Safeguarding and promoting children welfare in schools

 

 

 

The school should create a safe learning environment for students. The schools being a place where our children spend a lot of their teenage and adolescent period, every school should equip everyone at the school including non-teaching staff, pupils or students themselves with life skills that would help them to excel in their duties academically.

 

Students should also be aware of their roles in the school; 1. Children should be empowered to know their rights, freedom, and responsibilities. 2. Children should take responsibility to inform the class teacher, matron or patron or classmate if he/she is to get out of the school compound. He/she must tell them where he/ she is going, for how long and with who! 3. Children should be advised to avoid bad and loose peer groups and join educative clubs like Schools Against Crime (SAC) Clubs, Patriotism clubs, etc.

 

4. Children should avoid copying western culture and lifestyles like dress code, pornography, acts of lesbianism, homosexuality, etc. and maintain our traditional cultures which instill discipline in them and respect for elders.

 

Every school should endeavor to provide, safeguard and promote the welfare of children by protecting them from abuse, crime, preventing the impairment of their health or development, ensuring the provision of safe, effective and nurturing Care and undertaking that role so as to enable children to have optimum life chances and enter adulthood successfully.

 

Some of the tips school administration should practice as a way of protecting and safeguarding to children's safety while at schools; 1. Every school should appropriately train its staff in childcare and counseling skills.2. Provide all staff with the necessary information to enable them to meet the statutory responsibilities to promote and safeguard the well-being of children.3. Schools should keep written records of all concerns when noted and reported by staff or disclosed by a child, ensuring that such records are stored securely and reported onward. 4. Refer cases of suspected child neglect or abuse to police or SAC club leadership.5. Develop effective links with relevant statutory and voluntary CSOs/NGOs like Youth Integrated Development Organisation (YIDO) and other Agencies. 6. Ensure that all staff sign on the school children safety policies to indicate that they've read and understood everything. 7. Ensure that the children safeguarding policy is updated annually. 8. School staff should maintain appropriate standards of conversation and interaction with and between children and avoid the use of sexualized and derogatory language.  9. To be alert to changes in child's behavior and treat all children at school with respect and lastly Ensure that staff are positive role models to children and other members of the school and never engage in rough, physical or sexually provocative games. Together we can!