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A Message from the Safeguarding Team at Lancing College
Dear Parent/Guardian,
Pastoral care and safeguarding are at the heart of what we do at Lancing College. In order to flourish academically and thrive in the enriching environment at the college, pupils should feel safe and able to voice any concerns that they have. The safeguarding team works closely with housemasters/housemistresses, matrons, tutors and teachers to identify emerging safeguarding needs in our pupils and assist in putting support in place. Safeguarding extends to all staff at the College and a healthy safeguarding culture involves staff, pupils and parents communicating about the issues and challenges we and our pupils face today.
A crucial part of a positive safeguarding culture in the College is to educate pupils, staff and parents in relation to identifying risks in both the online and real world, how to make informed decisions and ensuring that there are avenues of support that pupils feel empowered to reach out to. Your first port of call for any concerns as parents will be your child’s housemaster/housemistress.
Meet the Safeguarding Team
(From the left: Anne McKane, Deputy DSL. Charlotte Malik, Deputy DSL. James Grime, Deputy DSL. Gary Bird, Designated Safeguarding Lead (gdb@lancing.org.uk), Emma-Kate Henry, Deputy DSL. Andy Brown, Deputy DSL. Fern Britnell, Deputy DSL.)
Online Safety
After half term, one area of focus will be Online Safety. Parents are invited to attend a PSHE session on Online Safety delivered by Karl Hopwood. A leading figure in this field, Karl tailors his sessions to the parents at Lancing College, both UK based and overseas. Karl will deliver an interactive session that covers the latest issues around Online Safety including up-to-date research and issues surrounding Artificial Intelligence. An invite will be sent out to all parents after half term. Details of the session are below:
Thursday 20 November, 5.00pm, Megarry Room
PSHE for Parents: Karl Hopwood talks about Online Safety
In addition to parents being informed about online safety, pupils will be completing an Online Safety course delivered by the Online Safety Alliance. Modules of the course include Cyber Security, Relationships, Online Bullying, use of Smart Phones, Staying Safe and Healthy, Digital Citizenship, Artificial Intelligence and how to seek help and report concerns. This will form part of their evening school and will be followed up by PSHE lessons where the topics are discussed in more detail. Staff will also complete a version of this online safety course.
The triangulation of communication between pupils, parents and the school is a very useful process so that important topics of today are understood from each other’s perspective – all with the goal of keeping everyone safe from potential harm in the online domain. We encourage you to keep talking to your children about their experiences.
One emerging risk is AI. In addition to highlighting safeguarding concerns, the use of AI in relation to the school rules has been made clear to all pupils and an information poster can be read here.
For more resources, the UKSIC (UK Safer Internet Centre) has produced some useful material for parents, which can be found here.
World Mental Health Day
In the first half of the Advent Term the peer supporters have worked with the safeguarding team to promote awareness of Mental Health.
Research from OFCOM (2025) measuring engagement and attitudes with the online world indicated that young people are most concerned about:
- Device addiction and compulsion
- Misinformation and disinformation
- Artificial Intelligence
- Radicalisation
- Superficiality of online interactions
- Online scams
In the lead up to World Mental Health day, we focused on device addiction and compulsion. Houses were set various challenges including a competition to reduce screen time, a House walk in nature, Houses producing a kindness/gratitude collage and everyone’s favourite – a home clothes day and bake sale with money raised going to the Young Minds charity. Details about the charity can be found here.
PSHE in the First Half of Term
In order to continue the conversations at home, please see below for what each year group has covered in PSHE lessons this term:
- Third Form – Friendships, empathy, healthy relationships, and challenging stereotypes
- Fourth Form – Careers, debt, and entrepreneurship
- Fifth Form – Take-home pay, budgeting, Morrisby testing, and careers
- Lower Sixth – Money and wellbeing, borrowing, and debt
- Upper Sixth – The economy and mortgages
These topics are designed to be practical, thought-provoking, and relevant to everyday life. You might find your child has plenty to say about them – so do ask what they’ve been learning!
Relationships and Sex Education
You may be aware that there has been a change in the RSE guidance from the Government, which will take effect in September 2026, details of which can be found here. In the Lent Term we will be sending parents, pupils and staff a draft copy of our updated RSE policy which will be in line with the new guidance for 2026. We encourage all to engage in this consultation period. In the meantime, a link to our current RSE policy can be found here.
For any questions or queries surrounding PSHE and/or RSE, please do email Mr Alasdair Tobias, Head of PSHE (axt@lancing.org.uk).
Attendance
A reminder to all parents on the importance of good attendance. At Lancing, the relationship and communication between parents and the pupil’s housemaster/housemistress (HMM) is crucial. If there are, for whatever reason, barriers to your child attending school, then please do communicate this to their HMM. We have statutory requirements as a school around attendance which can be found in our Attendance Policy here. We strive to work with families and pupils in order to set up positive support plans to improve attendance where there are concerns. Please do be in touch if you have any questions or suggestions in relation to the Attendance Policy.
As we have learnt from the pandemic, school is not only about learning content. The rich social interactions and opportunities to collaborate with others is crucial for social development and all round wellbeing.
Final Thoughts
We can learn a lot from teenagers as they embark on facing the challenges of the world with fresh eyes and strong determination. On the other hand, we naturally have some experience behind us that can help guide them. We may not always agree but we can at least agree to disagree on topics that can divide opinion. Threaded throughout is the importance of being open minded, having critical thought and the ability to question the validity of the information that we are receiving. Misinformation, disinformation and fake news are unfortunately ever more prevalent in our society and are now recognised as potential safeguarding concerns. The reason being is that they can be used as tools to spread intolerance, discrimination and incite hate. If you worry that your child is forming such opinions, the first instinct maybe to tell them that they are wrong. However, the more effective approach might be to discuss, listen and challenge them to explain the basis of their opinions. Where is the information they receive coming from and how do they know that it is a reliable source. Keeping the conversation going is key and we as a school can work with you and your child in order to get to a position where we can agree to disagree on some topics, whilst ensuring opinions that spread hate are suitably challenged.
I hope your child has a restful Half Term break.
Yours,
Assistant Head (Safeguarding) and Designated Safeguarding Lead