Hutton Rudby Primary School

External Speakers Policy

March 2017
Review date: March 2019
Introduction
 
Hutton Rudby Primary School welcomes many visitors to various events and to support our approach to a broad and balanced curriculum throughout the year: visitors make a contribution to the life and learning of the school and the experience and opportunities they bring are encouraged and appreciated. It is the school's responsibility to ensure that security and welfare of the whole school community is not compromised at any time. It is our aim to 
make sure that our school is protecting students and staff, during school time and in extracurricular activities and to ensure that visitors comply with the Visitors and Visiting Speaker's agreement. (see Appendix 2) 
this Policy should be read with the following policies: 
•	Safeguarding and Child protection Policy, 
•	Collective Worship Policy, 
•	Prevent Strategy, 
•	Keeping Children Safe in Education DfE 2015, 
•	Visitors Policy. 
It is our objective to establish a clear protocol and procedure for admittance of external visitors to school, which is understood by all staff, governors, visitors and parents and conforms to child protection guidelines and The Prevent Duty 2015. 
External speakers / Visitors 

"External speaker"/ "Visitor" is used to describe any individual who is not a student or staff member of our school. This includes any individual who is a student or staff member from another school. All sessions organised with external speakers in and outside of our school building are still within the responsibility (and liability) of our school. 
At Hutton Rudby Primary School, we encourage the use of external agencies or speakers to enrich the experiences of our students; however, we will positively vet those external agencies, individuals or speakers, to ensure that we do not unwittingly use agencies that contradict or are in opposition with the school's values and ethos. 
Our school will assess the suitability and effectiveness of input from external agencies or individuals to ensure that: 
•	Any messages communicated to students support British Values and our school values. 
•	Any messages communicated to students are consistent with the ethos of the school and do not 
marginalise any communities, groups or individuals. 
•	Any messages communicated to students do not seek to glorify criminal activity or violent extremism or seek to radicalise students through extreme or narrow views of faith, religion or culture or other beliefs and ideologies (must not incite hatred, violence or call for the breaking of the law). 
•	Activities are properly embedded in the curriculum and clearly mapped to schemes of work to avoid contradictory messages or duplication. 
•	Activities are matched to the needs of students. 
We recognise, however, that the ethos of our school is to encourage students to understand opposing views and ideologies, appropriate to their age, understanding and abilities, and to be able to actively engage with them in informed debate, and we may use external agencies or speakers to facilitate and support this. 

Organising an event/ lesson with an external speaker 

Permission should be granted by the Head teacher Matthew Kelly, before any visitor is asked to come into school. The Head Teacher and/or members of the Senior Leadership Team should be given a clear explanation as to the relevance and purpose of the visit and intended date and time for the visit. Our School reserves the right to cancel, prohibit or delay any event with an external speaker if this Policy is not followed or if health, safety and security criteria cannot be met. 
The member of staff (organiser) who has invited the visitor to contribute in school of is responsible for the activities that take place within their lessons/ events. The organiser must ensure that all speakers/ visitors are made aware of their responsibility in line with the school's safeguarding policy and by reading the Visiting Speaker's agreement (See Appendix 2). The organiser will ensure that the visitor is fully briefed. Mrs Heighway the School Secretary will give all visiting speakers a copy of the school Visiting Speaker’s agreement upon arrival.
No event involving any external speakers may be publicised or considered confirmed until the speaker has been cleared through the procedure detailed in this policy. 
When organising an event or visit from an external speaker, the organiser will be asked for the following details: 
•	brief description 
•	details of the exact purpose of the visit 
•	name and contact details of the visitor 
•	start and end time of the event 
•	brief biography of the visitor 
Any failure to disclose the full details of an external speaker may result in cancellation. The School will check all speakers' details, group links and other connections (on the first three pages of a search on the internet, using a suitable search engine, and any web link provided). 
Any visit from an external speaker/ involved must be made no later than 14 days before the date of the event. Any request made outside of this timeframe may be rejected. 
Procedure for Organising an Event with an External Speaker 
•	The organiser will notify the external speaker/ visitor of the Visiting Speaker's Policy and Agreement (Appendix 2). 
•	The organiser will ensure required details required for organising a visit, are collated. 
•	The organiser will complete the Visitor/External Speaker Booking Form. 
•	The organiser will carry out agreed checks on the external speaker. 
Procedure for Researching a Speaker 
The organiser will conduct a short check into all potential speakers using an open source check: searching the speaker and any organisation the speaker is affiliated with, on a suitable Search Engine and look at the first three pages of results. They will then repeat the search with 'controversy' added to the search terms. 
If the speaker has a history of, or has in the past been accused of: 
•	lnciting hatred, violence or calling for the breaking of the law; 
•	Insulting or making derogatory remarks to other faiths or groups; 
•	Using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour; 
Then the details for the booking will to be sent to the schools' designated safeguarding lead, for further investigation and guidance. The event will not go ahead as planned. 

If no issues are identified, then the event/ speaker will proceed with event confirmation. 
Reasons for details to be shared with the designated safeguarding lead may include but are not limited to any of the following: 
•	any person or group on/or linked to the UK Government list of proscribed terrorist organisations 
•	talks by organisations generally considered to be extremist by Home Office, Cleveland Police, and related organisations 
•	a speaker who is known to have spoken previously at another institution on a topic that has caused fear or intimidation of students or staff 
•	a speaker accepted in mainstream as being highly controversial 
•	a speaker known to/or likely to cause harm to a specific group of staff or students 
•	a link or links, to any person or group that has, in those Google listings, been connected with any controversy of a negative or positive nature. 
•	a speaker who has significant profile and attracts a following that could create crowd control and health and safety issues. 
Relevant Legislation and Guidance: 
•	Terrorism Act 2000 
•	The Education (No.2) Act 1986 S43 
•	Education Reform Act 1988 - Academic Freedom 
•	The Human Rights Act 1998 
•	Equality Act 2010 (s.10 relates to religion & belief as a protected characteristic) 
•	Discrimination Law - religion and belief 
•	Public Order Act 1986 - Violent, Threatening or Abusive Conduct and Speech 
•	https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-safeguard-children
•	https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/keeping-children-safe-in-education
•	Counter Terrorism and Security Act 201
External Speakers Policy Form 
The below form should be completed by any member of staff or student wishing to bring an external speaker into school. It is not to stop such a person coming to speak. It is instead to ensure that the correct arrangements can be put in place to allow such an event to take place safely. 
All forms must be submitted prior to the planned date of the event, and one form must be submitted for each speaker wishing to attend. 

Name of Activity! Group: 
Name of Organiser: 
Contact Email: 
Contact Telephone Number: 
Event details - please see attached Policy Notes 

Name of Speaker: 
Title of Event: 
Speaker details: 

Date of Event: ...................•.........•........................ 
Planned Event Venue: ......................•................... 

Please give as much detail as possible. Please include information about the speaker's position and organisations, who they're affiliated With, the subject they will be speaking about and any other information you think we need to be aware of. 
The organiser should ensure that the School's guidance notes, attached to this booking form, are passed to the 
speaker and that they fully understand the implications contained therein. 
Office Use Only 
Authorised By: 	Signed: 	Date: 	. 

Appendix 2 
Visiting Speakers Agreement 
Thank you for agreeing to come visit our school, we appreciate the contribution you make. 
At Hutton Rudby Primary School we understand the importance of visitors and external agencies to enrich the experiences of our students. 
In order to safeguard our children we expect all visiting speakers to read and adhere to the statements below. (please tick) 

	Any messages communicated to students are consistent with the ethos of the school and do not 	
	marginalise any communities, groups or individuals 	
	Any messages communicated to students do not seek to glorify criminal activity or violent 	
	extremism or seek to radicalise students through extreme or narrow views of faith, religion or 	
	culture or other ideologies 	
	Activities are properly embedded in the curriculum and clearly mapped to schemes of work to 	
	avoid contradictory messages or duplication. 	
	Activities are matched to the needs of students 	
	Visitors will also be accompanied by a member of staff at all times 	
	Any messages communicated to students support British Values and our school values. 	
	Please share points of concern (if any) shared by visitor: 	_ 

	Signed: 	_ 

Date: 	_