{
  "id": 14344063,
  "title": "Beyond Compliance: How Chrisland is Building a Culture of Safety, Safeguarding",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/14/beyond-compliance-how-chrisland-is-building-a-culture-of-safety",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-10-14T01:53:25.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "This Day",
    "slug": "this-day",
    "url": "https://www.thisdaylive.com/2026/10/14/beyond-compliance-how-chrisland-is-building-a-culture-of-safety-safeguarding/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Children who face bullying, abuse, or situations that make them feel unsafe often find it difficult to speak up. Chrisland Schools, a network of 16 campuses, is actively working to create an environment where learners feel safe reporting concerns and seeking help. The school implements various initiatives, such as Safeguarding Week, confidential reporting channels, staff training, and regular risk assessments to foster a culture of safety and child protection.\n\nSafeguarding Week is a key component of Chrisland's approach, with different themes tackled each term to address emerging concerns and remind the entire school community of their responsibilities. The school's Head of Risk, Compliance, Safeguarding and Child Protection, Kemi Fajemirokun, emphasizes that the focus is beyond mere compliance. She wants the safety and safeguarding culture to become an integral part of learners' thinking, behavior, and relationships with one another.\n\nThe school's approach is centered around a 'triangle of responsibility' involving learners, parents, and staff. Each group plays a crucial role in ensuring the safety of the children, who spend a significant portion of their formative years interacting with peers and adults. To build safety awareness, the school holds a dedicated safety and safeguarding awareness week annually. This year's theme, 'Beyond Compliance: Embedding the Whole School Safety Culture and Safeguarding Culture for Positive Character Development in Every Learner', reflects the school's commitment to making safety instinctive.\n\nEvery planned activity undergoes a risk assessment before clearance, ensuring safety considerations precede activities rather than being introduced after an incident occurs. Safe channels for children to report concerns are crucial, with designated safeguarding officers at schools in Ikeja, Idimu, and Festac hosting these channels. Children are encouraged to report bullying, abuse, or any uncomfortable situations, but reporting can be challenging due to fear of being labeled a 'snitch' or facing retaliation. Confidentiality is paramount, allowing children to report anonymously if needed.\n\nIn addition to awareness campaigns, the school's safeguarding system includes a 24-hour escalation window for incident reporting. Dedicated incident-reporting email channels are available around the clock, allowing staff to report concerns promptly, regardless of their severity. The Executive Head of School, Olusegun Ogunsola, stresses that effective safeguarding must focus on the child, who is the primary focus of everything the school does.",
  "summary": "For children facing bullying, abuse or situations that make them feel unsafe, speaking up can be difficult. Some members of Chrisland Schools’ management team and its Designated Safeguarding Officers told",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": "Moving beyond basic regulatory checklists to a shared responsibility model shifts the burden of protection from administrators to a collective community of learners, parents, and staff.",
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}