“Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is defined as: protecting children from maltreatment; preventing the impairment of children’s mental and 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”
Safeguarding @ RIC
Rochester Independent College is committed to ensuring the welfare and safety of all students. We believe that students have the right to learn in an environment that is safe, caring, inclusive and supportive. This includes being protected from all types of abuse, in both the physical and virtual environments: Online Safety is an important aspect of safeguarding our students. All adults in the college receive appropriate training to recognise when students need additional support and are confident in applying our safeguarding procedures. These support mechanisms and procedures are holistic and cater for boarding students also. The students are given the opportunity to learn about how to be safe through their curriculum and daily interactions with the adults and their peers. Their voice is heard through formal and informal methods and their welfare will always be the most important influence in shaping our college.
Contact Us
Kayleigh Simpson Director of Safeguarding. Email: [email protected]
Phone: 01634 828115, Evenings and weekends (including during holiday time) 07495 742288
Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) team Phone: 01634 331065
Medway Safeguarding Children Partnership Phone: 01634 336 329
Medway Council Social Care Phone: 01634 334 466
Social Care Out of Hours’ service Phone: 08457 626 777
The nominated governor with responsibility for Safeguarding is Tim Fish. He can be contacted at Dukes Education Group Limited, 14-16 Waterloo Place, London, SW1Y 4AR as well as by telephone on 020 3696 5300.
If you are worried about online abuse or the way someone has been communicating online click the button below and let CEOP know.
"@rochesterindcol Had a wonderful evening speaking with parents and staff on Online Safety and Social Media /Gaming issues to prevent online exploitation, online safety is about behaving appropriately, awareness and education. Great school passionate about safeguarding."
Support For Our Students
Whisper provides everyone in the school community a safe place to talk, report or highlight issues and concerns. When you don’t know where to go or who to turn to, Whisper can provide a light in the dark.
Whisper allows students to report any issues or concerns they may be having, anonymously, through SMS messaging or via email.
If you need to report anything, please follow the link https://swgfl.org.uk/whisper/RIC1
Alternatively, you can send a message to 07860 021 323 starting your message with RIC1 to report via SMS
The school will respond as soon as we can.
For more information on Whisper, please use the following links from SWGfL (South West Grid for Learning – a charity who specialise in online safety and developed Whisper)
RIC Student Assistance Programme
Student Assistance Programme Leaflet
Government Guidance
Keeping Children Safe In Education 2023
Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023
The Prevent Duty: Safeguarding learners vulnerable to radicalisation
Sexual Violence And Sexual Harassment Between Children In Schools and Colleges 2021
Teaching Online Safety in Schools (updated January 2023)
Information Sharing: Advice for Education Settings 2018
College Policies
The full suite of RIC's Policies is available here
Other Support
As a college we have developed a student support website, highlighting local and national organisations that are able to help with a number of concerns, many of these services also offer support to the family. If you need any support with referrals, please do not hesitate to contact the safeguarding team by calling 01624 828115 or emailing [email protected]
Student Support Website