ABSTRACT
Child protection and safeguarding are potentially among the most difficult and sensitive subjects of discussion between schools and parents. They can often be the subject of disagreements and conflict between the two, sometimes to the detriment of the child. In extreme cases, for example, they may appear compliant outwardly, but are planning to subvert the school’s attempts to help the child, for example, in cases of forced marriage. Exclusion from school is one of the biggest risks to school children’s health and safety. Personal friendships and relationships are also of huge concern to children and young people. Traveller families seem to be the one ethnic group that people feel it’s still ok to abuse, and there were different levels of acceptance among families of what were and were not acceptable words to use to refer to each other. A highly ethnically diverse school, about 65% of pupils at John Perryn are Muslim, and 10% Travellers, and Roman Catholics.
