Safeguarding

From our 2-year-olds in Pre-Prep up to our 18-year-olds in the Sixth Form, we put pastoral care at the very heart of our school with an approach that involves all staff.

Whether boarding or day, all children at Millfield benefit from the warm, positive and caring atmosphere across the school.

Our boarders at Millfield Prep School, starting from age seven in Year 3, describe their boarding houses as homes from home and all pupils are in vertical games houses for academic, sporting and musical competitions.

For our Year 9s and above, the supportive environment in boarding and day houses help to create a strong community spirit throughout the school.

In addition to physical health, the wellbeing of our children is at the heart of everything we do at Millfield, and our Medical Centre, counselling service, Spiritual Director and physiotherapists provide physical and emotional support to all who need it. Caring for the individual is vital to creating the positive environment that allows us all to flourish. The various forums that harness children's voices and views (e.g. house, year group and school councils) help to inform our pastoral care provision and empower the children to assert their views on the wellbeing and mental health support services we offer.

Housemasters/mistresses (HsMs), Assistant Houseparents and group tutors are often the children's first port of call whenever they have a problem. They work together to support students through the challenges of childhood and teenage life, helping them develop their own strategies to negotiate the difficulties of growing up. The pastoral care offered by all members of the house team, together with that from sports coaches, instrumental teachers and academic tutors, is complemented by the formal teaching children receive.

Millfield is fully committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the children and young people in our care. We understand that safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility, and we expect everyone working at our school to share this commitment.

This system is described in statutory guidance Working Together to Safeguard Children and Keeping Children Safe in Education (Sept 2023) and encompasses the following principles:

• protecting children from maltreatment;
• preventing impairment of children’s mental or physical health or development;
• ensuring that children grow up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care, and
• taking action to enable all children to have the best outcomes.

Adults in our school take all welfare concerns seriously and encourage children and young people to talk to us about anything that worries them, as such Millfield will:

• treat the interests of our children as paramount (taking into consideration their disability, culture and history), and
• consider at all times, the best interests of the child.