Blog Post 3 – Safeguarding and Wellbeing
So in the third session we looked at Safeguarding and Wellbeing for children, this is an extremely broad topic and I feel that during the lecture we only scratched the surface in regards to the areas that could have been covered or spoken about.
The lecture started off by showing which of the teaching standards safeguarding and wellbeing would cover. I thought this was a good way of starting because it gave us an insight into how we might experience or come across it ourselves when in school. So the next topic of interest that was discussed was the government initiative brought in, in 2003 called ‘every child matters’ which was designed to help support and provide children with 5 main outcomes, these were as follows:
- Be healthy
- Stay safe
- Enjoy and achieve
- Make a positive contribution
- Achieve economic wellbeing
To help push through ‘every child matters’ the government set up extra plans to work alongside it, they created and opened sure start children’s centres in well known deprived areas which catered for nursery education, family support and employment advice. They also introduced full service extended schools which opened beyond school hours which helped start the likes of breakfast clubs and after school clubs, this is now a regular occurrence in most school at present. They also increased investment into the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS), enabling such services the government hoped to be able to help children before they reached a crisis point. They also aimed to improve speech and language therapy for children in schools along with tackling homelessness and reforming the youth justice system. This was only a small part of the lecture but I think it is a key element that has shaped safeguarding and wellbeing within schools.
We then went on to an area talking about happiness; this was a lot more general information on happiness although it was interesting to see that OFSTED had put out something on measuring happiness. As when they are mentioned you get the complete opposite reaction! It did however produce a useful quote of wellbeing:
“Wellbeing is a social construct and represents a shifting set of meaning – wellbeing is no less than what a group or groups of people collectively agree makes a ‘good life’.” (Ereaut and Whiting, 2008, p1)
The lecture then moved on to relationships within the classroom regarding pupil and teacher, once again the standards were highlighted and mentioned to create and ‘maintain positive relationships with pupils’, it pointed out how you as the teacher must create an aura of professionalism but also show a personal interest in children. I found this part of the lecture interesting as I have often thought during SBT 1 am I carrying myself in the right way, should I be more strict should I be over friendly so that all the children like me, it would be interesting to hear if you have felt this as well?
Resilience was also talked about during the lecture but it was not one of my main focuses that I wanted to write about for this blog post, so if you had anything you wanted to add to that section of the lecture that would be helpful!
We finally moved onto e-safety and I feel this is an extremely important part of safeguarding children, as we are currently living in a very digital age. Most children if not all have a computer with the internet at home and it is also a central component to the classroom as well, so e-safety is a must when talking about safeguarding and wellbeing. E-safety was split into 3 categories; contact, content and commercialism. Each with their own sub headings, I think with regards to school, contact and content are the more important and have areas that are more likely to come up when using a computer and on the internet. Two areas under the contact heading, ‘online grooming and cyber bullying’ are two of the more important that I feel need addressing and protocols and policies should be in place at all schools to try and prevent these from happening.
To Summarise I could have talked far more about e-safety and especially those two categories I brought up at the end (but I was running out of words), but I think we as teachers play an extremely important role in the safeguarding and wellbeing of children especially when they are in our care at school, so it is essential that we know about it and know how to respond and help children if they need us!
Thanks for reading,
Simon
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I agree with a lot of points made above and recognise that there are prevalent issues that can directly impact upon children.
As you have addressed, the need for E-safety to be taught in schools is of great importance. Kowalski, Limber and Agatston (2012) identify that due to technological advances cyber-bullying is a recent prevalent issue impacting upon children and young people. It is also apparent that cyber-bullying is a complex and challenging issue to resolve (McMurrary and Clendon, 2010). As the rise of cyber-bullying is increasing it is essential for schools to address the issue and education children on these areas. Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education (PSHE) addresses the issue of E-safety and educates children on the dangers. However, PSHE is not statutory in schools and therefore not all schools will be providing E-safety education through this medium.
I also strongly believe that developing children’s wellbeing is extremely important and something that should be given importance and not pushed to the side. I cannot understand how a child is expected to engage with their education if they do have a positive sense of wellbeing. This is supported by Maslow’s (1954) hierarchy of needs. Maslow identified that in order for individuals to achieve ‘self-actualisation’ there are certain needs individuals need to have. These needs relate to physiological, safety, love and belonging and esteem needs. If individuals achieve these needs then they will be able to ‘self-actualise’. Therefore if a child is not given these basic needs and not given the opportunity to develop their wellbeing then how are they expected to thrive?
Kowalksi, R, Limber, S, Agatston, P. (2012). Cyberbullying: Bullying in the Digital Age [Electronic version]. John Wiley & Sons.
McMurrary A, Clendon, J. (2010). Community Health and Wellness: Primary health care in practice [Electronic version] Elseview.
A great summary of the lecture Simon, thanks. Interestingly, I have found myself more drawn toward the piece on resilience this week, so I can certainly add something towards that discussion. While I think we would all hope that the children in our care would never come up against a difficult or uncomfortable situation, it is fair to say that for most children this is not the case. At some point, we often find ourselves having to deal with something that puts us outside our comfort zone. This can range from the smaller issues such as not doing as well in a test as anticipated, to the larger and more emotionally impactful such as the breakdown of a marriage or the loss of a parent. Yet in each example of a difficult situation, some children will be better equipped to cope than others, or be more resilient.
So how do some children come to have these skills while others don’t? Resilience is often linked to relationships, from parents and carers to friends, family and even teachers or adults in a position of care (www.boingboing.org.uk). Indeed, in their study on Attachment Status in Child Development (2002), Roisman, Padron et al highlight how children can overcome even the impact of negative parenting through relationships with other stable and caring adults.
Therefore in our role as teachers, we can have either a positive or negative impact on how resilient our children are, and how able they are to cope with the demands of a life that will not always run smoothly. As Masten puts it, this can be the kind of ‘ordinary magic’ of a teacher spending a bit of extra time with a disadvantaged child, that then helps them gain the mental strength to succeed (Ordinary magic: Resilience Processes in development, 2001). I think that is something we could all bear in mind in our roles as teachers, and to be aware of the difference we can make to children’s positive adaptations to adversity.