As part of our overall ethos of being ‘Ready, Respectful and Safe and our wider curriculum programme, next week’s theme for assembly is ‘Keeping Safe’. One aspect of keeping safe is being prepared for a potential critical incident during the school day. We regularly perform evacuation drills in the event of a fire for all staff, pupils and visitors.  Once per year we communicate and (where appropriate) practise ‘Safe Mode’. It is almost a year since the trial took place in relation to the serious incident at a local school and almost 2 years since the actual incident. This unfortunately involved a teenager being found guilty of stabbing two teachers.   

I am also aware that knife crime and youth violence have become depressingly regular features in the media. The purpose of my communication is to raise awareness of parents and our whole school community of our strategies and procedures at Cowbridge School and to inform everyone that we can make a difference in securing a safe environment free from knife crime incidents.

It’s really important that parents, carers and teachers continue having age-appropriate conversations about knife crime with children and young people so that they understand the risks and consequences. The following information represents our expectations and procedures at Cowbridge School and endeavours to keep our school community ready to learn, respectful towards each other and safe within our school environment. Useful information from South Wales Police can assist parents with this. Additional resources which may be of interest can be found here.

The Role of all Pupils, Visitors and Staff in Reporting Information to Senior Staff

Assemblies will be held across the whole school community next week to raise awareness of how pupils can ‘keep safe’. This will include informing students of our expectations and procedures for reporting any situation where a pupil may have a bladed instrument or other weapon, capable of causing harm to the pupil and/or others. This will involve pupils being aware of the need to be ready to report any potential situation immediately to staff. We will reassure pupils that it is a duty and a responsibility of all people in our community to inform immediately and that this represents respectful action to keep us all safe.  Senior staff will respond immediately and will aim to de-escalate the situation as a matter of urgency. 

The Role of Parents in Reporting Information to the School

We expect parents to report directly to the school any rumours you have heard, in a timely manner, so that we can investigate and take immediate action at senior level. Senior staff are trained and understand how to approach, and deal with, such allegations. Further detailed information can be found in the Welsh Government’s guidance ‘Safe and Effective Intervention - use of reasonable force and searching for weapons.’

You should refrain from reporting directly to the police, during the school day where practical and possible, so that the school can operate and coordinate its policies and procedures and liaise with the police, if and when necessary; often allegations are false or misleading and we are experienced in de-escalating those incidences where school intervention of senior staff can effectively manage these situations.

Where an immediate threat is known, senior staff will contact the police via emergency services immediately.

Clearly, if an incident or threat is made outside of school hours, it will be important to inform the police accordingly, ordinarily via 101. We will liaise with the police and assist them by sharing relevant information, and take appropriate action to de-escalate the situation. If in doubt and you believe there is an imminent threat to safety, then the emergency services, (999), should be contacted.

Safe Mode 

As you may be aware, all schools are required to have a Safe Mode (lockdown) procedure in place in case of emergency. We have recently reviewed our procedures and a copy of the policy is on our website. The procedure for Safe Mode is contained within the School’s Critical Incident policy. 

We will communicate/practise the procedure at least annually with children and young people so that they know what to do should we ever need to use an emergency lockdown. Over the next few weeks we intend to take a graduated approach to Safe Mode by:

1. Communicating the procedure to all pupils during Form Tutor time
2. Conducting a practical ‘Safe Mode’ in the next 6 weeks, similar to the Fire Evacuation Procedure

At Cowbridge School we use the term ‘Safe Mode’ to indicate that we expect all pupils and staff to follow the procedure in order to keep all staff, pupils and visitors in a safe mode, until any potential or imminent threat is de-escalated. 

We aim to do this sensitively so as not to cause any distress, in the same way that the school conducts the Fire Evacuation Procedure. 

Safe Mode procedures are important and would be used in response to an internal or external incident which could be a threat to the safety of staff and children in our school. 

Safe Mode procedures may be activated in response to any number of situations. These may be, but are not limited to: 

• A reported incident, disturbance in the local and/or school community 
• An intruder on site 
• A warning being received regarding a local risk of air pollution (smoke plume, gas cloud etc.) 
• A major fire in the vicinity of the school 
• The close proximity of a dangerous dog or other animals such as cows and horses. Being a rural Vale school, we have had numerous situations where cows, horses, chickens and a rather large and rare breed pig, entered the school site. When these occasions occur, we have a duty of care to keep the animals similarly safe and minimise their anxiety by avoiding large groups and crowds of people.

Our procedure aims to minimise disruption to the learning environment whilst ensuring the safety of all students and staff. 

Safe Mode Procedures and Communication to Parents

If it is necessary for the School to enter into Safe Mode, parents/carers will be notified as soon as it is practical to do so via Arbor messaging service. Our first actions will be to take care of staff and students; therefore, a delay may occur in informing you and you should not be contacted directly by your child.

Parents will ordinarily be given enough information about what will happen so that they are reassured that everything possible is being done to ensure everyone’s safety. We may not be in a position to give detailed information. This is because in any emergency situation, dealing with the incident at hand is the most important aspect. It is also important to protect the integrity of any potential criminal investigation after the incident has been dealt with by the School and relevant agencies, including the police, whilst also protecting the privacy of those directly affected.

Parents should not:

1. Contact the School as this will tie up the phone lines. 
2. Attend the School, as this will likely interfere with the emergency services’ access to the School and may also put themselves and others in further danger.
3. Phone or contact their child via mobile as this similarly could interfere with the need to be silent and could cause more distress and distraction.
4. Expect their child to be released from school during Safe Mode.

Parents should wait for the School to contact them about when it is safe to collect their children. 

Hopefully, we will never have a situation where we would need to use Safe Mode; however, we all feel safer knowing that we have procedures in place for such eventualities should we need to keep our children and young people safe.

I hope that you will agree that our approach to keeping our students safe is one that you are able to support. Please take the opportunity to discuss these procedures and interventions with your child(ren). Additionally, discuss the dangers of carrying a knife and the importance of reporting any information to staff at the School. 

I wish to thank you for your continued support in helping us keep our community safe.

Mrs Thomas

Headteacher