The wellbeing of our students is highly important to us and we are committed to maintaining high standards of safety for them. We understand that children are a vulnerable group and their welfare must be looked after by any adult working with them. We abide by the law and will report any signs or concerns a child may be suffering from abuse. This safeguarding policy is in place to ensure all tutors are able to protect any children under their care and act appropriately to report concerns.

Joy Learning ensures that all of our tutors can work with children in a professional, sensitive and safe manner. Tutors must follow the procedures stated in this policy if they suspect a child is being abused or mistreated in any way. This concern must be communicated with the Designated Safeguarding Officer at Joy Learning. The safeguarding officer will then decide how to proceed once all relevant information has been collected. Our tutors are legally obliged to report all safeguarding concerns to the safeguarding officer.

The duty of a Joy Learning Tutor

In addition to abiding by our terms of service, any tutor delivering lessons to children through Joy Learning must create a safe environment for them at all times. All online lessons will be recorded, and any lessons where a report has been made regarding the tutors conduct will be reviewed by the safeguarding officer. Joy Learning will also provide to the police any recorded lessons where a criminal offence may have taken place.

Tutors must:

• Treat all children with respect and dignity.

• Ensure that no children feel discriminated against regardless of their race, gender or sexuality.

• Speak and write only in appropriate language with their students, and never use discriminatory or offensive terms.

• Maintain a strictly professional tutor-tutee relationship and avoid sending any inappropriate messages, emails of communications to a student.

• Value the effort of their students and maintain a positive attitude towards their students work.

• Only complete lessons using the Joy Learning platform on the days and times arranged and agreed by the student’s parent or guardian.

• Be sensitive to the needs of any students with a disability and make good effort to adapt lessons accordingly when requested.

• Create a suitable tutoring environment with no inappropriate images, slogans, posters of behaviour occurring in the background during a lesson.

• Never send unsolicited messages or communication to a student under any circumstances.

• Maintain an environment that is free of inappropriate images or video during any online lesson.

• Arrive on time for their online lesson

• Check that the student is comfortable to continue with a lesson and terminate the lesson if a student is uncomfortable for any reason.

• Be aware that all lessons are recorded and may be reviewed by a student, parent or administrative staff to ensure high quality lessons are taking place.

• Decline any friend requests and block all connections from any students who make contact via social media.

• In addition to these obligations, you must ensure that you do not:

• Never search for or befriend your pupils on social media sites.

• Never open up any form of communication, either face to face, over the phone or online, that has not been approved by Joy Learning.

• Never attempt to obtain any details about their social media accounts, or extraneous details regarding their social life.

• Never take photographs or videos of your pupils, or request that they send you any photographs or videos of themselves.

• Never coerce them to engage in any illegal activity.

Designated Safeguarding Officer

Joy Learning has a Designated Safeguarding Officer who is the first point of contact for any tutors who are concerned for a student and suspect they may be unsafe or being mistreated in any way. The safeguarding officer has completed the necessary training and follows clear procedures if they are informed of any safeguarding concerns. All reported safeguarding concerns will be recorded and detailed in a clear and well organised format containing all the information provided to them and will detail the actions they have taken regarding any concerns.

Designated Safeguarding Officer of Joy Learning
Joy Liasu - info@joylearning.co.uk
Joy can be reached on 02031891224 or 07518384585

Procedures to follow if you are concerned about the wellbeing of a child

If you suspect a child has been bullied or abused you are to treat the matter seriously and bound by law to take the appropriate steps. You must report to the safeguarding officer immediately by phone or email and provide all information you have regarding the concern. They will then contact Social Services or the Police Child Protection Unit. Joy Learning will supply any further information they might need in their investigations. Joy Learning will not make any independent inquiries in the case of a safeguarding allegation.

If a child discloses to a tutor that they have been the victim of abuse or know of the abuse of another child, the tutor must take this seriously and listen. The tutor must make it clear that any information provided by the child cannot be kept a secret and will have to be reported to the designated safeguarding officer in order to protect the child from further harm. The child should not be forced to disclose information and promises to keep the disclosure a secret must not be made or kept. If the child then refuses to provide any further information they should not be forced to do so, but the tutor must still report the incident to the Safeguarding Officer. When providing information to the safeguarding officer or police child protection unit, take care to communicate to them all the information the child has disclosed to you. As much as possible try to use the same words and phrases the child used.

In the case that you suspect abuse without the child having made any disclosures, you should not question the pupil in attempt to get them to reveal any information. You should report your concerns to the designated safeguarding officer and not carry out any independent investigation or probe the student for information.

Handling confidential information

As a tutor you will have access to the personal information of several children, including their name and contact details. You have a legal obligation to keep this information confidential, in accordance with GDPR guidelines. This information must never be shared with anyone at any time under any circumstances. Any information you acquire in your role as a tutor must be considered confidential - this includes contact information and also your pupil's work, and any comments or grades relating to it.