How Safeguarding Training Can Help Prevent Extremism in Schools

Enlarge

In the last couple of years, there has been a significant rise in extremism activities in schools across the U.K. Despite this, the level of activity in this area is still very low and shouldn’t be a general cause for concern among teachers, governors and parents. However, it’s essential for these activities to be addressed in order to expand the understanding of how to best protect the children and young people in schools.

Preventing Radicalisation Online

Close study of cases of extremism among young people in schools have indicated that the majority of them were radicalised over the internet. These findings further reinforce the fact that the internet has become the new frontier on which to prevent extremism.

Coincidentally, with the level of online activity among children in recent years, it is becoming more and more essential for schools to revise their understanding of online safeguarding, especially in regards to online safety and the processes around it.

Children in the UK spend an average of six hours a day in front of computer screens, with much of that time spent at school. The internet is a vital learning resource, but it can also be a medium through which children and young adults can be targeted. With young people spending more time online than ever before, it’s vital that schools know how to ensure that the young people in their care are surfing the web safely.

Safeguarding Training: Laying a ‘Prevent’ Foundation

In the UK, our legal obligation to contribute towards combating extremism is called “The Prevent duty”. The Prevent duty is designed to help school leaders, school staff and governing bodies in all local authority-maintained schools, academies and free schools increase the resilience of children and young people from being radicalised.

The Prevent duty falls under general safeguarding principles, which have been identified as the most effective way of halting extremism among children and young people.

All organisations that work with or come into contact with children need to have safeguarding training policies and procedures to ensure that every child, regardless of their age, gender, religion and ethnicity can be protected from harm. Establishing good safeguarding policies means that children are safe from adults and other children who might pose a risk.

Extremism is a hugely complex phenomenon, with an enormous array of factors contributing to the process. Safeguarding training helps prevent extremism by giving professionals who interact with children and young people the skills to stop them coming into contact with dangerous subject matter.

The core contents of EduCare’s safeguarding course (understanding what different kinds of abuse and neglect look like; which individuals may be at an increased risk of vulnerability; what the signs and indicators of abuse are; and how to respond to safeguarding concerns and disclosures) encompass the essential skills needed to address extremism in schools. By ensuring that our schools are safe places, we’re giving our children the best possible chance of getting the education — and childhoods — that they deserve.  

Want to invest in a safeguarding trainingfor your school? Get in touch!

Return to news