Safeguarding, Consent & Our Duty of Care

'Safeguarding' refers to the measures taken to protect the health, well-being and human rights of individuals which allow people—especially children, young people and vulnerable adults—to live free from abuse, harm and neglect. In the context of our school, this means ensuring that we are vigiliant in identifying potential risks to the health and safety of our students, and tackling these potential risks effectively. This also means spotting signs of potential abuse in students that may occur outside of the school's authority and dealing with this in a sensitive and appropriate manner.

-- Disclosure & Barring Service Certification --

The first step we take in ensuring we reduce potential risk to our students is to comply with our legal requirement to have all Staff and Volunteers hold a valid Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) Certificate on record with the school. Any individual who will be working with children in and around our dance studios, or backstage / in and around changing rooms at Dance Shows or public events must have an up-to-date DBS Certificate and allow the school to sight and take a copy of this. If you wish to volunteer or take up a position on the JSD Team, simply bring in your DBS Certificate to Degas Studios Reception and we will take a scan / photocopy for our records before returning this to you.

If you do not have a valid DBS Certificate, application can be arranged through the school. Applying through the school is cheaper and easier than applying for yourself. Please enquire at Degas Studios Reception for further information on applying for a DBS Certificate through the school and what information and ID documents you will need to provide for our Nominated Person to take care of your paperwork. This process normally takes 10-15 minutes and information letters are sent out annually prior to our end-of-year Dance Show which is our largest volunteer event.

The DBS fee is £6 which is an administration fee charged by Amber Valley for processing the application we send off and does not go to the school. Our Nominated Person will fill out your application paperwork and sight your ID documents for free as we do not believe in charging our volunteers for offering their help in any capacity.

-- Jowett School of Dance Safeguarding Policy --

Jowett School of Dance works to maintain a safe and comfortable environment for all of our students whether in and around our dance studios or at public events. We have separate changing facilities and studio spaces within our studios to ensure students have an appropriate and private space to change in and out of uniform or costumes as and when necessary. Spaces used for changing are separated by gender and we do not allow parents / guardians into spaces with children of differing gender who are not under their immediate care. We have DBS Certified staff and student helpers on hand to provide assistance where required to avoid the need for parents to enter changing spaces.

There are multiple routes through the studio spaces to ensure staff, students, volunteers and parents / guardians can travel around Degas Studios without the need to go through any changing spaces.

We also have our own separate toilet facilities for school use which can only be entered from the outside using a code, and exited safely from the inside with the pull of a handle which is marked clearly for the user. Younger students will be escorted to the toilet when necessary by DBS Certified staff, volunteers or student helpers who will stand outside the closed toilet door during use.

When off-site at Dance Shows or public events, we work with venues to ensure that should students need to change in and out of uniform or costumes whilst shows and performances are ongoing that they are provided with a separate, private space in which to do so. We will have these spaces monitored by our own DBS Certified staff, volunteers or student helpers to ensure the same rules and protections outlined previously for the spaces at Degas Studios are applied off-site.

-- Studio Rule Enforcement & Clear Signage --

All spaces at our dance studios, including changing rooms and entrances / exits to school spaces within the Enterprise House building that houses the school's studios have been clearly signed with visible lettering and notices posted around the building.

This includes signage on our internal fire exit door in Enterprise House's main corridor warning other tenants who work in the building that they may not use this exit in a non-emergency situation without holding a valid DBS Certificate on record with the school to ensure the corridors leading to our spaces are not used without the school's consent. We have made clear in the past that we reserve the right to report any unauthorised access to our spaces to the appropriate authorities as and when the school deems this necessary, and that the landlord of the building will be made aware of this simultaneously. 

Members of the JSD Team who work in Degas Studios Reception are instructed to challenge anyone not complying with rules regarding entry to spaces, especially changing facilities, no matter the circumstances. We ask parents / guardians if challenged not to take offense and maintain polite interactions with our staff and volunteers who are carrying out their duties to ensure the safety of the students.

Our JSD Team staying vigiliant and asking questions where they feel necessary is for the benefit of the whole Jowett Dance Family. Reports of aggressive or intimidating behaviour towards JSD Team members can be, will be, and have in the past been forwarded to the Manager and Principal, and in line with our Zero Tolerance Bullying Policy can jeopardise a student's place at the school depending on the severity of the incident. We thank everyone for their co-operation and help keeping the children safe and maintaining a pleasant and inclusive environment for all.

-- Registration & Consent Forms --

When registering with Jowett School of Dance, and in certain other circumstances regarding events and positions taken within the school, we ask parents / guardians of students under the age of 18 to sign consent forms allowing the school to work with students in specific ways.

This consent is not only to ensure easy and inclusive participation in the school's many events and promotional materials for students, but also ensures that the school can act swiftly and effectively on the student's behalf to afford protection against breaches of given consent where necessary.

The consent section on the Registration Form allows the school to produce images of students such as photographs, videos and graphics featuring the likeness or image of our students for promotional purposes.

Promotional purposes include costume photos for our annual Dance Shows, filming of public performances, filming of dance routines in the studio, and producing advertising and marketing material for the school which may feature any of the above.

Official image production will always be carried out by DBS Certified staff and volunteers within the school, in groups and under supervision, with the exception of public performances where a certified videographer may film on-stage performances for the purposes of DVD production only.

The consent to produce these images and their subsequent use extends to Jowett School of Dance only. The school will not allow any third party usage of images produced by or on behalf of the school without prior consent from parents / guardians.

We can and have in the past enforced restrictions on unauthorised image use and had promotional images removed from platforms other than our own after being made aware. Your consent form allows us to evidence that consent has only been given to Jowett School of Dance meaning we can follow up on unauthorised use in the rare event this occurs.

Aside from image use, internal programs such as the Student Representative Program include a separate consent form to be signed for students under 18 years of age for the requirements that will be outlined in the information provided in the event students are approached about the program.

All image production will be undertaken in line with our safeguarding policies as detailed under the 'Safeguarding' heading on this page.

-- Jowett School of Dance Use of Student Images --

The school's usage of images produced by or on behalf of the school include but are not limited to costume photography for upcoming shows and events, videography for upcoming shows and events, DVD production of our annual shows which are distributed for private use only (i.e. not available for sale to the general public and can be ordered by parents / guardians only), and promotional graphics which advertise the school's services or upcoming shows and events. We may also take videos of routines within the studio for demonstrative purposes such as learning material for upcoming exams and events for use by students only.

The school may use these images on our official website, social media pages / channels and in printed media such as leaflets, posters, and official show programmes sold at our annual Dance Show (these will normally be cast photos featuring Performing Arts Class students for which parents / guardians will be made aware prior to printing).

-- Applicable Protection of Student Identity --

Where applicable, we understand that some situations require student identities to be protected. Examples in the past have included students with adopted parents and students under certain protection programs. Please discuss these situations with the school when registering so that we are aware and can make the appropriate accommodations for students in these circumstances.

We endeavour to make all students feel included in our activities and events. Where group costume photos etc. are taken, we are happy to take a group photo of students with protected identities with their classes separately from any photos which would appear on our website, social media etc. so that a copy can be given directly to the student's parents / guardians as a private keepsake. This has been something we have received positive feedback on in the past, so please let us know when and where this is applicable during the registry process.

We will work diligently with parents / guardians to ensure that no images of students with protected identities appear on our websites and public platforms.