious Minds.

Before any sessions are booked, we will ask for:

• Parents to with two contact telephone numbers in case emergency (parents/carers/guardians), child’s DOB, child’s school, current address.
• Parental consent if a child’s camera will be on for interactivity purposes during an online lesson.

Staff safeguarding

We take the safeguarding of our staff incredibly seriously. Any kind of harassment, abuse, bullying or discrimination directed towards a member of the Curious Minds Team is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. Reports of any and all instances of harassment will be investigated and may result in the termination of the tuition contract.

Child Protection Lead

Name: Rutuja Shinde

Email: learn.curiousminds@gmail.com

Deputy Child Protection Lead

Name: Ryan Hobbs

Email: tutor@curiousmindslearning.co.uk

This policy statement came into force on 10/08/2023. We are committed to reviewing our policy and good practice annually. This policy statement and accompanying procedures were last reviewed on 10/08/2023.