EPISODE NOTES In this episode, Claire talks with Rezina Kelly: former primary school teacher, safeguarding adviser and now education consultant. Rezina discusses the importance of safeguarding and how, in her varied roles over the years, safeguarding has been at the core of all of them. From being an educational trainer to a member of the youth offending team in a prison, Rezina believes that building trust and developing positive relationships is crucial to safeguarding children and young people.   KEY TAKEAWAYS Be curious, get to know your students well. Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility. If we get to know our children really well, it helps us to notice times when they might be struggling or when things might not be quite right for them. Knowing our children well means that we can identify any subtle changes or indicators and, subsequently, support them. Beware of getting used to it. The time to walk away and consider working in a different field is when cases of safeguarding no longer shock and upset us. We should be affected; to not be suggestions an element of becoming detached. Our emotions, and wanting what is best for children, means we care and drives us to want to implement change. Coping strategies. Children and young people who experience academic challenges will still be taught. They won’t be reprimanded for not having acquired that knowledge yet. The same should apply for emotions and behaviour. We want children to operate in school as future adults in society and handle their emotions appropriately. Sometimes children present with emotional and behavioural needs because they don’t have the skills to regulate their own emotions yet. They need to be taught coping strategies and appropriate ways of responding. BEST MOMENTS “You are sometimes the person who sees that child more than anybody else so you are more likely to be able to spot those little indicators that something is not okay.” “The last year has taught us more than ever that we need to be curious. We need to be interested in what’s going on for children and that’s how we will start to get a grasp of who they are, where they are and what’s going on for them.” “Every interaction is an intervention.” “Especially in the world of education, and the job that we do in schools, we have such a responsibility. It’s actually just common sense to say, ‘I need to be in a good place because then I can help these children be in a good place too.’” “It’s taking that time to go ‘School is a safe place. It’s the place where, actually, we’re here to make sure you learn and you’re educated but also we give you an opportunity to be happy, to be safe and feel like you can be you and that somebody’s got your back’, I think that’s a really important aspect of safeguarding.” “I think we forget sometimes that even the quietest children, or the children who present with the most challenging behaviours, they’re the ones we need to champion the most.” “If you’re an adult who isn’t emotionally regulated because you’re exhausted or you’re overwhelmed, or you’re tired and you just haven’t done that stuff that makes you feel okay, you aren’t in a position to have a positive relationship with that child who is struggling either.” “That ‘meet and greet’ - that really simple step - for those children who find school a place of anxiety, it’s reassuring them that I’ve been noticed. Somebody knows I’m here. Somebody would notice if I wasn’t here.” “Some children will be really looking forward to holidays and some children approach them with nothing but dread because school is their safe place where they feel most comfortable. They don’t want to be at home 24/7. Holidays are a really key point for safeguarding to just have an eye on your children.”   VALUABLE RESOURC