At St Clement Danes School, safety and belonging flow naturally from a calm, consistent culture where pupils know what to expect and feel valued by adults.

Headteacher Toby Sutherland has built a school where clear expectations, visible leadership, and genuine relationships create security. Spring 2025 TEP data shows pupils scored 7.4/10 for "I feel safe at school" compared to 6.3/10 nationally (+1.1).

"The culture is very strong here. They see it and feel it quite quickly."

Creating safety through proactive culture:

Staff visibility and presence

Staff are positioned throughout the building at key times—corridors, social spaces, gates, and transitions. They learn pupils' names quickly, notice behavior changes, and make time for informal conversations.

"If anything does feel difficult, we want them to feel they can come and tell us."

This presence builds familiarity, shows adults are available, and enables early intervention before concerns escalate.

Proactive work on respect

Rather than reacting to incidents, work on sexual harassment and respect is embedded across curriculum and pastoral systems.

"We don't wait until something happens. We try to get ahead of it."

Clear messages about respectful behavior are reinforced through tutor time, assemblies, and daily interactions, focusing on mutual respect and awareness.

Strategic data use

The team cross-references TEP data with behavior logs, pastoral records, and attendance to flag emerging concerns and ensure all groups feel equally safe.

Embedding culture through Year 7 transition:

A culture-focused first week

Year 7s start before other year groups, allowing a quieter first week focused on culture and relationships rather than academic timetables.

"It's not about jumping into the timetable. It's about setting the tone."

Staff teach practical routines—navigating the site, lesson expectations, asking for help—making clear that pupils aren't expected to arrive "secondary ready."

Connecting to identity

Each November, all Year 7s visit St Clement Danes Church in Holborn, connecting them to the school's historic roots. More powerful still is the headteacher's commendations book—a physical record of every child who has ever attended.

"Every child that's ever set foot in the school is recorded in that book... if their parents went here, I'm able to show them the entry for their parents."

This creates profound belonging. Pupils aren't just passing through—they're part of a continuing story.

Early leadership relationships

At the end of first term, Toby meets every Year 7 in small groups of ten for informal check-ins, sending a clear message: you're known, not anonymous, you matter.

The outcome:

Data shows...

• Safety: 7.4/10 vs 6.3/10 nationally (+1.1)

• Treated equally: 6.3/10 vs 5.3/10 nationally (+1.0)

• 67% of Year 7s feel happy about coming to school

Daily evidence: Calm transitions, pupils speaking confidently with adults, punctual arrivals, a steady and purposeful building.

"The data made us stop and say, this is what makes the difference. These relationships, this trust, this consistency. That's what we have to keep getting right."

Key strategies:

Creating proactive safety

• High staff visibility throughout the building at key times

• Proactive respect/harassment work embedded in curriculum

• Cross-referencing TEP with behavior logs and pastoral records

• Staff modeling expectations consistently

• Clear new staff induction to maintain culture

Building relationships

• Learning pupils' names quickly and noticing changes

• Making time for informal conversations

• Maintaining visible, approachable presence

Supporting transition

• Year 7 starting before other years for quiet induction

• November church visit for all Year 7s

• Headteacher meeting every Year 7 in small groups first term

• Showing pupils the historic commendations book

• Teaching routines explicitly before academic pressure

Reflection

St Clement Danes shows that safe, inclusive culture doesn't require elaborate programs—it requires clarity about values, consistency in how adults show up, and genuine investment in knowing every child.

The church visit, commendations book, and headteacher meetings express a deeper commitment: every pupil matters, they're part of something bigger, and the school ensures they feel safe, seen and supported.

St. Clement Danes is part of Danes Educational Trust

Danes Educational Trust (DET) has been involved with TEP for a number of years, initially as a way to measure and improve engagement amongst staff, but more recently that has expanded to include pupils. The benefits of TEP for DET is in the ability to track progress over time, but also the support provided by TEP to trust and school leaders in how to interpret and then respond to any areas of improvement. We place great value in this information and as such all DET schools are part of the termly cycle of staff and pupil feedback and engagement.