Safeguarding Newsletter – Half Term 3
Welcome to our latest half-termly newsletter! It has been an incredibly productive period, and as we look back on HT2 and HT3, we are proud of the robust support systems we’ve maintained for our students.
As we prepare for the term ahead, our commitment remains the same: keeping student wellbeing at the heart of everything we do. This term, our focus has been driven by proactive data analysis, ensuring we address the real-world challenges our students face.
Be part of our Safeguarding Network meeting
We’re excited to invite you to our next Safeguarding Network Meeting, happening on Tuesday, 24th March, from 15:30 to 16:00.
This friendly and collaborative session brings together professionals from a variety of settings to share experiences, reflect on challenges, and exchange good practice in safeguarding. Whether you’re a regular participant or joining us for the first time, we’d love to see you there.
Focus for this session: Isolation and loneliness
To confirm your place, simply email safeguarding@tute.com, and we’ll send you the meeting link.
Let’s continue building a strong, supportive safeguarding community together.
- Tuesday 24 March
- 15:30 to 16:00
Things to know
New safeguarding reporting process
Our Safeguarding Reporting Process has now been live on the Tute Platform since October and is fully embedded into our safeguarding workflows.
This system enables teachers to raise safeguarding concerns directly within the platform, ensuring concerns are recorded efficiently, securely, and consistently.
All partners are able to review, respond to, and monitor safeguarding concerns in one central location.
The system provides:
Faster, clearer, and more accurate safeguarding reporting.
A comprehensive log of all submitted concerns, including feedback and partner responses.
Full visibility of the safeguarding timeline, supporting oversight and accountability.
Partner responsibilities
All partners are required to:
- Acknowledge safeguarding reports directly within the Tute platform
- Record a brief follow-up or response confirming receipt of the concern and outlining the actions being taken to safeguard the student
Did You Know? The platform provides a complete safeguarding timeline, ensuring transparency, shared responsibility, and clear evidence of action taken for every concern raised.
Updated training
In November, members of our Safeguarding Team, alongside several of our partners, attended PAPYRUS suicide awareness and prevention training. The session strengthened our understanding of key risk factors, warning signs, and appropriate responses when supporting young people who may be experiencing suicidal thoughts.
Attending this training alongside our partners helped ensure a consistent, informed approach to suicide prevention across Tute and our partner organisations, reinforcing our shared safeguarding responsibilities. A big thank you to PAPYRUS for such an informative and impactful session.
For those who were unable to attend our Safeguarding Network session this term, a pre-recorded safeguarding focus session on suicide prevention has been shared with all partners. The same session was also delivered directly to our teaching staff to ensure consistent messaging, strengthen confidence, and provide clear, practical guidance when supporting students who may be vulnerable.
On Friday 23rd January, Hollie and Sarah attended the workshop “Safely Discussing Community Conflict with Students”, delivered by Connect Futures and organised by Essex County Council. The session focused on key areas including misinformation and fake news, recognising and responding to risks linked to extremism, and practical approaches for managing sensitive or challenging conversations with young people in a safe, balanced and age-appropriate way.
The workshop provided valuable insight into how community tensions, online narratives, and rapidly spreading misinformation can influence young people’s perceptions, emotions, and sense of safety. It strengthened our understanding of how to respond calmly, maintain neutrality, encourage critical thinking, and keep student wellbeing at the centre when difficult topics arise.
Key learning from the session has already been shared with staff, with a focus on strengthening confidence when navigating sensitive discussions, recognising potential vulnerabilities, and responding in ways that promote safety, inclusion, and respectful dialogue. This continues to support our wider safeguarding approach by ensuring staff feel prepared, informed, and able to respond appropriately when complex issues emerge.
In January, all members of the Safeguarding Team completed the Tackling Misogyny Masterclass delivered by the NSPCC. This focused on understanding misogyny as a safeguarding issue, recognising early indicators, and responding effectively where children may encounter risk, including online spaces, peer groups, school environments, and within the community or home. The training explored the influence of misogynistic content and influencers, sexist bullying, gendered expectations, online algorithms and echo chambers, and the increasing normalisation of unhealthy relationship dynamics.
Drawing on insight from Childline and the NSPCC Helpline, the session strengthened our ability to identify concerning behaviours early and respond with clarity and confidence. This training was completed proactively to ensure we are prepared and aligned ahead of the government’s planned safeguarding focus on these themes in schools from September, placing us in a strong position to support, guide, and protect our students.
We are also pleased to confirm that Sarah, our new Student Support Associate, has now completed her Level 3 safeguarding training. This means all members of our team are fully safeguarding trained.
Meet the Team:
Sarah Morris
Since January Sarah has been part of Tute in the role of Student Support Associate (SSA).
Sarah has been a primary school teacher for the last 26 years and in her role as Deputy Head teacher she was responsible for Health and Wellbeing across the school. Her passion for pupil wellbeing is what led her to this role. Since January, she has been mentoring and supporting students 1:1 and she has taken group mentoring sessions. Sarah enjoys being a point of access for teachers, students and parents, working in collaboration to support students’ wellbeing and engagement.
Megan Bassett-Rhodes
Since September, Megan has been part of Tute in the role of Student Support Associate (SSA).The SSA role is a key component of Tute’s inclusion and wellbeing offer, ensuring students receive the targeted support they need to engage fully with learning and thrive both in lessons and beyond.
Megan delivers Tute’s mentoring programme, working 1:1 and in small groups to develop students’ wellbeing, confidence, and study skills. She also supports teachers and students during lessons, responds to student messages on the platform, and works closely with the safeguarding and inclusion teams to ensure every learner feels safe, supported, and able to reach their potential.
Safeguarding concerns reported in HT2 and HT3
Throughout HT2 and HT3, we managed a total of 540 safeguarding reports. Mental health emerged as the primary concern during this period, remaining our highest priority for student support.
So what does this mean in practice?
As a consequence of these patterns, our safeguarding and inclusion focus has been deliberately sharpened around early identification, emotional wellbeing, and proactive intervention.
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Mental health remains the central safeguarding priority
With mental health and behaviour change accounting for 30% of all reports, we have strengthened early-response processes. This includes closer daily monitoring, faster triage of concerns, and increased pastoral and mentoring support for students before issues escalate.
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Behaviour is being treated as communication, not compliance
The high proportion of behaviour-related alerts has reinforced our trauma-informed approach. Staff continue to focus on recognising behaviour change as a potential indicator of distress, anxiety, or external risk, rather than viewing it in isolation.
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Language monitoring has informed earlier intervention
Incidents involving worrying language have led to tighter keyword monitoring and quicker follow-up from safeguarding and pastoral teams. This allows us to intervene earlier when students express distress, vulnerability, or risk through written or verbal communication.
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Digital safety remains a live risk
Reports relating to sharing personal details have prompted continued reinforcement of online safety expectations, regular reminders to students, and targeted follow-up where boundary awareness appears reduced or risk-taking increases.
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Non-attendance is being treated as a safeguarding signal, not just an engagement issue
Where students stop attending, this is now consistently explored through a safeguarding lens. Attendance alerts trigger welfare checks, partner communication, and where necessary, multi-agency consideration to ensure the student is safe and supported.
Overall implication
These trends confirm that emotional wellbeing sits at the centre of safeguarding. In response, we continue to prioritise early identification, rapid response, and coordinated pastoral support to reduce risk, strengthen protective factors, and maintain student safety.
Good To Know- UK Safeguarding Updates
New national Child Protection Authority announced
On 11 December 2025, the UK government published plans to establish a national Child Protection Authority to strengthen oversight of child protection systems and improve national consistency in safeguarding practice. This proposal aims to better identify emerging risks and drive accountability across agencies. GOV.UK
New law to tackle AI-generated child abuse images
On 12 November 2025, the government tabled amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill introducing new legal measures to address AI-generated child sexual abuse material (CSAM), reflecting growing concern about digital risks to children. GOV.UK
Ofcom online safety progress report
In early December 2025, Ofcom published its first comprehensive review of how online safety measures under the Online Safety Act are working in practice, including early progress on child protection standards across major platforms. Online Safety in 2025: Summary of the technology sectors response to online safety rules
Draft Keeping Children Safe in Education 2026
The Department for Education has launched consultation on updated statutory safeguarding guidance, expected to become law from September 2026. Proposed changes strengthen whole-school safeguarding, emphasise DSL expertise (including harmful sexual behaviour), and reinforce preventative practice and policy implementation. You can have your say here: Keeping children safe in education: 2026 proposed revisions – Department for Education – Citizen Space
Thank you for your ongoing partnership
Thank you for your ongoing partnership and dedication to safeguarding. Through our shared efforts, we continue to build a safer and more responsive environment for every child we support.
With thanks,
The Safeguarding Team at Tute
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