As part of Howitt Primary Community School's ongoing safeguarding and child protection duties we are fully behind the government's Prevent Strategy.

What is the prevent strategy?

From 1 July 2015, all schools are subject to a duty under section 26 of the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015, in the exercise of their functions, to have “due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism”. This duty is known as the Prevent Duty for Schools.

How does the prevent strategy apply to our school?

At Howitt Primary Community School, we build pupils’ resilience to radicalisation by promoting British values and enabling our pupils to challenge extremist views.

The statutory guidance refers to the importance of Prevent awareness training to equip staff to identify children at risk of being drawn into terrorism and to challenge extremist ideas. The Home Office has developed a core training product for this purpose – Prevent Awareness online Training. All our staff have completed this training, understand what Prevent is about and how to deal with any issues they may see inside or outside school.

Radicalisation 

Radicalisation is when someone starts to believe or support extreme views, and in some cases, then participates in extremist acts (including threats and intimidation, or violence).  It can be motivated by a range of factors, including political beliefs and prejudices against particular groups of people, or religious beliefs or ideologies. 

Anyone can be radicalised, but factors such as being easily influenced and impressionable make children and young people particularly vulnerable.  Children who are at risk of radicalisation will often have low self-esteem or be victims of bullying or discrimination. 

Radicalisation of children and young people is child abuse and should be treated as a child protection issue.