Child Protection Policy
Counselling Service, Policy on Discipline and Complaints Procedure for all members of Dulwich College
We are a happy community at the College
In this community your happiness is important to all of us. While you are at school, if you are worried about anything or if someone is treating you unfairly, it is very important that you feel somebody cares.
It is very important that you feel somebody cares
In addition to your parents or guardian, there are always people at the College to help you with a problem. If you feel you are unhappy or are being treated unfairly or have any sort of difficulty, there are various people you know to whom you can turn for help. You could tell:
· A friend
· A School Prefect
· Any member of staff
· Your Form Tutor
· The Chaplain (see below)
· A member of the Medical Centre
· Your Housemaster
· Your Year Head
· Your Head of School
· The School Counsellor
If you know of someone who is unhappy for any reason, you should tell an adult you can trust. The person may be too scared or lonely to tell. Mr Northcote-Green is the College Child Protection Officer and you can talk to him at any time. His office is in the South Block. Turn right in the corridor before Reception and it is the first door on the right.
Childline (0800 1111, http://www.childline.org.uk/) is a service for young people in distress. Someone at the other end of the phone is always willing to listen and help you with your problems.
Ofsted
If you are worried that your concerns are not being dealt with properly, you can contact Ofsted on 08456 014772.
POLICY ON DISCIPLINE
General
All discipline at Dulwich College is directed to:
(i) the development in all of you of a sense of your place in the community
(ii) a preparedness to use your talents to serve the community.
More specifically, we aim to educate you to practise self-discipline, to show respect for property and to conduct yourselves in a manner at all times governed by requirements of courtesy and common sense. We believe that each individual has a right to live in peace within the community and we acknowledge our obligations under the terms of the variety of Health and Safety Legislation and of the Children Act 1989.
Procedure
(i) The fundamental assumption underlying our approach to discipline is that of trust and respect between individuals, be they pupils or adults. Formal rules are therefore kept to a workable minimum while conventions about conduct are stressed. Our code of conduct, which can be found in all calendars, should be referred to. Only when the relationship breaks down or the conventions are flouted will disciplinary procedures be invoked.
(ii) Serious issues of discipline are administered by the Master, who lays down broad principles, is responsible for the promulgation of the College Rules and makes specific decisions on particular occasions. He also delegates the routine overview of day to day discipline to the Deputy Master (Pastoral) and the Heads of School and has responsibility for implementing the College’s various disciplinary codes to the Staff and Prefects. He acts as a court of appeal where necessary.
(iii) Routine discipline is exercised by Staff and Prefects on a day to day basis as the need arises.
(iv) Particular rules apply to boarding houses, laboratories, the PE Centre, swimming pool and other specialist teaching rooms. Rules are also laid down governing potentially dangerous activities (e.g. javelin throwing, trampolining and swimming). It is stressed that common sense must be applied in other activities (e.g. stage lighting) where special care obviously needs to be taken.
(v) There is no fixed scale of punishment. Punishments are decided by the severity of the offence and by what is customary. They are usually imposed at the level at which they arise. Those who consider that they have been unjustly punished may appeal through the procedure as outlined above.
(vi) Corporal punishment is not used.
(vii) Pupils and parents are acquainted with the College Rules before their first term. These can be found in the Calendar.
(viii) Revisions of the rules are made after consultation with staff and pupils.
COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE
Background
The Children Act 1989, which came into force in October 1991, requires all independent schools to have ’a clear and simple procedure’ for children’s complaints which ‘cannot be dealt with informally’ and which includes the ability of the child to have ‘contact with an adult outside the school’s structure’.
The Act expresses the confident hope that most problems will continue to be dealt with perfectly satisfactorily through a school’s own, well established procedures. It also, however, requires there to be a formal process. The Act specifies that a written record be kept of complaints and of the response to them and that members of the Social Services Inspectorate must be able to inspect these records during their regular visits to the school.
We have long prided ourselves on the quality of our pastoral care.
However, if you have a complaint of whatever sort about a member of staff or another boy, it should be addressed, as appropriate, to one of the following:
School Captain or Senior Prefect
Form Tutor
Year Head
Deputy Head of School
Head of School
Deputy Master (Pastoral)
For Boarders this list should also include:
House Captain
Housekeeper
House Tutor
Boarding House Master
If matters cannot be resolved by any of the above, or if circumstances dictate a direct reference to him, the Master should be consulted. In cases where none of these can resolve the problem, or where the pupil believes that he needs to approach someone who is totally independent of the College hierarchy, the complaint can be made directly to a member of the Independent Panel. These are:
Janet de Heger
College Counsellor (See Counselling Service above)
Rev Dr S E Young
The Chaplain
(His office is in the Centre Block on the north side of the Great Hall on the right)
Dulwich College
020 8299 9218 (College)
020 8870 1447 (Home)
youngse@dulwich.org.uk
Mr C W Field Esq
Alleyn Club Office
South Block
Dulwich College
020 8299 9285 (College)
020 8858 6510 (Home)
alleynclub@dulwich.org.uk