As part of our strong commitment to safeguarding our children and whole School community, we have been working with the NSPCC.
Kate Warner, NSPCC Schools Service Area Coordinator, has sent us a special report:
Wednesday 6th October was a special day for the NSPCC Schools Service as two of the wonderful Shropshire Schools Service volunteers visited St. Winefride’s R.C. School to deliver a workshop to the children in Years 5 & 6. Special, because this was the first NSPCC ‘Speak out. Stay safe’ workshop to take place in the whole of UK since March 2020!
During the pandemic, the Schools Service has been working hard in developing and supporting schools in the delivery of our Speak Out Stay Safe virtual assemblies and other resources, ensuring that children were empowered to speak about their worries and stay safe from abuse. However, knowing how much our face-to-face visits are valued by schools, we wanted to ensure that these could happen as soon as it was safe to do so for all involved.
Thankfully we are now at that stage and Shropshire has been chosen to be one of just a few counties across the UK to be involved in a small-scale pilot working to get our volunteers back in schools, and St Winefride’s was kind enough to invite us along as our first school back.
The children had participated in an online NSPCC ‘Speak out. Stay safe’ assembly with their class teachers a few weeks previously, and that learning was built on in the workshop. Barbara and Trish, the Schools Service volunteers, reported back to me that they felt so welcomed by everyone at the school and that they could tell that the children in Years 5&6 had obviously worked very hard in the assembly as their participation in the workshop was excellent. Barbara and Trish felt the children were very well engaged with all the workshop activities and seemed to have a good understanding of all that was discussed. It was definitely a positive experience for everyone!
Thank you Kate, Barbara and Trish for giving us the opportunity to work with you. We look forward to our continued partnership.
Pictured are NSPCC Volunteers Barbara and Trish with our Head Boy and Head Girl.
For more information on keeping children safe click here
