Berkhamsted School Safeguarding Conference
Safeguarding | Past | Present | Future
Thursday 29 February 2024 | 09:00 – 15:45
Berkhamsted School, Kings Campus, Hertfordshire
Berkhamsted School is proud to invite you to our upcoming conference. Join us and hear about the lessons learnt from: ‘Everyone’s Invited’, discuss current best practice and learn more about safeguarding in the future in an AI world.
Registration now available – £150 for first school delegate;
£100 per additional delegate from the same school.
Please note: a limited number of complimentary tickets are available for the maintained sector – please apply in the registration link below.
Ticket price includes lunch and refreshments throughout the day.
Register for your place now
Past
Lessons Learnt
Present
Current best practice
Future
Safeguarding in the future and AI
Past | Lessons Learnt
Soma Sara, Everyone’s Invited
We are delighted to announce our keynote speaker, Soma Sara.
Soma Sara is a multi-award-winning activist, author, speaker and CEO of the charity ‘Everyone’s Invited’. In June 2020, Soma began sharing her experiences of rape culture on Instagram. In light of the overwhelming response from those who resonated with her story, Soma founded Everyone’s Invited. Everyone’s Invited is a charity providing an anonymous space for survivors to share their stories and delivering specialist education designed to empower school communities to promote healthy relationships, sexual well-being and to tackle rape culture. Everyone’s Invited has received over 50,000 testimonies and has sparked a conversation about rape culture with millions of people.
Present | Opportunities to consider and
discuss current best practice
Q&A with our expert panel
Breakout sessions to discuss topics
Networking opportunities
Future | Safeguarding in the future in an
AI world
Hear from our Keynote Speakers
Louise Douglas, Graffham Global
Louise is a safeguarding trainer and consultant with 25 years’ experience within the children’s workforce in a number of different countries. She has operated in leadership, trustee and governor roles across schools, colleges, early years and voluntary settings and is currently the Chair of a Multi Academy Trust, based in East London and Essex. Until recently, she was Chair of Governors of another school and has also been a Cub leader for several years.
Louise has a Master’s degree in organisational development and is in her last year of a Doctorate in Education, focused on ethos and culture. Louise has been part of a review team within a recent enquiry into child sexual abuse within the Church of England and was the Independent Reviewer to the Bishop of Chelmsford till 2021. Louise acts as an advisor for many different organisations and schools, and is also qualified in Human Resources, as a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. She currently works with a major global tech consultancy that specialises in AI and Cloud applications.
Graffham Consulting has been a leading training consultancy in the safeguarding arena since 2007. We work closely with education providers across the world and offer face-to-face, online and remote training in all aspects and levels of safeguarding, including DSL, safer recruitment and governor training.
Laura Knight, Director of Digital Learning, Berkhamsted
Laura is a Senior Consultant at Berkhamsted, a leading Independent School, having previously held the role of Director of Digital Learning for over ten years. She has a broad range of experience leading on digital learning and innovation, 1:1 devices, digital wellbeing, online safeguarding, and staff training and development.
Laura qualified as a teacher in 2004 and her advice is grounded in real-world experience as a teacher and as a Head of Department. Laura was awarded a Masters in Educational Leadership from University of Buckingham and a Level 7 Apprenticeship in Senior Leadership in 2020. She was Chair of ISC Digital in 2021-22; the volunteer committee of digital experts supporting the work of the Independent Schools Council, and continues to support the committee and its events. She is a Fellow of the Chartered College of Teaching, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and of the Chartered College of Teaching, and a CEOP Ambassador.
View the Agenda
09:00 – Welcome refreshments
Introduction
Keynote Speaker – Soma Sara, Everyone’s Invited
Breakout Session 1
Break & Networking
Q&A Session with Panel
12:30 – Lunch
Breakout Session 2
Keynote Speakers – Louise Douglas, Graffham Global and Laura Knight, Berkhamsted
15:15 – Closing Speech
Sessions Information
Keynote Speaker – Soma Sara, Everyone’s Invited
Breakout Session 1
Breakout 1: SMLO – Lime Culture
Breakout 2: Allies and Advocates – Martin Walker, Head of Berkhamsted Sixth
Breakout 3: HH Sexual Clinic
Breakout 4: Proactive and positive safeguarding culture – Cleo Lawrence, Director of Safeguarding, Highgate School
Q&A Session
Lessons Learnt with Dale Wilkins – Senior Director, BSA Group; Shelagh Willis – Director of Safeguarding, KCS Wimbledon; Cleo Lawrence – Director of Safeguarding, Highgate School
Breakout Session 2
Breakout 5: Creating a culture of safeguarding supervision, Shelagh Willis, Director of Safeguarding, KCS Wimbledon
Breakout 6: SMLO – Lime Culture
Breakout 7: Safeguarding Student Voice, Emily Kenefick, School Psychologist at Berkhamsted
Breakout 8: Safer Recruitment Checks 2023, Tracey Evans, Chief People Officer and Safeguarding Lead at Berkhamsted
Keynote Speakers –
Louise Douglas, Graffham Global and Laura Knight, Berkhamsted
Talks on AI and the future of safeguarding
Introducing the Expert Panel and Session Leaders
With a wealth of experience in Industry Tracey joined Berkhamsted School in 2007. She spent 16 years in Banking, where she studied and attained her CIPD qualification during her role as an HR Specialist and Management trainer. Before leaving the bank Tracey held the position of Bank Manager for two years. Spending the next five years in an engineering company Tracey developed their HR portfolio before diversifying once more into the world of Education. In this role Tracey offers professional advice to other smaller independent schools who have benefited from Berkhamsted’s pioneering initiatives.
Tracey is one of two Designated Safeguarding Leads at Berkhamsted and is also Vice Chair of Governors and nominated Safeguarding Governor at a local large State Secondary School. She has a wealth of experience in the Education Sector and is passionate about Gender Equality.
Tom joined Berkhamsted Boys School as Headteacher from DLD College London, where he was Senior Deputy Head, overseeing the Safeguarding, Pastoral and Boarding sides of the school for five years. During this time DLD College London were recognised with six national awards, including Boarding School of the year and innovation awards in Mental Health, Wellbeing and Student voice. Previously, he had school leadership roles at Collège Alpin Beau Soleil in Switzerland and St John’s School Leatherhead. Before his teaching career he worked in the finance sector and recently completed a Masters in Educational Leadership, with a focus on coaching in education.
Tom was the Safeguarding Lead at DLD College during the Westminster Bridge attacks, when a member of staff lost their lives during the terrorist incident. He has a commitment to help provide proactive safeguarding communities.
Cleo is currently in the role of Director of Safeguarding at Highgate Independent School. She leads on developing the safeguarding culture which includes overseeing: Policies, Training, Practice, Strategic plans, Partnership work (Internal and External)
Cleo has used her experience in children’s social care within the environment of a school. In being the lead DSL she has developed the thread of safeguarding across the foundation including managing staff concerns (and low level concerns – KCSIE 2023). At Highgate she introduced reflective supervision to the DSLs who are now able to model this to other pastoral staff. As well as developing the framework in which safeguarding conversations and “thinking space” can take place.
As a safeguarding consultant (www.scsafeguarding.com), she is developing this company to support the development and safeguarding practice of other professionals and organisations. This includes providing: Reflective supervision, Training, Completing audits, Completing investigations.
Shelagh is the Director of Safeguarding at King’s College School, where she provides expert advice and support across the whole school. Previously she worked at St Paul’s Boys school for 6 years and has had a long career in the NHS as a child protection specialist nurse. Shelagh has a wealth of experience working in the child protection and safeguarding field since 1998 and is a skilled safeguarding practitioner, trainer and safeguarding supervisor.
Shelagh is a qualified Youth Mental Health First Aid Instructor in 2016 and has regularly provided this training to teachers and pupils at schools across London. Shelagh is also a trainer for ASIST (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training), equipping teachers and staff with the skills they need to make schools ‘suicide safe’.
Martin joined Berkhamsted as the Headteacher of Berkhamsted Sixth in September 2017. He was educated at Barnard Castle School where he was Head of School. He studied French and German at Nottingham University and enjoyed gap years in France, Germany and Austria where he taught English, skied and played rugby. He completed a PGCE at Cambridge University before taking up his first teaching post at the Perse School where he became Deputy Head of the Lower School. He then moved to Harrow School where he spent seven years as Head of Department and four years as the House Master of West Acre House. He has coached rugby, hockey and cricket and led Duke of Edinburgh expeditions. He has volunteered for charities to help underprivileged children.
Dale spent 31 years working in schools, mainly in residential education, of which eleven years were as safeguarding lead. He has also had safeguarding responsibilities in youth group, sports and church settings, was a multi-agency safeguarding trainer for Dudley Safeguarding Children Board and has completed an extensive “Train the Trainer” course with NSPCC. In September 2017 he took over safeguarding responsibilities at BSA, and subsequently BSA Group and Sacpa. He also gave evidence to the IICSA inquiry on behalf of BSA.
Emily is a clinical psychologist, and she worked for 10 years in the NHS before joining Berkhamsted School as the school psychologist in September 2022 as part of their school-wide initiative to promote psychologically informed practice across the Berkhamsted Schools Group.
Emily’s role is to provide consultation to the senior leadership, teachers and parents of the school community to support the psychological wellbeing of the students. Her area of special interest is body image and appearance-related distress in adolescents.
Register now
Registration now available – £150 for first school delegate;
£100 per additional delegate from the same school.
Please note: a limited number of complimentary tickets are available for the maintained sector – please apply in the registration link.
Ticket price includes lunch and refreshments throughout the day.
Register your place here
If you have any further questions, please contact us at events@berkhamsted.com
Location
The conference is being held in the Centenary Theatre at our Kings Campus, located in the heart of the market town of Berkhamsted.
direct from London Euston by Train
from M25, M1 and M40
available a short distance from Berkhamsted Town
Berkhamsted Girls
Kings Campus
Kings Road
Berkhamsted
HP4 3BG
