Prevent strategy

Prevent strategy

At The Oaks School, we have a duty to safeguard children and young people from radicalisation and extremism. We participate fully in work to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism. We provide a safe place for pupils to discuss these issues, so they better understand how to protect themselves.

Safeguarding vulnerable individuals through the provision of advice and support and intervention projects.

Working closely with institutions such as Schools, Health, Charities, and faith establishments.

Challenging terrorist ideology by working closely with other local agencies, partners, and our communities

The aim of the Prevent strategy is to reduce the threat to the UK from terrorism by stopping people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism. In the Act this has simply been expressed as the need to “prevent people from being drawn into terrorism”.

Prevent strategy has three specific strategic objectives:

respond to the ideological challenge of terrorism and the threat we face from those who promote it
prevent people from being drawn into terrorism and ensure that they are given appropriate advice and support
work with sectors and institutions where there are risks of radicalisation that we need to address.

Terrorist groups often draw on extremist ideology, developed by extremist organisations. Some people who join terrorist groups have previously been members of extremist organisations and have been radicalised by them. The Government has defined extremism in the Prevent strategy as: “vocal or active opposition to fundamental British values, including democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs. We also include in our definition of extremism calls for the death of members of our armed forces”.

The Prevent strategy deals with all forms of terrorism and with non-violent extremism, which can create an atmosphere conducive to terrorism and can popularise views which terrorists then exploit. It also made clear that preventing people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism requires challenge to extremist ideas where they are used to legitimise terrorism and are shared by terrorist groups. And the strategy also means intervening to stop people moving from extremist groups into terrorist-related activity.

Throughout the curriculum we will:

Exploring other cultures and religions and promoting diversity
Challenging prejudices and racist comments
Promoting the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils, as well as British values such as democracy
Protect children from the risk of radicalisation, for example by using software and filters on the internet to make sure they can’t access extremist and terrorist material, or by vetting visitors who come into school to work with pupils.
Promote British values and this will be part of our response to the Prevent strategy. British values include: Democracy, The rule of law, Individual liberty and mutual respect, Tolerance of different faiths and beliefs.

Please contact the school, should you have any further questions about the PREVENT Strategy. The Government’s Prevent strategy can be found at the following address: www.homeoffice.gov.uk

If you have any questions or concerns about a child who may be at risk of radicalisation you can seek advice from Department of Education Counter Extremism Helpline 020073407264

If any child/young person is at immediate risk of harm, the matter should be reported to the police straight away calling the Anti-Terrorist Hotline 0800 789321